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S Y M BOLISM
IN RELATION TO
RELIGION
https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.21920
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES OF ITS
TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
BY
Hannay, James Ballantyne
LONDON
\REGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER & CO., LTD.
Broadway House, 68-74 Cartbr Lane, E.C.
TO THE MEMORY OF MY DEAR FRIEND
S)c. $obn Campbell Oman,
TO WHOSE INITIATIVE AND KIND
APPRECIATION
IS DUE THIS RECORD OF THE NOTES OF A
LIFE'S STUDY.
“ Men now question everything which their fathers took contentedly and all
too complacently for granted/'—Times 6th May, 1912.
PREFACE
The translation of the thoughts of an alien nation into a new
language so as to convey the feeling of the original is one of the
most difficult and uncertain of tasks. The English-speaking
peoples are in possession of a literary treasure of this kind, such
as has fallen to the lot of few other nations. The English Bible
renders for us in a marvellous way the matchless cadences of
the old Hebrew Prose-poems, and presents to our minds the lofty
conceptions voiced with sublime simplicity of the Psalmists of old.
The entire race has felt its influence, and in earnest moments the
expression of our thoughts is coloured by the solemn phrases of
men who wrote two thousand years ago. As a literary model the
Bible has had a great effect on English literature, and as an ethical
guide it has done much to mould the higher ideas of the race.
The lofty yet simple literary form which enabled the English
language to reproduce all the nuances of thought of a totally
different race was due to the genius of men like Tyndal'e,
Coverdale, and Cranmer; but their success was rendered possible
by the fact that the English speech already possessed many of
the elements which rendered it a fit instrument to convey the type
of sentiments saturating the Hebrew literature.
But beyond this, the Bible is the history of the evolution of a
spiritual religion from a material or naturalistic paganism, and
it is to an examination of this side of biblical study that my little
volume is devoted. In his Christian Iconography, Didron says:
" There is a wide difference between the spirit of the Jewish
religion which makes us tremble before God like timid children
before a severe father, and that of the Christian, every word of
which breathes on man the caressing spirit of love. Between
Jehovah and Jesus stretched an entire world.” Since Didron’s day
we have made great advances, resulting in the abandonment of
the severe Hebrew conception of a God, and the adoption cf the
Socialistic parts of the teaching of Jesus, so that an English bishop
• •
Vll
vin
PREFACE
(Carpenter) can write: “ In the future not the kingdom of God,
but the kingdom of men will be the care and theme of the race.”
In my young days little of the spirit of caressing love had reached
“Caledonia stern and wild.” That country had still a religion
similar to its climate and scenery. The Hebrew Old Testament
was still the essential core of its religion, and, on the ‘‘ Sabbathi”
reading was confined to the Bible, with perhaps Fox’s Book of
Martyrs as a relaxation. We lived under the shadow of the curse
of Eden. Happily the old stern faith is gradually being replaced
by the gentle teaching of Jesus, which breathes love and care for
a fellowman.
So deep was the painful impression of the stern religion of
the Old Testament on my mind in my boyhood that as 1 grew
older 1 was impelled to read and re-read the Jewish Scriptures,
to obtain some idea of the conditions of life and thought in these
old times, and the result was so utterly different from my early
impressions that I have ventured to put on record the real facts,
gleaned out of Holy Writ. They are little known to the Christian
world, and 1 have written in the hope that they may be interesting
to all readers of the famous Jewish Scriptures. To serious scholars
the facts cited in my book are already well-known, but I trust that my
method of marshalling the facts, and the deductions I have drawn
from them, may give an interest to this book among all classes
of readers. For forty years I have read every book I could find
which dealt with the critical examination of the Hebrew Scriptures.
I soon formed ideas of the dependence of the Jewish Scriptures on
the religions practised by the nations surrounding them. 1 tried
to gain a clear idea of what the ancient peoples actually did, and
how they worshipped, apart from the injunctions and theories
of their prophets.
The idea 1 formed of the human craving for wonders which
forms the central core of all religions, and which I have named
” Mirophily,” is one which was forced upon me thirty years ago,
but which I long hesitated to state. I now deal with it in my
opening pages.
I show the preponderance of Sun-worship in the naming of
the days of the week, and the worship of sun, moon, and stars in
all important countries, in pp. 104-137 and 260-269.
The reader will find special studies of the view I take of the
Queen of Heaven in relation to the Trinity at pp. 48, 111, 137,
161-170, and 319-326; and of the effect of the Hebrew religious
debasement of women on the development of the Hebrew
religion at pp. 165 and 191-192.
PREFACE
IX
* The part played by Paul and Jerome in the crushing out of
reason and knowledge is dealt with all through the work, but
specially at pp. 2, 199, 200, 201, 202-203, 328-329, 337, 338, 347.
The cause of the Hebrew despisal of woman and the terrible
mis-statement of Justice in the Second Commandment, coupled
with the adoption of the deadly Cobra di Capella as the Phallic
symbol, will be found treated at pp. 229-236.
To thoroughly comprehend the nature of the conception of
the Deity inherited from the Old Testament, it was found impera-
tive to state the nature and extent of the Phallic cult and its effect
on ritual, dress, and symbols. Without explaining Phallism fully,
none of these points can be understood, and any work on the
symbolism of religion without treating of its Phallic basis, would
be like “Hamlet** played without the Prince of Denmark. I
have, therefore, been reluctantly compelled to deal with this
difficult subject—the cult of half the human race—as fully as the
popular nature of this book will permit. The reader will find it
dealt with on pp. 26-103 and 215-259.
The Phallic nature of the Hebrew God is elucidated at pp.
245-259. Hebrew polytheism is dealt with from p. 153 to p. 160.
Frazer, in his classic Golden Bough, has given us a most com-
plete and elaborately annotated account of religious practices
relating to man's actual needs in life, his hopes and fears as to
the fertility of the soil, production of food, and weather conditions.
He writes of corn spirits, the fertility of fields secured by the death
of gods, or spirits—such as Dionysius dying for the sake of the
crops, tree worship, grain worship, vine worship, thunder, rain,
and weather worship, marriage, burial, and totem rites; in fact,
religion as applied to man's earthly hopes and fears. My work
deals with another and more intimate side of the subject—the
great facts of the succession of life on this earth, which has given
rise to the whole symbolism of eternal life—the basis of spiritual
religion, or man's “ Heavenly’’ hopes and fears.
The descent of the New Testament story from the universal
sun myths of Asia (in fact, of the whole northern world), and the
dependence of its teaching on that of Krishna and Prince
Siddartha, the Buddhas, are sketched in pp. 280-314 and 334-337.
That there was no loss of Eternal Life in Eden, a fact which
seems to be known to few, is shown on pp. 174-183.
As my book is an attempt at a short sketch of the results of the
study of a lifetime, written in simple language for ordinary readers,
and as 1 have essayed to illustrate the methods of the Biblical
criticism, and to glance over a very large field, it will, 1 have no
X
PREFACE
doubt, be considered by informed readers, to be as remarkable’
for what I have been compelled to pass over as for the arguments
and illustrations 1 have tried to state in so few pages.
. A glance at the index will give the reader an idea of the com-
pression 1 have had to exercise to marshal such a miscellaneous
army of facts into a form which will make my argument coherent.
My greatest task has been the constant strain of making
decisions as to what 1 must sacrifice. There has been such an
enormous army of writers, each adding something to the elucidation
of Biblical problems, that a mere mention of their names would
fill a volume; so 1 have gone back as far as possible to the original
discoverer or elucidator, even when his work has been amended
or amplified by later writers.
I have attempted to express clear views, in plain words, on all
the points I touch upon, a quality not easily attained in writings
dealing with religion, which is itself so nebulous.
Free criticism, elucidating the human origins of beliefs once
held sacred, ought to lead to a better view of the future opening
out to us; so my outlook is indicated in pp. 339-358 at the end of
the book.
In Confucius is sketched an ideal of the finest type of religious
teacher. Such teaching, founded on reason, is good for all time,
and does not need the constant adjustments necessitated by creeds
founded on mirophily.
My statement is illustrated with drawings and photographs of
conventional symbols to aid the reader in appreciating the truth
of the deductions made; and those which are of a Phallic nature
are merely indicated by rough outline sketches, in order to avoid
any approach to the prurient element, which would arise if any
attempt were made to produce the naturalism of India or Egypt.
It is to be hoped that I have not been too reticent for
comprehension.
The important point about the work is the method of mar-
shalling the facts 1 have collected, and arranging the cumulative
proof of the conclusions to which my studies have led me.
I have attempted to base my work on the example of our great
master Darwin, and to give my humble contribution towards
showing the continuity of religious evolution by linking up the old
religions with Christianity, and applying ther same critical examina-
tion to Christianity as Christians do to all other religions.
That this is quite consonant with true religious feeling is shown
by the fact that over two thousand of the most serious and learned
of the Church of England clergy approached their bishops, in
PREFACE
xi
'a petition in 1905, pleading for the privilege of applying the same
methods of criticism to the New Testament as had thrown such
a flood of light on the character of the older Scriptures.
My rapid and necessarily incomplete sketch will give the
reader some idea of the material with which such critical studies
will have to deal.
CONTENTS
PART I.
ANCIENT CULTS
Chap.
I. ANALYSIS OF RELIGION AND NATURE WORSHIP
IX. THE PHALLIC CULT, THE UNIVERSAL RELIGION
III. PHALLISM ..............................
INDIA .*• ... ... ...
BRITAIN AND OTHER LANDS COMPARED
ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA AND ACCADIA ......
EGYPT ... ... ••• ••• ...
GREECE ... ... ... ... ... ...
ROME . •. .. • ... «»• ...
EUROPE ..a ... ... ..a a.a ..a
CHINA ... ... ... ... a.a ..a
JAPAN ..a ... ... a.a aaa aaa
IV. SUN WORSHIP .......................
BABYLONION RELIGION, EUROPEAN SUN WORSHIP
PART II.
THE BIBLE
ANCIENT CULTS IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
INTRODUCTION .............
I. HISTORY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT
MASORETIC VERSION .........
II. ANALYSIS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT
AL, EL Or ELOHIM .......
YAHWEH OR JEHOVAH..........
RUACH CREATION .......
SECOND ACCOUNT OF CREATION ...
FIFTH ACCOUNT OF CREATION ...
THE FLOOD .............
GOD OF THE HEBREW BIBLE
III. PHALLISM IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
EDUTH .....................
IV. SUN WORSHIP IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
CRYSTALLIZATION OF JUDAISM
PART III.
ANCIENT CULTS IN THE NEW TESTAMENT
I. PHALLIC AND ASTRONOMIC SOURCES OF CHRISTIAN TEACHING
CHRIST AND CHRISTNA COMPARED ...............
ICHTHYS WORSHIP ................... —
LIST OF SAVIOURS, SONS OF GOD ..............
SUN GOD PARALLELS ‘.........................
CHANGE FROM SOLSTICE TO EQUINOX.............
II. THE OUTLOOK.....................................
THE FUTURE ..................................
xiii
Pag*.
..a I
... 26
... 3*
... 3*
... 56
... 65
... 7*
... 83
... 89
... 91
99
... 104
... 101
... 121
... 138
... 141
... 143
... 152
... 161
... 171
... 190
... 195
... 210
... 215
... 251
... 260
... 267
... 270
... 280
... 287
... 307
... 308
— 313
— 339
— 354
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
3-
4“IO.
11.
12.
13-
14.
*5-
16.
*7-
18.
19.
20.
21.
33*
34.
35.
Frontispiece.
Portrait of the Author.
Fig. Page
1. Devaki on Tortoise ... 18
2. Phallus on head stone ... 30
Lingam-yoni Altar.......... 30
Altar changed to Crown ... 31
Dayanand and Nudity ... 44
Nude Sadhu ... ... 45
Ardha-Nari-Ishwara ... 4 7
Yoni loops-Chatta.......... 49
Banyan Tree with Phalli ... 50
Refreshing the Lingam ... 51
Lingam-Yoni Altar with Bull 52
Common form of Indian
Altar .................... 52
Serpent Shrine ............ 54
Trisul Worship ... ... 54
Dorsetshire Phallic Column 56
22-29. Phallic Columns ... 57-58
30. Phallic Mars *. 59
31. Winged Conch, Womb ... 60
32. Tree with Serpent ... ... 61
Mundane egg with Serpent 61
Vesica pisces inclosing child 61
Virgin with lens inclosing TV
Child .....................61
36. Dagoba ... ... ... 62
37. Systrum ... ... ... 62
38. Greek Woman with Vase ... 63
39. Woman with Bowl, Irish
Church ......................63
40. Worship of the Yoni ... 63
41. Honour and Virtue ... 63
Ankh in Babylon ... ... 66
Priest in Lingham Line
" Grove'*..................66
Worship of the Cock ... 66
Worship of the Cock and Ark 66
46. Worship of Woman or Venus 67
47. Eagle headed figures in
" Grove "....................68
48. Greek sacrifice to " Cone" 68
49. Eagle-headed god with Cone
and bag ... ... ... 68
50. Altar with all symbols ... 70
51. Worship of Virgo intacta ... 70
52. Roman Woman with Cup ... 71
53- Babylonian Woman with Cup 71
54. Animals dancing round Tree
of Life .....................71
55. Phalli supporting the sky ... 72
56. Separation of Seb and Nut... 72
57-6i. Conventional Phallic sym-
bols 73
62-72. Evolution of Tat or Father 73
73. God of Good Luck Bess ... 74
74* Lingam-yoni with Rays ... 75
75. Lingam-yoni with Conven-
tional Rays ... ... 75
42.
43-
44-
45-
Fig
76.
77-
78-
79.
80.
81.
82.
S3-
84.
85.
86.
87.
88.
89.
90.
91.
92.
93-
94.
95-
96.
97-
98.
99.
100.
101.
102.
103-
104.
I05-
106.
107.
108.
109.
110.
111.
112.
1 *3-
-
114.
115.
116.
117.
118.
119.
120.
121.
122.
123.
124.
125.
126.
127.
Page.
Lingam-yoni with Scroll and
Lotus Bud ... ... 75
God with Phallic symbols of
life......................75
Lingam-yoni with Scroll of life 76
God on Scroll of Life ... 76
Three Dads for good luck 77
Ankh, Dad, and Thet ... 77
Buckle or Thet ... ... 78
Min on Wall ... ... 79
Egyptian King's Name ... 81
Papyrus-Phalli ............. 83
Libra or Balance ... ... 79
Ta Urt with Systrum ... 80
Apet with Systrum ... 80
Phallic Sacrifice ... ... 86
Chinese and Japanese Venus 101
Venus with Phallus ... 103
Solo-phallic emblem ... 112
Egyptian Sun Worship ... 117
Mithras slays the Bull ... 127
Festal Curve ... ... 128
Female Emblems ... ... 162
Ruach Creating .............164
Ruach with A16 ... ... 164
Dove in midst of Waters ... 164
Dove in midst of Waters ... 164
Father, Son and Dove (Moth-
er) ........................166
Father, Son crucified and
Dove .....................166
Father, Son and Dove (Wo-
man) ... ... ... 166
Father, Son and Mother ... 166
Winged God with Bow (Tri-
nity) 167
Figure with Brooding feathers 167
Figure with Brooding feathers 167
SivaorYahweh ... ... 213
Gaulish Serpent Goddess ... 233
Mother and Babe with Skull 234
Mary Magdalene with Book
and Skull ... ... ... 234
Boat with Mast ... ... 237
Usertesen dancing before Min 238
The Slicehina ... ... 245
Phallic Man ... ... ...257
Phallically dressed Woman... 257
Cross and Crescent ... 259
Women Weeping for Osiris 297
Judge with Crosses ... 303
Worship of the Lamb ... 304
Isis and Horus ... ... 305
Crosses with Lock of Horus 306
Dove in Waters .............322
Dove Medals ................322
Dagon of Babylon............328
Bishop with Mitre ... 328
Tomb of Confucius ... 353
XV
33
89
i65
219
222
227
23+
235
244
2 44
255
305
330
336
35°
354
ERRATA.
LINE 3 from bottom omit of the British Museum.
16 „ . for on read in.
13 . for XIV. read XLIV.
21 » . for 6-IO read 19.
21 . for Herbraic read Hebraic.
*7 . for IV. read VI.
IO „ . for V. read XVI.
9 from top . for Robert read Richard,
9 . omit line repeated.
11-12 „ . insert new line between n-12 (entirely imaginary, they show such an intimate combination of)
11 „ . for Lord read Idol.
bottom line , for verses insert vases.
16 from bottom . for 206 read I35.
17 „ . for Mesiah read Mess-Iah.
15 . for Esze read Tsze.
12 from top ? for fear read Fear.
To jacc p. /.|
ROKIRAIT OF THE AUTHOR.
PART I.—Ancient Cults
CHAPTER I
ANALYSIS OF RELIGION AND NATURE WORSHIP
The striking diversity of the objects which have been worshipped
by man renders a rational explanation of this curious phenomenon
a matter of peculiar difficulty. The same objects are worshipped
as emblems of good by some people, and as emblems of evil by
others. Hence, to find a reason for their worship we must look
for some other cause than the nature of the objects themselves.
The legends of the same people often show these curious
contradictions, as Goldziher remarks (Mythology among the
Hebrews, p. 225):—
" How often in the Mythology of one and the same people we
find the same object employed for the apperception of the most
different or even opposite things.”
Goldziher's book is valuable as showing the utterly illogical
welter of myths which may be derived from the same phenomenon,
and how quite subordinate side issues may usurp the position of
the main story.
One fact stands out clearly. All mankind is imbued with a
feeling of worship, or admiration, or fear—a mental bowing down
to imaginary unseen higher beings, or unknown powers supposed
to exist principally in the sky. This sentiment becomes especially
active when the individual or multitude is excited by feelings of
exaltation, or despair.
More particularly it is a conviction that behind fate, or the
inexorable march of events, there is some great presence to which
man can appeal, or whose purpose he can turn aside by prayers,
promises and sacrifices.
Modern man in this respect has a dual mind. Firstly hq
recognises that the working of the universe is dependent on
physical properties and that the sequence of events arising out of
those properties follows rigidly from them, and is unchangeable out-
aide their action. Vet he believes that by his personal prayer he can
have these properties set aside and the order of nature interrupted.
The great wish to know the origin and destiny of the world and
man is engrained in every thinking being, but, whereas the rational
man seeks a solution in patient research, the religious person
believes he can obtain all such information by priestly revelation.
1 B
2
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
We are too impatient of the slow progress and meagre results
obtained by the scientific method, and must leap to an explanation
by the aid of some mysterious power outside nature.
Man cannot affirm that he knows of the existence of these
supernatural powers of his own knowledge, so the priest invented
a miraculous revelation in order to assert something of which he
had no proof.
The use of the miraculous to solve the great mystery is the basis
of all religious systems. Amen, the “hidden*’ God of Egypt is
still apostrophized in our prayers. Paul appealed to the belief in
the “ Unknown God.** The Church of England—after vainly
trying to define that contradictory and indefinable mirage the
‘’Trinity*’—accepts it as an incomprehensible mystery.
The heart of all religions is the love of the miraculous and
mystery; and those who most firmly believe the most incredible
miracles are the most meritorious worshippers.
Belief without proof is the great merit, expressed by Paul’s
phrase “ Faith is the evidence of things not seen.’’ Therefore to
the religious person, belief in a flat world (the “Faith” of the
Ancients and some Moderns) makes the world flat; and “ faith ”
in ghosts is all the evidence necessary to prove their existence.
This curious doctrine has been upheld in modern times under the
name of “pragmatic sanction,” which teaches that if a belief is
widely held and used as a working hypothesis by common con-
sent, it is true. Pragmatism applied to religious dogma is more
immoral than the jesuitical position, “ The end justifies the
means,” as there is no limit to the fantastic theories that may be
upheld by pragmatic sanction. Let anyone try to convince a
judge that faith is the “evidence” of anything, and he will find
that the fundamental core and basis of all law and “justice” is
the direct negation of Paul’s claim. Pragmatism and Paul’s
sophistry might render divine every “ Mumbo-Jumbo " of African
devil worship.
The feelings which give rise to a belief in the supernatural, and
finally lead to the establishment of religions, are inherent in the
youngest children and in the most primitive savages. The aspects
of nature foster these feelings as darkness and night are linked with
the ideas of evil, danger, and enemies, while the breaking forth of
the sun is hailed as the return of a deliverer—“ in the morning joy
cometh.”
The feeling of immensity and awe in looking up to the stars is
also one of the elemental emotions in man, tending toward
religion.
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
3
The human race has, however, very few individuals endowed
with this reverence for nature. In “ The Ruins of Desert Cathay,”
vol. I, p. 433 (Macmillan, 1912), M. Aurel Stein, after an eloquent
description of the glorious sight of a total eclipse of the sun,
says:—“My men and the Lopliks had, with the prosaic non-
chalance of their race, remained seated round the camp fires, and
not one of them troubled to ask me any questions.”
Even in civilized Europe reverence for natural phenomena is
comparatively rare amongst the ignorant, and most villagers have
more interest in the latest local scandal than in sun, moon, or stars.
The striking fact of the continuous succession of life on earth,
leading to the ideas of eternal life, is also a great fountain of
religious thought, and the symbols of eternal life were always
closely associated with the facts of reproduction.
In attempting to analyse the complicated growths called
religions and to trace their source to the peculiar sentiment or
instinct to which they owe their rise, we must first denude them
of all those features which are common to systems other than
“religious,” such as Philosophical, Governmental, Communistic,
or Socialistic arrangements of the relations between the members
of a community.
By eliminating all elementary rules or “commandments” which
are found necessay to the existence of communities we may arrive
by a process of rejection at the simple central core or active force
which is common to all religions. Before settling what religion is
we may well ask what it is not.
Religion can lay no exclusive claim to Altruism as that fine
quality is displayed by animals in defence of their young, and
probably has its springs deep down in the mother’s love and self
sacrifice for her children. It exists outside any religious belief.
Nor does it arise from that “ greater love can no man have than
this, that he lay down his life for his friend,” as that is often done,
as in war or in disasters, without being part of any religious belief.
Nor does it consist in moral laws. These exist everywhere without
religion, and are really communistic rules without which no com-
munity could hold together.
I do not say that religions do not inculcate these rules—most
of them do,—but religions whose dogmatic tenets are absolutely
opposed to each other may, and do, teach exactly the same social
or moral rules; these rules are simply those without which no
community could hold together, and are common to all social
systems; therefore they do not form the distinctive or peculiar
character which makes a system a “ religion.**
4
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
On the other hand religion as practised has a selfish basis, and
it is impelled by fear. It is practically engaged in saving one*s
” own soul *’ and in beseeching favours on earth or evading sup-
posed punishment in a hypothetical hereafter.
This fear is one of the great driving forces of religion. Many
of the foremost students of religions say that ” Fear has always
been man's first god, and whoso feared not had no gods, and was
therefore without religion.” (Forlong, Short Studies, pp. 129—
346.)
The Jews god of fear was ”Yahweh Irae” or ”Yire&” (Jehovah
the Wrathful), that of the Greeks, ” Phobos ” (Fear), and of the
Latins, ” Pavor and Pallor ” (Fear and Trembling). Cicero says
that ” philosophers pretend they are freed from those most cruel
tyrants eternal terror and fear by day and by night.” (Pavor and
Pallor.) Still fear is only a driving force, it is not the core of
religion itself.
The distinguishing feature of religions, whatever principles they
inculcate, is the craving to believe in the miraculous and to assert
that the statements and principles taught by any religion were
miraculously communicated to man. The principles themselves
do not matter, the religious element is the miraculous authority for
their enforcement. Whether the principles lead to the racking
and burning alive of people, or to the most tender and gentle service
of their fellow men, they are equally asserted to be founded on
supernatural revelation, otherwise such principles do not constitute
a ” religion ” but merely a social contract or a system of government.
We find then that the distinguishing difference between religions
and governmental or philosophical systems is the assertions of and
a belief in the miraculous, especially the assertion of a direct
personal communication to men by the god they hold supreme, of
moral laws, religious observances, and cosmogony, or creation
stories.
All religions claim this special miraculous revelation to be
peculiar to their cult alone, condemning all other alleged revela-
tions as ” superstitions,”
One can only trace the history of any sentiment by an examina-
tion of its practical results and symbolism, it is only when a vague
love of sweet sounds is reduced to concrete expression in music
that we can follow and examine the musical sentiment, or when
the love of beautiful colours or forms translates itself into painting
or sculpture, that we can have clear ideas on the subject of the art
faculty. So it is only when the love of the miraculous crystallises
itself into acts of adoration, and belief in unproved things, creeds.
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
5
symbols, prayers, and miracles that we can follow its history, or
give an account of its development or decay.
The only term we find in “ dictionary English ” to define the
feeling or sentiment essential to religion is the somewhat futile one
of “Religiosity,” but such a term explains nothing, postulates
nothing, and does not assist us in getting clear views of the nature
of the religious instinct. Religiosity is too comprehensive. It is
useful to express the whole spirit taught by religious bodies, in-
eluding common law, morality, brotherly love, faith, hope and
charity, all enforced by the belief that ” our ” religion is the only
true one, having been miraculously communicated by a divine
being. It gives us no clue to the peculiar mental trait which has
led or driven all peoples to a systematised belief in the super-
natural, nor does it aid us in any definition of that trait.
A religious person is not merely one who is a good living person
or one observing the social and moral laws of his day, as such
obedience has nothing to do with the essential tenets of his peculiar
belief or religion,—this obedience being common to all religions,
however diverse, and to all non-religious systems.
A religious person believes in the miraculous communication of
the tenets of his religion to some priest or prophet by a powerful
supernatural being to whom he addresses his prayers; and gener-
ally believes that this supernatural being will receive some entity
of his being, called ” soul,” into everlasting life when the believer
dies, judging whether he deserves reward or punishment in that
eternal life.
-
These are all unproved and unprovable statements, which the
religious person is assured are true, because they were miraculously
communicated.
It is this element of the miraculous which divides religions from
philosophical, ethical, or political systems.
It is this love of the miraculous, and also a love of mystery—
that is, a dislike of clear logical statement or proof, and a love of
dreamy belief—which are the mainstay and attraction of religion.
In order to define the position, I shall call the primitive instinct,
the love of the miraculous, M1ROPH1LY, and the practice of it,—
which is the basis of religions—MIROLATRY. The statement of
a religion is a MIROLOGUE, and its tenets MIRODOXES. The
essence of religions is MIRODOXY, and official religions may
therefore be said to be founded on MIROLOGY, or Miraculous
Statements.
All students agree with Jacob Grimm, who, in his ” Deutsch
Mythologie,” says: “Simple folk have a craving for myths.” It
6
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
is this craving which I call Mirophily, and when Mirophily states
that a code of laws has been miraculously communicated, we have
a religion.
In modern times it is almost impossible for the ideas of advanced
scientific men to have any great force with common people, as
such men cannot state their views in the form of a mirodox, while
the most trashy religion will find millions of adherents, because it
panders to the Mirophilic craving, and is enforced by the Mirodox
of a revelation from a god, and thus becomes backed by fear,—
Mormonism, for instance.
As the powers of reasoning and reflection are developed in
man, individuals have arisen among advanced races who, attempt-
ing to project their ideas into the past and future, sought an answer
to the great questions of the origin and destiny of man and the
universe. These men have produced some of the loftiest philoso-
phical poems which have come down to us. Other races of lower
intelligence, having their immediate attention drawn to the influ-
ence of natural events on man, such as the effect of sun, rain, and
wind, on the production of food, and the occurrence of war,
famine, and disease, sought some explanation of human joys and
sorrows in the action of invisible spirits which were to be propitiated
by various means. The lowest races are ruled by a religion of
fear,—dread of the dark and of evil spirits, whom they may
propitiate by prayers, and offerings, or sacrifices.
Between those extremes,—represented on the one hand by
Chinese, Indian, Assyrian, Egyptian, and modern civilizations, and
on the other by such savage races as the natives of Australia, Terra
del Fuego, or the Pigmies of central Africa,—there have existed
many races less philosophical than the former, and more poetical
than the latter; forming a great series of gradations between the
two extremes and leading to a perfect chaos of religions. This
chaos of worship and symbols may be glimpsed by referring to
such well-known works as “The Sacred Books of the East,”
For long’s “Rivers of Life” and “Dictionary of Religions,”
Frazer’s “Golden Bough” and “Totemism and Exogamy,“
Tylor’s “ Primitive Culture “ and “ Early History of Mankind,”
Hislop’s “Two Babylons,” Goldziher’s “Mythology amongst the
Hebrews,” and “La Religion” of Andre Lefevre. (It is difficult
to write down a few names of good books without a host of others,
equally good, rushing into the memory clamouring for mention.)
A study of such books shows that every possible symbol has been
worshipped, now as the emblem of good, and again as the emblem
of evil.
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
7
The lower beliefs in witches, evil spirits, and necromancy, have
had little effect on the history of dogma, and have never given rise
to any real church; yet so innate is the belief in evil spirits, witches,
ghosts, the evil eye, and kindred superstitions, that such beliefs
persist through all the ages, while many well founded philosophical
systems and religions have passed into oblivion.
The greater religious systems have always been founded on high
poetic and philosophic compositions dealing with tribal history and
theoretical cosmogony or “world building,” based on rough
astronomical observations. To make these acceptable to the mass
of the people however it has been necessary to take into the systems
a crowd of popular beliefs long established, and of a lower type
than the philosophical core of Cosmogony which the priests
promulgated.
No doubt when gregarious mankind began to allow itself to be
governed, the governors found the path of least resistance to be
obtained by the assertion of a system of rewards and punishments
threatened by an unseen but terribly powerful being, who ruled
over all nature and who watched every action of man, and who
had personally communicated his laws to the priests and their fore-
fathers.
In most countries the supreme rulers became identified with this
terrible power, and were stated in fact to be the sons of the great
god and to have been divinely conceived.
But such assertions would never have been so universally
accepted were there not a predisposition in man to believe such
dogmatic statements.
This readiness to accept, or eagerness to hear and delight in
these statements of miracles and the unknown is the sentiment I
have named Mirophily—a sentiment as real as the love of sweet
sounds or colours.
In Sayce’s opinion “ the Office of Priest “ (mirophilic leader)
“ preceded that of King. There were high Priests of Assur before
there was a King of Assyria (or Assuria), the Assyrian Kings in fact
developed out of the High Priests just as the kingdom of Assyria
developed out of the deified city of Assur.” (Higher Criticism,
p. 272.)
As all religious systems have roughly similar codes of morality,
—namely, the rules necessary to hold together friendly com-
munities,—laws cm to protection of life, respect for property,
honesty, truthfulness, honour to parents and respect for authority
—that side of the rise of Christianity does not especially concern
us; as systems like those were taught by Confucius and others.
8
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
whose teachings were absolutely free from any supernatural claim.
They taught equally just, and often, much more humane laws, but
laws founded on communistic polity and not on mirophily.—In
ordinary language their systems were human not divine.
All philosophic systems of government, or even the common
police of every land, apart from all supernatural theory, equally
inculcate these ** commandments,” so that they are not essential
elements of any supernatural religion, in fact many of the ancient
gods, not excepting the Hebrew Jehovah, Jahveh, or Yahweh,
were the worst offenders against the “commandments” (p. 210
et seq.).
It is not therefore the systems of morality which demand
examination as religions, but the assertion that these systems were
personally communicated by supernatural means to man, and the
proof offered of this revelation.
The Hebrew Bible was the book on which Christianity rested
for its foundation; but it will be necessary before examining the
history of its sources to have a clear idea of what is meant by
Christianity, and who represents it.
There have always been scientific men, mostly astronomers,
who held aloof from, and denied the assertions made by priests
and religious bodies, but it is only now, in the twentieth century,
that their assertions are beginning to be listened to by the educated
people, and allowed to over-rule the assertions made by the
churches as to the order of the universe.
There were always rationalists and critics who demanded on
what authority or proof the church professed to teach its assertions
about the creation of the world, life, and death, and the existence
of a soul in man, and who questioned the truth of such assertions,
as we see even in Holy Writ in the book of ” Ecclesiastes,” III.,
20-22, and our own Bishops (see pp. 206 and 338). These critics
easily pointed out contradictions and discrepancies in the ” revela-
tions ” of all religions.
In dealing with Christian dogma we are confronted with the
fact that there are two Christian Churches—the Roman Catholic
and the Protestant. At the outset we must ask ourselves which is
the Christian Church.
The Protestant Church, having stood out for private judgment
of the Scriptures on a rational interpretation by each individual to
satisfy his own intelligence, is really not a Church at all, but a
body of "rationalists” of a mild type, allowing individual inter-
pretation of Holy Writ, but holding up a warning finger against
“ going too far.”
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
9
By their private interpretation they are split into innumerable
sects—each, however, in the end negating ” private judgments ”
and drawing up a dogmatic catechism, “ Thus far shalt thou go,”
which, however, has to be constantly modified under the discoveries
of scholars, but all these sects still cling to the essential dogmas
based on mirophily (see pp. 341-342).
By founding their religion on the Bible, which is full of direct
contradictions and irreconcilable accounts of the same incidents
(there are over 100,000 errors in the Bible), the Protestant Churches
are forced along a line of development which is gradually eliminat-
ing the supernatural from their religion.
Colenso’s battle ended in a victory which set the Protestant
Churches free from shackles that can never again be rivetted on
them, and when the jocular remark was made, that, by the decision
of the Judicial Committee of the House of Lords, ” Hell has been
dismissed with costs,” the wit really enunciated a great historical
fact. *
The Roman Catholic Church having always had scholars in its
ranks whose dangerous discoveries were, by careful discipline,
kept for the most part for the church’s private information, took
a much wiser course from the purely ecclesiastical (by no means
moral) point of view. It declared that the true religion was that
enunciated by the church alone (Protestants driven to this also,'
pp. 341-342), and claimed that it had been handed down
by direct personal transmission from Jesus through his personal
Apostles. It kept its prayers and church practices in the hand of
the priests, and expressed them in a foreign tongue and allowed
no private judgment or criticism.
In this we have a real ” church ” enunciating its doctrines ” Ex
Cathedra,”—infallible and rigid,—perhaps the only real church
in the world.
Other religions, even the Mahommedan, have very broad bases,
—Mahommed actually denied that he ever performed a miracle,—
and as we go East the liberty and breadth of view are ever greater
till, in China for instance, we have the religion of the educated
classes composed of general directions for human conduct founded
by Confucius on a code of ethics and honour, combined with
respectful homage paid to the memories of ancestors and to the
Universe (pp. 352-354).
In " Migration of Symbols ” (p. 249), we are told that the Indian
conceptions were so broad that “ Under Akbar (Mogul) they were
willing to combine in a single religion the beliefs of Mahommedans,
Hindus, Parsees, Jews and Christians.”
10
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
Both Confucius and Mahommet categorically denied having
supernatural powers, but so strong is the sentiment of Mirophily in
man, that, no sooner were they dead than miracles began to be
asserted as due to them. Thus have all ” Sons of God *’ been
created out of prophets, preachers, or leaders long dead.
It may be held that as the Roman Catholic Church does not
proclaim the Bible as the foundation of its authority, and as
Protestant Churches allow private judgment, i.e. criticism, the Bible
has no real place as a standard in either religion, but is only used
and interpreted and applied as the church directs. But the
authority for the enforcement of their tenets is said to be derived
from some supernatural or inspired source by direct revelation, and
as the Bible is the only “ inspired ” book to which they refer, it is
plainly the real source of their supposed authority.
We may take therefore the Catholic Church of Rome to be the
great central Christian Church, and we have the Churches of
England, Ireland, Scotland, and of Dissenters all on the way to
simple deism or rationalism, as private interpretation means follow-
ing one’s reasoning powers.
To quote Carpenter’s work, “ The Bible in the Nineteenth
Century,” p. 473: "But criticism, if once admitted into the Scrip-
tures, cannot be restrained from investigating tradition. The
inspiration claimed for the church may really belong to it, but it
cannot be proved out of the Bible so long as the only witness to
the inspiration is that very church.”
“ The Bible is Divine,” it is urged, ” because the church attests
it.”
’’But how is the church empowered to give this attestation?
Because its chief teachers are guided by the spirit. But where is
the proof of such guidance? It is found in the very record itself.
Scripture and tradition thus in turn support each other. It is not
usual for the foundations and the roof alternately to exchange
places and serve in each capacity in the same building.”
In short—the Bible is true because the Church says so. The
Church dogma is true because it is founded on the Bible.
” Thus a vicious circle of false proof is set up.”
The Bible is certified by the Church, and the Church by the
Bible, like two unknown men giving each other certificates of
character (see p. 272). There is no ” proof ” in such assertions.
When scientific men, in the early years of the Nineteenth
Century began to explore a little and to state their deductions, such
as those of Lyell, the progress of knowledge was embarrassed by
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
II
the resistance of theologians over the account of creation in
Genesis.
This resistance was greatly weakened by the discoveries of
George Smith, that the so-called inspired account of creation
personally communicated to Moses by the Jewish god, was, after
all, only an uninspired pagan fable, copied into the Jewish books
from Babylon.
-
“ When, therefore, the history of the globe began to be made
plain, and the theory of evolution offered an explanation of the rise
of intelligent life and the growth of man's social institutions, his
arts, morals, and faiths, a new view of the history of the earth was
forced on thoughtful people.
“ From British-India and China came collections of sacred
books rivalling the Bible in antiquity and rising to quite as high
conceptions as those attributed to Moses and Jesus, and often in
the same words and form ” (Carpenter).
Discoveries in Egypt and Mesopotamia threw light on the .origin
of many of the Christian beliefs, showing that the Christian Scrip-
tures were not communicated by their god to their prophets, but
were derived from earlier religions.
Thus was created the science of comparative study of religions.
Just as before the advent of Lamarck, Darwin, and Haeckel,
and the " continuous change ’* or development school, men were
always looking backwards for the perfect man, whether in paradise,
or in giants,—men of perfect health and great strength and stature,
so the mirophilic students of religion of the present day are spend-
ing their energies in a search for some far off form of religion when
its tenets were unmixed, when its beliefs were not contradictory,
and when in short, a sweet religion, pure and undefiled, taught
man the noblest morality, in an arcadia.
Vain search. They might as well look for the beautiful science
of astronomy in ancient astrology and necromancy, or for the
accurate and logical science of chemistry, in the alchemy of the past,
with its philosophers' stones and incantations.
Researches are being daily conducted to throw light on the
alterations, changes, editorial “tamperings,*’ and “improvements ’
introduced into the ancient text with the hope of leading up to a
pure “ inspired ” word. But the further we go back the less “ in-
spired ” is the word. These alterations of long past ages were
attempts to bring the crude mythology of still earlier times up to
the level of the intelligence of the day; and the editors of the old
text were ashamed of it, covering up by meaningless words, or
12
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
entirely leaving out, all the crass phallic conceptions, and convert-
ing untranslatable grossness into ethical or harmless phrases (p. 41).
As we travel along the way through which Christianity has
. developed, and review the practices of the churches and the
“ Bibles” on which they are partly founded, we shall require to
read attentively the actual pronouncements of Scripture. Christ-
ians are told to search the Scriptures, and yet that is what they are,
by their training, incapacitated from doing. Accustomed from
their childhood to hear the Bible read in solemn tones (ventrflo-
quially or, as the Greeks called their Priests, Eggastri Muthoi),
and only such parts of it as the priest can utilise to point a moral,
they come to read it entirely mechanically.
The ” Speaker's Commentary ” represents the Witch of Endor
as a female ventriloquist, as in ancient times such persons were
supposed to have a spirit rumbling inside their bellies. Ventriloquist
means belly-speaker, as does Eggastri Muthoi.
Besides it is such a peculiar composition, consisting of fragments
as diverse as those of a bed of shingle on the seashore, that it is
almost a hopeless task for the ordinary reader to get am idea of its
real contents, or to compare one part with another. How it came
to be in this condition we will inquire later, but it is in such a state
of chaos that even in the middle of a so-called verse the subject-
matter may chamge and the text may continue in the language and
ideas of quite another age.
Unless a mam is schooled in Hebrew, Sanscrit, and the early
languages of the East, he cannot aurrive at the true meaning of the
words used in the Bible. The English Bible we read is not the
Hebrew Bible at all. Were it tramslated literally and etymologic-
ally it would be unfit for reading in public, and Mrs. Grundy
would abolish it. The English tramslation is a euphemistic para-
phrase, so toned down, and the phallic words so mis-translated,
that its phrases have no meaning, and it has no relation to the
Hebrew Bible in its most importamt tenets.
Few people know that there are two quite different and contra-
dictory accounts of creation in Genesis i. amd ii., with mutilated
parts of a third amd fourth also in Genesis amd traces of two others
in the Psalms, Job, Isaiah, etc., amd that there aure three or four
quite distinct kinds of gods differently named in the originad, but
all presented to us as “ God ” and ” Lord ” in our English tramsla-
tion.
Similarly there aure two contradictory accounts of the flood amd
other incidents, amd a host of discrepancies all through both the
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
13
Old and New Testaments of our Bible, the causes of which we
will study later.
These have been discovered by men who really read the Bible,
a power possessed by few.
No ordinary man reads the Hebrew Scriptures. The task is
beyond him. He needs a guide. He has had heaps of guides in
the past,—guides like sheep dogs to keep him in the fold.
Another difficulty in reading the Sacred Books of nearly all
religions (outside of the facts that they are things of shreds and
patches, expressed in a language whose exact meaning has long
been lost), is that the greater part is made up of repetitions of
so-called prophesies, exhortations, and condemnations of a rude
people by “ prophets,” and child-like allegorical stories such as
the Hebrews called Haggada stories so mutilated and changed by
their long descent, that their original meaning and application to
their religion has become almost obliterated, coupled with miracles
and “testimonies,” said to have been performed and spoken
directly by the Divine being.
Prophecies, especially prophecies of evil, threatening dire
calamity (and as “man is born unto trouble ” quite likely to be
fulfilled), are especially common, most of them made after the
event and therefore true. Not only in written religions, but this
function of baleful prophecy is common to all inculcators of religion,
whether Hebrew prophet or Negro medicine man, and this scold-
ing, or rather the fear it causes is the active force of most religions
and " revivals.”
Fear is the most potent engine the priest possesses.
Fear has still a kingdom in the civilised world. There are
educated men and women who would not sit down thirteen to
dinner, nor have their hair cut on a Friday, nor walk under a
ladder, and who feel quite sure of bad luck if they see the new
moon through glass (p. 87). They believe in lucky and unlucky
numbers, and if they happen to boast of good luck they at once
” touch wood ” to ward off the evil influences or punishment by a
higher power for boasting.
This feeling is beautifully expressed in the legend of Niobe.
Modern superstitions are identical with those of savages. A
recent writer on Rhodesia says that the differences between the
superstitions of Bond-street and North Rhodesia are in degree
only, and so far as concerns thse spiritual qualities of mankind,
” the world is much the same all over: things are only called by
different names.” (“ Via Rhodesia: A Journey through Southern
Africa.” By Charlotte Mansfield, 1911.)
14
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
That fear is still a potent god is shown by the records of many
travellers. One tells of the Chaco-Indians living 200 miles to the
West of the river Paraguay. The author says their only religion
is the fear of evil spirits encouraged and intensified by the witch
doctors,—modern Huldahs. (“ Times ” American Supplement,
25th October, 1910.)
People are better than their creeds. The inestimable boon of
private interpretation given by the Protestant religion is apt to
make us forget that fear is the driving force of Christianity also.
The fear of future punishment, to avoid which the savage sacrifices
to his god, is in no way different from our fear of eternal hell fire,
except that ours is the more savage conception, and ought to be
abandoned as Colenso taught.
Even now this lever is openly employed, witness the words
BLOOD and FIRE moulded prominently in capital letters on the
outer walls of the buildings of that otherwise beneficent institution
the Salvation Army, as I was reminded recently by stumbling on
the lurid announcement on a hall behind the Mall, Hammersmith.
Could a more cruel and diabolical threat have been found to
becloud and sadden the early years of children, 'or to beget the
horror and dismay of being helplessly in the power of a god imbued
with such malignant cruelty.
Can we blame common people for superstition when we find
Bishop Wilberforce exorcising a ghost from a Kensington drawing-
room with bell, book, and candle, or a prominent townsman of
Dartford rejoicing that the church bells would ring on Coronation
Day 1911, as their silence owing to repairs had, he believed, attracted
evil spirits (see p. 249).
Superstition seems to be inherent in humanity and is perhaps
at present increasing, owing to the decline in the belief in dogmatic
religions.
The “ Fear ” part of the Bible is not essential to modem dogma,
but is interesting in tracing the workings of the priestly mind in
constructing its religious shackles for mankind.
On the other hand the essentially religious part or mirologue,
the nature of the god, the creation and ruling of the world, the
statements of its and man’s destiny, the assertion of the existence
of a soul, heaven and hell, and the supernatural origin and absolute
truth of the sacred writings, are the true essence of the book as the
word of God, and it is to this side that our attention will be directed.
Those theories may be quite good as philosophical speculations,
it is only the dogmatic assertion as to their being miraculously
communicated truths which strictly pertains to religion.
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
15
We Have no writings of the earliest beginnings of religions,
hence we must found our information on rudely carved symbols on
rocks and grave stones, and we shall see that by far the earliest
symbols are those which are called Phallic. Those who evolved
them held that the continual succession of life on the earth was
typical of immortality, and they employed rude carvings of the
organs of reproduction as the symbols of their adoration.
That was the earliest cult, and it is still widely practised. A
later and equally universal cult was founded on the misery and
destitution of man in Winter, caused by the low altitude “ decrepi-
tude and death ” of the sun, and the joy, salvation, and deliverance
due to its re-birth ” in crossing over the equator, gaining a high
altitude, and producing the Summer, paradisiacal, or garden,
portion of the year, and so saving man from destruction. The sun
was thus the Saviour. At that season in northern countries, the sun
was supposed to die in December, but again to rise from the dead
and cross over (“passover”—see pp. Ill, 283), or was crossified
or crucified into the heavenly half of the year to the salvation of
mankind. The death in Winter was held to be a warning to man-
kind that the great hidden god (Amen) might, for their sins, with-
draw his favours of sunlight and warmth, and later the death of
the sun became symbolical of a sacrifice for man’s sins, its crossing
over at the equinox being symbolical of resurrection and forgive-
ness, and the entrance of man into the paradise (garden) of Summer.
I am not here referring to the Christian cult only, this idea of
sacrifice and salvation was (next to that of reproductive eternal
life) the most wide spread of all cults, and was held by nearly all
nations where the alternations of Summer and Winter are marked.
The astronomical was a very much higher cult than the Phallic,
and required study, observation, and memory, and was applied to
a subject far removed from the actual contact of man. It was just
as abstract and impersonal, as the Phallic idea was direct and
personal. The solar idea had to be thought out as a scientific
problem, while the continuity of life by re-production was the
central and intimate basis of man's life, round which all his passions
and sentiments centred.
The organised religions adopted symbols and practices from
both Phallic and Solar cults, and temples or '* tabernacles ” gener-
ally contained an ark, or altar, or box, on which, or in which was
placed a rod, pillar, or other upright^emblem, the altar or box repre-
senting the female organ of reproduction and the upright symbol
the male organ. But this altar was generally placed so that the sun
at some important point in its annual career, generally the solstice
16
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
or equinox, would shine through a door, window, or rude archway,
and with its morning beams light up the emblems of reproduction, so
the Phallic and Solar cults were often combined (pp. 112-116), as seen
at the Sikhs golden temple at the present time at Amritsar. Temples
were also “ oriented " to the moon and to special stars, as all the
“ Heavenly Host ” was latterly worshipped.
As the Phallic cult was much the older, it retained its position
after the rise of the Solar cult.
It required a much higher intelligence to grasp the facts of Solar
worship, so it never entered into the ‘'hearts’* of the common
people as did the Phallic worship, but it had a much more intelligent
priesthood, and was the arbiter in all questions of dates, and
regulated all feasts; and, what was more important to the people,
fixed the time for payments of debts or interest, and regulated the
times of sowing and harvesting, so it became a much more “official”
religion than Phallism.
Other natural phenomena also interested mankind, and finally
all natural forces, especially striking ones like the wind, rain,
lightning, water falls, rivers, etc., became deified, or were under
the special care of, or were the manifestation of gods; and the
common people, as in Greece, joined heartily in the pantheistic
worship which had the sun for its central deity.
We have then the ideas called forth by the sentiment of miro-
phily cystallised or symbolised under two systems, first, the con-
tinuity of life, or life or\ earth; and second the recognition of the
Sun as the supporting power or cause of life and pleasure on earth.
Those are the two great cults, and the sources of the Bibles,
churches, and church practises of the present day.
-
The tree played a most important part in the early religions of
mankind, but I do not find (outside its Phallic signification, p. 61)
that it was worshipped in itself any more than our religious build-
ings are worshipped. A church is a holy place, perhaps even the
dwelling of the god, but is not, in itself, worshipped. It is the
casket which contains the gods, shrines, or objects of worship, or
their symbols. The tree meant more to early man than our church
means to us to-day; it was at once his church, his village meeting
place, his protection from the fierce sun or cold wind or rain, and
under it his worship was carried out. It was sometimes also the
dwelling-place of the god, as is the tabernacle or church, or the
means of the gods' descent from heaven to earth, and the oracles
of Gods often dwelt there, and spoke their messages to man, as in
the oaks of Dodona, or the burning bushes of Moses, Joshua, and
Ezra.
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
17
Pliny, about the time of Jesus, wrote that ” Trees are the temples
of the gods; we delight to worship the same god in the silent groves
as we do in the stately temples. The fairest trees are consecrated
to certain gods/' just as churches are to-day. Pliny also says that
country people hung coloured rags and other offerings on holy trees.
Glover, in his “Conflict of Religions in the early Roman Empire,**
tells us that country people hang coloured rags and other offerings
on trees just as do the Indians in South America on their “ Gualichu
trees'* (see Cunningham Graham, “Success/* p. 10.)
The Hebrew prophets, or “ Nabis,” in condemning the Phallic
worship of the “shameful thing,’* said that it was worshipped
“ under every green tree.”
That it was not the tree they worshipped, but the Phallic symbols
under it, is shown in Deut. xii., 3, and a dozen other texts, see
p. 242, et seq.
Moreover, the strong corded stem of the tree, especially the oak,
or palm or cedar, was held by all nations as a sexual symbol of male
fertility (the “Tree of Life,” p. 61). Job xl. 17, compares the Phallus
(mistranslated tail) of the Behemoth to a cedar, see pp. 153-154.
Hence tree worship is simply church worship, or symbolical
worship, and in this capacity belongs to no cult exclusively. But
it was also the symbol of male fertility, and was generally associated
with a well,—the symbol of female fertility. Serpent worship is
also a mere branch of Phallic worship. The serpent is a purely
sexual symbol, and all Phallic stories, such as the Fall of Man in
Genesis, are connected with a feeling of the shame of nakedness,
and a serpent which “ goes erect,” and child-birth.
Sir G. W. Cox, in his great work on the Aryan nations, says of
tree and serpent worship, (p. 362), “ The whole question is indeed
one of fact, and it is useless to build on hypothesis. If there is any
one point more certain than another it is that, wherever tree and
serpent worship has been found the cults of the Phallos and the
worship of the Linga and the Yoni in connection with the worship
of the sun have been found also.
“ It is impossible to dispute the fact and no explanation can be
accepted for one part of the cult which fails to explain the other.
Worship of venomous serpents is a religion of terror, but serpent is
love and life.” The explanation of this apparent contradiction is
given at pp. 230-234.
In all ages and all countries the Phallus or Lingam, urged on to
re-production by passion or fire, is represented by a post or pillar
or tree stump caressed by a serpent (p. 61).
The only sacred serpent was the Hooded serpent, which , is a
C
18
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
fair imitation of the Phallus. The serpent in all lands is the symbol
of sexual desire or “ fire.”
Tortoise worship is the same. “ The world is borne on a
tortoise ” say the Hindus. The head of the tortoise, when pro-
truded, is a sexual symbol; and the Indian phrase means that man’s
world, depending on the continuity of life, is carried on, or borne
by the organ of reproduction symbolised in Indian religions by the
tortoise. Fig. 1 is a common Hindu symbol of eternal life.
Here, Devaki, the wife or mother of God, is seated on a lotus
flower (fruitful woman) and holds in her hand a lotus bud (male
fertility), so male and female symbols are twice repeated.
Fig. 1
Woman and Lotus flower are feminine, while tortoise and Lotus
bud are male.
Fire or flame worship is also very widely spread in highly civil-
ised communities, as we still see by the candles on Roman Catholic
altars a relic of fire, flame, light, or sun worship existing to this
day. In Northern Persia it arose as a separate cult because of the
fire rising naturally from gas wells in the ground.
It was symbolical of the Sun, as the Persians were devout Sun
worshippers, so are their modern descendants the Parsees.
Flame embodies the two principles of which the sun is the great
fount. The heat of the sun drives away the cold and misery of
winter, while its light disperses the dangers of night and darkness.
It is always symbolical of Goodness and Knowledge and the dis-
perser of darkness and ignornce.
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
19
That fire worship is sun worship is proved by the legends of
nearly all peoples, viz.:—That Fire was stolen by some demi-god
or hero from the Sun, or from Heaven. But the complicated cult
of sun worship, as practised by the priests, was never comprehended
by the common people, as it involved a knowledge of astronomy
and the people could never acquire a knowledge of the complex
movements of sun, moon, and stars, or become familiar with the
“ Houses of the Sun ” which were the symbols of worship. The
sun was too holy and mighty to be mentioned by name. The
changes produced by precession, giving slow change by millenniums
to the ” Houses of the Sun,” the Equinoxes, Solstices, the Ecliptic,
and Zodiac or Zone of Life arising from the angle of the earth’s
axis to the pole of the Ecliptic, and a host of other complicated
astronomical matters were quite beyond the work-a-day people of
ancient civilizations. Indeed the facts are not at all known or really
understood by the educated population of the modern civilized
world, beyond a few scholars or specially studious people.
Hence, the priests embodied the truths of solar knowledge and
religion in legends of gods, demi-gods, and Gee-urges or earth
builders,—St. George means Earth worker or Creator,—and those
allegories were easily understood; and, impelled by mirophily and
fear, were eagerly accepted by the people. Thus arose the myths
of Babylon, Greece, and Rome.
But if we wish to know what the people actually believed, or
what cults they practised, we must read the protests or scolding of
the prophets or higher thinkers of their times. They call on the
people to abandon their practices, consequently we know the prac-
tices to which they were addicted.
By such means, aided by sculpture and stone monuments, we
will trace the symbols and teaching of religious systems arising out
of the primal sentiments of fear and mirophily.
One must not confound a religious system encumbered with all
its contradictions, assertions, creeds, and sacrifices with the feeling
which gives it birth.
The human intelligence, which differentiates man from the
brutes, eagerly wishes to penetrate the darkness of ignorance which
surrounds us, and this desire gives rise to an exalted sentiment,—
generally pure and noble, or meek and gentle, whereas the sacer-
dotal system which priests have built on the finer feelings of the
people cannot always be so characterized.
The intense impatience of all men, women, and children to know
the why and the wherefore of everything, gave a great power to the
priestly pretentions. The attainment by scientific study of a real
20
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
knowledge of life and the universe is a painfully slow process, and
it sometimes seems to be unattainable; can we wonder that the
great mass of the people have always chosen rather to accept the
supernatural explanation offered to them by “ revealed ” religions.
The love of knowledge is not the basis of religion as it is of
science; it is the impatience of mankind at the want of knowledge,
which gives the Church much of its power. The Church provided
an attractive short-cut.
The latest oracle’s voice out of the gloom is that of Prof. Bergson,
who, in a glittering coruscation of filmy verbiage, finds a new, easy,
short-cut to knowledge in Intuition. Intuition is the true revelation
of the spirit, and the only safe guide. Of course, it is Bergson’s
own private intuition which is the sole infallible guide ; your 44 in-
tuition,” or mine, or that of any of the metaphysiciahs of the past is
unworthy of credence.
Bergson’s short-cut is as false and illusive as all the others, and
we shall know the truth only by the tantalizingly long and arduous
path of experiment and observation.
Science experimenting with matter has only one system, the
corelation of facts, which may be understood, tested, extended,
and corrected by anyone.
Metaphysics has as many systems as there are metaphysicians—
systems understandable only by the brain which evolved them, and
each system considered perfect only by its inventor.
Even Mallock, who runs with the hare and hunts with the hounds
in his 44 Religion as a Credible Doctrine,” praises science, yet
argues or rather pleads that religion may be accepted. But he does
not give us a single concrete point as to what parts of 44 religion ”
we may accept, and avoids all questions of dogma, authority, revela-
tion, or creed. Nay, in this very book, he disproves all the positive
statements of creeds.
Those educated men who plead for religion never will define the
parts of any organised religion we may accept, well knowing that
any definite statement about the 44 unknown,” can be shown to be
unproved, and hence only private opinion.
It is the great merit of the 44 practical ” British nation that rational
materialism, which bases all knowledge on the sure rock of actual
observation and experiment, was founded by the solid labours of
Newton, Hobbs, Locke, and Bacon, whose work stirred up Diderot
and the French Encyclopedists to the raising of their brilliant monu-
ment to reason.
There have always been individuals of high religiosity in every
nation, who lifted the religious system of their times to a higher
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
21
plane; but the common people knew little of these higher ideas, and
merely took their teaching (as they do now), from popular systems
centuries behind the knowledge of their times.
In religion people are conservative, in fact, such ideas as revela-
tion and miracles demanded antiquity for their acceptance and
a hero only becomes divine centuries after his death. It is difficult
to accept the divinity of a man whom you familiarly know.
All reformers must go along lines taught, and employ symbols
used by their ancestors, and the respect for what ” Our Fathers’*
taught, has always condemned the iconoclast.
The great branches under which all the religious systems of the
past have developed may be classed as based, on the one hand
on the consideration of our world and the continuity of life upon it,
expressed in Phallic symbolism, and on the other hand, on the
Sun as the great life giver and sustainer of man, expressed in Solar
symbolism.
Mirophily is a feeling similar to the love of rhythmic sounds or
beautiful colours,—longings which found their expression in music
and painting, and it is only when mirophily finds formal expression
in worship and creeds that ” religion ” arises.
This craving is the ” God within us ” of the pietists and priests
alike, but it is, after all, identical in kind with artistic, musical, or
poetical cravings. If the phrase ” the good within us ” were sub-
stituted the true idea would emerge from its false clothing (for latest
ideas on this see p. 344). Confucius first enunciated the charm
of virtue (p. 350).
Creeds are inadequate to express the emotional side of religions,
and, in consequence, creeds never do fulfil the desire for full expres-
sion of the sentiment of wonder worship.
They are constantly being modified to meet the growth of ideas,
and so we find that the religious life of many great thinkers is a
history of the abandonment of one religious belief after another, in
the vain search for a cult which will give full expression to their
poetic cravings.
As long as they yield to their mirophilic longings and postulate
the mirologues of Divine beings, heavens, hells, souls, and eternal
life, as having been, or as being miraculously revealed to us by a
higher being, so long will their religious fabric be built on sand.
The great array of new facts constantly being discovered will find
the weak points in the structure,, necessitating constant reconstruc-
tion or total abandonment, and the erection of a new ’’Creed.”
(See pp. 341-342.)
Many modern preachers have thrown aside all concrete belief
•3-710
22
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
in the supernatural, and preach the sentiment and practise of
altruism alone; but such teachings have little force for MirophiHc
man, as they lack the power of enforcement obtained by a declare-*
tion of “ Divine ’’ revelation.
The Churches and their services are still full of symbolic forms
and phrases, and it will be interesting to trace the sources of
symbolic worship, its changes, and final decay when confronted
with the knowledge of the real facts of the universe.
As man’s experience knows of nothing more powerful than
himself, except the forces of nature which he is even now turning
into servants, and as he can imagine no attribute higher than thought,
he creates in his imagination a “ thinking being ’’ formed like man,
and only more powerful than man in his complete control of natural
forces, and creative powers.
In fact, instead of accepting the Biblical priestly statement/* we
may state with Budge that “ man always has fashioned his gods in
his own image, and he has always given to his gods wives and off-
spring.” (" Gods of the EgyptiansVol. /., p. 287.)
We find this in all religions, and our own Bible,—after a per-
functory statement about creation, like all folk-lore, made with a
most childish disregard of facts, putting night and day, for instance,
before there was any sun to produce such a phenomenon,—in
Genesis goes straight to the anthropomorphic idea that man and
God are identical in body and character, even to God being both
male and female, ” in his own image, male and female, created he
them.”
The word used for the ” spirit of God,” and for the Holy Ghost,
is feminine, and the word used for God is plural, and the second
verse of the first chapter of Genesis is a statement derived from a
very ancient source that ” The mother of the Gods brooded ** [as a
hen does on her eggs], ” on the fertile abyss ** [and brought forth
life]. (Fig. 97, p. 164.)
This is followed by a priestly catalogue of Creation. Then the
narrative plunges into the question of reproduction of life in man,
and tells a simple folk-lore story of ” temptation ” connected with
a “serpent” which went “erect/’ a man and woman's “secret
sin/* their subsequent sense of shame that they were “ naked,**
their covering up of their reproductive organs, and the “ sinful ** act
leading to the “ curse ** of child-birth for the woman, and that of
labour for the man.
Nearly all cosmogonies relate this same tale of two people meet-
ing in a garden of delight, seduction always represented by a serpent
leading them to perform the generative act, which ends in trouble.
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
23
This was taught long before a Spiritual God, or even Solar deities
were thought of.
That the serpent was the Phallus is proved by the Bible itself.
The Hebrew word used for serpent is Nachash, which is every-
where else translated in the Bible in a Phallic sense, as in Ezekiel
xvi. 31, where it is rendered “ filthiness " in the sense of exposure,
like the “having thy Boseth naked" of Micah (see p. 221).
We find, as the reader will subsequently see, that all religions
are impregnated with, and often built upon, the reproductive idea,
and what is more striking, all their emblems and even vestments are
derived from images or symbols of the reproductive organs of man
and woman.
-
This has been named " Phallic " worship, from the Aryan-
“ Pala,“ or in Greek, “ Pallas “ or “ Phallos," the male organ, but
it must be remembered that the female organ has also been widely
worshipped, and is well represented in our church symbols. The
Greek name of the female organ is Kteis, but is seldom used—the
Indian word Yoni being preferred.
The Romans named this cult the worship of Priapus, using the
word for all forms of the worship. In India, where Phallic worship
still widely exists, the male organ is called the Linga, Lingah, or
Lingam, and the female the Yoni or Dove.
The feminine is also widely known over a great part of Asia
and Europe by the letter O, and the words Om, Omph, or Uma
as used in India, or Alma in Europe, and we see the Greek com-
bination of male and female in Omphale (derived from Om. and
Phallos), an Amazon queen, visited by Hercules (the sun god) when
the Queen assumed the Lion’s skin and Club of Hercules (both
Phallic symbols), so becoming double sexed.
She induced Hercules to wear her stole and to occupy himself
with feminine labour. They thus both expressed the bi-sexual idea,
or became “ Omphallic,” or “ Woman-man," and so able to create
life like a God.
Our word womb is derived from Om or Omph. The Saxons
put a “ W " before words in “ O," as Odin, Wodin (Wednesday),
so Om became Worn, and the “ man " who had the Worn was the
Wom-man. The plural follows the plural of man,—women, womb-
men. Om was also personified as Uma, pronounced OOMA, the
universal Mother or Womb.
The Greeks also expressed the idea, with the words reversed, as
“ Man-woman," in Hermaphrodite—a combination of the Male
Hermis or Mercury with the Female Aphrodite or Venus; of which
combination they cut many statues as emblems of fertility, eternal
24
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
life, or, it may be, of self-creating powers. Several may be seen
in the Louvre, Paris.
“Hermes" was so completely the emblem of the Phallus, that
that organ was spoken of as a “Hermes/* and we know Venus
represented the Kteis or Yoni.
All early creative gods were bi-sexual, as the Ancients considered
the two sexes requisite for the creation or reproduction of life, and
all early gods were Androgynous,—“ man—wifish,” or double
sexed,—like the ale-im, and “ Yahweh,” “ in his own image, male
and female, created he them/*
Our priests are to-day clothed in women’s garments, the “Stole**
was the Roman matron’s garment, and so the priest wearing it repre-
sents the two sexes, or full creative power, in imitation of the God
he serves.
Great surprise is very naturally expressed by Christians at the
existence of such ideas. This ignorance is caused by the reluctance
of writers in this country to state such facts openly. It is only from
such very rare and privately printed books as Payne Knight’s
“ Worship of Priapus,’’—a title for Phallism or Phallicism,—that
any knowledge of this subject can be obtained ; and such know-
ledge is consequently beyond the reach of ordinary readers.
Other volumes which occur to me are Forlong’s “ Rivers of
Life,” Westropp’s “Phallicism,” and, in some degree, the works
of Cox and Inman.
While the Pillar was the Common symbol of the Phallus, the
whole male creative organ required a triple form to be exhibited,
and for that the Trident, Fleur-de-lys the symbol of King-Godship
in France, Ivy leaf of Bacchus, or Trisul of India, and all triple com-
binations were used as the male organ, and on this was founded the
idea of the male Trinity.
The idea of Unity in God has a reference to the female—the
creator of all life. The perfect idea of a creative God, as taught
in the Prayer Book, is therefore the “ Trinity in Unity ” or “ Three
in One,”—an intensely Phallic idea.
Forlong has well said that Christianity is the most Phallic of all
religions; though the truth has been lost in the obscurity of its
symbolism.
We now see why the Ancients held that without a woman in the
God-head there is no perfect creative god. (See new edition
Encyc. Brit. 1911, Vol. I., p. 247, and Vol. XIII., p. 367, and many
other articles.)
This two-sex idea is, as we shall see, represented in all altars
and insignia of the Church, and in all conceptions of a creative god,
and is symbolised in the dress of the priests of the god. The queen
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
25
of Heaven is, as I shall prove, the “ Spirit*’ of God, and without
his ** Spirit,** or wife, he cannot create (p. /62, et seq.).
The Indian phrase is that the female is the *' Cause *’ of the gods
action.
Without a clear account of the Phallic ideas on which all the
Jewish beliefs, symbols, and temple practises were founded, any
statement of the Christian creed or Church practises is begging the
entire question of the history and development of Christianity.
Leaving out the poetical and philosophic passages, the
ceremonial rules of the Temple, and inaccurate history,
there is little in the Old Testament except Phallism and
Sabeanism and the Nabis protests against these practices. There
has hitherto been a complete silence amongst all religious teachers
as to the true contents of their “ Holy ** Scriptures; and as to the
true history of their “ word of God.*’ This little work is intended
to render an account in plain English of what all scholars and
educated church-men know.
There are a few brave men in every church who protest against
the present hypocrisy and false suggestion of the ** infallible truth ’*
of what all scholars know to be a very fallible and inaccurate history
of a savage people, mixed up with Phallic worship and gross super-
stitions.
Sun worship, which forms the other pillar of the arch of all
churches, is a very obvious and natural worship, and one which
shall be dealt with as this history develops.
But Phallic worship sounds so strange to modern ears, and is
so little known, that a clear statement of the proofs of its universal
existance in all countries, and of the persistance of its practice and
of its symbols down to the present day, is absolutely necessary
before we can commence the examination of the sources of the
teaching and symbolism of the Christian Church.
That 1 am not writing rashly will be seen from the authority
of all writers on this subject, such as Forlong, Sir Geo. Birdwood, or
Mr. Stanisland Wake, who wrote :—Anthrop. Journ., July, 1870, p.
226. ** The fundamental basis of Christianity is more purely Phallic
than that of any other religion now existing ” (pp. 221-222.)
Besides, its symbols are the very earliest emblems we can find
of the idea of eternal life and resurrection; and such ideas are the
basis of all real religions.
I shall, therefore, divide the treatment of the subject into three
parts; first,—the earliest religious cult, Phallism; second,—the most
powerful priestly cult, Sun-worship; and third,—the embodiment
of these cults in the Jewish Bible, and their application to the teach-
ings and symbolism of Christianity.
CHAPTER II
THE PHALLIC CULT—THE UNIVERSAL RELIGION
As I shall have to deal with many words and symbols all relating
to the same thing, and also with the variation of words and trans-
literation, it may be as well at the outset to touch on those matters.
I can only deal in an open publication with Phallism as expressed
in Symbolism, a form which was necessitated by the growing sense
of shame in mankind. That all the symbolism here described was
originally illustrated in the absolutely nude representation of the
reproductive act is well known to scholars and to all who have
visited the National secret museums.
The old bronze doors of St. Peter’s at Rome had sculptures
with such direct representations (pp. 87, 97), and we shall find
the same obscene sculptures executed by order of the Magistrates
and Church Dignitaries at places so far apart as India, Lesbos.
Nismes, and the West of Ireland (pp. 32, 87, 94 and 96).
The male organ of reproduction is, by general consent, called
by its Greek or Latin name, the Phallos or Phallus, and its worship
Phallism; but the worship by the Latins was also called that of
Priapus, the name used by Payne Knight in his book ” The worship
of Priapus.”
The earliest form we can tiace is Pala, from which our words
pole, pale,—as in impaled,—are derived, and from which we have
Palla-dium (Phallus god); but in creating symbols for this idea,
the ancient religions employed pillars, gate posts, upright stones,
tree-stems, peaked mountains (Ararat and Adam’s Peak in Ceylon,
p. 239), rods, sceptres, serpents, tortoises, fingers, hands, feet, toes
(St. Peter’s toe was originally the Phallus), goats, rams, bulls, and
other male animals, sword, dagger, spear, or other piercer, the
cross, the stauros, the pyx, the spire, the tongue of the bell, the bell
tower, the lotus bud, the ballance (Zodiac), and many subordinate
symbols, derived from the above as representing male fertility.
For the Female creative organ the Indian word Yoni is generally
used, or Latin words, Muliebre-pudendum, or Membrum-feminum.
Symbolically it is represented by all lenticular shaped openings,
vesica pisces or fish’s bladder, wells, boats, arks, or Arghas, chests,
altars, nave, the dolphin (delphys womb), whale, derketos, all
round mammelated mountains called Omphs, clefts, caves, cups,
vases, bowls, basins or crescents, ring,«cradle, shoe, window, door,
arch, ass’s shoe, etc., in fact, every thing hollow or open is female
CHRISTIANITY
27
and used as a symbol of feminine power, and all represent the
“ door of life.”
The study of Indian religions has brought in the Indian name
lingam, which is now very frequently used, as also its feminine
equivalent, yoni (dove), while the adjectives Phallic and Priapic,
are applied to the worship of the organs of both sexes, the masculine
terms being frequently understood to include the feminine.
Applied to gods who, having the two sexes in one individual, were
self-creative, like many flowers, the word now much used is
androgynous ” or man-womanish, or as we English would say,
man-wifeish.
The word yoni, or iona, or jona, (adopted in the West as Iona
the dove), is the universal symbol of Venus or female love. Juno
was d’lune, daughter of lone, the goddess of the dove,” and no
doubt the dove was adopted as the symbol of love being a gentle
bird, pairs of which were constantly seen to be caressing and
kissing.
In dealing with words, it must be remembered that the pro-
nunciation of the vowels in English is most unscientific, and that
the pronunciation of all its letters has drifted the furthest of any
language from the original. The letters E.H.I.J.K.U.V.W.Y. are
all equivalent and derived from the similar sources, and one may
always replace another, also R and L, as in ram and Iamb, clamp
and cramp, are the same letters. A, E, I, and even O constantly
replace one another as in al, el, il, and ol, all the names of the
same god in the Bible, as in our words sap, seep, sip, sop, soap,
soup, and sup, all identical words.
The difficulties of English pronunciation do not lie in the famous
“plough,” “tough,” “through,” group, but the treatment of the
letters A, E, and I. We have “all,” “are,” “rare” where A
sounds as O, Ah, and as Ay. E may be sounded as A, in “ there,”
or more openly as in “when”; and as E in “here,” by simply
removing the T or W from “there” or “where.” One never
knows whether I should be sounded as “ eye ” or as I in “ pin ”;
for instance, “ bicycle ” and “ binocular,” “ wind,” air and wind,
to roll up, or Y in “ cry ” and “ only,” or in “ lyre ” and “ lyric.”
Then there is Ei in “their,” and Ei in “receive,” and Ea in
“ lead “ (metal) and “ lead ” (to conduct), " bread ” and “ beard,”
or A in “ water “ and “ wafer,” and so on, in a thousand irregulari-
ties ; so that, to foreigners, the pronunciation is an enigma. Hence
the English pronunciation of foreigh words is generally wrong.
In pronouncing foreign words, A is always “ ah,” E is always as
? ay in day, and 1 is as ee in week.
26
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
It is intended to give only the leading examples of Phallism in
each of the countries which have influenced Christianity, to prove
its general practice, as an exhaustive account would require too
much space, and the subject has been dealt with very fully by
others, as by Forlong in his “ Rivers of Life,** a book however not
available to the public.
These examples are given, so that, when we come to examine
the Jewish writings and practices and to trace their effect in the
development of Christianity, we may bear in mind that the Jewish
position was no exceptional or degraded one, but that they simply
followed the common cult of surrounding nations, and retained the
practices to a later date.
So little is known, by the general public, as to the position of this
faith and its importance, as having still the greatest number of
adherents of any faith, that I may here state that our King rules
over about two hundred and fifty millions of Phallic worshippers,
and, if we take all such worshippers, or combined Solar and Phallic
worshippers, we shall find that more than half the population of the
world are active Phallic worshippers. Forlong gives six hundred
and fifty millions in Asia, and one hundred and twenty millions in
Africa, thus arriving at seven hundred and seventy millions of
Phallic worshippers out of twelve hundred millions, as the estimate
of the population of the globe, when his book was written.
No other belief or cult has anything near that number of
adherents.
During a life’s study of the effect of religions on the daily life of
the people I have been driven to the conclusion that in the mass
the effect of dogmatic religion is practically nil. Nations interpret
religions in consonance with their own characters. Gloomy people
make a religion gloomy, and cheerful people make the same religion
cheerful. People are very much the same all the world over, but
as we go East the tendency towards brotherly love and tolerance is
greater than in the West.
’* Immodesty is almost unknown ” amongst those millions of
Phallic worshippers, and they are ” less vicious and rude ** and
** more kind and considerate ” than the Christians of Europe and
America, as witness the following official report (“Daily Chronicle ”
April 2, 1912) :
a* The summary report on foreign mission fields of the special
committee appointed by the International Bible Students* Asso-
ciation has just been issued.
** The success attained by the missionaries in the past (it says)
is very small.
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
29
-
** Present missionary efforts are almost exclusively along the
lines of secular education.
** The tendency of the times, in the Orient as in the Occident,
is towards unbelief in any religion. The Orientals are remarkably
tolerant of all religions, and are often perplexed at the missionary
competition and opposition of Christian denominations. The
higher castes consider the medley of Christian doctrines presented
to them less philosophical than their own.
“The common conception that all the people of China, Japan
and India are heathen savages is very erroneous. Their upper
classes include some splendid characters of truly noble manhood,
the moral and intellectual peers of Americans and Europeans.
Indeed, the masses of these people are less vicious and rude; more
kind and considerate than those of Europe and America. Drunken-
ness and immodesty are almost unknown amongst the Orientals.**
The earliest symbol of the Phallic cult, and, in fact, the earliest
religious symbol of any kind yet discovered was found in a bone-cave
near Venice, and is described in the “ Moniteur ’* of January 7, 1865.
It is the form of a clay slab on which was engraved the rude drawing
of a Phallus.
There had been formed over this relic a floor of stalagmite built
up by the slow deposition of lime salts by the action of water on
the surrounding lime-stone, and the engraved tablet was accom-
panied by a bone needle, flint implements, and the remains post-
tertiary animals; and the thickness of the deposited layers proved
that those Phallic emblems must date back hundreds of thousands
of years.
Phalli of Lapis Lazuli, agate, diorite, magnesite and baked clay
have been found in the lower strata of excavations at Lachish in
Palestine, Nippur and Tell Loh in Babylonia, at Gnosos, and, in
fact, in the most ancient city sites all over the world.
Schliemann discovered Phalli in abundance in the debris of
archaic cities, 40 feet below the site of ancient Troy, and all primi-
tive temple-sites yield those emblems of worship.
Such rude cuttings of Phalli are common in every part of the
world, and even down to historic times were cut on grave-stones,
to indicate the re-creation of life, or resurrection.
I have met with samples in Scotland, in the valley of the Fruin,
Dumbartonshire, and elsewhere, and they have been found in
Yorkshire and other parts of England.
On asking a shepherd the meaning of the rude chisselling which
is represented here (Fig. 2), he said that probably the man buried
there had been a tailor, and the engraving represented a pair of
30 CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
scissors. In that case so numerous were the symbols, a large part
of the population must have been engaged in sartorial operations.
The same ignorance is displayed in India, where the altar here
shown (Fig. 3) is the only religious symbol to be found in many
private houses and temples, and is, in fact, the Hindoo altar. It is
called the Lingam-yoni in Hindostani; yet if you were to tell a
n
Cj
Fig. 2
peasant that it represented the male and female organ, a Lingam
and a Yoni, in the creative act, he would be astonished and deny
it. It is to him merely a sacred symbol, the Great God the Maha
Deva. g-j 0
The educated natives of India know, and freely acknowledge,
the true signification of their altar.
This Indian symbol is one that has come down to us unchanged
from very early times, and it was adopted by the Egyptians as one
of the earliest conventional symbols of eternal life, and, in fact,
adopted as the crown of their kings. The transformation may be
seen in the following figures: Numbers 4, 5 and 6 show the varia-
tions of the Indian Lingam Yoni altar. No. 7, the Pschent or.
double crown of Egypt, is simply No. 6 of the altar without the
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
31
pedestal, and adapted to fit the head. It was modified as in 8,
9. and 10.
No. 10 is always declared by historians to be a Phallic emblem,
and so it is, but not so clearly as Phallic, No. 7, which is bi-sexual
or omphallic, male and female; while No. 10 is simply phallic—
representing the male only, though it still retains a line A-B, indicat-
ing the Yonic edge of the original bi-sexual altar, as at A-B, Nos.
5 and 10.
Fig. 4 Fig. 5 Fig. 6 Fig. 7 Fig 8 Fig. 9 Fig 10
The sun was also held as a symbol of life-giving, and of the
eternal god, but man’s body was always nearer and dearer to him
than the sun, and the sexual facts were more interesting to him
than the motions of the heavenly bodies, so man, in the dawn of
his philosophic speculations, found a symbol to represent creation,
reproduction, and the continuation of life in eternity, in terms of
his own bodyj.
CHAPTER III—PHALLISM
PHALLISM IN INDIA
As the earliest Phallic symbol has been found in Europev so the
purest form of the cult has been found in India.
India is especially interesting to the student of religion* as in
that country there may be found, at the present day, devotees of
every phase of religion, from the earliest Phallic cult to the highest
and most etherialised form of religious belief.
The purest form of Phallism which existed in India is found
in the sculptures in the temples of Elephanta, an island near Born*
bay, lately visited by our King on his tour in India.
These show that the cult then practised was one of pure sex
worship in no way etherealised.
The sculptures, which will not bear publication for general
readers, represent the actual worship and enjoyment of the male
and female organs of the celebrants by each other, and nothing
is reduced to symbolical or conventional representation.
In these early times the sexual act was looked upon as the
“Great sacrifice,” or “sacred act,” as sacrifice means making
sacred, or doing a sacred act. Holy women, represented in modern
times by nuns, were retained, and their lives dedicated to this
religious exercise.
When devotees practised the “Great Sacrifice” in these religious
houses, payments were made to the priest for the maintainance
of the Temples. “ Holy Woman ” is a title given to those who
devote their bodies to be used for hire, the money goes to the
temple,” says Mrs. Gamble in “ Sex in Religion.”
To this day in India, the harlot has a privileged and semi-
religious position, and temple girls are still called Palaki, from the
feminine of Pala, the male organ, as the female god is called
Devaki, from the male Deva.
In later times, the fertility side of religion is represented by
sculptures which are much less direct in their indication of Phallism.
One may see in the sculptured Stupas (miniature representation of
temples) on the Grand stair-case of the British Museum, the conven-
tional forms in which the cult is depicted,—a favourite method there
illustrated being the emphasising of the mammary and other
feminine attributes of the nude women portrayed in the act of
adoring the trisul or conventional Phallus.
CHRISTIANITY
33
The Phallic cult in India became personified in the Brahmin
gods Siva, as representing the male reproductive energy, the Lingah
or Phallus; and Vishnu, as representing the female, the Yoni or
Womb.
These gods are worshipped wherever Buddhism has travelled,
and in India, Burmah, Indo-China, Tibet, China, and Japan there
must still exist three or four hundred millions who actively practice
these Phallic religions. It must not be supposed that the Phallic
symbolism is merely viewed as an echo of the past, it is actively
practised by the people, and is fully explained and inculcated by
living Brahmins.
There is little of this cult in the Vedas, the sacred Brahminical
books, which, although very mystical, teach a more Mirophillic
cult, and it is most probable that the Aryans derived this cult from
the aboriginal Dravidians, whom they conquered on entering India.
This shows the hold such a cult has on humanity when a higher
race adopts it from a lower. But this will be seen to be always the
case, the mere poetic and philosophical religions had to adopt the
superstitions held by the lower people in order to get a hearing for
their higher ideas.
As I have said, the practice of the Phallic rites as a religion has
always been the basis of the religion of the people of India, and
examples are given us by the late Dr. J. Campbell Oman, who has,
from actual experience drawn for us such valuable and accurate
pictures of the state of religion in India in his various books to which
1 shall refer. His works will be of inestimable value to students of
religions, when education has rendered impossible the practice of
the popular cults of the people.
Religion, in all countries, exists on two planes, the upper is that
of the priests and philosophic thinkers, the lower is that of the
people. The upper one may change with the advent of every new
philosopher or saint, while the lower one is the real religion, and
persists through the ages.
In his books on India Dr. Oman has given us very full accounts
of both religious worlds, and in retailing all the discussions and
creations of new sects, the one point most clearly brought out is,
that arr^dst all the attempts to introduce a philosophical religion,
the masses cling to the old, old practices and superstitions, and the
new sect is soon found worshipping the old mysteries much on the
old lines.
L. W. King, of the British Museum, in his " Gnostics/* says:
99 In religion there is no new thing, the same ideas are worked up
over and over again/9
D
34
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
The most revered teachers, feeling the great tragedy of life on
earth, ending in suffering, decay, and dissolution, sought some
plausible explanation of the riddle of existence which confronted
them, in its appalling and majestic silence. They based their views
of the universe on the idea always existing in India, but clearly
proclaimed on the banks of the Ganges thirty centuries ago.
“ They who see but one in all the changing manifoldness of this
universe, unto them belongs Eternal Truth, unto none else, unto
none else.”
They therefore held that all the infinite variety and complication
was due to the misleading impressions which man obtained through
his senses, and, to arrive at absolute truth, the '* Mya ” or illusion
of the senses must be disregarded, and the mind turned inwards so
as to get at the reality behind the scenes.
As no man reached this perfection in one life, there were
postulated two principles or tenets—” Samsara ” or metem-
psychosis, and “ Karma ” or the development up or down of a
soul passing through its successive incarnations. By severe
aceticism and introspective communion the soul may be raised to
such purity as to rejoin the Infinite Spirit from which it springs; but,
failing that, it suffers reincarnation till finally purified.
Such is the theoretical belief. What is the practice of the
Hindoo people? There are a great variety of sects, but they all
come more or less under the following groups:—
(1) Saivas, worshippers of Siva, Lingam worshippers.
(2) The female side of Saivas, Saktas, Yoni worshippers, who
adore the wives or mistresses of Siva-Devi, Donga, and
Kali.
(3) Vishnavas or Vishnuvas, worshippers of the god Vishnu.
Worshippers of the female or Yoni.
These groups contain sub-divisions. For instance, Dr. Oman
writes that the Hindoo ascetic sects of sivaites contain the following
typical examples amongst the bewildering confusion of sects:—
(A) Sivas or Saivas divided into 7 principal sects.
(B) Vaishnavas ,, ,, 6 ,, ,,
(Q Sikhs ,. „ 3 „
but the Sanyasis, one of the seven Sivas sects, who are also known
as Gosains or Benares, are themselves divided into ten groups, all
named, so we see there may be hundreds of sects even in one section
of Hindooism. (" Mystics, Ascetics, and Saints of India," p. 109.)
” Siva,” Dr. Oman says. ” is usually worshipped under the im-
personal symbol of the Phallus or Lingam, an undoubtedly very
ancient Oriental cult, though not confined exclusively to the East.
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
35
The spiritualisation, exaltation, and even deification of natural
desire, of the sexual instinct, in fact, has been, in the East, from
the earliest times, an object of certain sect^founders, impressed,
no doubt, and fascinated by the mystery of generation “ (Oman,
p. no.)
Siva is always accompanied by his “Phallic Bull” (Fig. 17).
Vishnu is generally represented by Krishna and his wives and
mistresses. -“The legends revel in the sensuous details of his
various amours with the * gopis * or milkmaids, amongst whom the
most favoured was Radha, a married woman, passionately devoted
body and soul to her divine lover. Their loves, not unmixed with
jealousies and tears, as sung by the poets of India, have met with
ecstatic appreciation, while an attempt has been made by the more
sober-minded to cover their unblushing carnality under a
diaphanous veil of devotional mysticism. Whither all this dallying
would inevitably lead the frailer devotees does not need to be
explained. (Oman, “ The Mystics, Ascetics, and Saints of India,”
P- 119.)
The followers of Vishnu are especially worshippers of the female
reproductive energy, and they have as gods or sacred objects the
Conch shell (Fig. 31), and the Chatta (Fig. 14), both emblematical
of the Yoni.
The Saktas are purely worshippers of the female organs, and
this cult is one of the extreme Omphallism, leading to the practise
of sexual acts, such as, we shall see, were practised by the early
Christians.
At first sight it is curious to note that the gods of all Phallic
religions, in which character the god represents creation and life,
are also as universally worshipped as the Destroyer.
“ In India this is accounted for by the endless round of births
and deaths, to which, according to the doctrine of metempsychosis,
all sentient beings are subject and it is easy for the mystic to see
in the destruction only the precursor of renewed existence. (“ The
Mystics, Ascetics, and Saints of India,” p. III.)
The Hindoos have several sacred books, which are the
authorities for Lingam worship, viz.:—The Skanda, Siva Brah-
manha, and Linga pur anas. The legand of Kali with her tongue
out, standing on the prostrate body of her husband, and attributed
to her excitement after killing a dangerous giant, is explained in
its true esoteric meaning in the Scriptures known as the Tantras,
but the explanation is far too obscene for general publication.
Dayanand. the founder of the Arya Samaj (see p. 44), a re-
formed, monotheistic, non-idolatrous sect,” had no sooner opened
36
-
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
a copy of one of the sacred Tantras, than he was .astonished at the
nature of its contents. They were so obscene, so utterly sub-
versive of the moral and social relations which have existed between
one member and another of a family, and between one member
and another of society at large, that no one, not absolutely and
hopelessly depraved and debased, could help recofling at the bare
contemplation of what they taught."
The Sakta is divided into three sub-sects.
(1) Dakshinachari, or " right-handed" Saktas. (" Right-
handed is a euphemism for the worship of the male symbol, or
the Lingam. See p. 48, this oolume.)
(2) Bamachari, " left-handed" Saktas. (" Left-handed"
indicates worshippers of the female emblem or Yoni. See p. 47,
Fig. 13).
(3) Knowls, or extreme Saktas. ('* Cults, Customs and Super-
stitions of India,” pp. 5 and 133.)
Dr. Oman says, " Of these secret rites, unseemly and unsavoury
though they be, it is necessary that I should now state something
more definite, if my reader is to be in a position to understand the
real inwardness of the Hindu religion, as it exists in Bengal, and
therefore I reluctantly venture to record the following particulars.
" For the purpose of Tantric worship, eight, nine, or eleven
couples of men and women meet by appointment at midnight.
All distinctions of casts, rank, and kindred being temporarily
suspended, they go through prescribed religious ceremonies, set up
a nude woman, adorned only with jewels, as representative of
Sakti (the female energy), worship her with strange rites, feast
themselves and give themselves over to every imaginable excess.
During these orgiastic religious rites, every man present is, accord-
ing to their pantheistic notions, Siva himself, and every woman
there none other than Siva’s consort." (“ The Brahmans Theists
and Muslims of India,” p. 27.)
Fuller information of these rites and the setting at naught of
all bonds and of promiscuous intercourse like the early Christians,
may be had from various books.
(1) The Rev. W. Ward, “ A View of the History, Literature,
and Religions of the Hindus," (pp. 152, 153, and 232, 234.)
(2) Professor H. H. Wilson, " Essays on the Religion of the
Hindus " (Vol. /., pp. 254-263).
(3) Professor Sir Monier Williams, “ Religious Thought and
Life in India " (pp. 191, 192).
(4) Rev. W. G. Wilkins, “ Modem Hinduism ” (pp. 94, 95).
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
37
(5) Doctor J. N. Battercharjee, “ Hindoo Castes and Sects ”
(pp. 407-413.)
(6) Asiatic Researches: Wilson on Hindoo Sects, and Ward
on Vaishnaves {p. 309).
(7) S. C. Dutt, *' India, Past and Present.’*
(8) Atkinson’s “Himalayan Tribes.” (Bengal Royal Asiatic
Soc. Journ. /,, p. 84.)
(9) Sellous’s Annotation of Abbe Dubois* “ India.”
Besides these, numerous accounts, all nearly identical, are
scattered through the proceeding of societies and many French
authors.
Such practices were by no means confined to private meetings.
At the Holi festival, described after actual witnessing it, by Dr.
Oman, one can see the Phallic cult as a living religion at the present
day.
Dr. Oman says very truly : “ In all parts of the world are known,
or have been known joyous festivals—saturnalia, carnivals, and
what not—coincident annually with seed-time and harvest, or per-
haps, more correctly, with the equinoxes and solstices; and what-
ever myth these festivals may be associated with, they are none
the less the natural outcome of the effect of the seasons on the
emotions and passions of men. Everywhere men have experienced
annually the quickening effects of the spring renew within them-
selves the mysterious wonder of creation and the joy of reproduc-
tion, and under this spell the more emotional races have given way
to unrestrained mirth and debauchery, casting aside for the moment
all the ordinary conventions, often even the decencies and moralities
of life. The Holi is such a festival, being a true expression of the
emotions of the Hindu East at spring-time, when the warm sun
which bronzes the cheek of beauty, also subtly penetrates each
living fibre of the yielding frame, awakening with his mellowing
touch sensuous dreams, soft desires, and wayward passions, which
brook no restraint, which dread no danger, and over which this
metaphysical people readily throw the mantle of their most com-
prehensive and accommodating creed. It is difficult for a non-
Hindu to enter into the feelings and ideas of a people who call all
things by their real names without euphemistic disguises, who use
naked words to describe natural processes and functions, who,
while dreaming warm dreams of sexual gratification, love to
speculate about the soul and the All-soul, till steeped in the
mysticism and occultism of pantheistic philosophy, they revel in
the orgies of the * Holi Festival.’ ”
The Holi Festival is described as follows:—'* It was the season
3d
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
of the vernal equinox. Since early morning all the streets of Lahore
had been astir, presenting a peculiarly bacchanalian appearance.
Hundreds and hundreds of men and women were moving about in
garments besmirched with wet daubts of pink or yellow colour;
their faces often disfigured with patches of red and purple powder.
Rude fun, a sort of dishevelled gaiety, prevailed on all sides, accom-
panied with laughter and foul words not seriously meant to hurt,
nor apparently giving much offence, though couched in terms of
quite primitive indecency. And this had been the prevailing
condition of the streets and lanes of the city for several days.
** All along the principal thoroughfares the crowd kept gradually
increasing, and through the idle throngs of men, women, and
children, of lean oxen, sacred bulls, and mangy street dogs, I
threaded my devious way as well as I could, being bound for a
house in the street known as the/Machhwa Bazaar, or Fish Market.
As 1 went along, every flat house-top, every window, every balcony
was crowded with both sexes, all ranks, all classes, and all ages.
“ Presently having reached my destination, I was provided with
a seat in the elevated balcony of a Hindu merchant’s house, and
there, at leisure, surveyed with interest the striking scene before
me, which was certainly not without quaint picturesqueness, a
characteristic rarely absent from the streets of Lahore with their
tall houses and highly artistic carved balconies. . . One glance,
and it was evident that some at least of the usually sedate and
orderly Hindu people were indulging in unrestrained licence, while
the rest were looking on appreciatively under the influence of a
strange, almost incomprehensible blending of religious mysticism
and exuberant voluptuousness, born of the warm breath of spring
in this Eastern land.
“ Three loud instruments, discoursing from their brazen throats
an excruciating travesty of European music, led the way. Imme-
diately behind the musicians was a young fellow on horseback,
dressed up as a bridegroom (see pp. 44-45), attended by rowdy com-
panions, who sang, or rather shouted lustily, rhymes of flagrant
indecency. As they sang and gesticulated in corybantic style, they
addressed themselves pointedly to the occupants of the windows
and balconies, aiming at them their ribald shafts of buffoonery and
coarse indecencies, too gross for reproduction or description.
" In the wake of the bridegroom followed a small litter, behind
whose flapping screens the bride was supposed to be concealed.**
(This is the old, old drama played ever since men noticed the
blooming of die earth on the return of the sun, and signifying die
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
39
marriage of earth and tun—bride and bridegroom, pp. 44 and 114.
Jesus is described as the bridegroom.]
Then followed a cart with a tub of blood-red water, and men
and boys squirting this dye on the people, in the street or at the
windows, those of the better classes being dad in old clothes in
anticipation of these rude attentions.
" Presently there came another huge cart freighted with that
incarnation of amorous passion Krishna (God is love). Krishna
himself and four or five of the gopis (milkmaids or rather herds-
women), who shared his wandering affections. The god and his
favourites were personated by a handsome young man and some
frail if fair women of the town.”
[! have pointed out that such women have a semi-religious
position in the East. Krishna is the Hermes of India.]
” For a moment, the steady if very slow movement of the pro-
cession was interrupted by what looked like a scuffle in the mud of
the street, but on closer inspection it turned out to be a gross
exhibition of indecency perpetrated by mimes under the approving
eyes, and, I believe, at the suggestion of two native policemen.
‘‘ The crowd surged on in a sort of intoxicated fanaticism of
licentiousness. As hundreds passed along, other hundreds followed,
equally bent on diffusing the immoral contagion.
” From the streets and street-doors, from the windows, the
balconies, and the fiat house-tops, eager onlookers watched the
mean and tawdry procession, and listened with open ears to the
libidinous songs or catches which, from time to time, filled the
air, as one party after another passed along the road, halting here
and there, under native police direction, to give the preceding
parties time to move on.
“ Nearly all the women spectators had their faces unveiled, and
with the girls and boys listened eagerly to the licentious rhymes
shouted by the bands of revellers who passed along. Here and
there a woman, a trifle more modest or more affected than the
others, would draw her chaddar partially over her face to conceal
it from view. One of them I particularly remember on her
picturesque carved balcony close by, as she displayed the whole
of a lovely bare arm in the act of slightly adjusting her veil to half
hide a pretty face from the too ardent eyes of some rude fellow in
the crowd below.
“ But other bridegrooms appeared, other gods took part in the
procession. Even the chief of the gods, Mahadeva, was personated
by a whitened man in a yellow flowing flax wig, a necklace of
40
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
immense beads, and a trident in his hand. Beside him sat his
mountain bride Parvati.
[Note the Trident, a universal Phallic symbol as we shall see
in reviewing other religions. P. 24.]
"A group of youths, carried away by the excitement of the
occasion, insulted, or more correctly amused, the spectators by
perpetrating the grossest indecencies, aided by coarsely fashioned
mechanical toys of naked simplicity (Ruber Porrectus, p. 6/), and
their proceedings were not resented except by banter and abusive
words.”
This is followed by more crimson water and erotic songs or
rhymes (Song of Solomon) to stir up the passions of the multitude.
” The elephant-headed Ganesa,—God of Wisdom, another Maha-
deva and his consort, and another Amorous Krishna, added sanc-
tity to the scene.”
” Near the gods of Mount Meru (the Olympia or Zion of India)
was an open carriage occupied by a couple of courtezans and their
attendant musicians. Not far behind, on a sort of litter borne on
the shoulders of four men, appeared a singing-girl who delighted
the bystanders in a soft soprano voice with a song, apparently quite
to their taste, which she emphasised with not ungraceful movements
of her small hands. As she sang she showed her pretty French
shoes and fine stockings beyond the edges of her silken skirt, and
looked, 1 must own it, really attractive in her jewels and fine raiment
and her neatly arranged coiffure, plainly visible under her gauzy
chaddar.
” As spectators, all the Hindu world, and only the Hindu world
in its various grades was here, wife and family included.
” At last the tail of the interminable procession disappeared
down the street, taking with it the noisy discords, the crimson
water, the erotic songs, the complaisant gods and goddesses, and
the frail sopranos (Holy women), who had claimed our attention
and admiration.
” Did you observe,” I said to my companion, ” how that girl at
the window opposite was listening to the obscene songs, and
beating time with her fingers?”
He nodded assent.
” I think she is an educated woman, for I saw a book in her
hand.” (“Brahmans, Theists, and Muslims of India/9 p. 247.)
I have quoted the work of my friend the late Dr. Oman, as his
sketch is a true pen picture of what went on in every land which
had a religion, as we will presently see, and I quote it fully as it
will save repetition in the description of such festivals in all lands,
even in Italy of the present day, under the august Roman Church.
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
41
Forlong says in his “ Faith of Man,” under ” Lingam," “The
* Ruber Porrectus ’ of Horace was imitated by the Phalli of red
leather worn by clowns and actors (according to Suidas, who calls
them ‘ Ithyphallic ’) much as they are worn by Hindus at the Holi
fete to-day.” Ithyphallic is the adjective applied to all gods ex-
hibiting pronounced creative power by an erect Phallus.
It is curious that our own word “ Comedy ” was derived from
the same practices in Ancient Greece.
Professor Ward says, ” In rural Bacchic vintage festivals bands
of jolly companions (Komos properly a revel continued after
supper) went about in carts and on foot carrying the Phallic emblem,
and indulging in the ribald licence of wanton mirth. From the
songs sung in these processions or at the Bacchic feasts which com-
bined the praise of the god with gross personal ridicule, and was
called Comos in a secondary sense, the Bacchic reveller in taking
part in it was called a Comos, singer, or Comoedus (comedy).
" These Phallic processions which were afterwards held at
Athens as in all Greek cities, imparted their character to old Attic
Comedy, whose essence was personal vilification." (” Encyc.
Brit. VII.. 404, C and D, 10th Ed.)
This is identical with the practices in India and at Palermo
to-day (p. 95.)
That is what happened in all lands and in all religions, and
even in our own “ Holy Writ," which we shall see was so Phallic
that the Rabbis gave what Milton calls this ” insulse rule ” out of
their Talmud:—” That all words which in the law me written
obscenely, must be changed to more civil words.” ” Fools,” says
Milton, ” who would teach men to read more decently than God
thought good to write ” (Apology for Smectymnus’ Work*, P- 84.)
This exchange of words hew gone on in Holy Writ till grave
statements are turned into nonsense, and the obscene text rendered
unintelligible. Euphemisms may be traced in the case of “head,”
” foot,” " thigh,” “ heel,” " hand,” ” toe,” in place of Phallus, and
” Groves ” in place of the Lingam Yoni. Scholars’ researches into
Holy Writ show that Isaiah vii. 7, should read—” And behind
the door and the post thou hast placed thy sexual altar, and apart
from me thou hast uncovered and erected, thou hast enlarged thy
bed, and obtained a connection with them; thou hast loved their
bed, thou hast beheld the Phallus.”
That is all that can be made' of the text so much has it been
disguised.
An act was passed by Lord Dalhouaie to repress obscenity in
42
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CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
In<iia, but owing to this obscenity being a part of the people’s
religion, there was inserted a clause excepting all temples and
religious emblems from its special operation. Otherwise the
Hindu practices and altars would have been suppressed.
Dr. Oman tells us that in spite of these Phallic rites, the
morality of the Indian wife, and the respect in which she is held are
higher than those of most countries.
In the “ Keys of the Creeds ” (pp. 347, 348) the author upholds
the Phallic Creeds, as well suited to early humanity.
Forlong, in his “ Faiths of Man ” or “ Dictionary of Religions,”
gives the following account of the Sakta worship, which, as I have
explained, is the feminine side of Sivaism, the mistress of Siva-
Devi,—Durga and Kali,—being also worshipped, even including
Krishna’s dairymaids or shepherdesses.
” The Sakti is the female energy of God, in Hindu systems
answering to the Phoenician Peni (face, or manifestation, or Phallus)
as in Peni-Baal a name of Ashtoreth (Babylon Venus) or Peni-el the
* appearance ’ of God (Peni-Phallus).
” Hence the Saktis are the patronesses of material production,
and their rites are grossly naturalistic............Sakti means
conjuction. The Sakti sects are numerous and undefined, and their
secret rites celebrate the worship of the goddess personified by a
naked girl, who is supposed to be in a state of hypnotic trance, and
unconscious of what occurs, who is called a Yogini or female Yoga
(naked wandering ascetic), or otherwise a Kund (from Kunti the
Yoni) or Panth personifying the Yoni.”
” The rites . . . are found in the licentious portions of the
Tantras which treat of the worship of Kama-Devi, the goddess of
love, and are older than any of the Pur anas, the sacred books of
the Brahmans, the extant copies dating to about 700 A.D.
” They teach that all natural passions are good, and that
pleasure should be made as exquisite as possible for the Vira or
* strong man,’ who is not a Paca or mere tame beast. The Yogini
of these Sakti rites may be a sudri (4th. great Caste) or Brahmani
or a dancing girl, or milkmaid, for caste is set aside.
”A Brahman may preside, but, the lowest pariah is admitted,
the rites are celebrated at night and all are bound by vows of
secrecy. The leader may sometimes select his own wife as the
goddess. . . . The girl though naked is covered with jewellery
and is afterwards richly rewarded. She is incensed and decked
with flowers.
”On the second night another Yogini is adored by an equal
number of men and women all being naked. The Saktis are Siva
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
43
worshippers and call themselves either Dakshin-Acharis or Bam-
Archaris, right or left hand Acharis (right hand being Lingam, and
left hand being Yoni worshippers), but these distinctions are
gradually growing faint.”
The Sakti worship of the naked girl is simply Yoni worship of
the Kunti, or wife of God, and its rites are ostensibly rites to secure
power against evil spirits, or to bring luck. This word, Kunthos, is
in Greek Cynthus (K. and C. being the same, and U. and Y. also),
and Cynthus is a goddess of Fecundity. It signifies ” wife ” or wife
of god in India, as Kunti is the wife of the sun and is derived from
the ” Kunda ” sacred well. All those words mean Yoni.
This worship of the Yoni is still most widely, though un>
consciously, practised in Great Britain.
Everyone who ” nails up ” or hangs up a horse’s shoe for luck
or adoration, (as everything placed high is adored), is a true Yoni
worshipper, although those who practise it are quite unconscious
of the sources of their actions or the true meaning of the symbol
they employ. The horse’s or ass’s shoe is the emblem of the
female organ all over the world.
We find that the worship of the Yoni, exactly as carried out
to-day in India, was prominently sculptured at the doors of Irish
churches up till the end of the 18th century (pp. 88 and 96).
Colonel Forbes Leslie, in his ” Early Races,” says that
?” superstition clung to the symbol so hallowed by antiquity and
even impressed it on the Christianity by which it (Paganism) was
superseded, and this to such an extent that the horse shoe was
inserted in the pavement, or its figure sculptured on the entrance
to churches in Britain that were built a thousand years after the
introduction of Christianity ” just as the actual organ, displayed
by a naked man or woman, was sculptured on the pillars of the
doors of Irish churches to give luck or to keep off the ” evil eye,”
up till the eighteenth century (p. 96).
The yokel grinning through the horse collar, so prevalent in
Shakespear’s day, was the same sign. Thus the faiths of our
ancestors linger with us, and, though only followed in a degraded
way, are extremely persistent; and the horse-shoe is a universal
emblem of die Yoni, or good luck, in all countries and may be
seen in England over or on all doors even to those of the ganger’s hut
on the railway, or on some obscure door or outhouse, and in nearly
every English home, and finally, decorated with ribbons, in the
young gurl’s boudoir or bedroom/
We shall see this when we come to study Phallism in Britain.
This desire for the worship of the nude, or to assume a condition
44
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES,
of nudity when engaged in worship, is a sentiment very deeply
rooted in humanity, and can only show itself in Europe openly
by the worship of nudity in art or in dancing exhibitions,
which were originally religious, when as much of the body
as the law will allow is exposed to the public gaze. Even
the conventionalities of our ball-rooms demand some sacrifice
of the modesty of the ladies to the worship of Aphrodite. The
concessions to Mrs. Grundy introduced by the English Government
in India have always been resisted by the natives, and Dr. Oman
tells us, on the authority of the Times of India,” 12th August,
18%, that ” a few years ago an application was made to the high
Fig. II
court at Bombay to cancel an order of the District Magistrate pro-
hibiting the Gosavis, a religious sect of mendicants, from walking
in procession naked, and then bathing at Nasik as a religious duty
during the Sinhasta festival. In support of this appeal it was urged
by the petitioners that bathing naked had always been allowed at
Hardwar and Allahabad.” Religious frenzy and eroticism are in-
extricably linked in all countries.
Dr. Oman also describes the rites of the worship of Zahir-pir, a
decorated pole, a custom as we shall see common all over the world
and familiar to us as the May-pole, which is really a worship of the
Phallus. When this was earned out with a real model of the male
organ it was always decorated with gay ribbons as is die May-pole,
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
45
Asher, Grove, or Phallus. Now the symbol is only a modern
pole or mast, but they, the Hindus, have added a head dress such
as is only worn by the bridegrooms on the wedding day to indicate
the true nature of the pole.
Hie sanctity of nudity (p. 87) is well illustrated in the photo-
graph of a most earnest and moral reformer, Dayanand, who was
indignant at the Phallic worship (pp. 35-36), and is the founder of the
Arya Somaj. Yet this moral and religious reformer,—honestly
trying to inculcate a spiritual conception of the Maha Deva or Great
God,—would probably find few followers if he. did not practice
nudity. (Fig. 11.)
Fig. 12
Both his hands are engaged in making the sign of the Yoni or
Om, so his religion is Phallic. The word Om, the Great Mother
of the Gods, repeated continually is also a great means of attaining
sanctity. Om means the universal Womb or Yoni (p. 23).
Here again is another (Fig. 12), showing that nudity is only a
partial expression of the Phallic cult in India. Dr. Oman says, *' I
expressed a wish to take a photograph of him and his followers (a
group of Sadus or Yogis led by a Sanyasi and his consort a Sanyasin)
and although he did not wish to be impertinent he offered to have
himself taken in a most objectionable and unseemly attitude which
46
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
would demonstrate his virility to the greatest advantage.*' After
some trouble a photograph was obtained, but as will be seen the
Sadhu managed to express his cult in his own way after all. He is
also making the Yonic sign of Om, and by exposing the male organ
he is expressing the double-sexed or Omphallic sign twice. ('* The
Mystics, Ascetics and Saints of India,” p. 226.)
In a land where the Phallic cult has still such a hold on the affec-
tions of the people, weddings are of course taken advantage of as
a good occasion for the expression of the ideas to which the cult
gives rise. In our own country, amongst villages, we may often
see the same spirit called forth by a marriage.
Dr. Oman gives us a glimpse of the Indian procedure during
a marriage of one of his servants.
A canopy had been put up, and beneath stood erect a plough
(" Cults, Customs, and Superstitions, p. 269). The plough is a
Phallic sign. It fertilises the earth,—(marriage),—and makes it
bring forth abundantly; and is called the ” opener,” as were all
fruitful gods. Many Phallic Kings had a plough for a signature,
and it was a symbol for the Phallus. The signature of some of our
Indian Princes is a plough, and by this they indicate their position
as representing the creator on earth.
To return to the wedding. ” Songs were sung by women of the
party with the greatest gusto and enjoyment, and these songs are
simply outrageous in their grossness. They me not extemporized,
but are so framed that any names may be introduced into them.
The singers bring in any names they please, with the result that the
persons whose names are inserted find themselves accused before
the world, in the most undisguised language, of having committed
grossly immoral or even incestuous actions, and possibly the charges
may have some truth in them. Men, women, and even children
listen and laugh, but no one takes offence.” (“ Cults, Customs,
and Superstitions of India,” p. 273.)
And yet illegitimacy amongst a population bred in such
lascivious surroundings is very much more rare than in Bible-
fearing Scotland.
The reason is a curious one. We find it to be the universal
dogma that the Phallic creative or re-productive gods, overflowing
with energy, are also the destroyers, and Sivaites practise self-
torture and austerities (pp. 35 and 36). So, energetic nations prac-
tise austerities, but their very energy makes them constantly break'
the austere rules with which they torment themselves, hence Scot-
land had the most austere, terrible god, and religion, and the high-
est index of illegitimacy.
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
47
I have dwelt somewhat fully on these observations of Dr.
Oman's, as they represent India at the present day, whereas other
eminent writers give illustrations of the past, and I wished especially
to bring home to my readers that the acts of Phallic worship, con-
demned by moral historians as perpetrated in Babylon, Nineveh,
Athens, and Rome, are still loved and actively practised at the
present day by hundreds of millions of our fellow subjects.
Both sexes have special patron gods and modes of worship.
Siva is the god of the Phallic, male, or “right-hand” sects, and
Vishnu is the God of the Yonic, female, or “left-hand” sects.
This nomenclature arose from the bisexual ideas as expressed in
India in the figure called Ardha-nari-lswara, illustrated by Forlong
and by the learned Baboo, Rajendralala Mitra in his “ Antiquities
of Orissa.” Major-General Forlong gives Rajendralala’s drawing
of this androgynous being which is copied here, but instead of the
two sexual organs, the ankh, or handled cross, their combined
symbol is shown [Fig. 13].
The Mitra Rajendralala says that Ama or Uma (#>. 23), the Great
Virgin Mother of the Universe, Alma Mater, is the same as all the
queens of the gods. “ The Mother of God of the Mariolators
(Roman Catholic) is no other than she.” “She, Uma, is equal to
the Godhead, because Creation cannot be accomplished without
her.” ( “Antiquities of Orissa,” 1., p. 147.)
46
CHRISTIANITY : THE SOURCES
“ The eight divine mothers of the Tantras are invariably repre-
sented each with a child in her lap, and are the exact counterparts
of the Virgin and Child of European art. Thus, Uma is the same
with Maya, Sakti, and Prakriti of the Hindus, and with 10, Astarte,
Ishtar, Semiramis, Sara, Mylitta, Maia, Mary, Miriam, Morwen,
Juno, Venus, Diana, Artemis, Aphrodte, Hera, Rhea, Cybele,
Cynthia, Ceres, Eve, Terra, Frigga, etc., of other nations every-
where, representing the female principle in creation. She is equal
to the godhead, because creation cannot be accomplished without
her, and she is greater than God because she sets him into action.
Maya is the power which disturbs the eternal calm repose of the
Godhead, and excites him into action, and is, therefore his energy
or power or spirit (Sakti).
"This is the ‘Holy Ghost* of Christianity, which puts the
Godhead into action, and is called in the Hebrew Scriptures
* Ruach,’ and is a female, and represented by a dove, the universal
symbol of the Queen of Heaven.
" By herself Uma is a maiden or mother, united with the God-
head she produces the Androgynous figure of Ardha-Narisvara, the
left half of a female joined along the Median line to the right half
of a male figure. Hence the * right * and ‘ left handed * cults. The
symbol of the male element of the God-head is the lingam, sym-
bolised by posts, trees, pillars, spears, upright or piercing things
in general (see pp. 26-27), and that of the female element of the
God-head is the Yoni, which appears in art as the crescent, the
star, the circle, the oval, the triangle, the dove, the ark, the ship,
the fish, the chasm, the cave, various fruits, trees, and a host of
other hollow forms or vessels alike among the Hindus, the Egyp-
tians, and the mystics of Europe.**
That Matriarchy and a mother of the Gods were the earlier
concept is upheld in the new 1911 edition of the " Encyc. Brit.,"
by Hogarth, Vol. I., p. 247, " The dead who returned to the Great
Mother,** and Frazer writes of " the time when under the matri-
archate, the priestess was the agent for the performance of all
religious ceremonies.'* (“Adonis, Attis Osiris1907, p. 41.) v
"The union of these symbols with those of the male principle
produces the innumerable cabalistic symbols, talismans, amulets,
and mystical diagrams which have deluded mankind for ages, and
still occupy so prominent a place in the history of religion. The
Lingam and Yoni united, is the form in which Siva appears most
frequently in India, and js best known (as the altar) in our temples.
It should be noticed, however, that in the more ancient temples
the ‘upright,* or the emblem of the male principle, is alone met
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
49
-
with, as at Benares.” The feminine was of no account in some
early or backward races like the Hebrews (pp. 165 and 225-228).
As will be seen this figure stands on a lotus which was every-
where adopted as a symbol of fertility, or an “ Omphallic ” symbol,
the seed vessel as the womb and the bud as the Phallus. The
Lotus is a very fertile plant, and the seeds germinate in the seed
vessel and are ” born ” alive, and hence it became the dual symbol
of fertility.
Thus, while the right hand sect worshipped posts, pillars, ser-
pents, and tortoises, in fact, all upright things which erected and
extended themselves, the left hand sects worshipped all hollow
things, openings, loops, rings, ovals, horse’s or ass’s shoes, etc.
In Fergusson’s “Tree and Serpent Worship” (p. 479) will be
seen a pure example of the left hand sect’s worship of the Yoni
[Fig. 14]. Hung on the branches of trees is a curious loop exactly
like a horse collar, a symbol which evidently puzzled Fergusson, but
its real nature as a symbol of the Yoni is shown by its being pierced
by a lotus bud [as at A, Fig. 14], which, in all Eastern countries, is
the symbol of the Phallus, the two forming the bisexed symbol.
Fergussofr gives it no name, but others call it Chatta. One can see
from this why the horse collar was used as the symbol, and its
mention amongst ” horsey ” men or farmers often provokes a
, laugh. The Systrum is the same symbol. Its character is shown
without doubt by its being suspended in front of the females like
the fig-leaf (p. 80).
Besides the Lingam-Yoni altars in temples, there are throughout
India to-day enormous numbers of public shrines where the Phallus
is worshipped, and where it can be anointed or refreshed, as shown
by Forlong [Figs. 15-16]. The Banyan tree is peculiarly sacred,
owing to its enormous spread, fitting it for a shady meeting-place
or temple. ” The tree is called the retreat beloved of gods and
E
50
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
men, and when edtfaping from the furious rage of another but a
later god (the sun) the weary pilgrim, labourer, or traveller, throws
himself down for rest to body, eye, and soul, amidst the cool
green darkness of the grove ” (“ Rivers of Life,” /., p. 31).
Here, then, was mam's first church, and Forlong shows, in a
sketch from nature, what were the gods worshipped there. [See
the rudely-formed Phalli under the tree in Fig. 15.] Here we have
Phallic worship in its earliest form, still preserved for us to this day
in public practice in India, the ” Mother of Religions.”
That to this day the Lingam, and Lingam-in-Yoni are worshipped
in the open air as the Great God (Maha-deva) is shown by the altar
here depicted [Fig. 16]. This represents the anointing of a Lingam-
in-Yoni combination ; and Forlong says, ” they may be counted by
scores in a day’s march all over Northern India, and especially at
Ghats or river ferries or crossings of every stream or road ; for,” asks
Forlong, “ are they not Hermae ?” [The statues of Hermes erected
all over Greece, and especially ” Magna Grecia,” (Southern Italy),
were symbols of Phalli.] ” The vessel of water is pierced at the
foot, and into the little holes straws are thrust so as to direct a
constant trickle of water on to the sacred symbol. It is a pious act
constantly to renew the water from the most holy .springs, or better,
from the Ganges.” This is the anointing of the “pillar or stone
set up” so often practised by the “Old Testament fathers” (see
pp. 221 and 252). Even now in India ” it is not necessary to have
a carved Argha (or Yoni), nor a polished Maha-deva, (great God—
Lingam); the poor can equally please the Creator by clearing a little
spot, and merely setting up a stone of almost any unhewn shape.”
This anointing of the reproductive organ is shown by Payne
Knight in its original form on page 26 of his “ Worship of Priapus,”
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
51
which, however, cannot be produced here, (Plate 5, of my edition),
and Knight says, “ it is a figure of Pan represented pouring water
upon the organ of generation, that is invigorating the active creative
power by the prolific element upon which it acted; for water was
considered as the essence of the passive, as fire was the active,
the one being of Terrestial, and the other of setherial origin. The
pouring of water upon the sacred symbols is a mode of worship
very much practised by the Hindoos, particularly in their devotion
to the Bull and the Lingam.”
The Hindoos have a space for flooding their little Lingam-in-
Yoni altars with water, and Knight says, “ The areas of Greek
Temples, were, in like manner in some instance floated with water."
The square areas in the Hindoo altar, over which the lotus spreads,
and which surrounds the Lingam-in-Yoni altar, " were occasionally
flooded with water; which by a forcing machine was thrown in a
spout upon the Lingam." Water was thus considered the essence
of female principle of nature, and hence the Dolphin, or Delphin
from Delphys womb, an inhabitant of the ocean which was represen-
tative of all life, as not only representing fish (fecundity), but being
an air breathing, warm blooded animal, which suckles its young,
represented also all animal life. The great Greek shrine was called
Delphi, for the same reason, and its oracle was Idaia Mater, Mother
of all Knowledge.
I have here an illustration of the Lingam-in-Y oni altar introduc-
ing all the Phallic symbolism. (Fig. 17, from the Brit. Mus.] We
52
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
have a column of life, a Lingam, surrounded by four heads repre-
senting Truth (which the Lingam represents in Egypt), Religion,
Matter, and Passion, and surrounded by the circle of Eternity re-
presented by a Serpent, or “ passion.*’ On the top of the Phallus
rests the lotus,—emblem of fertility,—while kneeling at the entrance
of the Yoni is the bull (male force), in an attitude of worship. This
attitude of the bull to the Yoni is the basis of Sakti worship.
I give here [Fig. 18] the commonest form of Lingam-Yoni altar,
showing the absolutely constant association of the serpent of desire
with the joint male and female symbols. And so, as in the first chap-
ter of Genesis, "Knowledge” (of life) only came after the sexual act,
and as knowledge was always associated with sexual desire (“Adam
knew Eve ”) the serpent became a symbol of wisdom, "Be ye wise
M«. 17
as serpents.’* The Greeks had this clearly expressed in their god
or goddess of wisdom Pallas, or Phallos, Philis and Philip loving
ones, Ph and P being equivalent and “a,” “u,” and “i,” being
used indifferently, as they are to-day even in English (p. 42). Anglo-
Indians write “ Burmah *’ or “ Barma,” “ Mohamedan ” or
” Mahamadan,” or *’ Bengal ” and •“ Bangal,” and so on, quite
indifferently.
“The serpent was wise,” says the writer of Genesis. Pallas
Athene was the Greek Lingam-Yoni deity, Pallas being a woman
endowed with male symbols and names. Athene is derived from
Thenen, Serpent, and the name Palias-Athen6 may be translated
" Phallus the seat of desire ” or “ wisdom.” The serpent was the
symbol in all countries for wisdom or knowledge and sexual passion.
The ancients considered man’s arrival at the age of puberty,
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
53
and at the years of discretion or knowledge as synonymous—the
age when he cut his “ wisdom ” teeth.
They were always treated as identical as in Genesis: Tree of
“ Knowledge.” Adam ” knew ” his wife. In the Sodomite story
of Lot, Genesis xix. 5 (repeated of a Levite at Judges xix. 22),
•“ knew ” is used in the sexual sense. The tree of ” Knowledge ”
was the source of “ shame.”
We have that idea still applied to temples; we speak of the
“Basilica” of Montmartre for instance, from Basileus, serpent.
Pallas was herself sexless or feminine, but she was the carrier
of the spear, symbolical of the masculine Phallus, and was thus
Fig. 18
Androgynous. In India we have the idea clearly portrayed by
two altars [Fig. 19 and 20], the first having symbols of Sun worship,
and the second expressing the Lingam idea. The central altar in
Fig. 19 is occupied by a many-headed serpent, i.e., desire and
passion or fire, which is also expressed by the sun which is portrayed
on the pillars and dome. The serpent rests on an Ark, thus form-
ing the bi-sexual symbol. The second [No. 201 is the worship of
the Lingam in a conventional form called the Trisool, a pillar con-
taining the symbols of a Lingam as a conventional tree of Life.
Here the many-headed serpents are transferred to two Queens of
Passion, while the attendants fan the flames of desire. The chest
54
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
represents the Yoni or Womb, as do all chests, coffers, or arks, and
this is symbolised by the nudity of the attendant to the left of the
Lingam. This also forms the bi-sexual symbol with the ark on
Fig. 19
which it stands. This Trisool is the Tree of Life, and as we shall
see all primitive religions had a story of a Tree of Life in the midst
of a garden. The sacred garden is the Yoni, and the name of
Aphrodite, the Greek Love Goddess, has the same meaning as the
Persian or Sanskrit Paradesa, or garden.
Fig. 20
The *' Red *' one, Adam, who tills the garden, is the Lingam
or Phallus in all countries, and the sun is the “ Adam ” who tills
the earth in Spring represented by a plough, the earth being
feminine and bearing fruit. The sun is likened to a bridegroom
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
55
and the earth to a bride* and all the sons of the sun, or sons of
God, as bridegrooms, as was Jesus (pp. 38-39, 45, 114).
In the Persian Mirodox of Creation* the demiurge, or earth-
creating* working god* Yima, was given two implements, a ring
and a dagger (our egg and dart decoration of cornices), the symbols
of Yoni and Lingam (see 44 Bible Folk-lore,” p. 341), wherewith to
produce all life, men* beasts, and other riches. The ring was the
“ door ” or “ entrance ** to the garden containing all seeds. Yima’s
garden contained the seeds of creation.
As nations became more civilized, the symbols were modified
and conventionalised, and later on we will follow the steps of these
modifications. Phallic symbolism, like all other symbolisms which
depend on the imagination and are called forth by the mirophilic
sentiment in man, being under no control, wanders into all sorts
of curious fancies and emblems, leading to such a chaos of symbols,
that volumes could be and have been written, to unravel all the
tangled ideas of reproduction represented by those diverse symbols.
The lotus bud, flower, and seed vessel, are symbols one could
not suspect having a Phallic meaning, but they were the most
widely used of any Phallic symbols in the world, and are incor-
porated in all Temple and Church decoration as symbols of fertility.
In Egypt they are the basis of all church pillars and altars, as well
as decoration. This arose from the fact that the seed vessel does
not shed the seeds, but retains them until they form little plants,
roots, leaves, and all at the expense of the womb or seed vessel
of the mother plant, so they are nourished and born alive as human
children are. Hence the plant became the emblem of generation.
The whole plant, stem, buds, and leaves thus came to be venerated.
It gave rise to the triangular symbol of the Yoni, as the seed pod
seen edge-wise is a triangle, yet it also produced the circle symbol,
as the top of the seed pod, with all the little plants sprouting is a
circle, the favourite symbol of the universal Mother, O or Om
(pp. 45-46).
The buds, before they opened to flowers, were used as symbols
of the Lingam, as were the stems of the plant (see p. 73, Fig. 61).
Forlong especially shows us many of these bye-paths, but as
many are debatable and are sometimes dependent on philological
parallels for their elucidation, 1 shall not enter on the debatable
parts of this field but shall, in this volume, deal only with such
symbolism as is direct and unmistakable and admitted by all
authorities, including ancient writers who were witnesses of the
customs illustrated. The silent stone witnesses are perhaps the
best we have, and in passing we may compare the Phallic pillars in
many lands and have a glimpse of the widespread character of the
worship.
56
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
PHALLIC SYMBOLISM OF BRITAIN AND OTHER LANDS
COMPARED.
To take our own country, we have the stone set up, according to our
exquisite literateur Thomas Hardy, O.M., in a well-known poem,
to mark the finding of the Pyx (itself a very Phallic emblem of life),
and it requires no description except this photograph to explain
what it represents. It stands in a very holy situation on Blackmoor
in Dorset, whence two seas are visible, namely, the English and
the Bristol Channels ; and the ancient sculptor has actually chosen
a shaded stone to give a real portrait of the Phallus. It is called
the Christ-in-hand (see p. 252). This is the ‘ ‘ Rock that begot
thee ” of Moses’ song in Deut. xxxii. 18, identified with “ Ale-im ”
and ” Yahweh,” ’* God ” and ’’ Lord ” of the Bible (pp. 153-155).
It must not be thought that these Phallic columns were un-
common in Britain. We have lengthy lists of such sacred columns
in antiquarian writings. Many have been destroyed or thrown
down, and some re-erected in a different form, others mutilated or
weather worn at the top, as this one shown in the photo; but where
investigation has been made it has been found that they were
Phallic columns such as an Indian sivaite would fall down and
worship to-day, and others simply represent the glans like the forms
the Assyrians worshipped.
The following may be mentioned :—
Chester High Shaft.
Glendower Shaft at Corwen, Merioneth.
Stalbridge, Dorset.
Iron-Acton, Gloucestershire. Crosses at Hereford, Malmes-
bury, Chichester.
Aylburton and Lydney Shafts in Gloucestershire.
Hemsted, Gloucestershire.
An Ark or Cell known as “ Our Lady’s Well," close to
Hemsted and St. Mary’s, High Street, Lincoln.
The Bisley Shaft, Gloucestershire.
Obelisks of White Friars, Hereford, and Clearwell, Glouces-
tershire, and Bomboro, Cheshire.
Tottenham or Tot-Haiftshire.
Sand-Bach Shafts, Cheshire, Carew Shaft, Pembroke.
DORSETSHIRE PHALLIC PILLAR.
lo fate p. 56, Fig. 2/.]
57
Eyam < oik Column;
Nevem Column, Pembroke.
Cheddar Shaft, on the Mendip Hills, ^Morth Petherton, and
Dindar, Somerset, Chipping, CampdeJl, North Gloucester-
shire.
Glastonbury Shaft.
Gloucester Column.
-
Shafts of Devizes, Wiltshire, Holbeach, Lincoln, Cirencester,
Ampney Crucis, Wheston, Derby, Bitterly, Salop, Crick-
lade, Langley, Norwich.
Besides these there are innumerable Phallic pillars spread all
over England, Scotland, and Ireland; but as they were not rever-
enced in late times, in fact their meaning had been forgotton, they
were uprooted and used in buildings wherever human habitations
were near. So, at the present day, they are only found in num-
bers in inhospitable situations, such as Dartmoor, Blackmoor
Dorset, Wales, all along the West of Scotland and Ireland, especially
in the more barren islands. Fig. 21, in Dorsetshire, shows their
drawings cannot be given.
In other lands we have the Pompeian posts, such as are repre-
sented here [Fig. 22]. and some of very Phallic form in Fiji, called
Sun stones [Fig. 23].
Then to show them to be joyous they began to decorate them
Fig. 22
Fig. 23
true meaning. But it is also shown in the churches themselves, and
Payne Knight gives us drawings of the nude figures exhibiting the
male and female organs from the porches and arches of Irish
churches. I cannot do better than refer to a quotation which illus-
trates the whole subject (pp. 97-98). For obvious reasons the
58 GHRlteTfAN^TY : SOURCES
* * ' *
- '
with ribbon*, a* shown heje in the Fiji Paw at the present day
(Fig. 23], or away back in Parthia thousands of year* ago [Fig 24]
r River* of Lifer' L.fffj. . * .
We have them a«o in Polynesia [Fig. 25], Tibet [Fig. 27],
Fig. 24 Fig, 25
Ireland [Fig. 26] (“Rivera of Life,” /., 485), and Karnak,
Brittany [Fig. 28] (p. 598, //.), some recent and some thousands
of years old [Figs. 25, 27, 26, and 28]. These ribbons or flags
are decorations indicating joyousness, are called rt hangings for the
' Ashra, or Groves,” in the Bible. We have such conical mound*
9* ” The Great Obo,” indicating' the Phallus in Mongolia, Tibet,
*
59
of its teaching and symbousm
Tartary, and India [Fig, 27]. Round such constructions the people
still dance, blowing horns, believing such rites drive away evil
spirits, and render fertile their women and cattle.
Finally, we have the Burmese pagoda poles, with banners and
a cock on the top, just as our Campaniles, Bell towers, and Church
steeples have to-day [Fig. 29]. The idea of the Burmese pole
Fig. 30
exists in England as the May-pole which was1 worshipped or cele-
brated at the season of fertility when “ young man's fancy lightly
turns to thoughts of love." *
60
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
The ithyphallic idea may be represented in a perfectly decent
way as was the case of the Phallic Mars in the Campus Martis,
Rome, which I show here [Fig. 30]. The flame, issuing from the
top of the Column signifies sexual fire, and shows the nature of
the Column.
Although we have not any Lingam-Yoni altars in our churches
we have their equivalent in our pulpits. The pulpit is essentially a
Phallus or shaft carrying an ark-like box from which the preachers
or oracles prophesy.
At Delphi (womb), a purely Phallic shrine, there was a Phallic
column, both outside and inside the shrine, with a box from which
Fig. 31
the oracle spoke. We have, in Britain, pulpits outside, sometimes,
as well as inside the churches, and the word pulpit is a Latin word
derived from Hebrew Pul “ a vigorous one '*—the Phallus,—and
pit, a cave or well, the Yoni, so that the pulpit is simply the Lingam-
Yoni altar of India, devoted to a different end. So much for the
masculine side of Phallic worship.
The female or left hand cult is represented by all hollow bodies
or lenticular openings (pp. 16, 26, 46), and by the Conch or
shell, usually winged. This is formally called Concha Veneris,
the Conch shell of Venus, and is shown here [Fig. 31]. It is
generally used in gem sculptures and symbolic carvings to indicate
woman, just as the tree indicates man [Figs. 32 and 33].
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
61
We have here the illustration of creation and the continuation of
life [Fig. 33]. In the centre is the mundane egg of creation, and
coiled round it the serpent of passion, or the Tree Stem as the
Fig. 32 Fig. 33
Phallus with the Serpent [Fig. 32], and on one side a palm tree,
man, and on the other a conch, woman, the two guarantee the
continuance of life,—a very common form of engraved gem or seal
cutting in all countries and in all ages.
According to an Indian tradition, Sakra, the chief deva, caused
ten thousand Conches or Sankhas, as they are called in India, to be
blown when Buddha was born.
62
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
It was the wide-spread symbol of woman in ancient times, and
is still called the “ woman ” in the Solomon Islands and used as a
sacred trumpet. It is one of the emblems carried by Vishnu, the
special god of female energies.
Lenticular forms represent the Womb.
The Roman Catholic Church has adopted this symbol, the
Vesica Pisces, as shown in the Venetian picture, where the spirit
of God (dove) is seen impregnating the Virgin, printed at Venice
in 1542, illustrated by Dr. Inman [Fig. 34], or this more artistic
rendering from Didron [Fig. 35].
The cult is most completely illustrated by a drawing of a Dagoba
from India, shown by Forlong in Plate XIV., “ Rivers of Life ”
[Fig. 36]. Note here the Venus in the lenticular frame or “ Vesica
Pisces ” (Fish’s bladder), and the dome itself a Phallus, supported
by a colonade of Phalli, and the dancing nymphs on the upper
stories with the Phalli. The word Dagoba, used for Shrine in India,
means Womb, the woman in English is the Womb Man (pp. 23-48).
A bowl or globe held by a woman on her knees, or in a middle
position, was one of the most common conventional symbols of the
Yoni, as shown in places as widely separated as Greece, Ireland,
and Japan (p. JOI). I give here one from the church door in be-
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
63
land [Fig. 39], a symbol used like the horse-shoe, to ward off the
evil eye (see pp. 97, 98, 101). Here is a Greek one from
Knight, a very beautiful statue [Fig. 38], and one from Japan will
be found on p. 101 (“ Rioera of Life,” II., 528), which represents
Kwan-Yon, the Venus of China and Japan.
The Greek symbol is very corhplete. In one hand the Bowl or
Womb, in the other fruit, and the young Bull in her lap deal with
all the facts of creative energy.
64
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
The Cornucopia, or shell full of fruit and flowers, is another
form of the same emblem and here we have “ honour and virtue ”
represented by Woman and Man, her fertility represented by the
Cornucopia, and his by the baton. This was struck on a coin in
Rome in the days of Galba, in first century A.D., and it is represented
in modern school books.
In figures 40, 50, and 51 are shown the direct worship of the
Yoni from a gem and seals found by Layard at Nineveh.
The systrum was also a symbol of female nature, and on this
one [Fig. 37] we find the male organ depicted, so that the combina-
tion is Omphallic, a favourite subject in Egypt as we shall see.
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
65
PHALLISM IN ASYRIA. BABYLONIA AND ACCADIA.
THESE nations, unlike the Indian, have passed away so completely
that the cults they practised can only be gleaned from the ruins of
these towers and palaces, or from the remarks of contemporary
writers or historians. That the worship of fertility had a great
place in their religions, and that they practised the rites which are,
as I have shown, still practised in India, we know from many
sources.
Even the Jews, who, as Forlong says, " were probably the great-
est worshippers amongst all thbse Phallo-solar, serpent-sun devotees
who then covered every land and sea,'* and had little right to cast
the first stone, wrote about Babylon where they learnt most of their
religious practices :—" And upon her forehead was a name written.
Mystery, the Great Babylon, the mother of harlots and abomina-
tions of the earth " (Rev. xvii,, 5). As to the facts, the Jews
should know, because, as we shall see, they strictly maintained
those Phallic faiths and public practices, long after the days of
Hezekiah.
The Assyrian and Persian idea of the creation of life was, that
the Creator was given a ring and a sword or arrow with which to
create life. The sword, arrow, dagger, or spear is always the
Phallus, the piercer, and all rings are Yonis, so here again we have
the Lingam-Yoni symbol. The symbolism of Assyria is seldom of
the direct naked type we have in other countries.
No doubt their earliest symbols may have been so, and what
we now have are the later or conventionalised symbols. They had
a scarcity of stone, and everything was made of clay, which un-
fortunately perishes; so we have no very early symbols. In
" Rivers of Life," II., p. 83, Forlong describes the Dian Nisei
representing the Assyrian Sun or Creator (from whom is derived
the Greek Dionysos) "passing through his aerial path, as on the
Tomb of Cyrus (the Tomba, or Cave, or Kurios the Sun or God,
Cyrus and Kurios are identical), where he holds in his hands the
two organs of creation, and travels, as a winged god on a winged
sun, and as if this were not clear enough, a Yoni is placed in front
oJLhim and a Crux Ansata, the Egyptian Lingam-Yoni sign, behind."
F
66
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
The Egyptian Crux Ansata was adopted by the Assyrians, as
may be seen from the goddess’s head-dress here shown [Fig. 42],
with four cruces ansatae hung from it. (“ Rivera of Life,” II., p.
82.)
Fig. 42 Fig. 43
We have some sculptures or gems of Phallic worship as depicted
here in the anointing (see p. 221) of the pole or Phallus by two
priests [Fig. 43]. In this worship of the budding “Tree of Life,”
from the British Museum, the Phallically hatted priest is inclosed in
a Lingam line, a common device in all lands, and especially in India
where the God Siva is often drawn inside the Lingam on the Lingam-
Yoni altars. This [Fig. 43] is the “Grove ” of the Bible. Acorns
are universal symbols of the Phallus.
Over this “ Grove ” altar may be seen the Creator as a Trinity,
the three heads in the “ ring-and-dart" idea of creation, showing
that the mysterious Trinity of the Christians also existed long before
Fig. 44 Fig. 45
Even on those carvings which are lingaist, such as the worship
of the Cock [Fig. 44], we see the Chaldean or Assyrians put the
female symbol three times, first, the ark on which the Cock stands,
secondly the bag in the hand of the winged god, and thirdly in the
crescent moon or ark in the sky.
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
67
In another very complete system of symbols we have the worship
of the Phallus in Fig. 45, where on the right we have a cock on an
ark or chest, then a lingam post on an ark, but the lingam supports
the crescent moon symbol of the Yoni or female energies, a lingam
between two Yonis. We then have that repeated by another
Phallic pillar supported by an arch-shaped foot, this arch symbolis-
ing the Yoni, and the two surmounted by a basin, also representing
female qualities, thus again forming a lingam between two Yonis.
The priest himself has the "bag*’ or sack (the special Assyrian
symbol of the Yoni) in one hand and Thor's hammer in the other.
This is also the T, “ tau ” form of cross. This T, “ tau,” was, as
Mr. C. W. King says, “that ancient symbol of the generative
power," and such a cross is found on the walls of a house in
Pompeii, in juxta-position with the Phallus in fact, the T, “tau,"
the handled cross (crux ansata), and the Christian cross were every-
where used as conventional Phallic symbols. Everywhere the
moon’s cusp represented the feminine side, just as the sun repre-
sented the masculine. Fig. 46 (p. 67) is a cut gem given by
Lajard in his “ Culte de Venus.”
The woman has a bowl or moon’s cusp in her hand, and also
behind her, and a jug in the other, and an eight-rayed star sym-
bolical of love, the whole being worshipped by a man.
Below the man is a bull’s head, male force, and below the
woman a bowl, female emblem, full of fruit or eggs.
But the principal symbol which will interest us as having been
adopted by the Jews is one called euphemistically, in holy writ,
the “ Grove,” but which, in the original, is the ” Ashera,” which
we will presently see is the Lingam-in-Yoni, just as the Bashar,
which the reforming prophet called the ” Shameful thing,” was
the Lingam.
Fig, 46
68
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
We have this idea elaborated in Fig. 47, where two winged
gods are demonstrating before the Grove, Lingam-in-Yoni, each
having in his right hand a cone, symbol of the Lingam, and in
Fig. 47 Fig. 48
his left the bag, indictive of the Yoni (see right and left hand sects
ante, p. 47).
That the cone was a Phallic symbol is shown by this figure [48]
of two Greek women going to anoint or worship the Cone (Phallus).
In Fig. 49 we have the common Assyrian Deity, with bag and
Fig. 49
cone, such as may be seen in numbers in the Assyrian department
of the British Museum. On the bag is depicted the worship of the
“ Grove,*’ or Ashera, as shown in Fig. 49 above.
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
69
That the bag or sack was the female symbol is shown by the
Indian word Bhaga-vati, “the lady of the sack,” called by the
Catholics in Italy " Madonna del sacco,” " My Lady of the sack."
The true meaning of the Jewish Asher and Ashera, male and
female emblems (which we must know, to understand Old Testa-
ment practises) can only be proved, apart from its condemnation as
the “ shameful thing,” “ abominable thing,” worshipped under
” every tree ” (see p. 242), by tracing its derivation. We have, in
India, Esh—love, also Esh—woman, Goddess of Love ; Isri, Iswara,
Issurya, and Ish as man, or the creator, or fertiliser, always sym-
bolised by the Phallus. This, in Assyrian, is called Ashur, the erect
one (” A-esh, or Ar-esh, or Esh-ar ”), god of love becoming Esh-ir,
Hessiri, Asar, or Osiris, in Egypt, also god of love, and also sym-
bolished by the Phallus or by an ithyphallic god.
Asher, or Assur, from whom Asyria or Ashuria is named (" y ”
and “ u ” are the same), was the Phallic god of Mesopotamia, and
was often considered simply as the lingam, but sometimes as the
Omphe also, as in the ** Mound ” of Asia.
We must understand how completely this word penetrated into
the Hebrew if we are to understand Jewish practises and beliefs in
the Old Testament.
We have, in Hebrew, ” Ashar,” to be united in love, as an
equivalent to Osiris or Asar, a name of Baal, husband of Ashera.
Asher—happy.
Asheru—spear or javelin.
Athar (Sh, Th are interchangeable)—to stretch wide.
Astereth—a married female companion.
Asher was the “Abraham ” or the “ strong one ” of Syria—the
” Progenitor,” ” he who lived in the circle of life,” the holder of
the bow.
“The word asher,” says Forlong, "would be at once pronounced
by every Eastern linguist to be derived from Ish * man,’ or Esh
* love,’ and Ar, the god, or active power, and as connected with
‘ Aish-oo-Isherat,’ ’ sexual pleasure ’ ” (Forlong).
“ Asher, or as it is also anciently pronounced Ather (the exact
Egyptian name for the Goddess of Love and Beauty), was the name
given to the whole country of the lower Tigris. This is now very
generally called Louristan, which signify a place devoted to the
worshippers of the Phallic emblems.”
-
“The word Louri is still very common over all India and its
coasts, and is used indiscriminately as a term of abuse to both male
and female.” So Louristan is the land of the Louri, just as Palestine
is Pala-8tan, or Phallus-stan, the land of the worship of the Phallus.
70
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
The “ Grove ” (Ashera) of our Old Testament translation was pure.
Phallic Worship, approaching to the Vishnu, or Sakti, or left hand
sect in India, whilst the worship of Asher or Baal was the lingam
worship, the Siva or right hand sect (pp. 214-260).
Another of Layard’s cut gems from Nineveh shows the complete
worship of Lingam and Yoni [Fig. 50]. Here we have a priest with
an ark (or a ladder on its side, see below), holding a lingam with its
delta or triangular point, and a Yoni or narrow door. On the
priest’s side of the gem is a lenticular Yoni and the crescent of the
moon above, as the feminine emblems, while on the other side is
a palm tree and the sun as indicating man. No symbolism could
be more fully depicted.
Another Lingam-Yoni altar is illustrated in Fig. 51, where a
ladder-like image stands on an altar, also ladder-like. On the
Fig. 50
top is the sun and the usual priest worshipper making a Phallic sign
with his hand. This “ Ladder to Heaven *’ altar is explained by
Forlong as signifying the same as Isis* systrum [Fig. 37], a barred
instrument of music, representing a virgin or “Virgo intacta,” the
barring having that significance. Above the symbol of the Yoni is
a seven rayed star or sun symbol of virile power, making a true
Lingam-Y oni altar.
How old symbols drift on into new religions is shown by two
drawings, one from Kitto's “Biblical Cyclopaedia’* and the other
from Elliott’s “ Horse.”
The Babylonian seal shows the worship of woman, who carries
a cup or vase as the female symbol [Fig. 53]. The Roman Jubilee
medal of Pope Leo XII. shows the Church of Rome as a woman
with a vase or cup also [Fig. 52].
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
71
The Babylonians were fond of figuring the Phallic idea very
completely on their gems or seals. Here [Fig. 54J is an example
where we have animals, male and female, dancing round the “Tree
of Life/’ a palm.
In order to emphasise the part played by the palm it is
drawn with its upright leaves as a Phallus with the two fruits
hanging on each side. Then the male animal stands opposite
a Yoni or female emblem, while the female animal is opposite the
Fleur-de-lys, always a male emblem. This is the same symbolism as
David dancing before the ark (p. 236), or Usertesen before Min.
(p. 238).
Fig. 54
Such was the symbolism of the Euphrates valley, the land in the
midst of the rivers. They had sun worship and planetary temples
also, as had all other nations. They were exceptionally good
astronomers, and had their zodiacal temples; their official religion
was Astronomic.
But the Phallic cult was the most deeply rooted of their practices,
and the origin of their sacred symbolism.
72
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
PHALLISM IN EGYPT.
As Christianity took its rise at Alexandria, the Egyptian faiths are
of great importance in tracking the development of the Christian
practices, and as the warm and dry Egyptian climate has preserved
Fig. 55
their monuments, and even the frail papyrus rolls, we have a very
complete illustrated record of their beliefs. That it was Phallic in
a very high degree will be apparent from an examination of their
monuments and written scrolls.
In the first place, the legend round which all their religions
centred, was about the body of the slain Osiris. Isis found all the
parts which had been dispersed throughout Egypt by the wicked
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
73
Typhon, except the Phallus. She, however, consecrated a model of
the lost Phallus as a symbol of Osiris, and so introduced the Phallus
worship, and it became the sacred symbol of Egypt. In the earlier
crude sculptures it was represented naturally, as in this of Lazoni
(Tav. ccio.) [Fig. 55], where two Phalli support the sky, but it was
gradually conventionalised into the Tet, or Tat, or Dad. The
I -ZZi
Fig. 68
Fii. 69
Fig. 70
O KJ
Fig. 71 Fig. 72
formation of a conventional sign from a natural emblem is well illus-
trated in the Tat, and as it is impossible, in a moderate space, to
trace the descent of all symbols from their natural originals, 1 will
give the Tat as an example.
The complete evolution of the Tet, Tat, or Dad, from the
Phallus, is shown in this series [Fig. 62 to 72] so that, from 65 to
72, we see that the Phallic idea is lost, and a mere sign remains.
74
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
Tat or Dad is the name for father in all childish or primitive
languages.
For want of the comparative method I use here, the most
ridiculous guesses were made as to the meaning of the Tat, one
learned author going the length of describing it as a sculptor’s
stand for building his clay on. Why should a sculptor’s stand be
glorified and drawn in purple and gold and universally worshipped
as the symbol of life ?
We find then the original form in these Phalli supporting the
sky, or in the famous one of Seb and Nut,—earth and sky,—being
separated [Fig. 56]. The problem arose with the priests, “How
could a single individual produce life?” Lanzoni shows how.
Their Phalli are drawn inordinately long, and they fertilise them-
selves by the mouth'. They are too gross for reproduction here,
but the symbols are shown by Lanzoni in Tav. 329 “ Mitologia
bgizia.
We also find the Phallus used in a horizontal position [Figs. 83,
84, 85], perhaps the earliest form, and adopted in Egyptian -writing,
as indicating strength, honesty, goodness, and justice, as in a just
judge. 1 will deal with that later; meanwhile we will trace the
progress of the evolution of the Phallic symbolism from the upright
Phallus to the conventional symbols used by all nations.
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
75
We have then the Phallus unaltered as above (p. 72), [Fig. 55],
then as given by Budge in his “ Gods of Egyptians,” Vol. II., p. 144,
and again as Buckle or Girdle [Fig. 58], also Fig. 82, p. 78, and
on Lotus Column [Fig. 57] and Papyrus Column [Figs. 59 and 60],
and still further conventionalised, as here shown, combined with
the lotus stem [Fig. 61], and seed pod (which in all countries
represent the womb), conventionalised, and beginning to be
decorated.
We have in Fig. 73 the god Bes as a Tat. Bes was the symbol
of Good Luck.
The Tat was called the Noble Pillar, and was “ erected ” at the
spring equinox (when all life was renewed) with great ceremony by
the Egyptian Court, as described on pp. 81-82.
Now let us go to the female side of these symbols. We will
see the development of these two symbols into an ” eternal life,”
Lingam-Yoni combination, similar to the altar used in India to-day.
Fig. 74
[>0
Fig. 75
In a splendid papyrus given by the late King Edward to the British
Museum, one can see the priests writing of the Ankh sign, thus
[Fig. 74], as the Yoni over the Lingam, and with rays of glory at
the conjunction of the two, indicating creation of life, just as such
rays proceed from the head of a creative god.
This then becomes conventionalised, as in Fig. 75, and further
in Fig. 77, in the hands of a god, and, in Fig. 76, the centre dividing
piece being represented as a scroll tied up with cord instead of
rays, as the cartouches of the Kings were tied.
This scroll is the scroll of life, or knowledge, as it is shown
supporting a god in Fig. 79, and the Phallus is here( as it was in
the Garden of Eden), the Tree of Knowledge. In Fig. 76 the lotus
bud (phallus) pierces the Yoni, as in Fig. 14 (p. 49), shov/ing the
same symbolism in India and Egypt.
On the coffins or Sarcophagi, we have very often the sexual
parts represented in black, while other surrounding parts or decora-
76
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
tion are in bright colours. Whatever was the significance of black,
it was common enough, as the original Osiris and Isis were black,
so was the Horus and Krishna; and most of the famous lingam
stones, down to that of the Prophet’s stone at Mecca, are black
stones.
Gradually the rays or the scroll of knowledge were joined up to
the two organs, and the Phallic form of the male stem allowed to
disappear. Thus was formed the ankh or handled cross, “ crux
ansata ” of classic writers, illustrated in its final forms in the hands
and on the arms of a god [Fig. 77].
So popular did the conventionalised form of Phallus [Fig. 70,
p. 73] become, that three were linked together, thus [Fig. 80], and
in writing meant ** good luck ” or fortune (“ The Mummy,” Budge,
p. 263, VIII.), and necklaces were composed of repetitions of the
two Lingam-Yoni symbols, with the Tat or Phallus in the middle,
thus Ankh, Tat, and Thet [Fig. 81]. These were also used as
decoration round sarcophagi and the frieze or cornice of chambers,
just as our egg and dart are.
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
77
The egg and dart are admittedly phallic, being the Peraian
symbol of creation,—the egg representing the mundane egg, circle,
or Yoni, and the dart the Lingam, as did all darts, spears, swords,
and daggers (p. 55).
This decoration was used in Persia, in ancient times, as their
ring and dagger creative symbol; sometimes the symbol was
doubled, in order to make clear its meaning, as in Fig. 77, from
Lanzoni CLV., where the Lingam-Yoni symbol has the ” tet ”
(Phallus) added to the stem of the cross, as shown hung on the right
arm of the God separating Seb and Nut.
In early times the Yoni was separated from the Lingam, and
the cross consisted of three separate pieces [Figs. 76 and 78].
The Christian Cross, however, did not descend directly from
the Egyptian, which never quite reached the form of a simple cross.
The Christian Cross was in use in the Euphrates Valley and all
over the world from very early times, and much of the Christian
Fig. 81 Fig. 80
symbolism reached Europe by a route through Asia Minor, and not
by the Southern route through Egypt. We will deal with the deriva-
tion of crosses later. (See pp. 305-306).
Thet. The Egyptians had a combination of Lingam-in-Yoni,
given by Budge, under the name of ” Woman’s Girdle,” but also
called the Thet or ” buckle or tie,” as it was stuck in, or was part
of the god's belt [Figs. 58, 81 and 82]. I have no doubt that this
arose as a symbol of the self-created gods, and Budge’s illustration
gives a conventional form of it. It was not a woman’s article at all,
but was stuck in the belt of self-creative gods. The belt has its
proper buckle, and the Thet was stuck in the belt, where there was
no join, as shown by Budge in pp. 34, 36 and 58, ” Gods of the
Egyptians,” Khensu and Heru Shefit, so it was a symbol, not a
buckle.
Maspero, in the Archaeological Tracts, 1840-1874, Chapitre de
La Boucle, tells us that this was one of the commonest amulets, the
” Noeud,” or ” Boucle de Ceinture.” It must have been of great
importance as it was made in gold and enamelled porcelain, red
78
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
stone, jasper, camelian, porphiry, and sycamore wood, blackened
and set in gold, with a legend " Salut k la boucle qui fait r£unir
ton essence, a ton corps, profit^ d'astarte,” so it was the complete
symbol of life.
Its form was much more elaborate than the Tat, and amounted
to anatomical drawing or section of the Lingam-in-the-Yoni, or
conjoined reproductive organs [Fig.- 82]. It was portrayed thus on
an enormous number of papyri, and on nearly every monument in
Egypt.
This is the most complete, as it is the most natural Lingam-in-
Yoni symbol hitherto portrayed in religious art. That there might
be no mistaking of the parts essential to re-production, the uterus
and the phallus were always coloured the same, while the other
parts had other colours.
Thus, if the Lingam was black (most stone Lingams were so),
then the Uterus was also black, while the Vagina was red, or the
colours are sometimes reversed, making the Vagina dark. Again,
when the Phallus is blue (Krishna, the Phallic god of India, was
often coloured blue), the Uterus or Womb is also blue, while the
surroundings are red-brown or blue-green [Fig. 82].
On the decorated Coffins, the Lingam-Yoni was frequently black,
no doubt a very ancient sign, and we know that it was very difficult
to change the insignia of funerals.
H1 lYi 11/fLLIC MIN. DD'ACED 1JV AHAHS.
I o face p. 79, Fig. 83.]
79
OF Ilf TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
The blue and black parts of the Lingam-Yoni were generally
emphasised by being in low relief, as seen on coffins in the British
Museum, while the Vagina was not raised, but painted on the flat.
So much for upright symbols. But, to emphasise the creative
power of the gods, they were sculptured, in many cases, ithyphallic.
I show one sculpture between the columns in Fig. 83, where the
natives have with their spears chiselled off the Phallus, and another
at Fig. 116, p. 238, but this God Min was always shown ithyphallic,
as may be seen in numbers in a wall case, 124, British Museum,
Egyptian Section, and also with the scourge,—sexual power and
asceticism combined. Curiously this was the case in nearly all
countries, the Siva worshippers of India being strict ascetics.
So much was the ithyphallic condition considered a symbol of
power by the early Egyptians, that the third King in this fragment,
from a long list of Kings [Fig. 84, with the supplicating arms], has
for his name (in a “Cartouche** or Cartridge form) three Phalli
Fig. 86
and arms extending to heaven, praying that he may have that
power on earth, Ka Kau.
In writing, the Phallus often became conventionalised into a
simple symbol as may be seen in this photo of a papyrus in column^
1 to 5 of King Edward’s papyrus, British Museum, Fig. 83, or again
in an upright form purely conventional, but quite expressive, having
the conventional “ Tat “ stem with cross lines [Fig. 70].
The Phallus used in manuscript often had the derived meaning
of justice and strength, and is represented in the Zodiac by the
Balance or Libra, ** the scales,’* which were at one time a repre-
sentation of the Tri-une complete reproductive organs of man repre-
sented also by the ivy and fig leaf, the Fleur-de-Lys, and the Trident.
Libra is shown in Fig. 86 quite Phallic. This is copied from the
supplement to Webster’s English Dictionary. Probably the word
Balance is a corruption of Phallus, as its derivation is doubtful.
On a great sarcophagus in the British Museum we find the Phallus
in action with the above meaning. {Sarcophagus 811, Great Hall,
? Egyptian Gallery, British Museum.)
60
-
I^RISTIANITY: THE SOUF.CES
Aa mentioned on p. 64, the ay strum, which is a purely Egyptian
symbol and musical instrument, represents virginity.
King, in his “ Gnostics,** tells us of a beautiful Sard gem with
serapis engraved on it, and standing in front of him is Isis with a
systrum (virgin, see p. 70) in her hand and a wheat sheaf, the ever
fruitful, with the legend, ” Immaculate is our Lady Isis.’* “This
address,” said King, “ is couched in the exact words applied later
to the personage (the Virgin Mary) who succeeded to the form,
titles, symbols, and ceremonies of Isis with even less variation
than marked other similar interchanges.” The Virgin Mary
worship in Christianity is derived direct from Babylon and
Egypt, and not through the Hebrew Bible, because the Jews
so despised women. Babylon, which worshipped Istar as much
as Egypt worshipped Isis, had ceased to exist, so it was Isis
who was adopted into Christianity, under the Indian name Mary or
Maya, and it was her statues, with the infant Son of God immacu-
lately conceived, called the Heru or Horus (Greek), which were
worshipped all over Europe as the Virgin Mary and Infant Jesus.
This Virgin and Child, cast in bronze and identical with her
Roman Catholic copy, was the most popular image worshipped in
ancient Egypt, and has been found in tens of thousands all over
V
PHALLIC CARTOUC1IL OF KA KAU.
To face p. 81. Fig. 84. ]
OF ITS REACHING AND SYMBOLISM
81
the country, and the statues of Isis and Horus were used by the
early Christians for Mary and Jesus.
The systrum was carried by women in all Phallic processions,
and its tinkling sound was the accompaniment of such rites, and of
Phallic songs.
Fig. 87 shows a conventional systrum, held in such a position as
to indicate its meaning, by the Goddess of Fertility, Thoueris, or
Ta Urt. See also Apet [Fig. 88], Budge, " Gods of the Egyptians.'*
Next in popularity to the statues of the Virgin and Child were
ithyphallic bronze figures of the God Min, which were found in
great numbers all over Egypt, no doubt in private houses as well as
in temples, as can be seen in the British Museum. (Third Egyptian
Room, Wall case 124, Nos. 115, 116, etc.)
Horus, Amen Ra, and Osiris were represented in hundreds of
statuettes, ithyphallic like Min [Fig. 83], Budge, "Gods of the
Egyptians."
If anyone desires to obtain an idea of the absolutely naturalistic
treatment of the Phallus and its action, and of its various derivative
meanings, he may refer to Dr. Wallis Budge's interesting and
popular "Egyptian Literature" {“Legends of the Gods" and
“Annals of Nubian Kings," 1912.)
Now, although the Egyptians were great sun worshippers, the
more ancient Phallic cult remained popular, and the two are often
combined. For instance, in all countries the advent of Spring is
always a time for highly Phallic fetes. The Spring is solar, yet
always combined with Phallic ideas, as all the animals and birds
breed at that season, and all nature is awakened to reproduce its
kind.
The worship of the sun, however, was the product of a more
intellectually developed age, and when made into a cult with
priestly codes, was not at all easy to understand, so the common
people held on to their festivals and Phallic saturnalia, as, we shall
see at page 91, was the practice of the Romans and the Greeks.
Ermann tells us, in his " Life in Ancient Egypt," that at the feast
of Ptah-Sokaris-Osiris, the memphitic God, in the last ten days of
Choiakh, at the Temple of Medineh Habu, there was a protracted
feast, greatest on the 26th and culminating on the 30th, by the erec-
tion of the Tet, Dad, father or Phallus. Before erection, attendants
dressed the God and re-rouged him. The Pharaoh then repaired,
with his suite, to the place where, lying on the ground, was the
" Noble Pillar," the " erection " of which forms the object of the
festival. Ropes (some say of gold cord) were placed around it,
and the Monarch, with the help of the Royal relatives and of a
G
82
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
Priest, drew it up. The Queen, “ who fills the Palace with love,"
looks on at the sacred proceedings, and her sixteen daughters made
music with rattles and the jingling systrum (Phallic instrument, see
pp. 62 and 80), the usual instruments played by women on sacred
occasions.
The Queen also piously carried the sexual symbols of Osiris
modeled in solid gold.
We get a glimpse of the “ manners and customs " of the ancient
Egyptians in the details of the publicly posted tariffs for transport
between Coptos and Berenicia, which include an impost of 108
drachmas for each "slave for prostitution" (see p. 227).
Some of these symbols and terms have come down to us. For
instance, the Dad, or Father, which is the phallus, has reached
Western Europe in the form shown at Fig. 72, p. 73, as the " Orb
of Power ” which is placed in the hand of the Monarch on Coro-
nation. That this is admittedly phallic is shown by its being called
in Germany the Reichs-apfel or State-Apple, and we know that
Eve‘s love of the apple or Phallus in Eden was the source of shame.
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
83
PHALLISM IN GREECE.
1 HAVE treated at some length the evidences of Phallic worship in
the three nations, India, Babylonia, and Egypt, from which many
other nations, especially the Jewish, derived their religious symbols.
India and Egypt especially, are nations which have kept their
religions (subject only to inevitable development) quite distinct, from
very early times, and so have reacted on'smaller nations, which
were subject to more rapid changes. The very important influ-
ences of the religions of the Euphrates valley on the Jewish
religion, made it imperative to treat of their symbolism quite as
fully. It will be seen, from the examination of the religions of
these nations, how thoroughly all their practices and beliefs were
saturated with, and expressed through, Phallism.
Those three nations belonged to a period when there was no
great philosophical awakening, so that their faiths were compara-
tively stable.
In the case of Greece we have another state of affairs, and,
just as Greece rose quickly to the highest position attainable in sculp-
ture, so, outside of physical science, she raised a crop of philoso-
phers, whose modes of thought and outlook are more comparable
to the ideas of advanced thinkers of the present day, than those of
any other nation. We find Greece, therefore, in a state of fusion as
regards religion, and their legends can scarcely be regarded as the
solid belief of the enlightened part of the community. Still, these
beliefs were the official religion, and one must accept them as
representing the religion of Greece. We know that, however grand
may have been their original conception of Zeus or the Divine
Father, the literature regarding him is intensely Phallic, and the
worship of Aphrodite impregnated all the temple practices of the
land.
Although they believed in their Gods in a very half-hearted
manner, just as the majority; of Christian Church goers do to-day,
yet it was the official religion, and they spasmodically punished some
of . their greatest men, even with death, for expressing their dis-
belief in the very human and often obscene gods of the land.
The fact that the language of Greece gave the name to the Phallic
cult, shows at least that it was widely practised there. The Phallic
84
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
God of Greece was Hermes or Mercury. He was the Herald^
messenger or agent of the gods in bringing life to earth, and the
wjord Hermes was used as the name of the Phallus, which was
spoken of as “a hermes.” He held in his hand the caduceus, or
twin embracing serpents, a doubly Phallic sign, as we shall see.
Aesculapius, the healer, also had this sign, as we see in druggist's
windows to-day, and the word hermetic is still used by chemists.
Forlong (“ Rivers of Life ” /., 223) gives the origin of the twined
serpents as follows :—
“ It would seem that the caduceus of Mercury, that rod of life,
is due to the fact of the ancients having observed that serpents
conjoin in the double circular but erect form as in TEsculapeu's rod.
Mr. Newton records his belief of this at p. 117 of his appendix
to Dr. Inman’s “Symbolism.” It appears, as stated by Dr. C. E.
Balfour, in Fergusson’s 4 Tree and Serpent Worship,’ that when at
Ahmednagar in 1841 he saw two living snakes drop into his garden
off the thatch of his bungalow in a perfectly clear moonlight night.
They were (he says) cobras, and stood erect as in the form of the
/Esculapian rod, and no one could have seen them without at once
recognizing that they were in congress.”
“It is a most fortunate thing to see this, say Easterns ; and
if a cloth be thrown over them it becomes a form of Lakshmi and
of the highest procreative energy.”
From this we see that the symbol of Hermes, Mercury, and
/Esculpaius, was a doubly Phallic symbol, expressing both agent
and act.
When I come to deal with the “ Saviour of the World ” idea,
1 shall show how ancient and how widely spread was this idea,
and how many claimants there were to the title. The Greeks,
seeing that the “saving” of the world consisted in insuring the
continuous succession of life on the globe, embodied the Phallic
ideas of surrounding nations, in a very materialistic emblem, but
one which would be understood by all nations, and which was not
concealed or rendered obscure by conventionalism. Knight illus-
trates this emblem, and describes it thus :—44 The celebrated bronze
in the Vatican has the male organs of generation placed upon the
head of a cock, supported by the neck and shoulders of a man. In
this composition they represented the generating power of the
Eros, the Osiris, Mithras, or Bacchus. By the inscription on the
pedestal, the attribute thus personified is styled 4 The Saviour of the
World,' 'Sotor Kosmoi,’ a title always venerable under whatever
image it be presented.”
But in earlier times the Greeks, like all other nations, worshipped
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
85
tree stems as Phalli, and serpents coiled round them as passion or
desire (see p. 61). Fergusson, in his “ Tree and Serpent Worship,”
shows us the gradual dying out of this form of Phallic faith as their
civilization advanced.
It advanced so quickly in Greece that the decay can be traced,
whereas other nations, less brilliant, advanced so slowly, that their
emblems remained stationary for long periods. In the Erectheum
at Athens we still find a temple dedicated to fire and serpent
worship, and it was to the Serpent Erekthoneous that Minerva
handed over her sacred olive tree.
The tree under which Agamemnon was sacrificed was mounted
by a serpent, whom Zeus turned into a stone ; for the trunk became
stone, and every part of it became sacred, like the “true cross,”
says Forlong.
The later Greeks, however, were so refined in their art, as
shown at p. 63, that they wrapped up all the crude symbols of other
more prosaic nations, in fine language, or complicated mythological
stories, or in most beautiful and refined sculpture. Yet all the
sculpture of Zeus simply referred to Phallic stories of the creation
of minor gods and goddesses, by connection with maiden goddesses,
and are variants of the sun marrying the earth in Spring, and their
union bringing forth fruit and flowers.
Plutarch tells us, in his ” de Isis et Osiris,” as can still be verified
in Egypt (see p. 81), that the “ Egyptians represented ” (Knight,
p. 16), ” Osiris with the organ of generation erect to show his genera-
tive and prolific power, and that Osiris was the same deity as the
Bacchus of Greek mythology and the same as the * first begotten
love ’ of Orpheus and Hesiod. This deity is celebrated as the
Creator of all things and the father of gods and men, and the
organ of generation was the symbol of his great characteristic
attribute. They thus personified the epithets and titles applied to
him in hymns and litanies. The organ of generation represented
the generative or creative attributes.”
I give here [Fig. 89J, as complete an expression of the
Phallic cult in Greece as can be found in any country. It is given
by Maffei in his ” Gemme Antiche Figurati,” tome iii., pi. 40
The Phallic pillar is here divided by fillets, like the Polynesian
column on p. 80, bjit, instead of a knot on the top, there is a man
carrying a thyrsus terminating in the Phallic pine cone and decorated
with ribbons. The thyrsus was usually a spear decorated with
vine leaves, whose point excited to madness, as described in Smith's
” Dictionary of Antiquities.” The worshipping woman is laying
down burning hearts on the altar, which has an ass's head (Phallic
86
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
sign), and a serpent of passion twining round it. The true offering,
however, is brought by a lad who offers a pine cone and a basket
containing two Phalli with flowers. Such gems can be duplicated
by hundreds out of museums, but most are too natural for produc-
tion here. Payne Knight, Fig. 3, Plate III., shows another gem,
representing a nude woman offering Phalli instead of hearts on an
altar.
Payne Knight goes on to say: "In an age therefore, when no
prejudices of artificial decency existed, what more just and natural
image could they find by which to express their idea of the
beneficent power of the Creator than that organ which endowed
them with the power of procreation and made them partakers not
only of the felicity of the deity, but of his great characteristic attri-
bute, that of multiplying his own image.’*
Fig. 89
In fact, it was the creative organs which made man equal to
his god, in that (although he individually could not live for ever)
he, by the exercise of his creative power, could cause the continuity
of life, or “ life eternal,” of which the Phallus was everywhere
the symbol.
Payne Knight says: ” Perhaps there is no surer rule for judging
than to compare the epithets and allegories with the symbols and
monograms on the Greek medals, and to make their agreement the
test of authenticity ” [that is to say, the poets so wrapped up their
ideas in fine allegory that one must look to the medallists’ represen-
tations in the concrete to get the true idea]. ” The medals were
the public acts and records of the State, made under the direction
of the magistrates, who were generally initiated into the mysteries.
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
87
-
We may be assured that whatever theological and mythological
allusion as found upon them, were part of the ancient religion of
Greece,”
Mr. Knight’s plates are full of copies of medals, etc., which
cannot be reproduced here, but which illustrate the sexual act in
the most realistic manner. (Plate IX., Fig. 9, from the island of
Lesbos, or Plate X., Fig. 2, 5, or 8, all Plates II., III., f.o., which
conclusively prove the universal practise of the cult in Greece.)
The early Greeks were not fond of conventional symbols, but
illustrated everything in fine sculpture of the human body (like the
sculpture of the Cave of Elephanta), so that it is quite impossible
to reproduce their illustrations here.
One of their ideas is widely held in Britain at this day. They
considered that the nude human body was the most beautiful thing
on earth, and, like the Irish, a sight of it, especially female, brought
luck. (See pp. 43-44, 96.)
But Selene, or Diana the Moon, was considered, on account of
her cold light, to be extremely chaste, and she was always beautifully
draped. Hence, to see her nude, being a difficult thing to
accomplish, and only possible when newly-born like a human
baby, was absolutely sure to bring good fortune. Many of our
modern young people, on seeing the new moon for the first time,
wish a wish, and it will come true ” some day.” But it is of no
use if the moon is seen through glass, as Diana is then ” veiled,”
and no luck can ensue. She must be seen nude.
This wide-spread belief in the good fortune of the female emblem
and in seeing it without a veil is the basis of the story of Susannah
and the elders. As the story stands in the Bible it is a piece of)
obscenity, but like seeing the moon without a veil, it takes its place
as a popular myth when viewed as a variant of the ” luck ” pertain-
ing to all things feminine. It is similar to modern Sakti worship
and that of the emblems at the doors of the Churches (pp. 26 and
96).
The Greeks practised their Sacti or Saturnalia rites, performed
mostly by night, in their “ sacrifices ” to Bacchus, and Knight says :
” Then acts of devotion were indeed attended with such rites as
most naturally shock the prejudices of a chaste and temperate mind,
not liable to be warmed by that extatic enthusiasm which is peculiar
to devout persons when their attention is absorbed in the con-
templation of the beneficient powers of the Creator, and all these
faculties directed to imitate him in the exertion of his great charac-
teristic attribute. To heighten this enthusiasm the male and female
saints of antiquity used to lie promiscuously together in tb e temples,
88
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
and honour God by a liberal display and general communication of
his bounties.**
The extent to which this cult was practised in Greece was shown
by the thousand sacred prostitutes kept at each of the temples of
Corinth and Eryx. So great was the fame of Paphos in Cyprus
for the practice of the rites of Venus or Aphrodite, that the word
Paphian is used as symonymous with prostitute in our modern
dictionaries, and ” Paphos and Paphia,** as Lingam and Yoni, or
as male and female prostitutes of the temples.
The early Christian religion was full of this, and even now
revivals are not free from erotic passions, as may be gathered from
statistics of illegitimacy after a wave of religious frenzy has spread
over the country.
In ** Rivers of Life,** I., 502, we learn that Bishop Theophilus
of the early Christian Alexandrian Church, Alexandria being now
thoroughly Greek, turned out and destroyed all the mysteries of
Serapis. idols and gods, and had the Phalli of Priapus carried
through the midst of the Forum ; that is to say he turned out
the male symbol, the rock or stone pillar, the ” Tsur,** “ Zur,” or
** Sar ** symbol of the Bull “ Apis,*’ the symbol of male force (the
rock that begot thee, of the Old Testament, Deut. xxxii., 18), and
set up the real bisexual human symbol, the Peor apis or Priapus of
the Latins, representing both male and female organs. (See p. 229.)
Sacrifice, which simply means ”to make sacred,” was a word
used to designate not only the killing of men or animals to purge
away sins, but latterly, when that had fallen into disuse, was used
to indicate temple sexual intercourse. The writer of “Idolomania”
says, ” On a silver tridrachm of the island of Lesbos, in M.
D’Ennery's cabinet, is a man embracing a woman, and on the
reverse a Phallus or cross, which shows us clearly,** says Forlong,
“what holy ceremony or ‘sacrifice* these symbols signified.**
Payne Knight gives an illustration of this medal.
The presentation of the Phallic idea by the Greek was too direct
and natural for illustration here. They revelled in the nude, but
always beautifully presented.
The omphallic or double~sexed idea was also very frequently
expressed in Greek works of art. For instance. Votive offerings in
the Terra Cotta Room of the British Museum, are represented by
tablets, in which a woman presents a cock, and a man presents a
bowl,—each symbolising the double sex.
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
89
PHALLISM IN ROME.
PHALLISM in Rome was carried on under the title of worship of
Priapus, and was accompanied by obscene ceremonies.
Some derive this word from the Greek “ Briapos,” “ loud sound-
ings,” but I believe it to be derived from Poer Apis, the Phallic
emblems of Palestine and Egypt combined. Both were provinces
of Rome, and the conquerors adopted many of their words, just
as we have adopted the Phallic names of India or Greece. Their
native familiar words, having an indecent sound, they cloaked their
religious practice under borrowed words, as we do.
Tree and serpent worship flourished in Rome from before 600
B.C. down till the time of Constantine, and was so powerful that no
ruler could oppose it. That such worship was entirely Phallic is
shown by the fact that, in the grove of the Dodona Jove, the virgins
had to approach the sacred serpent, with its food, in a state ofl
absolute nudity, thus creating the bisexual symbol, and its manner
of taking the food was the oracle on which they judged of the
prosperity of the coming year. But the significant fact is the juxta-
position of the nude female and the serpent forming the Lingam-
Yoni or bi-sexual combination. Fergusson says that serpent shrines
were everywhere, and the Roman maidens proved their chastity by
offering food to the sacred serpent of the Argonian Juno, on the
grove of the temple of Argiva, about 16 miles from Rome. If the
food were accepted they were considered pure, and certain to be
fertile.
The lares and penates of the Romans were Phallic emblems,
sacred by having been the objects of worship by their forefathers.
Many historians are astonished when they come across passages
which show that these ” household ” gods were merely stones.
Forlong derives the word lares from Larissa, the great City of
Lares, or Yoni worship, emblematically shown on the seal [Fig.
40. p. 63J.
The word penates is, on the face of it, Phallic, the medical or
Latin word for Phallus having the same base. They were not
human images at all, but were Phallic emblems which were
anointed, as Mr. Glover tells us in the ” Conflict of Religions in the
early Roman Empire,” when he speaks of the black Lares,
90
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
“ trickling with unguent,” a condition of the Lingam altars in India
described as disgusting by Forlong and Oman, who were familiar
with the sight in India for thirty years.
The old Hebrew custom of anointing Lingams to show their
lively condition, is carried out in India to the present day with
” Ghi ” (melted butter), milk, honey, wine, and water, leading to
filthy conditions. Glover pictures to us one form of the Roman
worship of lares and penates. ” The child would see his mother
pale at her prayers to the sacred stone that stood by the house. He
would,—raised on his nurse’s shoulders,—press his lips to the stone
and ask riches from the blind rock.”
We see that as man became more civilised and clothed, these
Phallic rites were considered wrong or immoral, so that, as always
happens when any practice is made penal, it is at once debased;
and the awakening morality of the Romans rendered their Phallic
worship much lower and more conscious of its degrading influence
than it was in the early times, as in Egypt, when the population
practically went naked. The description of Phallism in Greece
may almost stand for that in Rome, but we may, perhaps, quote a
description of the Liberalia of the Romans.
Payne Knight (pp. 154, 155, and 156) thus describes the Roman
Phallic festivals:—
” Besides the invocations addressed individually to Priapus, or
to the generative powers, the ancients had established great festivals
in their honour, which were remarkable for their licentious gaiety,
and in which the image of the Phallus was carried openly and in
triumph. These festivities were especially celebrated among the
rural population, and they were held chiefly during the summer
months. The preparatory labours of the agriculturist were over,
and people had leisure to welcome with joyfulness the activity of
Nature’s reproductive powers, which was in due time to bring their
fruits. Among the most celebrated of these festivals were the
Liberalia, which were held on the 17th of March. A monstrous
Phallus was carried in procession in a car, and its worshippers
indulged loudly and openly in obscene songs, conversation, and
attitudes, and when it halted, the most respectable of the matrons
ceremoniously crowned the head of the Phallus with a garland.
The Bacchanalia, representing the Dionysia of the Greeks, were
celebrated in the latter part of October, when the harvest was
completed, and wer6 attended with much the same ceremonies as
the Liberalia. The Phallus was familiarly carried in procession,
and, as in the Liberalia, the festivities being carried on into the
night, as the celebrators became heated with wine, they degenerated
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
91
into the extreme of licentiousness, in which people indulged with-
out a blush in the most infamous vices. The Festival of Venus was
celebrated towards the beginning of April, and in it the Phallus
was again carried in its car, and led in procession by the Roman
ladies to the Temple of Venus outside the Colline gate, and there
presented by them to the sexual parts of the goddess. This part
of the scene is represented in a well-known intaglio, which has
been published in several works on antiquities. At the close of the
month last mentioned came the Floralia, which, if possible, excelled
all the others in licence. Ausonius, in whose time (the latter half
of the fourth century) the Floralia were still in full force, speaks of
lasciviousness.
" Nec non lascivi Floralia laeta theatri, Quae spectare colunt
qui voilusse negant. Ausonii Eclog. de feriis Romanis.
" The loose women of the town and its neighbourhood, called
together by the sounding of horns, mixed with the multitude in
perfect nakedness, and excited their passions with obscene motions
and language, until the festival ended in a scene of mad revelry
in which all restraint was laid aside. Juvenal describes a Roman
dame of very depraved manner, as:—
“ Dignissima prorsus
Florali matrona tuba."
Juvenalis. Sat. VI. 1. 249.
“ These scenes of unbounded licence and depravity, deeply
rooted in people's minds by long established customs, caused so
little public scandal that it is related of Cato the younger that,
when he was present at the celebration of the Floralia, instead of
showing any disapproved of them, he retired, that his well-known
gravity might be no restraint upon them, because the multitude
manifested some hesitation in stripping the women naked in the
presence of a man so celebrated for his modesty. The festivals
more specially dedicated to Priapus, the Priapeia, were attended
with similar ceremonies and similarly licentious orgies. Their
forms and characteristics are better known because they are so
frequently represented to us as the subjects of works of Roman
art. The Romans had other festivals of similar character, and
some were celebrated in strict privacy. Such were the rites of the
Bona Dea, established among the Roman matrons in the time of
the republic, the disorders of which are described in such glowing
language by the satirist Juvenal, in his enumeration of the vices of
die Roman women."
92
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
Like the Greeks, the Roman medals, sculptures, bronzes, and
paintings, are so absolutely naturalistic that no illustrations can be
given here, but the cult was universal. The Romans had very
frequent Phallic feasts, Liberalia, Floralia, Lupercalia, Vulcanalia,
Fornicalia, Bacchanalia, Dionysiaca, Maternalia, Hilaria, Priapeia,
Bona Dea, and Adonai, when all bonds were loosed.
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
93
PHALLISM IN EUROPE.
As might be expected from the complete saturation of all Roman
religion with Phallism, they carried this cult all over Europe in
their great campaign of conquest, and, in consequence, Phallic
emblems are found in all ruins of Roman cities in Europe, not
excepting Britain. In fact, in dredging rivers like the Seine or
Thames, many Roman metallic Phalli have been found, some even
fitted with a safety pin for a brooch, showing they were worn in
public, but all much too gross and realistic to reproduce here.
(Payne Knight).
Before the advent of the Romans there is no doubt that the
Druids carried out the worship of sex in their rites, but we have
very little direct proof, as the arts had not been developed suffi-
ciently among the rude people of Britain. (See Fig. 21.)
The Germanic nations had a great Phallic pillar, called Irmin
Sul, or Herman Sul, “Sul,'* “Sur,” or "Tsur," Rock of God,
representing the great Sun God, or rock, “ Sul," " Sur," and
" Tsur " being the same (pp. 88, 241), which they all worshipped
at stated periods, making pilgrimages from great distances ; and
which Sir Edward Creasy says was the Palladium of their liberty.
Probably it was an ancient Phallic column.
The Phallic pillar in Dorsetshire, already illustrated (p. 56), and
celebrated by Thomas Hardy, is no doubt a Druid monument.
Owen Morgan, in his " Light of Britannia," shows the Phallic
meaning of the story of Arthur, of course, mixed with sun worship ;
as all sun heroes have 12 knights at a round table, the 12 months
of the year, or 12 labours, etc. We will deal with this under sun
worship.
When Arthur (Arthur, the Gardener Adam) came to die, he
threw away his sword, Excalibur, which Morgan gives as meaning
the " Phallus which swelled no more," or was dead, like all suns
in winter, when the fertilising power was dead. Arthur became
deified to the common people, and there are people in Wales now
who believe that King Arthur will return. (Daily Chronicle, June
20.1912).
All over the Continent are found these Phallic symbols, but the
cult, as shown, openly on public monuments and on the pillars
94
-
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
of theatres and places of amusement, seems to have reached its
most violent expression at Nismes, in Southern France. It is quite
impossible even to describe in words the crass and weird forms in
which they placed these emblems, whole capitals of columns having
been formed of Yoni carvings, and anyone interested must refer
to the '* Catalogue du Musee secrete de Nismes ” of Auguste Pelet,
or gain admission to the Museum itself, or consult Knight. These
were erected in all solemnity by the magistrates.
It will be seen that the Phallic cult reigned as completely in
Europe as it ever did, or does in India, Egypt, or Babylon, and was
expressed more crassly. There are echoes of it even to the present
day, as shown by certain customs in Italy.
We shall see that the Phallic emblems were allowed to remain
publicly exposed on Churches in Ireland till the end of the 18th
century, and curiously, in Italy, gross Phallic votive offerings were
still encouraged in the Roman Catholic Church down to about that
date, as was shown by the famous letter of Sir William Hamilton
to Sir Joseph Banks, President of the Royal Society.
This showed the absorption of an old Pagan cult into the Church.
The Church was one near a little town called Isemia, and was
dedicated to St. Cosimo and St. Damian. There is a great fair,
and an exposure of the relics of the Saints, followed by a great
concourse of people. In the city at the fair, wax Phalli were offered
for sale. The devotees bought them and carried them to the
Church and deposited them in a large basin in presence of the
Canons of the Church. These offerings were chiefly presented by
the female sex. “ They repeat their wishes at the time of depositing
the wax model along with some money. One was heard saying,
* Blessed St. Cosmo, let it be like this.* They pray also for the
restoration or invigoration of other organs, and the priests sell an
invigorating oil to be rubbed on the thighs and adjacent parts.'*
No fewer than 1,400 flasks of the oil having been sold at the fair
of 1780. (Here is Phallic worship in full swing in the Holy Roman
Church in 1780.) Another Phallic procession which I witnessed in
the early eighties, and which is still practised, although the Italian
Government has tried to suppress it, is that of St. Rosalie, at
Palermo, in Sicily. The descriptions by Dr. Oman of the Phallic
processions in India (pp. 37-41) pretty well describe that of Palermo.
St. Rosalie is honoured in the Catholic Calendar on September
4th, and an antique image of the saint is carried round the town
practically all night, and Phallic dances and practices are freely
indulged in till the image is re-housed. It seems to be simply the
old Bacchanalia, Saturnalia, Liberalia, or Lupercalia, still continued
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
95
from ancient times. When attempts are made to stop the practice
there is always trouble, as the people resist the interdict of their
pleasures.
I quote here from a newspaper cutting of 1905, when an attempt
at reform was made.
EXPRESS.
“ HONOURING ” PALERMO’S SAINT.
St. Rosalie is honoured in Calendar September 4th.
(From our Correspondent.)
Rome, Tuesday (1905).
In pursuance of local custom the Palermo annual festivities of
Santa Rosalia, patroness of the city, are celebrated by all-night
opdh-air processions, escorting the antique image of the saint kept
in the Cathedral. Owing to abuses consequent thereon the new
Archbishop, Mgr. Lualdi, ordered this year that the image be
brought home and deposited in the Cathedral on the stroke of
midnight. At two o’clock in the morning the image was still on
the road, surrounded by fanatical and intoxicated crowds, who
ever and anon executed weird and disgusting dances around the
effigy to musical accompaniment.
The ponderous statue of Rosalia was eventually escorted to the
Cathedral on the shoulders of Carabinieri amidst the jeers and hisses
of the saint’s devotees.
96
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
PHALLISM IN IRELAND.
The stone monuments show us that Phallic serpent worship was
very widely carried out in Ireland, and no doubt the expulsion of
snakes by St. Patrick (they never were expelled) refers to the
Christian cult replacing the old Phallic worship with its snakej
symbolism. But Christianity, as we shall see, was not a pure
religion, but a compromise, and it adopted all pagan rites too
strong for repression. So in Ireland Lingam-Yoni (snake) worship
went on till the end of the 16th century.
Ireland was full of sacred stones, and, even on the pillars of the
Church doors, there were sculptured naked women and men, but
more frequently women, exposing themselves. This was done so
that the people, by gazing at the sign of eternal life, might avert
the “evil eye,” or that the sign, like the horse shoe, its modern
form, might “ bring luck.” They are too gross for reproduction
here ; some were removed at the end of the 18th century, and
placed in the Dublin Museum ; others were destroyed. As in the
case of the Greek coins and Nismes sculptures, these sculptured
nudities, placed so prominently on the Churches, were not the
mere impulse of a private citizen in erotic moments; they were
the symbolism of a cult, and a belief expressed deliberately by the
Church Authorities or Magistrates. Had such ideas not been held
and respected by a large part of the population they would never
have been allowed to be exposed in such a public position.
Payne Knight says:—“ The practice of placing the figure of a
Phallus on the walls of buildings, derived as we have seen from the
Romans, prevailed also in the middle ages, and the buildings
especially placed under the influence of this symbol were churches.
It was believed to be a protection against enchantments of all kinds,
of which the people of those times lived in constant terror, and this
protection extended over the place and over those who frequented
it, provided they cast a confiding look upon the image. Such images
were seen usually upon the portals, on the cathedral church of
Toulouse, on more than one Church in Bourdeaux, and on various
other Churches in France, but, at the time of the revolution, they
were often destroyed as marks only of the depravity of the clergy.
Dulaure tells us that an artist, whom he knew, but whose name he
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
97
has not given» had made drawings of a number of these figures
which he had met with in such situations. A Christian Saint exer-
cised some of the qualities thus deputed to Priapus, the image of
St. Nicholas was usually painted in a conspicuous position in the
Church, for it was believed that whoever had looked upon it was
protected against enchantments, and especially against that great
object of popular terror, the evil eye, during the rest of the day.
It is a singular fact that in Ireland it was the female organ which
was shown in this position of protector upon the Churches, and
the elaborate though rude manner in which these figures were
sculptured shows that they were considered as objects of great
importance. They represented a female exposing herself to view
in the most unequivocal manner, and are carved on a block which
appears to have served as the key-stone to the arch of the door-
way of the Church, where they were presented to the gaze of all
who entered. They appear to have been found principally in the
very old churches, and have been mostly taken down, so that they
are only found among the ruins. People have given them the
name of Shelah-na-Gig, which we are told, means in Irish, * Julian
the Giddy,* and is simply a term for an immodest woman, but it
is well understood that they were intended as protecting charms
against fascination of the evil eye. We have given copies of all
the examples yet known in our Plates XXIX. and XXX. The first
of these was found in an old Church at Rochestown, in the County
of Tipperary, where it had long been known among the people of
the neighbourhood by the name given above. It was placed in the
arch over the doorway, but has since been taken away. Our
second example of the Shelah-na-Gig was taken from an old Church
lately pulled down in the County Cavan, and is now preserved in
the Museum of the Society of Antiquaries of Dublin. The third
was found at Ballinahend Castle, also in the County of Tipperary,
and the fourth is preserved in the Museum at Dublin, but we are
not informed from whence it was obtained. The next, which is
also now preserved in the Dublin Museum, was taken from the old
Church on the White Island, in Lough Erne, County Fermanagh.
This Church is supposed by the Irish antiquaries to be a structure
of very great antiquity, for some of them would carry its date as
far back as the seventh century, but this is probably an exaggera-
tion. The one which follows was furnished by an old church
pulled down by order of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, and it
was presented to the Museum at Dublin, by the late Dean Dawson.
Our last example was formerly in the possession of Sir Benjamin
Chapman, Bart., of Killoa Castle, Westmeath, and is now in *
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
98
private collection in London. It was found in 1859 at Chloran, in
a field on Sir Benjamin’s estate, known by the name of the * Old
Town,* from whence stones had been removed at previous periods,
though there are now very small remains of building. This stone
was found at a depth of about five feet from the surface, which
shows that the buildings, a church no doubt, must have fallen into
ruin a long time ago. Contiguous to this field, and at a distance of
about two hundred yards from the spot where the Shelah'na>Gig
was found, there is an abandoned churchyard, separated from the
* Old Town * field only by a loose stone wall.” (Knight, pp,
131-134.)
Some were shown holding the symbolic bowl in a middle
position, instead of exposing the actual organ [Fig. 39, p. 63].
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
99
PHALLfcM IN CHINA.
In spite of the fine teaching of the Rational Confucius, which forms
the Official National Religion (pp. 347-354), the old faiths run on
in China, and underneath them all is the old tortoise, serpent.
Phallic idea, representing the continuity of life. In fact, as
Confucius did not teach a spiritual eternal life, the old symbols were
never displaced nor even modernised or toned down, with the
result that, in translating the Christian Bible, the idea of God could
find no expression in Chinese but that of Lingam-Yoni, or in Chinese
Yin-Yang. It was necessary in China to get the ruling powers to
legalise the publication of the Christian Bible, and they did so the
more readily, as it taught the great Confucian golden rule (Do to
others, etc.).
But, as the Rev. G. McClatchey wrote in the “China Review/*
in 1872 and 1875, “ the worship which permeated the whole heathen
world still exists in China.** (He forgets, or does not know that
Phallic worship, as 1 shall show, not only permeates, but is the
basis of Christianity.) The old Phallic god (Shang-ti) is still repre-
sented under the same two indecent symbols, viz. : Keen or Yang,
which is the Phallus or Membrum Virile, and Khwang or Yin, or
Pudendum Muliebre, or Yoni of Hindus, and Juno of the Greeks
and Romans. The Rev. Mr. McClatchey*s protest arose over the
origin and proper translation of the God idea. The Taoists of
China offered sacrifices to the lords of heaven, earth, and war ; to
the lords of the **yang and yin operation** (reproduction), to the
sun, moon, and four seasons. Thus sexual worship existed there,
as in India,. Babylon, and Egypt, and, in fact, all over the world.
Forlong shows that Shang-ti was the old Phallic god of Yang
and Yin, and his symbol, like the Egyptian Pharoah of old, was the
multiple phallus written in Chinese cgf (see Fig. 84, p. 79), with
the Phalli reversed, however.
The double Phallus is clear, and the post on which they lie is
also a Chinese Phallic symbol, as Ti the creator (with whom Shang
often interchanges) and Is Represented by the well-known Phallic
symbol for man, also used all over the world, the like the
swathed Osiris or Ithyphallic Min, or Osiris (Fig. 83), and other gods
of Egypt. They even had a Lingam-Yoni symbol complete in this
100
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
£ the double Phalli and the ark ; the inverted Y, ^ thug
on which the Phalli rest, being the ideogram for the two-legged
man. The upper part is the female ark, or barred systrum (pp.
70, 80, etc.).
Mr. McClatchey protested against the Christian God being
called Omphal6, or Hermaphrodite, or Yang-Yin, or Lingam-Yoni,
but his objections were over-ruled, as the Chinese censors said that
no gods could be found in any religion but were founded on this
sexual base; so *' Shang-ti," or “ Yang-ti,” or “ Yang-yin,” all
meaning Lingam-Yoni, is the God of the Christian Chinese Bible,
as it was the God of the Hebrews.
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
101
PHALLISM IN JAPAN.
We may take the Japanese and Chinese Venus (Fig. 90) as an
illustration here. It includes the entire cult.
•tramcrura. *•»xvu
fttfMMtf «WN«K»«4 ti>i jsfiN, is vam *u hwm — am rtut uruMwns
‘ * - - Si m-- •» •-•
ir«Mf JMSMrfi*. *•«?> “Ymmtf Ymm." «r Jfe* f«a* Ibaam.
Fig. 90
In the centre will be seen the bowl symbol with the Yoni-like
opening (see Figs. 38, 39, p. 63). This form was common, and the
“ eyes ** all over the Bible Cherubim and Seraphim were Yonis.
102
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
Kwan-yon, whose name signifies “ Yoni of Yonies,” is also
“ Queen of Heaven ” (like Mary), “ Lady of Plenty,” “ Goddess of
a thousand arms,” and a ” hundred synonyms.” This plate
(Fig. 90] was drawn carefully by one of her worshippers, nearly
two hundred years ago, for Dr. Kaempfen, for his ” History of
Japan,” 1726, Plate V. She sits on a lotus (emblem of fertility),
under her lord the Shang-ti, “ Cloudy Jove,” “ Ell Shaddim,” or any
of the hundred names the male creator is called. The male is
here quite secondary to the female, as was the case in many early
religions—the mother god is supreme (pp. 161 >170 and 324). She
has the ” golden vial ” containing all the treasures of the gods in
her lap, containing the water of life, the tree of life also, while over
all broods Ti Shang of watchful eye, supported by two of the
thousand arms of his Ruach Aleim, or Mother of the Gods (Genesis),
without which nought is or can continue to be. ” This picture,”
says Forlong, ” is a complete arcanum of the whole vast mythology,
both spiritual and material.”
It details nearly every concrete idea of the Phallic faith, it is
also a symmetrical and philosophic whole, from the solar Iah
sitting on his cow-clouds, down to the Lotus (or Womb) base rising
from the waters of fertility. She is the ” Jewel of the Lotus,” that
“gem” which so puzzled not only European scholars but some
modern Buddhists, but is only a euphemism for her energy or
omphalos. In her hair is also shown the Yoni in the ” Jewel of
India ” form. The dot on her forehead is the Shang, or second
hieroglyphic, necessary to complete the ineffable name of the
Chinese creator.
She has also the ark or burning bush, the female emblem with
its ” fire,” the chakra, or solar swastika, or prayer wheel, the Book
of Life, and beads typifying religion and piety. With open hands
she distributes fruit, flowers, and Yoni loops, or joys (as on Indian
trees, p. 49). She wears crosses, and has the Bystrum, bow of love
(arrow is Lingam), and Lotus buds, as Goddess of Love.
-
She is represented as Diana’s hare (opposite to her lord as
the Solar Cdck), each of which is inclosed in a circular nimbus,
showing its supreme importance. There is a censer of sacTed
fire on her right, and vial of the gods on her left, while die male
emblem, from Wales (p. 93) to Japan,—the sword,—is held aloft.
She has also the distaff of womanhood and other emblems. Finally
she has the Christian cross twice repeated, hung round her neck.
This form of Venus is still the most worshipped deity of China
and Japan, and her name is Legion, sometimes represented as
Diana, “ Multi mammae,” sometimes as a mass of babies growing
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
103
out of her fingers* toes* and whole body, sometimes as a fish goddess
moving in a Phallic sea holding a Lingam* as we see here [Fig. 91J.
” Kyoto* the Japanese capital* rejoices*’* says Miss Bird* ” in
33*333 representations of the Goddess Kwan-Yoni, described as
pre-eminently the hearer and answerer of prayer or mediatrix* like
the Virgin Mary.” (Miss Bird's “ Japan," p. 64. Forlong, ” Rivers
of LifeU., p. 537.)
Three of the most widely used symbols of Phallic worship are
used as signatures.
The Plough is used by Indian Princes,
The Triform Leaf by Buddhists, and
The Cross by Christian Bishops.
Every nation considered itself the most important, and was the
” Navel ” of the world.—At Dublin, the Irish navel was placed
where five Provinces met, and was called Uis Neach ; and here
the first sacred fire had been lighted. On this hill stood their Phallic
stone* Ail-na miream, that is ” The stone of the Parts.” The
Arran Islanders have still a black stone they take out now and
again and worship, especially during storms, as they are fishermen.
Finally* we find serpent worship, Virgin worship, and all Phallic
emblems all over the Malay Peninsula and in Central America*
Mexico, Peru, etc., showing the cult to be universal, but I have
given sufficient for my purpose, which is to illustrate the effect of
the great nations in building up the ideas embodied in the practice
of the Jews, as described in the Old Testament.
These practices were entirely Phallic, but are sometimes so
disguised by euphemism* and deliberate alteration of texts caused
by Milton’s ” insulse rule ” (p. 41) that, without the knowledge of
the practices of other surrounding nations from which the Jews
got their religious idea* we should have great difficulty in making
any sense out of the involved and contradictory text of the Holy
Writ.
CHAPTER IV
SUN WORSHIP.
The worship of the Sun and all the heavenly host, gradually
absorbed, and sometimes replaced, the Phallic worship—not,
perhaps, in the affections of the people, but, as the priestly and
official religion of the great countries.
We have only to look at our naming of the days of the week,
and to the fact that we worship our God on Sunday, the day of the
Sun. God’s day is the Sun’s day. The days are named from Sun,
Moon, and Planets.
But so completely did astronomic mythology govern chronology,
that not only were the days named from the host of heaven, but
the hours also.
In Egypt, as in Babylon, the order of the heavenly bodies began
with the most remote, and followed the order: Saturn, Jupiter,
Mars, the Sun, Venus, Mercury, and the Moon. Each hour of the
twenty-four was consecrated to one of the heavenly bodies. The
first hour being that of Saturn, it follows that the eighth, fifteenth,
and twenty-second hours would also be Saturn’s. Then the
twenty-third would fall to Jupiter, the twenty-fourth to Mars, and
the first hour of the second day would fall to the Sun. In this
way the first hour of the third day would fall to the Moon, the first
of the fourth day to Mars, of the fifth to Mercury, of the sixth to
Jupiter, and of the seventh to Venus, our Friday.
The cycle having been completed, the first hour of the eighth
day would return to Saturn, and so begin a new week. Thus was
our present rotation of god names said to have been created. The
week was thus fixed at seven days, but whether or not, this was
the first method of reckoning it, is not known. No doubt the
quarters of the moon*gave the week roughly; then the .five planets
smd sun and moon fixed the seven days and possibly the above
complicated system was only inaugurated later, as the ancients
were always searching for *' cycles/*
CHRISTIANITY
105
The day of the worship of the principal god, generally the Sun,
lias, at one time or another, occupied a position in every day of the
week.
Sunday by the Christian.
Monday ,, ft Greeks.
Tuesday ,, t * Persians.
Wednesday s t Assyrians.
Thursday „ I* Egyptians.
Friday ,, 1 9 Turks.
Saturday ,, 99 Jews.
The English names are derived from those of the Saxon gods.
The Saxons derived their week from the Babylonians, whose
mythology over-ran all Europe, but they substituted the native
names of their gods or heavenly host for those of the Babylonians.
The Latin names, founded on the Babylonian, are still used in Justi-
ciary Acts in Britain, and are still quite legal.
LATIN. ENGLISH. SAXON.
Diet Solis Sunday Sun's day
„ Lunae Monday Moon's „
,, Marti* Tuesday Tiw’s # „ God of War, Mars.
,, Mercurii Wednesday Woden's ,, Messenger of the Gods, Mercury.
i. Jovis Thursday Thor's „ God of Thunder, Jupiter.
,, Veneris Friday Frigga's „ Goddess of Beauty, Venus, Frcya. Father of the Gods, Ancient of Days.
„ Saturni Saturday Setern's ,,
Jn countries where the Roman Catholic Church rules, the
prelates have managed to get the pagan Sun’s day renamed. The
day of the Sun was fixed as a day of rest for Christendom, by the
Code of Justinian, about 530 A.D., where it is laid down:—“ Let
all the people rest, and all the various trades be suspended, on the
venerable day of the Sun.” The Roman Church finally changed
the Christian Holy Day from Saturday to Sunday.
At what date the Church managed to oust the Sun and intro-
duce ” Dies Dominicus,” the Lord’s Day, I have not been able
to ascertain, but probably it was a gradual process, the priests
using the ” Lord’s day ” term (as they all do in Britain now) until it
titered down to the people. The change won no favour amongst
106
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
the people in Britain, but to the Latin peoples the alteration was
not so great, as the Sun is, after all. Lord, or Dominicus, of the
heavens. How completely the Church has done its work is shown
by the following:—
English. French & Belgian. Italian. Spanish. Portuguese. Roumanian.
Sunday Dimanch (Dies dom- inicus) Lundi (Moon) Domenica Domingo Domingo 1st Dominica
Monday Lunedi Lunes Segundo 2nd Luni
Tuesday Mardi (Mars) Mercredi (Mercury) Martedi Martes Terca 3rd Marti
Wednesday Meicoledi Miercoles Quatra Quinta Sesta 4th Miercuri
Thursday Yeudi (Jupiter) Vendredi (Venus) Giovedi Yueves 5th Yoi 6th Vineri
Friday Venerdi Viernes
Saturday Samedi (Saturn or Sabbatto) Sabato Sabado Subado 7th Sambata
Here the Sun is blotted out, as all these nations had their Sun’s
day before the interference of the Church. It should be noticed
also that they have all kept the old Babylonian Sabato, Saturn’s
day, Sabbath, or “ day of no work.” Although Christianity, in
order to kill paganism, changed the day from that of the venerable
Saturn to their new ” Lord,” the Sun, many nations still considered
the old Saturday, or Sabato, sacred, and it was held as a ” half-
holiday,” in semi-recognition of its holy character.
In Scotland the ” rigidly righteous ” looked askance at any one
who in my young days said “Sunday.” They felt there was a
pagan taint about the idea of worshipping God on the Sun’s day.
In austerity of sentiment, however, the Scotch were more allied to
the Jews than to the Christians, so there was a struggle as to how
Sunday should be named.
Some people, especially the ” Highland Host,” spoke with
bated breath of the “Sabbath,” while the Lowland parsons and
“evangelical” churchmen hung out the “Lord’s day” banner.
Happily, neither gained the victory, and we can still take our rest
and recreation on the day of the glorious Sun. The Saxon nations
refused to accept the Roman gods, as witness the English, German,
and other Northern nations.
English. German. Dano- Norwegian.
Sunday Sountag Sun Sondag
Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Montag * Moon Dienstag Serve Mittwocn Mid-week Donnerstag Thunder Freitag Freia Samstag Saturn Mandag Tisdag Onadag Tovsdag Frida* L&rdag
Dutch. Magyar or Hungarian
Zondag Vasarnap Sun's day
or market
of Sun
Maandag Hetfo
Dinsdag Kedd
Woensoag Szerda Middle
Donnerdag Caotorok
. Vrijdag Pentek
Zaterdag Szombat
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
107
Here we see the Sun ruling die week, and it is the Holy day.
The Germans leave out the war god's name, but, practical as ever,
they call it ** Service ’* day. We know what being in the “ Service "
means. The use of Sonnabend (Sun Eve) for Saturday, like our
Christmas Eve, shows that the Germans held their Sun as sacred
as we do our Christ.
The Dano-Norwegian Saxons show traces of their ancient
worship of Saturn by calling his day Baptism day.
The Magyar shows a flavour of Turkish in the word market in
Sunday.
The Greeks follow the Babylonian nomenclature for all the
days, except Sunday, when they substitute their Kurios, Sun or
Spirit, for the Sun. This is the word used in the New Testament,
and translated Lord or God in our Bible, so, with the early Christians,
Sun and God were the same. The Armenians follow both Greek
and Turkish methods.
CREEK. ARMENIAN.
Sunday Kuriake Kurake Sun
Monday Selene (Moon) Second day of week Here they follow the Greek
Tuesday Are* War Third day .. .. Turks.
Wednesday Hermes Mercury Fourth ii M ii ii
Thursday Zeus Jupiter Fifth i» •• ii m ti
Friday Aphrodite Venus Urpat .. •» .. .1
Saturday Sabbaton Saturn Shapat from Sa batum.
Here, again, we see Babylonian influence, as Urpat, Friday, of
which the etymology is unknown, is also called by the Armenians
“ Shapatamad,” preparation for the Sabbath. This shows that
their Holy day was, in early times, the Babylonian Sabbath, our
Saturday.
There are two nations which have a very disturbed nomen-
clature, and these are Russia and Poland. They seem to have
started with the usual Babylonian nomenclature, for they both
retain die Sabbath, or Day of Rest, day, called here *' no work ’*
day. Long before Christianity, the Sun began to replace Saturn
as the principal deity, and the Sun’s day became the Holy day and
the first day of the week. It was at first called Nedelya, or " no
work ” day, in die native tongue, so they had two names as days
of rest, Saturday and Sunday. As I have pointed out, this is dimly
reflected in Scotland and elsewhere with its half-holiday Saturday
and “ no work.” Sunday. This, however, did not satisfy the
Russian Popes, whose religion lays more stress on the Resurrection
106
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
of Jesus than on His Divine birth, so they changed their Sunday
to Resurrection day, as here shown
English. Sunday Russian. Vosseressenye Resurrection Polish. Niedziela Not doing or do
Monday Ponedelnik Day Day after Poniedzialek nothing day Day after not
Tuesday Vtornik Nedelia or after ** no^ work day." Second day Middle of Wtorek doing day Second
Wednesday Sreda Sroda Middle
Thursday Tchetverg week) Fourth day Czwartek Fourth
Friday Piatnitsa Fifth day Piatek Fifth
Saturday Subbotta Sabbath Sobota Sabbath
The Monday name still shows the old name of Sunday, but
the striking point is that the Romans, with all their force, never
got Dies Saturnii accepted in place of the Babylonian Sabato, even
in the most Romanised countries. In Russia, the Resurrection idea
comes out strongly at Easter, where everyone is greeted on Easter
Sunday with 44 Christ is risen,4’ and replies, “ Christ is risen indeed.”
Hence, Resurrection Day.
The fury of Mahomet swept away the old day-names from the
Arabic, Persian, and Turkish nations, and all the poetry of their
nomenclature has disappeared. They are mere lists.
English.
Sunday
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Arabic.
First day
Second ,,
Third M
Fourth ,,
Fifth „
Juma(h)
Sebt (Sabbat)
Persian.
Yekshambih or
Day one
two
„ three
M four
,, five
iuma(h)
so Adma Venus's
day
Shamba or Shambi
(Sabbat)
Turkish.
Market day
The day after Market
day
Sale
The day j°U'penUn
m t» nve
Juma(h) Day of
gathering
The day after
Juma(h)
The week in these tongues is Usbu (Arabic), Hefte (Persian), and
Hafta (Turkish), all meaning a period of seven days.
The one fact which stands out prominently is the wonderful
influence of the old Babylonian Sabbath, which remains in every
language of importance, except the severely Mohammedan Turkish.
But they still retain the Indian Friday, Juma or Venus.
When we go to the East, to the great Empire of India, we find
the sun still triurnphant. The day names are as follows:—
English. Indian.
Sunday Ravi (Sun)
Rabi-bar
Yak-Shamba (Sun)
Hindustani. Sanskrit.
Aditya (Sun) or Like Roman
Aitwar, or Ithar, God of Sun
from Adit, sun,
and bar, day
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
109
English. Monday Indian. Hin dustani. Sanskrit
Soma (Moon) Som-bar Pir, Indu-bar Chandar-bar Moon
Tuesday Mangala (Mars) Mangal Mars
Wednesday Budha Budh-(bar) Mercury Tupiter
Thursday Vrihaspati Suka-(bar) Juma(h)rat
Friday Juma(h)war Shamba or Yauma-s-sabt, or Venus
Saturday Sani-bar Sanichar Saturn
Bar, Var, or War, mean day, and may be added to or omitted
from the name of the day. Each day has three or four vernacular
names, for instance, Saturday has Sanichar, Sanibar, Yauma-s-saht,
Shamba, Bar (day), Hafta (week), and Awwal-i-Hafta.
Going still further East we find the Chinese and Japanese still
staunch sun-worshippers.
English.
Sunday
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Chinese.
Sing—Sun or Star
Yuek—Moon
Hwo—Fire
Shui—Water
Muh—Plant
Kin—Metal
Tu—Mineral
Japanese.
Nichiyo-~Sun
Getsuyou—Moon
Kayo—-Fire
Suiyo—Water
Mokuyo—Tree
Kinyo—Metal
Doyo—Earth
A glimpse of the adoption of Saturn's day as the Holy day in
the East is obtained in the account of the creation of life in the
Hindu legends.
Life was brought forth by Siva by a great churning of the White
Sea. It was churned for 10,784 days, 12 hours, and 18 minutes,
the time of revolution of Saturn, as computed, perhaps, 10,000
years ago, as against 10,759 as computed by modern astronomers,—
a fair approximation.
But Saturn's period may have shortened since the Hindus fixed
their legend.
Saturn's day was, therefore, the day rendered holy by the bring-
ing forth of life, as Saturn was the father of the gods, and it spread
westward, from India, the world's religious mother.
The death of Saturn, on Thursday, Thor's, or Jupiter, the King
of the gods' day, and his resurrection on Saturday, Saturn's day, is
still celebrated, in the name of Jesus, in Holy Week at Rome (see
p. 333).
The Babylonians carried out this worship of the host of heaven
in the construction of their temples of seven stories, each story being
dedicated to a planet or sun or moon, and coloured the sacred
colour of this heavenly body. The Chinese continue this worship
to the present day (pp. 129, 352).
HO
-
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
All tribes and nations have worshipped the sun as the supreme
deity at some period of their development, and thus the sun myths
have sunk deep into their folk lore. Later on, their observations
showed them that the Solar movements were in accordance with
law, and by no means erratic, or free willed, so they conceived
that the sun was only representative of some great power hidden
from man (The Amen of Egypt). Then came the great period of
Sun Gods, slain annually by the cold of winter, or by the tooth or
boar of winter.
Martianus Cape 11a said of sun worship, “ Under a varied
appellative the whole world worship thee " (Doane, p. 507, “ Bible
Myths ").
In short all nations worshipped Sun Gods—Surya and Buddha
in India, Merodach in Babylon, Phoebus, Serapis, Osiris, Mithra,
Dis, Typhon, Atys, Adonis, Dionysius, Apollo, Bacchus, Hercules,
Mercury, Tammuz, Horus, Theseus, Romulus, Cyrus, Crishna,
Indra, Ra, Perseus, Minos, Dyaus (Dyaus Pittar), Zeupiter. Jupiter,
Baldur, Quetzalcoatle, Vishnu, Dagon, Prometheus, Ixion, Frey,
CEdipus, /Esculapius (the Healer, “Healing on his wings*’), Hu
and Hesus, of the Druids, Beti, Budd, and Breddu-gre (Druids),
Brahm, Dyonysus, Izdubar, and Kephalos.
The races who have left their mark on the history of religions,
and who over-ran India, Western Asia, and Europe, are those of
the Steppes of Asia. There the conditions of life were hard, and
man had the great education of a very real struggle for existence.
There also the difference in the seasons, caused by the inclina-
tion of the earth's cuds, and by the great distance from the ocean
(the great equaliser of temperatures), impressed the people strongly
with the beneficence of the sun.
Their winter was very severe, and only by the return (re-birth)
of the sun annually were they saved from death. Hence arose the
legend of the death of the sun in mid-winter, and his immediate
re-birth, expressed by the Greeks in one of their beautiful medals j
one side of which showed the aged sun as a bald-headed Bacchus
(Sun God) falling into the sea, and on the other the beautiful babe
Bacchus, with a nimbus round his head, being born out of the
mouth of a dolphin (delphys womb).
Bacchus became degraded (as all sun gods do) into the God of
Wine, and his fetes became drunken orgies, but he was originally the
beneficent sun who. ripened the fruits, and hence. God of Wine;
from which, indeed, is derived the English name of< all-our-gods#
angels, prophets, or even parsons,—** divines/* deivini, ** Gods of
Wine." Jesus was the ** True Vine/*
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
111
The sun myth is really the story of the sun’s course during the
day, or during the year* because the sun is also born every day as
Well as every year,—but whether yearly or daily, it is born of the
dawn, represented universally as a beautiful virgin.
Hence, all sun myths begin by having the sun born of a virgin,
Maya in India meaning dawn, also delusion or mirage, as the rosy
delusive dawn so quickly dissolves into the reality of day. Thus
the names of many of the mothers of the gods, as this myth spread
to the West, were corruptions of Maya, such as Mylitta, Myrrha,
Myrrina, Maria, Mary, Mervyn, Morven, Miriam.
The ancients did not see any appreciable movement of the sun
towards the North, till 25th December of our Almanac, so that is
the date of the birth of all suns and the return of light, and is
celebrated by us by candles on our Christmas trees, and by the
“Feast of Lights’* of the Jews, on 25th December, a very old
custom the Hebrews borrowed from Babylon.
Jesus, as we shall see, was supposed to have been born on 22nd
or 25th of September, the Jewish New Year, when the Virgin of
Israel was in the sky, but the Roman Church called in a fictitious
Dionysius, “the little” {pp. 329-330), to reform the calendar, and
he put the Divine birth on to 25th December, so as to agree with
the “ Natalis Invicta Solis ”—“ Birth-day of the unconquered Sun,”
whose festival was held at the winter solstice by all the pagans.
Saint Chrysostom in his Horn. 31, early in the 5th Century, says:
“ Oh this day also, the birthday of Christ was lately fixed at Rome,
in order that the Christian rejoicings might coincide with the Pagan
Birthday of the invincible one Mithras ” [the Sun] {pp. 126, /30).
Then follows a miraculous infancy, when wicked kings (cold
months of January, February, etc.) fear the growing babe, and seek
to take his life. He finally overcomes the storms and cold of winter,
and passes over the equator from the earthly or winter half of the
year* to the heavenly or paradisical half, at the equinox. This is
th$ 44 Passover ” time, or cross over, or crossification, finally
crucifixion, and is a compromise between the new year held by
some tribes at the winter solstice, and by others at the equinox.
The Sun-babe is born at the winter solstice (Xmas), and is re-
ceived^ with great rejoicings as he comes to save man from starva-
tion, and drive away evil (cold of winter), but the good weather
docsnot come* then; hi* final triumph over winter is not consum-
mated till after the Spring Equinox. Although crucified, crossed
over, he spIUlvesand slowly ascends into heaven,—so this ascension
te qay*r VCfyt clqady dated, as he is ascending from 22nd March
Thg sim is truly crossed over or crucified to the
sslvatioii of mankind.
112
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
In the English ritual they give him the usual holy six weeks,
or forty days on earth after resurrection, then comes Ascension
Day, as stated in Acts i. 3. But, as Easter depends on the moon, hie
actual ascension varies about a. month.
This myth is the basis of the great majority of religions of the
temperate portions of this earth, as we shall see, and especially
of Asia, Major and Minor, where we will find over twenty savioure
having been crucified, or crossed, or passed over, in the Spring to
save mankind. They were crucified on no earthly cross, but " on
the Cross of the Heavens,” as the Christian Fathers said of Jesus.
This annual sun-journey occurs also daily, and, in fact, it was
the daily birth and daily death, and the 12 hours in the tomb or
passing back through the underworld, which first struck the early
races, and gave rise to the myths of the gods, especially Egyptian.
Naville tells us in ” Records of the Past,” XII., 80, that Ptah Totu-
men, the Sun Creator, generated the gods every day.
The sun myth is so obvious and so universal, and has been
treated by so many writers exhaustively, that it will not be necessary
to enter into its history or details here, as I shall have occasion to
go over it again when showing its effect on the Christian cult. In
every religion the sun is called the “ Light of the World,” the
” Life Giver,” and in many the ” Creator,” descriptions palpably
true; hence comes the blending of the two great cults. As we
have seen, the Phallus was held to be the "life giver” by the
mass of the people. But without the sun no Phallus could create
” life ” or support it. Hence, with growing intelligence, the Solar
religion gained ascendency amongst the thinking people, but the
old Phallic cult was too deeply and intimately embedded in human
thought to be replaced in the minds of the rude peasantry by the
more philosophical speculation. From this arose the great com*
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
113
bined SoIophaUic cult, so well illustrated by Forlong in his " Rivet
of Life,” II., p. 448, where he shows the serpent as being the
conventionalised sign of both Lingam-Yoni and the sun [Fig. 92].
The serpent having gradually become the Phallic sign, and this
idea of life creator or upholder having been transferred by the
astronomer-priests to the sun, the old symbol was applied to the
new god, the sun. Hence, we find authors writing on " sun and
serpent.” C. F. Oldham (Constable), 1905.
Thus, we find that, as the sun was the upholder of all life, even
that of man, tree worship, which was generally only church
worship (see pp. 16-17), and serpent worship, became quite sub-
ordinate ; as without the sun there could be neither trees nor
serpents. Even man was dependent on the sun, which thus became
the universal father. Everywhere he is called the " Shining One ”
and ” Sky Father,” as Jupiter, but sometimes the sky only. The
Dyaus, ” Sky ” of the Hindus becomes the Zeus of the Greeks, and
Deus of the Romans, also Zu, or Ju, or Iu, giving Zu pitar sky
father of the Babylonians, or Ju pater the sky father, or sun of the
Romans. The only thing the sun did not seem to do was the act
of reproduction (except mythologically), and so the Phallic faith was
never displaced, but ran parallel with the solar, forming the Solo-
phallic religions with a serpent as a symbol for both sun and Phallus
(p. 112, Fig. 92). There is no rational connection between a serpent
and the sun, this symbolism having arisen from the serpent being a
symbol for the upholder of life (pp. 230-231)—the sun and the Phallus
having equal claims to this title viewed from the different stand-
points of life generally in the case of the sun, and man’s life
particularly in the case of the Phallus.
In nearly all lives of mythical or semi-mythical heroes (for many
heroes were founded on some prominent human soldier, poet,
king, lord, or priest), we will find the number 12 taking a prominent
part. They have 12 Disciples or Apostles, 12 great labours
(Hercules), and in many religions the inner great circle of gods is
limited to 12 immortals. These are the 12 months (or moonths,
revoludons of the meon) forming the solar year, and we will see the
great confusion which arose because there were not exactly 12
revolutions of the moon round the earth to one revolution of the
earth round*the sun.
Doane (p. 498) quotes the following:—12 great gods, 12 apostles
of Osiris, 12 Apostles of Jesus, 12 sons of Jacob, 12 tribes, 12 altars
of James, 12 labours of Hercules, 12 shields of Mars, 12 brother
Arvaux, 12 God consents, 12 Governors of the Manichean system,
12 Amos of dte Scandinavians, 12 Adectyas of the East Indies, 12
I
114
CHRISTIANITY; THE SOURCES
gates to the City in Apocalypse* 12 sacred cushions on which
Japanese deity sits, 12 precious stones in the priest’s Ephod* see
Dupuis, pp. 39 and 40, 12 Knights at a round table ; the round
table is the year.
The ** Sura Kund ” (Sun’s Wife), in the South-West part of
Benares, is a sun well, and is said to have originally consisted of
12 wells. The day of 24 hours was divided into 12 hours of two
modern hours each by the Babylonians, but as more ignorant
nations divided night from day, the light from the darkness (which
they considered a substance), giving each a separate god, they
gave each half of the day 12 hours, as at present. This change
was no doubt acceptable, as the two hour period is much too long
for human appreciation. From this relation of the time of the
orbit of moon and .earth (the ancients thought it was moon and
sun) came the superstition still very prevalent of the unlucky number
13. The year contained 12 whole months and a broken or unlucky
one. There are 12 months which recur every year, and the sun ;
which dies every year, slain by the cold of winter. Hence, one
of a group of thirteen must die within the year.
In those nations which held a circle of twelve Immortal gods,
a thirteenth must be mortal or subject to death ; hence, in a society
or group the thirteenth was destined to die. Christians founded
this superstition on the twelve Apostles and Jesus,—one must die.
The history of the active life of Jesus is confined to one year, like
•the sun, and the life of Jesus is a variant of the sun myth, like
Melchizedek or Enoch. Jesus was a “priest for ever after the order
of Melchizedek,” repeated seven times in Hebrews V., VI., and
VII. (see p. 260).
The ancient people, seeing that the earth brought forth flower
and fruit only when the sun returned from winter, wrote of the
Spring Sun returning as a bridegroom ; so every saviour, including
Jesus, was likened to a Bridegroom. In the Spring feasts in India,
as Dr. Oman shows (pp. 39 and 45), the principal actors have the
peculiar hat on their heads worn by the bridegroom only, on his
wedding day. Thus were the Phallic and the Solar ctilts linked up.
In modern times, at the close of the most ignorant and bigoted
time in the history of the world, it was Sir Isaac Newton who
suggested to the modern world what was well known to the ancient,
namely, that the" Christian festivals were determined upon an
astronomical basis. But the hold of dogmatic theology, burnt into
his mind in yotith, was too strong for him, and he closed his eyes
to the inevitable inference, and* like his other brethren in science,
Faraday and Kelvin, he declined to submit the basis of his faith
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
115
to the test of his understanding. It is strange to see men of high
Intellect accepting, as beyond all doubt and criticism, statements
which, if enunciated by a scientific experimenter, would be received
by these same men with ridicule and contempt, and as being utterly
unworthy of even a serious refutation. It is pitiful to read
Newton’s silly lucubrations about the book of Daniel and the
Apocalypse. Such facts illustrate the tremendous strength of early
education and of the mirophilic sentiment.
The day assigned to the birth of the Sun God of all the other
religions was the same as that assigned without a particle of proof
by the Church, to the birth of Jesus. Jesus, according to the
evidence of the Bible, was born in Autumn, but the Christian Church
of the Roman Empire had to alter that and make His birthday that
of the “Unconquered Sun,” as otherwise his Divinity would not
have been accepted (pp. ///-//2, 329).
King, in his “ Gnostics “ (p. 119), says : “ The old festival held
on the 25th day of December in honour of the birth day of the
Invincible One, was afterwards transferred to the commemoration
of the birth of Christ, of which the real day was, as the Fathers
confess, totally unknown.”
I only mention this now to show the great hold the sun god
worship had all1 over Europe, as the powerful Church of Rome
had to bring their dogma about the “ Christ ” to agree with pagan
mythology.
The religions of the great nations of antiquity had the Sun God
as the chief god, and the sun’s attributes gradually became per-
sonified in minor gods. The young suns annually born were all
“sons of Jove,” and so they were destined to die. Justin Martyr
says : “ Suffering was common to all the sons of Jove.” They were
called “Slain ones,” ’’Saviours,” “Redeemers” (p. 307). As all Sun
Gods died and came alive again, or were re-born to save mankind,
they are all called Saviours; and, as there was only one sun at a
time, they were called “ the only begotten son,” long before Jesus.
As the sun was absolutely essential to life on this earth, he was
called the “ Alpha and the Omega/*
Todd, to take one amongst all astronomers, in his “ New
Astronomy,” says:—“Man in the ancient world worshipped
the sun. Primitive peoples who inhabited Egypt, Asia Minor,
and Western Asia, from four to eight thousand years ago,
have left, on monuments, evidence of their veneration of the
Lord of Day. Archaeologists have ascertained this by their re-
searches into the world of the Ancient Phoencians, Assyrians,
Hittites, and other nations now passed from earth. A favourite
-
116
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
v >*<?».
representation of the Sun. God was the * Winged Globe,* or
‘Winged Solar Disc,’ types of which are well preserved on the
lintels of an ancient Egyptian shrine of granite in the Temple of
Edfu.
** In the Holy Scriptures are repeated allusions to the protecting
wings of the Deity, referring to this frequently recurring sculptural
design; and we know that if his life-giving rays were withheld
from the earth every form of human activity would speedily come
to an end.
“ The sun is important and magnificent beyond all other objects
in the Universe. The more primitive the civilization the more
apparent is the dependence of man upon the sun.”
That sun worship is still practised in India is shown by Dr.
Oman to be the case, not only with the pure Hindus, but also by
the Sikhs. He described a visit to that most beautifully-placed
temple, the Golden Temple of Amritsar, and says: ” Proceeding
along the North side of the pool ” (the Temple is artistically situated
in an artificial lake) ” we encountered at one place a Brahman
worshipping tiny images of Ganesh and Krishna ” (the Phallic God),
” at another a representative of the same hereditary priesthood
engaged in adoration of the sun.” Note also the combination of
Solo-Phallic worship, Ganesh and Krishna. Dr. Oman goes on to
say: “At the north-east comer of the tank in the umbrageous
shelter of a fine Banyan tree we came upon a temple of Siva repre-
sented, as usual, by a Lingam, which in this instance was about four
inches high with a brass bell over it ” (the bell being a Yoni, the
two gave the “ eternal life,” Lingam-Yoni combination). (” Cults,
Customs, and Superstitions of India,” p. 97.)
Dr. Oman calls this the ” Most sacred spot on earth. It is the
great temple of the Buddhists, believed by five hundred millions to
be built on the exact spot on which, seated in the shade of a spread-
ing Bo-tree, Gautama Buddha, known also as Prince Siddartha, the
Sakya Muni, attained enlightenment some four hundred years before
the Christian era.” It is situated at Gaya, near Bankipore.
Describing this famous shrine, the Mecca of all Buddhists, Dr.
Oman says: ” It is built in the form of a pyramid of nine storeys,
embellished on the outer side with niches and mouldings. Facing
the rising sun is the entrance door way, and above it, at an elevation
greater than the roof of the porch which over adorned the temple
there is a triangular opening to admit the morning glory to faU upon
the image in the sanctuary,” exactly as is described by Josephus
m die case of the Hebrew Tabernacle. (“ Cults, Customs, and
Superstitions of India,” p. 38.) The triangular form of the opening
is derived from the lotus seed-pod, th esymbol of fertility (p. 55).
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
117
We shall see this arrangement carried out equally by the most
ignorant savages, and the most civilised priesthood, all over the
world. In a rapid survey ending with the worship of the sun's
disc on Roman Catholic altars of the present day, Hislop says,
" The Two Babylons,” p. 162 :—" Let the reader peruse the follow-
ing extract from Hind, in which he describes the embellishments of
the Romish altar, on which the sacrament or consecrated wafer is
deposited, and then he will be able to judge :—A plate of silver in
die form of a sun is fixed opposite to the sacrament on the altar,
which, with the lights of tapers, make a most brilliant appearance."
(Hind's 44Rites and Ceremonies, p. 196, col. 1.) “ What has that
brilliant sun to do there on the altar, over against the sacrament or
round wafer? In Egypt the disc of the sun was represented in
the temples, and the sovereign and his wife and children were
represented as adoring it. Near the small town of Babain, in Upper
Egypt, there still exists in a grotto a representation of a sacrifice to
the sun, where the priests are seen worshipping the sun's image as
in the accompanying woodcut.” (From Maurice's 44 Indian
Antiquities,'' Vol. III., p. 309 ; 1792.) [1 give here the more lately
discovered example of Khu-en-Aten.]
“ In the great temple of Babylon the golden image of the sun
was exhibited for the worship of Babylonians.
" In the temple of Curzco, Peru, the disc of the sun was fixed up
in flaming gold upon the wall that all who entered might bow down
before it. (Prescot’s ‘‘Peru*** Vol. I, p. 4.)
; " The Paeonians of Thrace were sun-worshippers, and in tbeir
worship they adored an image of die sun in the form of a disc at
the tip of a long pole.
118
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
“ In the worship of Baal, as practised by the idolatrous Israelites,
the worship of the sun’s image was equally observed, and it is
striking to find that the image of the sun was erected above the.altar,
“ When the good King Josiah set about the work of reformation
we read that his servants in carrying out the work of reformation
proceeded thus (2 Chron. xxxiv., 4): And they take down the
altars of Baalim in his presence, and the sun images that were on
high above them he cut down.”
Benjamin, of Tudela, the great Jewish traveller, gives a striking
account of sun worship even in comparatively modern times as
subsisting among the Cushites of the East:—“ They worship the
sun as a god, and the whole country for half-a-mile round the town
is filled with great altars dedicated to him. They worship the rising
sun on altars provided with a consecrated image, and everybody,
men and women, hold censers in their hands, and all burn incense
therein.” From all this it is manifest that the image of the
sun above or on the altar was one of the recognised
symbols of those who worshipped Baal or the sun. “And
here,” says Hislop, “in a so-called Christian Church, a
brilliant plate of silver in the form of a sun is so placed
on the altar that every one who adores at that altar must bow
down in lowly reverence before that image of the sun ; and when
the wafer is so placed that the silver sun fronting the ‘ round'
wafer—whose ’ roundness ’ is so important an element in the
Romish mystery, what can be the meaning of it but just to show
that the wafer itself is only another symbol of the sun!”
The naming of the groups of stars through which the sun
wandered is lost in antiquity, but no doubt there was a good reason
for the names, either the season of the year, the planting of crops,
or they may have been totem names of tribal chiefs with Phallic
symbols. The latter seems probable, as the names are mostly those
of animals, and this band of stars was called the Zodiac, which
means belt of animals or belt of life.
Our Zodiac has Ram, Bull, Twins, Crab, Lion, Virgin, Libra,
Scorpion, Archer, Goat, Aquarius, Fishes.
The Chinese is Mouse, Cow, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Serpent,
Horse, Ram, Monkey, Chicken, Dog, and Pig.
Both have Ram, Bull or Cow, Serpent or Scorpion, and Lion or
Tiger, all Phallic, and Libra or Ballance was actually the Phallus
ip: 79). .
The mapping out of the entire heavens for both Hemispheres into
constellations has only been done systematically in comparatively
modern times, although all the brighter stars and groups had names
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
119
and legends from very early times. When the early astronomers
tried to get a systematic classification of the motions and changes
in the relation of the heavenly bodies to the earth and the seasons,
they found, no doubt, an almost impossible task before them; in
fact, the problem was insoluble till the time of Bruno, Galileo and
European astronomers, who gave the true explanation of the
observed phenomena.
The Greeks in Egypt, of the time of Ptolemy Soter, had been
driven, by a consideration of astronomical facts, to a true solution,
and placed the sun in the centre of the system and made the earth
subordinate to it, and, as they had measured an arc of latitude in
Egypt, they knew that the earth was round, and calculated a fair
approximation to its size.
The overwhelming of all knowledge by the advent of ” Spiritual **
religion, and the rejection of all knowledge not ” miraculously re-
vealed,** quickly crushed out the spirit of science begun so well at
Alexandria, and brought in the true dark ages.
The Alexandrians (notably Hero) and Archimedes had com-
menced the study of steam and electricity, and, had such a spirit
prevailed, the world might have been civilised 1800 years ago, but
the spirit which gained power was one which put the wildest visions
of faith before the evidence of the senses, and declared that instead
of close reasoning and scientific investigation, one only required
faith to arrive at the truth. And, in fact, it declared that the most
meritorious individual was he who could bring himself to believe
the most incredible statements or miracles. The more incredible,
the greater the merit. The Alexandrian Greeks stood out for
knowledge, but the world went mad on Mirolatry, which led to
the dark ages.
Of the Roman Catholic Church, in the 19th Century, the
” Encyclopaedia Britannica,’* 1911, Vol. XXIII., p. 494, says :—** If
it was a merit to believe without evidence, it was a shining virtue
to believe in the teeth of evidence,” so Paul's dictum still rules
the Catholic world.
All the great nations, however, had gradually created an
astronomical science for themselves by observation.
The Babylonians had organised their astronomical science so
well that it was famous throughout the ancient world. Lenses have
been found in the ruins, but they are small and do not prove that
the Babylonians had telescopes.
The science began in Accad. The Zenith was fixed above
Elam. Observations were made in Ur, Chaldea, Assur, Ninevah,
and Arbela, and the Astronomers Royal had to send on their reports
to the king twice a month. Here are some of their results.
120
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
Stan named and numbered.
Calendar formed and kept.
Division of heavens into degrees.
Twelve months of 30 days. Zodiacal signs about 2200 B.C.
Year of 360 days, with intercalary month added every six years.
Week of seven days date from very early period.
Constellation names can be traced to Babylon.
Seventh day was day of rest, “ Saturn.”
The day was scientifically divided into 12 ” Casbu ” of two
hours each, thus agreeing with the monthly motion in the annual
Zodiac; one day was thus recognised as the same revolution as
one year, as the same constellations were passed over. This
division of the day was more scientific than ours. All eclipses were
carefully observed.
The ignorant Hebrews could not understand and appreciate, as
other nations did, the wonderful science of the Babylonian
astronomers, and looked on all their elaborate studies for date
keeping as mere necromancy. They were afraid of this power, and
cried out against the ” Astrologers, star gazers, and monthly prog*
nosticators ” (Isaiah xlvii, 13).
They had a very poor or debased art, their pottery being
described in ” Underground Jerusalem,” 1912, as ” the dreariest of
all Ceramic series.”
The Chinese still have the Babylonian hour of 12 in the 24 hour
cycle.
The English have a relic of sun worship in their Spherical
Christmas Plum Pudding with its spirituous flames representing the
sun.
It is the remains of a feast or Eucharist such as is described
on the next page, promising that although the sun is dead at the
winter solstice, yet it will return in all its flaming glory of summer,
with its rich treasure of food and fruit to the joy of mankind.
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
121
BABYLONIAN RELIGION IN EUROPE.
SUN WORSHIP.
IT is marvellous how, in prehistoric times, the religion of Babylon
dominated not only Western Asia, but all Europe, even into remote
Scotland and Scandinavia (pp. 104-109).
We have seen their Sabbato, Holy day, or day of rest, domin-
ating the week all over Europe from prehistoric times.
In Scotland the last day of the year is called Hogmanay, and
there is a celebration in the morning, now only held by children,
connected with the eating of " bun," a rich cake, made almost
entirely from fruits, such as raisins, almonds, and currants.
The children come joyously to their parents' room, very early,
and with rude symbols for music, poker and tongs for a violin, a
metal tray for a drum, etc., make a great noise, and sing, without
showing much reverence for their mother :
"Get up old wife and shake your feathers.
And dinna think that we are beggars,
For we are bairns come out to play,
Get up and gi'e us our Hogmanay.”
This is not intended disrespectfully, but is the Scotch peasant's
expression of humour.
In Babylon, the last day of the year was called " Hogmanay,"—
the Festival of the Numberer (moon), when he had completed the
computation of the year ; and there was a sort of sacrament or
service held, in which " buns ” were eaten. Notice the wonderful
duration of these words. These buns were baked of dried fruits,
and were a promise that, although the sun was dead, and all
nature still in the dread grasp of winter, these fruit cakes were
a Eucharist, sacrament, or hopeful reminder that summer and fruit
would come again. Here we see old religion reduced to children’s
games.
Again, all over Scotland, up till recently, on the 22nd of June
(die summer solstice), when the sun is in his greatest glory, fires
were kindled, just as they were in Babylon, and the children, and
122
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
also grown-up people, rushed or jumped through or over these fires,
“ an old remnant of the human sacrifices to the Sun God.” Now
these fires were called Beltane fires, or fires of Bel in Babylon, and
are so called still in Scotland. The practice still exists in Ireland
(see Ellis’s ” History of Ireland ”). The persistence of the word is
striking, and would have been impossible in any advanced nation.
The very isolation and ignorance of the early Scots has resulted in
the preservation of the word.
In Scandinavia and Germany an error of translation reveals the
Babylonian source of their God Heimdal, who, they said, was born
of nine Virgins (Virgin birth with a vengeance). In Chaldea the
phrase “Son of the Virgin of Salvation” is Ben-Almet-lsha, the
Almet being the Virgin, Uma our Alma Mater, ” Virgin Mother ”
of learning, the University. But Ben-Almat-Teshaah sounds
exactly the same, but means “Son of nine Virgins,” so the mistake
arose, but it shows to us the origin of the Scandinavian God.
The God Adon of Babylon seems to have gone round the world,
as he is the Odin and Woden of Scandinavia and Britain, as well
as the Adonis of Greece, and even reached Mexico as Wodan.
The Mexicans had a Wodan’s day, as we have a Wednesday.
The Chinese and Hindu people had their Zodiacs. The Arabs,
owing to their constantly cloudless skies, were earnest students of
astronomy, and had a Zodiac, as also had the Egyptians. This
was improved by the Greeks, and we have the Greek Zodiac as the
basis of our astronomy.
The star names in use in astronomy are in great part Arabian,
and the Arabs or Moors kept the lamp of science alight in
astronomy, chemistry, mathematics, and botany, when Europe was
plunged into darkness with its mirodoxes.
Although we have no proof of the reasons for which the names
were given to the star groups of the Zodiac [Zoo, or Belt of Life],
it is probable that most of the signs were originally Phallic. Ram,
Bull, Lion, Goat, Twins, Ballance, Scorpion, and Fishes are all
widely used symbols of fertility, while other signs in the neighbour-
hood of the Zodiac, such as Virgo, Bootes (Adam) and Serpent
refer to the Phallic story of Eden. The virgin, the joy of man's
life is placed in the happy spring time, but to connect these earthly
matters with the heavens in the way they have been connected is
a matter requiring much study. The constellation of Virgo, to take
an instance, is not visible in Spring, having been lost in the sun's
rays. The sun always, or nearly always, masculine, and his rays
were looked upon (as they are) as the cause of the fructification of
the earth, or in other words, the sun marries the earth in Spring,
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
-
123
the young sun being everywhere likened to a bridegroom, (as all
Sun Gods are, even Jesus), and His bride, is likened to a beautiful
fruitful garden (as the Romanists still call the Virgin Mary). Now
when they noticed that the groups of stars in the Zodiac all passed
in rotation behind or over the sun, and were lost in his rays, they
named the group in the middle of the paradisaical or garden part of
the year the virgin with whom the sun dwelt at this part of the year;
or, as the sun moved amongst them all, the sun “ visited ” the
virgin in her house. Hence, the Zodiacal constellations were called
the “ Houses of the Sun,” as “ astrologers ” do to this day.
The early observers found the most definite and striking
phenomenon of short period lay in the changes of the moon.
The changes of the year are so gradual that the attention is not
arrested by them as it is by the sudden appearance of the new
moon; and the quick changes of the moon, quite short enough
in time to allow of man’s short memory visualising the course of the
changes, and its so frequent repetition, rendered it the phenomenon
which most vividly arrested the attention of early man. The
moon’s changes became a popular study, as every child could see
them, and of course in the hierarchy of the heavens the moon was
the sun’s wife,—Queen of Heaven,—and her crescent became the
symbol of feminity or the Yoni, and, like the horse shoe, lucky.
Her cold beams made her chaste as Astarte, Diana, or Pallas, but
it was lucky to see her naked, not through a veil, hence, our wishing
for luck at new moon, but she must not be seen through glass (see
P- 87).
The observation of the moon’s phases led to the creation of the
month and week, the week representing the four quarters of the
moon’s complete revolution round the earth. The year was deter-
mined by the earth’s journey round the sun, and was very regular
and fixed, while the periods of the cold inconstant moon had no
relation whatever to the earth’s annual period, and neither of them
had any relation to the day or period of the earth’s rotation on
her axis.
Here was then an inexplicable tangle, and as all nations kept
their time in the infancy of their intelligence by the moon, the
new moon being the only sharply defined phenomenon in the
heavens to mark time, their reckoning of time was a terrible
muddle.
One can understand the young nations using the new moon to
mark time, as it is such a striking phenomenon, and even now
men, women, and children feel a thrill of pleasure in the fine silver
bow in the west after sunset.
124
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
Observant men saw that the new year was determined by the
son alone, yet the times and seasons were reckoned by moons or
months, which had no simple relation to the year, so commenced
the muddle of calendar keeping. This generally resulted in the
gradual recession of the fixed “ New Year’s Day ” over the year,
and the beginning of the year which all scholars of every country
well knew was at the Winter Solstice, gradually crept later, till it
was in some cases fixed at the Spring equinox, or gradually travelled
to mid-summer or even to the Autumn equinox; or, as was the
case with the Jewish New Year, kept circulating round the entire
year with no fixed relation to the seasons. The Jews were the least
scientific nation of antiquity—all other nations tried to patch up
their calendars, but the Jews having no instruments, making no
observations, and taking all their ideas, religious, astronomical and
cosmological, from other nations, could only cling to the only
visible sign marking time periods, and mark the passage of time
by the appearance of new moon, which they celebrated by the
blowing of horns, as we mark our true noon by the sharply defined
booming of a gun, or the more accurate and instantaneous discharge
of an electric current.
Thus, as neither year, month, week, nor day had any definite
relation to each other, calendars were always needing careful
amendment, and so difficult of attainment was the knowledge re-
quired to do this, that most nations kept their dates simply by the
years of the kings’ reigns, or the chief priest’s holding of office.
So strong, however, was the hold that the new moon had on that
accurate and business-like nation, the Romans, that Julius Caesar
allowed the moon to interfere with the reformed calendar. He
took the disorganised calendar in hand, and, by the advice of a
learned Alexandrian Sosigenes, instituted a 365 day year with an
additional day each four years (our Leap Year) to make up the
extra minutes every year over the exact 365 days. But he did not
start the New Year on the Winter Solstice (22nd December), which
he well knew was the true beginning of the year. To avoid disturb-
ance of moon-regulated commercial contracts, and for general con-
venience, he adopted the rule of the moon and started the New
Year by making it commence on the first new moon following the
Winter Solstice, or true New Year.
This chanced to be ten days after the Solstice, and, hence, our
“ New Year ” is not the beginning of a new year at all, but a purely
arbitrary new yeir. We ought once more to reform the calendar
by dropping ten days, making 22nd December the true new year,
and calling it the 1st of January, or Christmas, or New Year’s Day.
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
125
We have at present three celebrations of the Winter Solstice,
or New Year:—(I.) The astronomical or true New Year, 22nd of
December; (2.) Christmas, the universal celebration of the rebirth
of the sun, or the resurrection of the Sun God; and (3.) Julius
Caesar’s moon-fixed New Year, 1st of January.
Many nations held their New Year feast at the date of the
bursting forth of the new vegetation in March, April, or, as in
England, in May. In Rome, about 340 A.D., Christmas was held on
April 21st, in other places as late as May 20th, and at Constantinople
on January 6th.
Sun worshippers were subject to a very wide-spread and curious
superstition. In nearly all countries it has been, at one period of
their civilization, illegal or dangerous or impolite to call rulers,
priests, or higher powers, or Gods by their true names. We have
an example of that in modern times by calling the Sultan of Turkey
the “Sublime Porte” or “Heavenly Gateway,” or the German
Emperor the “ Kaiser,” a Babylonian and Egyptian name meaning
“ God of the Earth,” or the King of Egypt the “ Pharaoh ” or
" Par-aoh,” the “Great Hall" or “Court.” Our Royal Family
is called ” The Court,” exactly the same meaning as ” Pharaoh."
In the Egyptian system of gods, the sun was worshipped,
although, by the learned, the sun was not considered a personal
God, but the manifestation of the Great Amen (or Hidden One), a
power still apostrophised in Christian prayers, and used, as ” God,”
in the Bible. Revelation iii., 14, “These things saith the Amen.”
Isaiah lxv., 16, reference to “God Amen,” mistranslated “God
of Truth.”
But the sun was not worshipped directly, as he, like the kings,
was too holy to be mentioned directly, but was worshipped under
the name and symbol of the ” house,” in which he dwelt in the
beginning of the year. That was thought to be fixed, but as
hundreds of years went past, the sun was found to be leaving his
past ” house ” of the Spring Equinox and entering another owing
to the ” precession of the Equinoxes.” So a new symbol or
house had to be worshipped, and we find that about 4684 B.C.
the sun theoretically entered the constellation of the Bull, or
Apis, or the Latin Taurus, and Ka-Kau, the King with the Phallic
name to which I drew attention on p. 79, brought in the worship
o|-the Bull, about 3485 B.c. But the astronomic priests saw that
the sun was passing from the Bull to Aries, the Ram, or Lamb
(R. and L. are interchangeable), and this took place about the
year 1845 B.C. There then arose priests who said it was only
orthodox to worship the Lamb, and this continued to about
126
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
125 B.C., when at the equinox, the sun passed into the constellation
of Pisces, the Fishes. These dates are theoretical numbers cal-
culated from the present accepted boundaries of the constellation.
But no exact boundaries were known to the ancients—one con-
stellation bordering a litde vaguely on the other, so that the exact
date of change could not be stated. It was only when the sun had
well entered into the new house that the priests would declare a
changed worship necessary. It will pass into the Waterer,
“ Aquarius,” about 2719 A.D. Before 4684 the sun was at its annual
birth in the constellation of Gemini, the Twins. Now the point I
wish to make clear is the effect of all this on the practice of religion.
In the time of Gemini arose the worship of the ” Twins,” and these
came conveniently to represent good and evil, as in Persia, with
Ah'ura Mazda and Ahriman (Rimmon of the O.T.), the Egyptians,
with Osiris and Typhon, the Israelites, with Cain and Abel, the
Greeks, with Castor and Pollux, and the Romans with Romulus
and Remus, each nation which had a Solar worship having its own
Twin Gods or Heroes.
Then came the gradual change to the Bull. The winged Bulls
of Babylon guarding the temples, the worship of the Bull Apis,
Serapis, or Tzur-Apis, in Egypt, and the founding of a “ cow ” city
Thebes, where the left hand, or female, worshippers had their
headquarters. The change to the house of Taurus resulted in the
erection of the Egyptian Venus’s symbol in Hathor, the Cow
(“ Hat—Hor,” the ” House of Hor,” or the Sun God), “ Queen of
Heaven ” and ” Mother of the Gods,” as all Queens of Heaven are,
even the Virgin Mary is the ” Habitation of God ” in the Roman
Catholic religion.
The passage from Taurus to Aries was symbolised in Persia and
other countries by Mithras slaying the ” Bull.” This may also have
related to the annual death of the sun in Taurus, for some examples
show the Scorpion of winter destroying the reproductive power of
Taurus, or the Sun, and the tail of the Bull budding into barley,
promising food for the coming year, like the bun of the Scotch
Hogmanay (p. 121).
In India the Cow became sacred. Then the Spring Sun slowly
passed into the constellation or Aries, Lamb worship came into
existence, and the Lamb of God became the symbol. A little
before the time of Jesus the sun passed into Pisces, the constella-
tion of the Fishes, in the Spring equinox, and the Gospels are full of
Fish miracles, gs all gods were sun-gods, and Jesus was no excep-
tion. His last act in ” John " was to cause a miraculous draft of
Fishes so that the last Meal or Eucharist of his Apostles might be one
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
127
of Fish* thus symbolising him as the sun-god (pp. 280 tod 291). Of
course, there would be great resistance on the part of the priests of
the older symbol to the introduction of the new and greater reluct-
ance by the ignorant people to any change at all. In fact, it was im-
possible to replace the old faith with all its attendant beliefs,
litanies, symbols, and “ revealed Truth," so, as a matter of fact,
the old and the new went on side by side, so that there were an
overwhelming number of temples and priests. So popular did the
Fig. 94
new Ram worship become in Egypt, however, that every village
had its own particular Ram or Lamb Deity. These customs were
adopted by the Hebrews.
So burdensome did this multiplication of priests become that
a reforming King, Amenhetep IV., recognising that all these were
simply symbols of the solar disc (itself a manifestation of the great
hidden " Amen "), tried to unify the religion by introducing the
worship of the Solar disc, and himself took a god name of Khu-en-
Aten (p. //7), or Akhnaton, for it is differently read, " glory of the
Solar disc/’ (Flinders Petrie, Tel el A mama Tablets.) So diffi-
cult was it to overcome the resistance of the priests that he had to
found new temples, and a new capital, in order to have his way,
but no sooner was he dead than his city and temples were destroyed,
and the old multiple plunder of the ignorant people was resumed.
Hie sun was looked up to as the grand Omnipotent centre of the
universe, whose all vivifying power is the vital and sole source of
existence, whether animal or vegetable, on this earth ; the glorious
fountain out of which springs all the pleasures, riches, and good-
ness of life, nay, life itself, and was naturally the great object of
the homage and adoration of mankind. Hence, the sun, says
128
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
Logan Mitchell (*' Religion in the Heavens ”), as we are informed
by Pausanius, was worshipped at Elusis as “ the Saviour.”
Students of religions find the sun myth the central core of
religion everywhere. There are, of course, local elements which
vary the point of view, just as in hot countries hell is an exaggeration
of the discomfort caused by the heat, while in cold countries hell
is frost and snow, an exaggeration of the discomforts of cold, as
these Scotch verses show.
O what hills are yon,—yon pleasant hills.
That the sun shines sweetly on ?
O yon are the hills of heaven, he said,
Where you will never win.
O whaten a mountain is yon, she said,
- All so dreary wi’ frost and snow ?
O yon is the mountain of hell, he cried,
Where you and I will go.
Forlong, in his “ Rivers of Life,” in which he details the
elaborate studies he has made of the worshippings, festivals, and
pilgrimages of religious enthusiasts, in all countries and through all
historic times, has drawn up a curve of the intensity of festal
energy, which I reproduce here, and which shows that these
festivals are absolutely determined by sun worship, being grouped
round the Solstices and Equinoxes.
Sir Isaac Newton stated this fact as early as ] 730, but apparently
afraid of its effect on religious opinions he did not push his discovery
to its legitimate conclusion.
Sir William Jones, in his famous ” Asiatic Researches,” Vol. I.,
p. 267, says” We must not be surprised at finding, on a close
examination, that the characters of all pagan deities, male and
female, melt into each other, and at last into one or two, for it
seems a well-founded opinion, that the whole crowd of gods and
goddesses of ancient Rome and modem Varenya, mean only the
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
-
129
powers of nature and principally those of the sun expressed in a
variety of ways and by a multitude of fanciful names/*
Max Muller, another extremely broad-minded and safe master,
treats the subject so well and fully that I cannot do better than
refer the reader to his lectures on the " Science of Religion,*' p. 298,
for an intelligent sketch of sun worship.
The ancient religion of China was the same which was universal
over the world—the worship of sun, moon, and stars. One very
direct proof of this lies in the fact that both the Chinese and the
Indian Hindoos named their successive days after the seven
heavenly bodies. These were personified and known by allegorical
names, under which their real connection with the stars was lost,
and they became personal deities.
The Chinese were always practical and scientific, so their
emblems did not wander so widely ; but the terms of reverence
and respect with which the. heavenly bodies are spoken of in the
Shoo-King are too extravagant to bear only an astronomical mean-
ing, and we are driven to the conclusion " that the ancient religion
of China partook of star worship.” (See Thorntons History of
Chinar VI., p. 14, col. 50.)
In India, the sun, moon, stars, and powers of nature, were
personified, and each supposed quality of theirs, mental and
physical, had its separate emblem till its Pantheon became crowded.
The Hindoo Pantheon contained Dyaus—the sky, Indra—the
rain giver and fertility, Surya—the sun, the Maruts—the winds,
Aditi—the dawn, Parvati—the earth, and Siva—the sun, as earth's
husband. Krishna was also the sun ; as is shown by this prayer
addressed to him: ” Be auspicious to my lay, oh Chrishna, thou
only God of the Seven Heavens, who surveyest the Universe through
the immensity of space and matter. Oh, universal and resplendent
Sun.” Krishna is made to say: ” I am the Light in the Sun and
Moon, far, far beyond the darkness.” (William Henderson, p. 213.)
In the Maha Bharata, Chrishna is called the Son of Aditi, the
Dawn, and is also called Vishnu, a name for the sun. *
Moore, in his "Hindu Pantheon,’* says: "Although all the
Hindu deities partake, more or less remotely, of the nature and
character of Surya or the Sun, and all more or less directly radiate
from or merge in him, yet no one is, I think, so intimately identified
with him as Vishnu ; whether considered in his own person or in
the character of his most glorious Avatara Chrishna.”
The sun being the giver of life, is always mixed up with Phallic
lore* and Chrishna, like Jove and all Sun Gods, has numerous love
passages with maidens representing earthly attributes or even
K
130
CHRISTIANITY: THE. SOURCES
. *
places. Then we have the promiscuous amours of Jupiter, Her-
cules, Indra, Phoibos, Samson, Alpheips, Paris, and all Sun Gods
forming the great Solo-Phallic cult.
In Egypt the same religion held its sway.
Mr. Le Page Renouf, the leading authority on the religion of
ancient Egypt, in his 44 Hibbert *’ lecture (p. 118), says: “ The
lectures on the science of language delivered nearly twenty years
ago by Prof. Max Muller, have, I trust, made us fully understand
how amongst the Indo-European races, names of the sun, of sunrise
and sunset, and of other such phenomena, come to be talked of and
considered as personages, of whom wondrous legends have been
told. Egyptian mythology not merely admits, but imperatively
demands the same explanation.**
The gods and goddesses of the Persians were also personification
of the sun, moon, and stars. Omenga was the God of the Firma*
ment. He was the Great God of the Persians. Mithra, the
Mediator, was the Sun God. The worship of Mithras, the sun,
survived for many centuries. Pope Leo the Great (440-461 A.D.)
adored the sun from lofty heights, and Christians ascending the
steps of St. Paul*s at Rome turned and made obeissance to the
sun as do our High Church clergy to this day. When the Greek
astronomers first declared that the sun was not a god, but a huge,
hot ball, they were accused of being 44 blaspheming atheists.*’
The Teutonic Norse gods were sun and star deities, and the
worship of the Druids in Britain and France was sun worship, as
shown at Stonehenge.
Doane, from whom 1 have gathered many of these quotations,
says, in his 44 Bible Myths ** : 44 The same worship, sun worship, we
have found in the old world from the furthest east to the remotest
west may also be traced in America, from its simplest or least clearly
defined form among the roving hunters and squalid Esquimaux of
the north, through every intermediate stage of development, to
the imposing systems of sun worship of Mexico and Peru, where it
took a form nearly corresponding to that which it at one time
sustained on die banks of the Ganges and on the plains of Assyria.*9
Researches are always in progress to find explanations of the
orientation of ancient temples and of ancient calendars and Zodiacs,
and they are of the utmost interest, as instanced by the masterly
work of Lockyer in his 44 Dawn of Astronomy,** or by the 44 Ancient
Calendars and Constellations44 of the Hon. E. M. Plunket, but
these have only* rendered certain the well-established fact that all
the nations of the world, at one period <*f the evolution of history,
have based their religion and regulated their practices upon a
deification of the heavenly bodies.
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
131
The description handed down of the Sun God, born of a Virgin
the Dawn, Redeemer of the world in Spring from the cold of winter,
Miraculous Healer, and bringer of Joy, born again after death
(resurrection) the annual return of the Sim from the death of winter,
his twelve labours or struggles, and twelve Apostles or Knights
(12 months) became the basis of the redeemer idea in all countries.
The orientation of churches to the east, where the Redeemer
is daily born, used to be very strictly carried out; but there were
always three methods of orientation, all, however, based on sun-
rise, and having the earliest rays of the sunshine on the sacred
altar. Our own rude temple at Stonehenge was, as we all know,
carefully oriented to the rising of the sun in the Summer Solstice;
and annually we see such paragraphs in the newspapers as I quote
here from one in 1905 :—“ To-morrow, the longest day, the annual
pilgrimage will be made to Stonehenge to watch the sun rise over
the historical circle of Giant Monoliths. It is only on a cloudless
morning that it is possible to see the first rays of the sun glimmer
on the huge stone known as the Friars “ Heel ” (a Phallic, or
masculine pillar), on the outside of the circle, and from thence to
the altar stone (feminine) within. The last time this sight was
witnessed was in 1903." That is a solstitial orientation, as the
temple is placed so that the desired shining of the Sun on the altar
takes place at the Summer Solstice, or longest day, called solstice
or " sun standing," because, having reached the most northern
part of its annual north and south motion, it is supposed to pause or
stand still before it commences its southern journey.
The very word orientation, which is now universally used as
meaning merely the " compass direction " of any building, or the
" lie ” of any rocks, in fact, the “ compass direction " of every-
thing, originally applied only to the " Easting " of a church. Here
we have a sample of the innumerable instances of an ecclesiastical
idea being grafted into the secular language of a nation.
The stone circles like Stonehenge gave us our English word
Church, and the Scotch or Teutonic Kirk. The letter C was K
originally, so circle is kirkle or kirk, and then it became as Ch (as
it is in Italy to-day), hence, circle is chirchle or church. Chaucei
spells it Chirche.
The Churches of St. John (being the mid-summer Saint) are
oriented like Stonehenge, to the north-east.
The second method £s equinoctial orientation, or turning the
churches’to the point at which the sun rises on the 22nd of March (or
nearly identical on 22nd of September), when day and night (as re-
gards the sun) are equal. This is the method of orientation of nearly
132
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
*
all great churches, as St. Peter’s at Rome, Milan Cathedral, Notre
Dame de Paris, Westminster Abbey, St. Paul’s Cathedral, and
nearly all the parish churches of England ; and we know that this
Sun worship, or “ Eastern Position,” is bitterly fought for as a
sacred part of the ritual by the extreme ritualists in England.
The old Basilica at Rome, like the present structure, was oriented
to this Equinox, or East and West, so that, on 22nd March, the
sun at the Equinox shone through the great doors right on to the
high altar. The English Churches are the reverse of this, the)
great window over the high altar is East, so that the worshippers
face the East, and the priests turn their backs to the audience and
bow to the East when necessary.
A third and, at first sight, very puzzling method of orientation,
is that of orienting the Church to the point of sunrise on the day
sacred to the Saint to whom the Church is dedicated. This gives
all sorts of orientation or Easting from the extreme North-East of
St. John to the due East of the Equinoctial Easting, and without the
key to the problem merely looks like careless orientation as there
seems to be no fixed system.
This was the cause of the hopelessness of those who, under
Napoleon I., mapped out the orientation of Egyptian temples, but
all has now been made clear, by showing that the chaos of orienta-
tion was caused by turning the line of the centre of the temple or
church to that point of the horizon where a certain sun god or
goddess rose in conjunction with the sun at a critical date, or even
to the point of rising to the star alone. A clear instance is given
by Lockyer in his ” Dawn of Astronomy as to the orientation of
a Temple of Isis, or Hathor, or Venus, Goddess of Love, which
is clearly announced in one of the inscriptions which Marriette
translates as saying: “She (Isis) shines into her temple on New
Year’s Day, and she mingles her light with that of her father Ra
(the Sun) on the horizon.”
Hathor was called Sothis by the Greeks, and we know from
contemporary astronomers that that is the name for the Star Sirius,
whose Egyptian name was Sept, but in Greek Sothis. Now this
conjunction of Sirius or Sothis with the sun took place about 700
B.C., and Biot, the astronomer, proved that 700 B.C. is the date
of the construction of the great Zodiac in the Temple of Osiris.
Sirius rose at 700 B.C. with the sun on New Year’s Day (which for
strong reasons was Midsummer in Egypt), and she mingled her
rays with that of her father Ra on the great day of the year, New
Year, 20th June, so that such an important event was celebrated
by the building of a temple oriented to the great event.
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
133
TKe precession of the Equinoxes, or the slow movement of the
fixed stars, gradually destroyed this combination which will not
again be true for 25,867 years.
Lockyer tells us that the most important temple in China is
oriented to the Winter instead of Summer Solstice, a rare instance.
Babylonian Temples are mostly oriented to the Solstices, there-
fore, at the latitude of Ninevah and Khorsabad, in a North-Easterly
and South-Westerly direction.
I shall have occasion to show that this was also the case with
the Jewish Tabernacle (p. 244, et seq.). The Temple of Amen Ra
is as perfectly oriented as is St. Peter’s at Rome.
Lockyer shows that temples were oriented to the rising of stars,
and were situated in relation to other temples so as to express the
worship of the host of heaven. The same practice holds with
English Churches, where the stars, however, are called Saints,
though really godlets, or children of God, just as they were in
Egypt, Greece, or Rome.
One disturbing factor, which upsets all this orientation of sun
worship in cities, is that the streets grew up out of mere country
lanes and are not oriented or scientifically placed, and when a new
church is desired, or required, a site cannot always be found per-
mitting of proper orientation, so the church must be ** oriented ”
to the line of the street, as we see in the new Roman Catholic
Cathedral at Westminster, which lies nearly North and South.
The architect sacrificed the orientation of this important ecclesi-
astical edifice to the exigencies of land and street.
The Sphinx sits ever watching for the sunrise at the Equinox,
as the Colossi at Thebes watched for the sunrise in the Winter
Solstice. Thus, as Lockyer says, the evidence of the existence of
Solar Temples is absolutely overwhelming, and even when oriented
to stars, the orientation is to the star in conjunction with the sun
at sunrise. Temples built in positions where, owing to the height
of the walls of other temples, the sun was not visible, were still
accurately oriented. The Sphynx Temple had a line of sight
directly along the South face of the second pyramid, or towards
the land of Amend, or the dead, as the sun passed into that land on
setting in the West.
In ‘‘Ancient Calendars and Constellations,** we have a most
successful clearing up of the great muddle caused by the attempt
to base the calendar and Zodiac on a lunar basis, but we are not
interested here in these intricate details; it is sufficient to indicate
134
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
them, and to see the instances of universal sun worship. In these
books, however, we get glimpses of mythology useful in illustrating
Hebrew mythology. For instance, Indra, the earliest Indian God,
produced creation by overcoming a great water snake, just as the
Hebrew God in the Bible overcame Tehom or Tiamat, a great
water snake, no doubt derived from India through Babylon (p. II,
" Ancient Calendars,” also pp. 190-193 this volume).
We learn also that in the Chinese account of creation, as illus-
trated in their Zodiac, their Constellation Hiu means Vacuum or
void, the same word used in Genesis i., 2. (Sayce, Trans. Soc.
Bib. Arch., February, 1874.)
The Chinese dating being based on the lunar motions, like the
dating of Easter by the Christians, as derived from Hebrew, we
find a table produced by the Astronomical Board of China exactly
the same in form as the table in an English Book of Common
Prayer,—“ Tables to find Easter,” from the present time to such
and such a date, showing that similar diseases (the faulty lunar
reckoning) require similar remedies. This is a relic of Babylonian
worship in Christianity.
I have dealt with this subject somewhat fully to show that there
is no shadow of doubt that sun worship was universal, and that such
irregularities as were produced by the introduction of the subsidiary
luminaries in their relation to sun and sunrise can be explained
by careful research.
A curious position arose out of this annual birth of the sun in the
Roman mythology. All nations have at first a single creative god,
and are at heart monotheists, and the Romans had their “Sky
Father,” Jupiter, who was too grand to die ; so the annual birth of
the sun had gradually come to be represented as the appearance
of ” Sons of Jove.” The great lonely God of the Deists has never
been able to stand alone, such a religion is too cold for imaginative
humanity, so this ” Awful Presence,” or great abstraction, gradually
retires into an ” ancient of days,” as shown so well in Rubens’s
picture in the frontispiece. The Son of God, a young sun, then
becomes the important one, and marries the earth in Spring, and
they bring forth fruit, flowers, and all life, and they have themselves
a child, as conceived by Rubens. Now this is all very well as a
working theory for one generation, but when annually repeated it
becomes embarrassing. Either the last year's son goes on living,
and we get a grqpt list of Sun Gods, as did the Romans, or we get
die fine metaphysical idea of Christianity, that die Son of God (the
young sun) after having performed the passover, or been crucified
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
-
135
by passing to the North of the Equatorial line and saving man from
death, is re*absorbed in the Heavenly Father or Eternal Sun. But,
in the case of the Romans, they treasured up their Sons of Jove, or
annual Sun Gods, and got such a numerous family that the confusion
led to the idea being ridiculed by iconoclasts, and, when the true
explanation was given by scholars, they were called “ atheists,”
because they explained away the ” immortal gods.” The Sons of
Jove being annually slain were called the ” slain ones,” or the
“ suffering ones.” The Christian Father, Justin Martyr, having
been confronted with these tales of ” Crucifixion to save mankind,”
and thus reducing the story of Jesus to the level of that of any of
the “ Sons of Jove ” (sons of Jehovah), was driven to the following
justification of his own particular tale.
The good Father tells his devout children in his ” Apology ”
that: ” It having reached the devil’s ears that the prophets had
foretold the coming of Christ (Son of God), he set the heathen poets
to bring forward a great many who should be called the Sons of
Jove. The devil laying his scheme in this, to get men to imagine
that the true history of Christ was of the same character as the
prodigious fables related of the Sons of Jove.” (See “Augustine,”
p 330.)
Only when one collects a list of the Sons of Jove, does one
appreciate the difficulty which such a multiplication of suns was
causing the faith of the Romans.
Justin Martyr goes on to say: “By declaring the * Logos ’ the
first begotten of God our Master Jesus Christ to be born of a Virgin
without any human mixture, we Christians say no more in this, than
that you Pagans say of those whom you style the Sons of Jove. For
you need not be told what a parcel of sonsthe writers most in vogue
among you assign to Jove.
“As to the Sen of God called Jesus, we should allow Him to
be nothing more than man, yet the title of the Son of God is very
justifiable upon account of his wisdom, considering that you
(Pagans) have your Mercury in worship under the title of ‘ the
Word,’ a Messenger of God (Logos).” [Mercury was Hermes, the
Phallus, hence, the Phallic character of the Logos or the Christ of
John's Gospel.]
“ As to His (Jesus) being born of a Virgin, you have your Perseus
to balance that." The early “Fathers” justified the Christian
belief by that of the Pagans, and only held their new Son of God
as equal to one of the old Sons of Jove.
Here are a few Sons of Jove, but a careful research in the dim.
archives of the Roman Gods would discover many more (p. 115).
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CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
Name. Son of
Hercules - - Jupiter and Alcmene.
Bacchus - ,, ,, Semele.
Amphion - - ,, „ Antiope.
Prometheus - Jupiter.
Perseus - Jupiter and Danae.
Mercury - ,, ,, Maia (Indian).
Aeolus - ,, ,, Aeasta.
Apollo — ,, ,, Latona.
Aethlius - ,, ,, Prologenia.
Arcus - ,, ,, Mortal Mother
Arcolus
These were all pre-eminently Sun Gods.
Zeus had innumerable children by connection with Dawn
Maidens.
Zoroaster, the Sun God of Persia, had a series of “ Sons of
Zoroaster,” by the immaculate conception of virgins.
They were all destined to suffer and die.
Their birth was foretold by a blazing star at mid-day, and so on.
The mothers of the Sons of Jove are, of course, mothers of the
sun, and hence become mothers of the gods, yet they are mostly
earthly maidens like Mary or demi-goddesses at first and conceive
by “ immaculate conception.”
Their children are the renewed sun in January and the old sun
is the father, but both are the same, so the son is his own father
and is suckled by his wife.
The Christmas dogma does not escape from this dilemma, as the
Prayer Book tells us that the son is eternal and co-exists with the
Father from all eternity in the Godhead. The Virgin Mary is
impregnated by the spirit of God, which is partly the Son, and so
the Son is his own father and suckled by his wife.
These curious relationships exist in all religions; even Adam
was, in Genesis ii., the father of Eve, while, in Genesis i., being
made at the same moment, is her brother, then after Eden, her
husband. The ” sister spouse,” or God’s wife, was a tenet of all
old religions.
This universal myth is caused by the fact that all Northern
religions were founded on fructification of the earth every Spring
by the sun. The sun and earth having been created (or bom) at the
same time by the*same Father (creative god) were brother and sister,
yet the fertility of the earth is caused by the sun, who is the earth’s
bridegroom in Spring. Hence, the earth is sister-spouse to the sun.
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
13?
This doctrine was carried out literally in the Egyptian dynasty to
sustain the idea of its Divinity. Cleopatra is said to have encom-
passed the death of her young brother to avoid the necessity of
becoming his wife.
To-save mankind (from the cold of winter), all Sun Gods descend
to earth and take an earthly maiden, who brings forth the Saviour.
But as this maiden is, in all mythology, the Dawn (Maya or Mary),
she is not really earthly, but belongs to the sky, and is a goddess.
This dilemma caused the Catholics to deify the Virgin’s mother,
and father also, and even to say that all her female ancestors were
“without sin,” so that she might be pure. But “without sin”
means without death, so the attempt was made to declare the
Virgin’s forebears to be goddesses.
Now Mary is queen of heaven. She did not die, but was trans-
lated to heaven without death, say the Catholics.
The Protestant heaven with no queen, is a cold conception,
and the theistic heaven of the deist is colder still. Both fail by their
inhuman idea of a companionless God, and they will never hold
warm-blooded humanity.
PART II.
THE BIBLE.
ANCIENT CULTS IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
Introduction.
In dealing with such a vague subject as “religion,” it is well to take
a careful look at the words we employ, and get an idea of their
true meaning from a detached point of view. We have two words,
“Bible” and “Testament,” to define the “divine word” or
writings, or the direct communication of information from God to
man.
The word Bible is derived from Byblos, the Greek rendering of
Papyrus, on which the Egyptians wrote their scrolls. Papyrus is
our word paper, so that " Bible ” means “ paper ”—not “ book,”
a9 all documents were in rolls, and not bound as are our
books. The Phoenicians rendered Papyrus into Bybylos, then to
Byblos, and this is a good example of transliteration. B and P are
always interchangeable, and R and L in Egyptian and most other
languages, were represented by one sign, so Papyrus could be read
Babylus ; and as vowels could scarcely be said to exist in languages
like Phoenician, the pronunciation could take any sound which
pleased the ear of the people.
Jerome called his Bible, “Bibliotheca Divini”—the Divine
library.
By calling it The Bible, this is The Book or paper, the only book
of its kind, we tacitly state that it is the actual “ Word of God,” and
that there is no other. Now this is just what all other religions
claim, and it is a curious fact that, as each nation arrived at a similar
height of intelligence or civilization, it produced its Bible. The
production of a Bible is just as much the product of the mental
adolescence of a nation as is the production of a flower, the sign
of the adolescence of a plant. As the Asiatic nations were derived
from common stock, the different branches arrived at the maturity
sufficient for Bible .production at periods not far apart, so we find
that from 500 B.c. down to 200 A.D. there was an epidemic of Bible
making.
The second y&rd we use is “ Testament.” This is generally
interpretated as will or message, as in " My last will and testament,”
and may be considered as simply a synonym for ” Word of God,”
CHRISTIANITY
139
God’s will, or God's writing, spell, or Gospel, that is, God’s spell,
in the same sense as witch’s spell. A spell was an oracular or
necromantic injunction, or curse, sometimes written down in words
or symbols, or ’’spelled,” and the Gospel is God’s “spell,” or
oracle, (or the “cure of souls,” just as a witch’s or devil's spell
might be, to cause injury or malady to souls.
Hence, the New Testament is spoken of as the new “ Will of
God,” although most people consider it as a continuation or com-
pletion of the earlier will, or as a codicil.
But Calmet says that in no part of the Old “ Testament ” does
the word so translated mean “ will or testament.”
As we shall see, at p. 253, Testament, testimony, witness,
covenant, and eduth, as used in the Old Testament, have all a very
old Phallic meaning, connected with the swearing of covenants,
testaments, and witnesses, on the Phallus or Testes, still used by
the Arabs. It is connected with “ Testudo,” the tortoise, the
Phallic symbol of the Indians “ on which the world rests,” in fact,
all “ test ” words, even the chemists* tests performed in the Phallic
“ hermetically ” sealed tubes (Hermes is the Phallus) are Phallic.
Testament is called in Greek, diatheke, or “ going between,”
from the Phallic custom of oath-taking, by placing the hand between
the thighs, or going between that which is cut for sacrificial pur-
poses ; and as we will see in the study of the “ Eduth,” all ” Testi-
monies,” “Witnesses,” “Covenants,” “Stones,” and “Memo-
rials ” in the Ark of the ” Covenant ” have their roots in the same
thing—the Phallus, as is still the case in German.
The word Eduth,—Testimony in the English Bible,—is intimately
connected with the Phallic stones in the Ark, which were replaced
by ” liber,” the Book, and even this was at first by no means a book,
but was connected with that which is liber or “free,” celebrated
by the ” Liberalia ” feasts, or Phallic celebrations.
The Christian is said to be sealed by the “ Sanguis novi testa-
ment!, whereas it was by the “Sanguis” of the “ Testamentum
Circumcisione ” that the Jew was sealed to his Eduth stones, and
we know how Phallic the rite of circumcision is. In fact, we find a
widespread Phallic significance in the word “ test.” Testate and
intestate mean complete and incomplete. Testament then was
closely allied to other early religious ceremonies of the Israelites,
such as taking a solemn oath or promise by putting the hand on
the Phallus of the person who imposed the oath.
The Reverend Mr. Collins told the Society of Biblical Archeology
that Abraham’s oath on his thigh (Phallus), Genesis xxiv., 23,
intimates a widespread Phallic worship, and seems the base of a
general ” Asharism,” which suggests the Priapianism of Greeks
140
CHRISTIANITY
and Latins. The Asharim were the “ abominable things,’*
“ shameful things,” i.e., Phalli, erected at “every street corner ”
and worshipped under ” every green tree ” by the Jews, for which
the women wove hangings in the temple,—gay ribbons as on the
maypole (p. 58). It is constantly condemned by the Biblical
prophets or Nabis, so this cult was the popular religion of the Jews
interwoven into the very fibre of their nature.
Mediaeval people swore on the cross, which, we shall find, is
admittedly a bisexual Phallic emblem of life.
We still swear on the Testes or Testament, or on that ” liber ”
or Book connected with “ libra,” balance or justice, which libra
is the Phallus (p. 79), and was used to represent justice in Egypt
and in the Zodiac. Liber is the origin of the “ Liberalia,” Phallic
fetes which gave freedom for the day to married and all other
people, as everything Phallic, like love, is free, and not to be
bound or commanded.
We shall find that the Christian Bible is, as Forlong says, the
most Phallic of all Bibles. The reason is that the Jews were very
ignorant of all astronomical science, and so the once universal
Phallic faith was not swept away so early as in other more advanced
nations, and, in fact, remained in their litany and traditions well
into the period of permanent Bible writing, whereas the other
religions had passed well into the astronomical or sun worship
period before their formal Bibles were constructed.
The Libra or Free thing of the Zodiac was no balance, as we
have seen on p. 79, but the complete reproductive organ, and so
symbolical of life. Liber, book, or testament, is well called a
“ Book of Life.”
In Egyptian hieroglyphics [Fig. 84] the word for “just” or
“justice” was a drawing of the Phallus, and it also signified in
this direction “ freedom,” that is freedom from fear, one who would
do justice without fear.
By turning the Phallus of the Zodiac into a pair of scales the
ancients brought in the use of the same word for Liberty, Justice,
Phallus, Book, and Balance. The Liberalia feasts derived from
Libra were orgies of Phallism.
The Jews got their theistic ideas from the nations of their
numerous captivities, but the whole basis of religions, symbolism,
and practice amongst the common people was Phallic, as we shall
see.
The English have replaced the native by foreign Phallic words
(p. 89), but others retain them, for instance Germany, where the
root word “Zeug” signifies Witness, Testimony, Procreation and
the phallus, as “ Test ” does in English.
CHAPTER I
HISTORY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT
The faith of a country is not necessarily that of its most advanced
preachers or highest thinkers, their teaching is often as the voice of
one crying in the wilderness ; but, in their admonitions and scold'
mgs, in which they describe and condemn the practices of the
people, one can find a true index of what the common people be-
lieved, loved, and practised. The Bible contains a very fair amount
of this very reliable, because unconsciously given, evidence.
Before we examine the nature of the contents of the Bible,
especially the Old Testament, we may gain some insight into the
cause of the extreme irregularity of its contents if we glance at its
chequered history.
The only writing in Palestine of which we now possess any
specimens, was done in the Babylonian cuneiform characters.
“ There is not a scrap in any other language or script ” (Naoille—
** Discovery of the Book °f the Law,” p. 35). Sayce shows that a
large number of the verses of 14th Genesis are reproductions of
Babylonian originals (“ Higher Criticism,” pp. 119, 160, 278). The
Ten Commandments were written in Babylonian cuneiform, and
were simply Hamurabi’s laws modified by time. Hebrew is a mixed
language, very nebulous, owing to its conflicting sources. It was
borrowed from all the countries in which the Hebrews lived for
various periods as slaves, and was expressed in the Phoenician
alphabet, borrowed about the time of Solomon or later. All this
mixture causes great difficulty in producing a translation on which
all scholars can agree. The language has no backbone to it. It is
like a jelly fish, capable of being squeezed into any form. There
is no evidence of the rise of the Hebrew script. It was probably a
secret priestly medium, as there is no trace of it in Palestine.
The “ Books ” of the Bible have been attributed to various law
givers or prophets, just as all stories in the mythical histories are
clustered round the names of some hero or teacher.
The Books of Genesis and Leviticus contain no statement as to
the reductions of their narratives to writing.
But in Exodus xvii. occurs the first mention of writing a book.
Moees is instructed to record the intention of Yahweh to efface
Amalek in these words, ” And Yahweh said unto Moses, write this
-
142
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
for a memorial in a book and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua ; that
I will utterly blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under
heaven.”
Then in xxiv., 4. Moses wrote all the words of Yahweh (Anglice
Jehovah), which formed a solemn covenant of obedience. We
have here the first mention of a religious book, this " Book of the
Covenant.” Here, then, was a sacred book before the Bible.
Then we have a few lines in Numbers xxi., 14, which are attributed
to the ” Book of the Wars of Yahweh,” so there was evidently
smother Holy Book, called “ The Wars of Yahweh.” Another
book is cited in Joshua x., 12, under the name of ” The Book of
Jashar.” To this book belongs the lament of David over Saul and
Jonathan.
It is evident, then, that, as in all other religions, there were
many fragmentary writings in existence, and it required a civiliza-
tion of a certain height before some one produced a book which
utilised the best parts of the scattered literature.
The law was made as “ case law ” is made in our courts to-day,
and law was often made without ” cases ” at all, by creating a theo-
retical difficulty, giving an equally imaginary judgment, and so
establishing law on some hitherto undecided circumstance.
Evidently in the time when Deuteronomy was evolved, the Ten
Commandments did not exist in their present severe form, as we
find in Deuteronomy xxiv., 16: ” The fathers shall not be put to
death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death
for the fathers ; every man shall be put to death for his own sin.”
Compare this with the terrible words ” Visit the sins of the fathers
upon the children, even to the third and fourth generation,” a result
which sometimes happens, in the course of nature, in a certain
disease, but which every good Christian is engaged to-day in com-
batting.
We see, then, the gradual evolution of a sort of Bible out of
ancient legends of wars and poems, and continued fresh additions
by various prophets.
In the later Greek age (when Palestine was over-run with Greeks)
to which the composition of the Chronicles must be assigned, the
Mosaic tradition may be regarded as fully formed. ” But it must
be borne in mind,” says Carpenter, ” that the earliest testimony to
Moses as the author of the Pentateuch is thus found to date a
thousand years after the Exodus.” (“Bible in the Nineteenth
Century, p. 33.}'
That the ” Mosaic ” law did not teach any religion, as we under-
stand it, is clear from the result of the life-long researches of Pro-
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
143
feasor Sayce, who says, in his “ Higher Criticism,” p. 279, ” The
Mosaic law maintained a resolute silence on the doctrine of a future
life. Of the doctrine of a resurrection there is not a whisper. The
law of Israel did not look beyond the grave.”
The sacred books of India, China, and other great nations were
taken up with the affairs of heaven, or gods, while the Jewish Bible
is entirely absorbed with the affairs of earth.
The Jewish writers had most of the great thinkers of antiquity
on their side. Gcero had no belief in a soul living after death, and
Horace said, ” Death is the end.” The writer of Ecclesiastes held
the same opinion, Chronicles iii., 19-21.
The most philosophic passages of the Old Testament, which
uphold this view, are also the most beautiful and poetic although
sad in tone and darkened with thoughts of the inevitable tragedy of
the extinction of life by death.
Other texts which occur to me are Job i. 21, Job xiv. 2-14, Psalm
cxv. 17, Eccl. ix. 5-b, Eccl. xii. 5, but as Dr. Sayce so well says,
the Old Testament law has not a whisper of the doctrine of life
beyond the grave and the contrary is everywhere implied.
Having briefly glanced at the mode of production of this book,
let us now see how it has been handed down to us. There is no
authentic copy of the Old Testament earlier than 916 A.D. Accord-
ing to Herzog, a high authority, the oldest MSS. of the Hebrew
Bible dates from 1009—quite close to the Norman Conquest of Eng-
land.
The Westminster revisers, who created, the revised version,
followed a text called the ” Masoretic text,” which was built upon
the Samaritan Bible and the quasi Septuagint version, and they
followed this ” as it has come down in MSS. of no great antiquity—
the earliest being 916 A.D.” (or according to Herzog, 1009 A.D.)
MASORETIC VERSION.
The Masoretic version was produced by the Masoretes, who
were Rabbis of Tiberias on the Sea of Galilee, and they
finally established a canon and text of Scripture about 550-650
A.D., from a collection of critical and marginal notes to the Old
Testament made by Jewish writers. It is written in Aramaic, and
was printed at Venice in 1525 A.D. The Masoretes were the first
who divided the books into chapters, and the sections of the books
into verses..
The word Masoretes means ” possessors of the tradition.” They
were trained scholars, but relied on tradition.
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CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
Hebrew began to be “pointed" by the early Masoretes, like
our shorthand, with dots and lines to indicate vowels, but the pro-
nunciation was quite indefinite and only known by tradition. Suth
“ points ” began to be used about 370 A.D., and the Masorah was
finally established about 650 A.D. The variation in the spelling of
names in the Greek Septuagint shows there were great differences
of opinion as to the pronunciation of names, and it is clear from
the visible blunders of the Masoretes that the original meaning had
ceased to be intelligible even to these trained scholars.
Scholarship was then at a low ebb and there were no dictionaries,
so that these Rabbis amended the text according to their faith or
opinion and entirely on oral traditions.
They worked, not on the Hebrew Bible, but on the Samaritan
version. The division into verses and chapters was quite arbitrary,
as we see in Genesis ii., and the Samaritans divided the Bible differ-
ently from ours, Genesis having 150 chapters in their version.
Dr. Ginsburg in his (the generally accepted) edition of the
Masorah, relies on that of Jacob Ben Chayim, 1524 A.D.
Recent researches call in question much of the Masoretic com-
pilation.
The known Septuagint has no clear relation to its great proto-
type, as it is only composed from the Greek text of the great uncials
of the 4th and 5th centuries; and the Vatican and Alexandrian
MSS. have considerable differences.
The Greek text is as imperfect as the Hebrew, and was also
often altered for religious purposes, while mistranslations, which
make no sense frequently occur, with other corruptions. (“ Faiths
of Man/’ /., p. 304, Forlong.)
Our translators of the revised version had to be content with a
Hebrew MS., which had drifted from an unknown source to St.
Petersburg, and was dated 916 A.D.
The authorised version was translated and composed from a
copy of Aaron Ben Asher, 1034, belonging to the great Maimonides,
the “Second Moses," 1200 A.D., and that of Jacob Ben Naphtali,
a copy also of about our 11th century, and adopted by Eastern Jews.
Let us attempt to trace as much of its history as has been dis-
covered.
In 2 Kings, xxii., an actual document is called the Torah of
Yahweh, and, as Forlong says (•“ Short Studiesp. 415), was
“ suspiciously produced by the high priest Hilkiah, at a time when
he was pressed for funds to amend and repair the temple." This
was about 625 B.C., in the early part of the reign of the pious young
king Josiah, who ordered Hilkiah (father of Jeremiah) to prove that
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
145
ike writing was “ the law of the Lord ” or “ Book of the Covenant
and this the old priest accomplished by the assistance of a certain
woman, Hulda, the “ weasel,” a sorceress. “Thou shalt not permit
a sorceress to live,” and yet we are dependent on a sorceress for
a decision as to the authenticity of the ” Word of God.”
Loisy holds (p. 10, “Religion of Israel”), as do most critics,
that this ” law ” was composed—not found.
This first discovered “Torah of Yahweh ” evidently did not
cause much stir, because we hear nothing further of it till it was
resuscitated by Ezra and his scribes when he was sent up from
Babylon by the over-lord of Jerusalem to re-start the rites and
services of the new temple.
Ezra was not the only Babylonian priest employed in construct-
ing the Hebrew Scripture. Nehemiah was another. We also see
in 2 Kings xvii., 27, and other parts of the Old Testament, how
natives, chosen by the Babylonian priests, who had been carried
as captives to Babylon, were sent back to teach the Hebrews the
elements of religion, and some of the greatest high priests, such as
Hillel, about the time of Jesus, were Babylonian born and trained,
and sent by the over-lord to regulate the Jews’ religion. The chaos
of religions practised in Palestine is shown in verses 30, 31, of
2 Kings, xvii., mixed with Yahweh worship. Succoth Benoth,
Tents of Venus, came from Babylon, as stated in verse 30.
At Ezra’s time Jerusalem had been totally destroyed, its temples
reduced to ruins, its priests dispersed, and the priestly documents
removed, burnt, or otherwise destroyed.
It was found difficult to rule a country without a priesthood, so
Cyrus (the name used for God in the New Testament), King of
Babylon, ordered Jerusalem to be rebuilt and its temple restored ;
and sent Ezra to re-establish the Jewish religion and Bible.
This is how the cosmogony of the Bible was copied from that
of Babylon. George Smith’s discoveries were the first external
proof that this was the case, and great consternation and surprise
were expressed by Church people, but a careful examination of
the mode of production of the “Books of Moses” by Ezra and
Nehemiah might have shown scholars long ago that Babylonian cos-
mogony was the only cosmogony possible, as being the only one
known to these Babylonian writers of the “ Word of God.”
Hislop’s elaborate proof that the Roman Catholic Church
doctrines and practices were directly derived from Babylon had a
Very true basis, although he did not discover the true fountain from
which th^e Hebrew “ Word of God ” had issued.
Even the wise high priest, Hillel, whose tolerant rule issued in
L
146
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
the revival which led to Christianity, was educated in Babylonian
schools under Persian rule, and died in Jerusalem about 10 A.D.,
when Jesus was a boy. Thus we see that the prophets and high
priests of other times were generally foreigners sent by the
Babylonian Conqueror or over-lord to rule Jerusalem, and
Jerusalem, as we shall see, was almost always under a Conqueror.
In respect of the Jews being taught by foreign priests, we should
remember also that it was not Yahweh, but Jethro, a foreigner, the
father-in-law of Moses, who taught Moses how to govern the tribes.
Our own religion is of foreign origin, imposed on us by Rome.
As a preface, Yahweh tells Ezra that he had formerly made a
similar statement to Moses, and had commanded him ; ” Some of
these my words thou shalt declare, some thou shalt hide; some
things thou shalt show secretly to the wise.” Ezra was seated
under a sacred oak or Ale when the Ale-im or Elohim spoke to
him out of a bush (as they did to Moses), ” 1 will reveal again all
that has been lost, the secrets of the times and the end.” Ezra, in
reply, tells Yahweh, “ Thy law is burnt, therefore none can know
the past or future—send thy Holy Ghost unto me and I shall write
what has been done since the beginning.”
The chance of any official Bible surviving the many conquests of
Jerusalem is very slight. At that time the sacred books were
written or painted on ox hides, so the Bible must have occupied a
large space, so that no private person was likely to have a copy.
The official Bibles were often destroyed by the conqueror, and the
conquest of Jerusalem was accomplished so often, and its temples
and Scriptures so frequently destroyed, that it is difficult to see how
any complete authenticated copy escaped destruction. Here is a
short list of the destructions.
We find in Chronicles I. and II. over thirty wars, sackings, and
pillages when there was every chance of the sacking of the temple
and the destruction of the sacred records. Tiglath-Pileser,
Nebuchadnezzar, Siskak of Egypt, the Syrians, the Philistines,
Senacherib, Necho of Egypt, in turn, conquer the land,—besides
internal rebellions over religious matters and Hasmonean and
Maccabi wars.
Many of the Jews taken captives by the Edomites, about
800 B.C., were sold to the Greeks, who took them to their country.
When they returned from the ” Islands of the Sea ” (Greece),
Isaiah ii., they brought the Greek legends with them in a crude form,
and finally they got incorporated in the Scriptures, Hercules as
Samson, and all the Sun Gods as shown to us by Goldzibter, from
Adam, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to Job, and the scraps in Daniel.
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
147
Their earlier captivities are related in Isaiah xi.: “In that day
the Lord shall set His hand the second time to recover the remnant
of His people which shall be left from Assyria, and from Egypt,
and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from
Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea,” mean-
ing Cyprus, Greece, etc.
There are eight captivities. There were besides the long
Persian occupation of the land when they the Persians made slaves
of the best men and deported them for work in the Euphrates
Valley and Persia. Then the Greek occupation, when they were
again enslaved, then the final destruction of the “Hornets’ Nest” by
the Romans, 70 A.D., when they were again deported to Rome and
employed as slaves to build the coliseum and pyramid of Caius
Sextus, which was built into the Aurelian Wall to imitate Egyptian
ideas (“Rome and its Story,” p. 157). They were never again
allowed to return.
Titus Caesar levelled the Temple at Jerusalem 70 a.d. Hadrian
drew a plough share over the site to make perpetual interdiction
(" Gibbon,” Vol III., p. 61).
The sacred Scriptures were removed to Rome at the request of
Josephus and never again heard of. A few years more saw a
Temple of Venus on the spot where it was supposed the death and
resurrection of Jesus took place, and this stood for nearly 300 years,
when Constantine pulled it down and built a Christian Church, to
which worshippers made pilgrimages, just as they had done to the
Hebrew Temple and to the Venus Tabernacle.
Then we find, in another half century, the Emperor Julian chang-
ing all back by rebuilding the Jewish Temple, to counteract the
mummeries which disgraced the Christian shrine and which had
filled Jerusalem with every kind of debauchery and vice. (“ Rioers
of Life," L. p. 217.)
The destruction or mutilation of Bibles by soldiers is well
illustrated, in our own day, by an incident that recently happened
in Tibet. By our invasion of that country China was compelled
to assert its sovereignty and sent an army of occupation. The army
soon found their boots cut up by the rough roads, and when
quartered on some of the great monasteries the soldiers used the
“badly tanned ox hides and shreds of leather,” on which the
Tibetan scriptuffes are still written (or painted exactly as were the
Jewish), to repair their foot gear, and the Lamma has memorialised
the Chinese Emperor complaining of the destruction and mutilation
of their Scriptures in this way. But when we recollect how often
Jerusalem was invaded and sacked and its population deported we
cannot wonder at the chaotic state of their Scriptures.
148
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CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
It will be seen that the chances of the destruction of a lot of ox
hides, written with rude characters, were very great, especially as
the conquerors always insulted and cowed the conquered by break-
ing their gods, burning their documents, and using their sacred
emblems with contumely.
Ptolemy Soter, or Ptah-mes Soter, 44 Son of God the Saviour 44—
Ptah being the Egyptian God at that time (such claims were made
centuries before Jesus was invested with the title), and his son
Ptolemy Philadelphus, and grandson Ptolemy Euergetes, were all
devoted to literary and art collections. They established libraries,
museums, academies, art, literary, and educational institutions,
while they tolerated, if they did not aid, the religion of all their
subjects.
These rulers used every means to secure books and MSS. from
very distant lands, even from those beyond their sway, and they
made a rule that all originals must be placed in the national libraries,
and the owners supplied with certified copies in exchange. In
this way the world-wide collection was effected. Manetho’s famous
44 History of Egypt44 was deposited in the Bruchium Library, and,
owing to the burning of the library, only fragments, quoted by
others, have come down to us through Eusebius, who saw and
copied some lists of Egyptian dynasties made by Julius Africanus
about 220 A.D. Even these imperfect fragments are the most
valuable ancient histories of Egypt we have. As to the Hebrew
Scriptures, Aristaeus says that Demetrius, the librarian, urged
Ptolemy the first to command the high priest of Jerusalem to send
the Temple copy, but Philadelphus altered that and commanded
the originals to be sent, and that these were finally sent, but only
after many royal gifts and beneficences had been extended to all
Jews, including their being made free men at great expense. The
sacred writings on 44 shreds of leather 44 were sent in charge of 72
temple elders, who were to act as translators, and who never lost
sight of the precious rolls. Then come the usual miracles, etc. The
72 men did their work in 72 days, and the original was stored in the
Bruchium Library. This is the origin of the name 44 Septuagint "
(70) or 44 LXX.44 as applied to the source of the Old Testament.
This famous library, on being catalogued by Zenodotus, contained
490,000 volumes, whereas the Serapeum contained only 42,800.
The Serapium, called after the God Serapis, was more famous, as
this library was popularly, though erroneously, supposed to be burnt
by the Mohaftimedans under the dogma that the Koran was the
only book necessary to man, and that all others should be destroyed.
In 47 B.c. the Bruchium was burnt down, when Caesar set fire to the
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
149
Egyptian fleet in the bay, at the famous Anthony and Cleopatra era.
Here were finally destroyed the originals of the Jewish Scriptures.
The miraculous translation is now held to be apocryphal. Encyc.
Brit., vol. 24, p. 654 (llth Edition).
It is clear that we have no originals nor authoritative translations,
and that all our texts belong to mediaeval times, compiled and
copied from unknown sources, by unknown and often “ harmonis-
ing ” ecclesiastics. We find Origen, who was a great harmoniser,
picking up accidentally, in Caesarea, a Greek fragmentary Old
Testament ” by one Symmachus, a semi-Christian translator of the
Jewish Scriptures ” and handing this down through the ages as the
“Word of God."
Dr. Taylor says : “ Symmachus adopts more or less paraphrastic
and inaccurate renderings under the influence of dogmatic pre-
possessions.’*
Origen writes that, in his day, 230-240 A.D., the LXX. (Septua-
gint) was a “ recension of recensions.”
“ It was a long continued process to produce such recensions of
the sacred text as seemed to the scribes needful and apt.” (“ Short
Studiespp. 434, 435," Forlong.)
Eusebius founded his work on that of an apostate called Theo-
dotan, “who was known to be an unsafe translator, especially in
passages referring to Christ as being the Messiah, and at this time
beginning to be called God himself.”
Eusebius was the most learned man of his age, of vast erudition
and sound judgement, and took a neutral position in the great Arian
discussion as to the Divinity of Jesus (Dr. McGijfert, in Encyc. Brit.,
llth Edition, Vol. IX., p. 953). So we see it took 300 years to
deify Jesus, as at the time when Eusebius was writing (300 to 340
A.D.) Jesus was only beginning to be called God.
Origen wrote that “ there is a great difference in the copies (of
the Scriptures) either from the carelessness of scribes or the rash
and mischievous corrections of the text by others, or from the addi-
tions and omissions made by others at their own discretion.
Unfortunately he does exactly the same, uses ” by the help of
God other versions as our criterion . . . and where doubtful
by the discordance of copies forming a judgement from other oer-
sions" Canon Selwyn’s translation and italics.
Origen knew that the people must have some standard Bible,
and finding that all luiown versions have been tampered with,
“ framed his Tetrapla as the best he can find," and proceeds to
4* tamper with the tamperedf” as Forlong graphically puts it.
He did his best, by establishing side-by-side various versions.
ISO
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
and his own remark*. He had laboured to give a special recen-
sion, correcting errors and supplying defects—but with the deplor-
able result that his notes got mixed up with the texts by persons
trying to improve the Scriptures.
The Fathers preferred the corrupt Septuagint, as they knew only
Creek, and could not read the Hebrew, and they used the Maaoretic
text, terribly corrupted or “ improved,” while the Hebrew version,
used by the Rabbin, got mixed up with the Tetrapla and Hexapla
of Origen, and had also alternative readings, marginal notes, and
comments which slipped into the text—itself of unknown origin.
* Even in Ezra's day the Scriptures, or Tar gum, were in a language
unknown to the people, so translations were required.
All this search for an ” original text ” is useless, as there never
was an ” original text.”
The Bible is a growth of centuries, derived from fables and oral
tradition, which were themselves always in process of change ; its
form was decided, and its cosmogony written, by Babylonian
priests.
The Ezraitic account of the writing of the Bible is a paraphrase
of that called the Mosaic, as far as the reproduction of the ” law ”
is concerned. Both are shut up for forty days in close converse
with Yahweh, and in both cases 70 wise men were present to hear
the secret communications, all others are to worship afar off, and
the 70 are to assist Moses when he is in the Tabernacle of the
Highest (Numbers xi., 16), but Ezra had the advantage that he
was a trained Babylonian priest saturated with the lore and cos-
mogonic fables of the ” Mother of Harlots,” and so he moulded
the Jewish, and through it the Christian religion, as Hislop has so
fully proved, on the great Babylonian original. It is not really a
struggle between geology and Genesis, but between modern science
arid the Babylonian "astrologers, star gazers, and monthly prog-
nosticators,” so condemned by Isaiah (Isa-jah) xlvii., 13.
The Hebrew religion was always controlled from Babylon, so
the native Nabis were probably seldbm promoted to the higher
offices. This may account for the terribly bitter language always
employed by them about Babylon.
Volumes could be filled with a mere index of the disastrous
criticism of the text of the Bible ; but enough has been quoted to
show that, when a ” standard ” had been arrived at, it was either
lost, destroyed, or accidentally burnt, and so it drifted on, under-
going incessantochange.
The Holy Book was then re-created from fragmentary copies,
memory, and tradition. Besides these sources of error, there was
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
151
always an evolution going on by alterations of passages, which
could no longer be understood, to make them readable ; as well' as
an absolute change of words, which referred to ancient supersti-
tions, and especially words relating to Phallic observances, so that
die obscene rites, which were quite moral and natural to an early
people, might not shock and degrade those whose ideas had been
changed by the advance of civilization. The English translators hid
these Phallic practices by wilful mistranslation, so that the Bible is
not that of the Hebrews alone, but also of the Westminster trans-
lators. Hence, the " rags and tatters ” of the ancient text which
remain need very careful examination and separating from the
modem parts, in order to arrive at the true meaning of the ancient
rites described.
The Old Testament was practically lost to sight from the time
of the Christian Fathers till 916 A.D., which is the conjectural date of
the oldest known manuscript, now in the St. Petersburg Museum.
It was brought to Spain by the Moors, who considered it inspired.
It came down'to us through Mohammedan sources, for the Bible
as well as Mahomed’s Koran is a sacred book to the followers of
die prophet; but, if the Bible was altered, amended, and edited
out of all recognition, up to the time of Origen, what must we expect
to remain to us unchanged by 400 years’ sojourn amongst the Moors
of a book carried right across Africa ?
The Reverend Sir George Cox, in his “ Life of Colenso,” regrets
that the English Bible does not use the actual Hebrew words instead
of quite different Saxon words for God and Lord. “ For," says
Cox, ‘‘the Hebrew Gods were in no way distinguished from the
Elohim of the nations around them . . . and the Shemitic
nations had no special monotheistic tendencies, and those of the
Aryans were decidedly polytheistic.”
The Bible was mis-translated by King James’ commission to suit
modem ideas, and is therefore not the “ Word of God," but the
“ word of King James’s translators ’* (pp. 158-159).
CHAPTER II
ANALYSIS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT.
That the reconstitution of the Hebrew Scriptures carried out by
Ezra, Nehemiah, and other Babylonian scribes, was derived, for
the most part, from fragmentary documents or traditions, coupled
with the scribes’ own Babylonian cosmogony, is rendered certain
by the results of modern criticism, and from internal evidence. No
set of writings has been subjected to so enormous an amount of
minute criticism as has been bestowed by the great scholars, com-
mencing with Jean Astruc, a French physician of Montpellier, in a
work entitled “ Conjectures on the Original Memoirs, of which it
appears that Moses availed himself to compose the Book of
Genesis.” 1753.
Johann Gottfried Eichhorn, a German of Gottingen, 1780,
adopted Astruc’s results, carried the criticism further, and invented
the phrase “ higher criticism.” He was followed by another
German, Karl David Ilgen, who published his book, ” The Original
Documents of the Temple Archieves at Jerusalem in their primitive
form,” at Halle, in 1798.
All these referred only to Genesis. It was left for a Scottish
Roman Catholic priest, Mr. Alexander Geddes, who, in 1792, pub-
lished a new translation of the Scriptures with notes and critical
remarks to extend the enquiries.
He dealt, not with Genesis alone, but with the first five, so-called,
Books of Moses. From internal evidence he came to three con-
clusions : (1) The Pentateuch, in its present form, was not written
by Moses ; (2) It was written in the land of Canaan, and most
probably at Jerusalem; (3) It could not have been written before
the reign of David, nor after Hezekiah. He suggested the long
pacific reign of Solomon as the likeliest period.
The work was carried on by J. S. Vater, who carried out “ the
fragment hypothesis to a very full extent, but no one had yet
tried to build up similar fragments into separate documents, till
De Wette, in 1806, stated the problem to be two-fold. (1) Analy-
tical, as carried out by Astruc, Eichhorn and Geddes, and (2) Con-
structional, or literary, an attempt to recompose the different docu-
ments which had been mixed up in the Pentateuch. It would take
too long to follow the course of the enormous amount of study and
labour given by hundreds of students to the subject, but all analyses
pointed to the existence of four sources of the narrative contained
CHRISTIANITY
153
in the Pentateuch. To take them in the order in which they occur
in the early books of the Bible.
(1) A writer who employed the term Ale-im, or Elohim (in
English) as the supreme being or beings (the word being plural).
This is mis-translated as “ God ” in our English Bible. This
writer’s work is indicated by the letter E.
(2) A writer who employed the name Yahweh (in English
Jehovah), for the Tribal God of the Hebrews, and translated
" Lord ” in our English Bible, indicated by the letter J.
(3) A priestly writer, who wrote the “ generations ” of Terah
and Shem, sons of Noah, the book of generations of Adam,
"generations” being expressed in Hebrew as ” Toldhoth.”
These books of origins, universal, and family history, and priestly
legislation are grouped as “ priestly ” under the letter P.
(4) Deuteronomy is regarded as a separate work by an un-
known author, and is indicated by the letter D.
Al, Ale-im, or Elohim.
The terminology of the Gods of the Hebrews was a very loose
one, its they heard of the same Gods through different nations, and
hence with different pronunciations. The God of Western Asia
was Al, El, II, or Ol, according to the pronunciation of the nation.
(See p. 27.)
We have " Bab-Ilu ” (Babylon of the Greeks), meaning “ Gate
of the God.” The Phoenicians worshipped Ol. The Hebrew form
Al is used 272 times as god in the Old Testament, and is evidently
a name originally signifying virility, as it is constantly identified
wth “ Ail,” a “ ram.” It is used also as meaning the strong, high,
virile one, an oak stem pillar, post or upright thing in Ezek. xxxi.,
14, Job xlii., 8, or terebinth, or other robust tree stem. These were
all symbolised by an upright pillar or Phallus like the column on
page 78 or the phallic symbol for man L used by all ancient
nations (p. 99).
Job also calls his God Alshadai thirty-one times, and identifies
him with the Behemoth, whose Phallic powers he describes as
" Chief of the ways of God ” (Job xl. 19). Now in all early religions
the Chief of the Ways of God was creation of life, or reproduction
of life, and its symbol was the Phallus coupled with a female, Ark,
Ruach, Bowl, Yoni, or Dove, the latter the symbol of Melitta,
Kubele, Aphrodit£, Venus, Mary, or other Queen of Heaven. But
the Hebrews' detestation of woman caused them to state only the
masculine side in their religious allegories.
The< passage is couched in language evidently considered too
coarse for truthful translation, but if the reader will substitute the
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CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
-
true words for those mistranslated in order to veil the meaning of
verse 17, and write “ setteth up,** or ** maketh to stand,'* as given
in die margin, instead of ** moveth,” and “ phallus *’ instead of
** tail," he will see the true signification. Job likens the ** tail ** to
a cedar, a tree stem universally employed as a symbol for the
Phallus (p. 17, Fig. 32, p. 61), and the setting up is described in
pp. 81-82.
This is a mutilated part of the sixth but earliest purely Hebrew
account of creation (p. 161), when religion was entirely Phallic. It
is masculine. The earliest accounts of other nations were feminine
(pp. 48, 161 et seq.).
A16 occurs 17 times as an oak or terebinth, 99 times as God, 48
times as an oath or to swear, and is the Eli to whom Jesus cried
when forsaken on the cross. " Eli, Eli, Lama Sabacthani."
A16-im, the gods, occurs many hundreds of times in the Old
Testament, and is the plural of Ale, pronounced alley, and called,
in English, Elohim.
It signifies gods, spirits, oaks, rams, strong or great ones, lords
of creation, and even kings and judges.
Alue occurs 57 times as god. He was identical with Yahweh as
the Psalmist says, “ Who is Alue but our Yahweh?"
Olium, or Oli, occurs 74 times as “ most high " or " high " ;
Oli is used 13 times as leaves or branches, and often as a burnt-
offering.
Ailan occurs six times in Daniel, as a tree stump; Alun eight
times, as oak or terebinth; and Ail nine times, as plane tree, 151
times as a ram, palm, tree stem, or post.
We can here see the Phallic nature of this god, as he is asso-
ciated with tree stumps, the symbol of the Phallus, and rams, which
were the special symbol of male fertility; in fact, Lord, God, ram,
pillar, tree stump, and Phallus were the same.
YAHWEH OR JEHOVAH.
The tribal god of the Hebrews, Yahweh, or in English erroneously
called Jehovah, also derived from the. Babylonians, has a very great
number of variations. It is a great pity that the English writers
followed the German, and used die letter J, instead of I or Y, which
are the true equivalents of the German J. By this error our pro-
nunciation of names like Jehovah, Jesus, Jah, and Joshua, is quite
wrong, they should be spelt and pronounced Yehovah, Yesus, Yah,
and Yoshua, of the Y may be replaced by I. We are die only
nation who pronounce words beginning with I, or Y, as though they
began with a soft G, or J. Yahweh should be written lah Veh, and
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
155
as there were no vowels it is Ih. Vh, Ha are mere breaths, so the
name is IV.
Taking, then, the name now called Jehovah, we find that, in
the Hebrew Bible, it was written JHVH or IHVH, and as the H’s are
mere pauses in the breath, this word could not be pronounced,—the
priest always said Adhonay ” or “ Adonai,” instead, really
Adonis “ Lord.” It was said to be ” unpronounceable ” owing
to its holiness, but it is probable that it was so, from quite another
cause. The early form of it was JAH, more correctly I AH; so if
we take out the aspirates (H) we have two symbols, !V from IHVH,
qnd 1A from 1AH, which have been used all over the world as the
symbol of life and have been handed down, probably from our
Druids, to all secret societies, such as Knights-Templar, rosicru-
cians, and our modern Freemasons.
They consisted of the upright Phallic pole or tree stem, repre-
sented by I, as the male symbol, and the triangle or delta V, or
reversed /\ , representing the female. The creator of eternal life,
or the god, was represented by a combination of the two, by placing
the 1 in the V, thus or This is the arrow head so much
used to indicate sovreignty, god-ship, or creative power, and it
has come down to our time as the broad arrow as a mark on all
the Sovereign’s goods, even to convicts’ clothes.
That it is not an arrow is evident from the fact that the centre
line, the stele or shaft, is not attached to the pile or head in the
early use of the symbol but is simply placed within the V.
It is the ” three in one ” of the Trinity, and the universal symbol
of reproduction or life (see pp. 24, 259).
The French Phallic symbol for king-godship is the Fleur-de-lys
(p. 24), which has the same meaning and derivation as the ” broad
arrow.”
This formed the symbol of the divine ” Logos ” of St. John (the
mysterious name used by the Christian Gnostics and the Greeks),
which was the ” God,” which was made “ flesh,” and as a symbol
of “flesh," as understood by the. Hebrews, the symbol is perfect
and unpronounceable (p. 135).
This, then, was the original symbol, and as U and V are the
same letters, it had the form 1U (the two sexes), and coupled with
the Assyrian Pittar, ” Father," gave the Romans IU Pittar, creative
father, or, as we say, Jupiter. This was equivalent to saying
” UaganvYoni father,” and we know Jupiter was a very Phallic
god, continually creating life through nymphs.
This » why the genitive of Jupiter is Jovis, or iovis, or YOV1S,—
it is *gsm IV with the genitive " is ” added. The letter O some*
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CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
times crept in as an alternative feminine, and we have 1.0. (dart
and ring, p. 75), instead of I.V.
This god has even more variations to his name than Al, pp. 153,
154. He is called Ia, Iv, Iah, Jah, Yah, Iau, Jau, Yahu, Ya, Jahv,
Jahu, Jehu, Jeho, Ihvh, Ihbe (Samaritan form), Ya (or Ia), Ava,
IAfl, Ihve, Iaho, Aau, Yahveh, Yahweh, Yachveh, Yahueh, Jhve,
Yach, Yachoh, Jehovah, and even Jo, or Io.
Sayce writes in ” Higher Criticism ” (published by the S.P.C.K.),
p. 470, ” We have Babylonian names BAMA-YA-AVA, NATANU-YA-AVA,
SUTUNA-YA-AVA, ADABI-YA-AVA, all full forms of the name we call
Jehovah. This God was given to the Hebrews by the Baby-
lonians.’*
Mr. Pinches and the Rev. J. C. Ball agree with Sayce that
the Hebrew Jah (or Jehovah) is the Cuneiform Ya-wa, or Ia Va, or
IHVH, or, as Dr. Sayce puts it, Ya-Ava (” v ” and ” w ” are the
same). This is equivalent to IV, as the Babylonian A is equivalent
to the Hebrew H. Mr. Ball found Okab-Iah (Jacob’s Jah).
The God Iah was coupled with a host of names in the Bible,
such as Hilk-iah, Jerem-iah, Hezek-iah, Zechar-iah, Nehem-iah, the
latter being a Babylonian priest, and hence shows that Jehovah as
Iah was common in Babylon.
It is curious how some names persist. We have Larissa, com-
posed of Lars or Luz, the ” love goddess,” who gave their Lares to
the Romans and Isa or Issa, which is considered in Asia to be the
same as Jesus or God, forming a bisexual name.
As late as 1670 A.D. Mr. Pococke, who was studying under
Phatallah, and was much liked by him, tells how Phatallah doubted
not that he would meet Pococke in Paradise under the banner of
Isa or Jesus. Phatallah’s name shows he was a Mohammedan, and
worshipped Al or Allah, II or El, or the Eli, of Jesus’ cry on the
cross.
We find the name Isaiah in the Bible as a great Asiatic prophet;
but at least two writers who have quite different styles have written
under that name, and Dr. Gray in his commentary of Isaiah (1912)
says it is not only double or triple, but is a literature of 600 years’
growth. The name is a combination of Isa (Mohammedan name
for Jesus), and Iah, Isaiah, showing an identity between the two
gods, as all such names contain a tacit declaration—as ” Isa is Iah.”
The phrase Yahweh-Ale-im, so often translated ” Lord God” in
the Bible, could therefore bear a quite different appellation. IV is
double sexecf, or self-creative, or hermaphroditic, while Ale-im
would bear translation as spirits of the oak trees, like those which
uttered the oracles at Dodona. ” Jehovah Elohim” might be
translated the ” Hermaphroditic, or self-creative member of the
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
157
circle of oak spirits,” just as well as " Lord God.” Dr. T. K.
CHeyne, Litt.Doc., D.D., the masterly Oxford professor of Scrip-
ture, and creator of the Encyclopaedia Biblica, in his latest work
the ” Mines of Isaiah Re-explored ” (1912), announces the discovery
that the ” Israelites worshipped a small Divine company under a
Supreme director.” This has been quite obvious since Colenso’s
day. One has only to put ” Lord God ” back to its Hebrew form
Yahweh of the Ale-im or Elohim (plural). We know that the
Eastern conquerors passed through Greece to Rome, and so
they may have brought their Jahs, Jehovahs, and Joves, with them,
and imposed them on the ignorant Westerns. The Bible has other
gods, Tzur, Amen, El Shaddai, A1 Zedik, Kurios, Masio, Ehyeh,
Ur, and so on, derived from the Jews’ neighbours.
Spelling has always been a matter of difficulty, rendering trans-
lations uncertain. Who would, at first sight, discover Jesus on the
letters I-H-C-O-Y-C ?
An elaborate analysis of the Pentateuch is given by Carpenter
and Harford in their analytical works. Looking to the probable
ages in which the four principal writers, Elohistic, Jahvistic, Priestly
and Deuteronomic, composed the E, J, P and D (p. 264), they are
arranged by modern scholars in the order P, J, E, D, putting the
Priestly, or “ Toldhoth,” first, and the first Chapter of Genesis very
late, only before Deuteronomy.
The Elohistic and Jahvistic narrations constantly contradict
one another. They tell the same story, and are principally con-
cerned with history, but constantly differ in detail. For instance,
the Jahvist makes the commandments be given out on Mount Sinai,
while the Elohist says it was on Mount Horeb, yet both make it
a covenant between Yahweh, not Elohim and Israel, so that there
must have been some editing of names also. The origin of many
important passages is obscure. The work of the Harmonist has
been too well done.
The minute analysis given by Carpenter deals with the most com-
plicated and obscure material, and points out so many difficulties
and contradictions that even he is baffled, and one sometimes
rises from its study with the feeling that while he unsettles much,
there are many passages incapable of being settled by our present
knowledge. For instance, after long analyses and serious attempts
to separate the Sinai-Horeb muddle. Carpenter speaks of the ” per-
plexing problems connected with the present form of the Sinai-
Horeb story,” and says: ** The Sinai-Horeb sections in Exodus 19,
24, and 32-34, 28, have long been recognised as among the most in-
tricate and difficult portions of the combined documents. The pres-
158
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
exit form of the narrative is the result of a succession of editorial pro-
cesses, the steps of which can be very imperfectly traced,” dealing
with fragments by various writers, and he gives up the attempt to
separate the two accounts. So minute have been the analyses of
Scripture carried out by great scholars, that ramifications of the
various authors or compilers, and the editorial tamperings, have
been traced very minutely, as shown by the list Carpenter gives of
the various symbols used to distinguish these various parts of Holy
Writ.
J. Yahwist document.
E. Elohist ,,
J.E. Combination of the two by a ” harmoniser.”
D. The Deuteronomical writer.
Js. Es. Ds., or J2. E2. 02. Secondary elements in J.E.D.
P. Priestly law and history.
Pg. Ground work of P.
Ph. Priestly holiness legislation.
Pt. Earlier groups of priestly teaching.
Ps. Secondary extension of Pg.
Rje. Editorial hands which united and revised J. & E.
Rd. Editors who united J.E. and D.
Rp. „ „ „ J.E.D. and P.
Here we see the complicated web of ” recension of recensions,”
** editing of the edited,” ” tampering with the tampered,” long
before Origen's time.
And this is the Bible, for adding to, or taking away from which,
eternal torment in everlasting fire is threatened.
The whole history of the Bible, through thousands of years, has
been one of ” adding ” and ” taking away,” in which hundreds
have been, and still are, actively engaged.
The translation of the word Elohim as God in the creation story
is one of the points to which 1 have referred as showing the dis-
ingenuousness of the translators of the Hebrew Bible. We are
supposed to be monotheists, although we declare .ourselves to be
worshippers of a Trinity, or tri-theists, in a heaven with hundreds
of “ Godlets,” just as the Greeks and Romans had, but whom we
call saints (The Lord came with ten thousands of Saints, Deut.
xxxii. 2), angels, archangels, cherubim, seraphim, spirits of the
power of the air, Enochs, Apostles, Virgins, Melchizedeks, Elijahs,
and all the hosts who passed direct into heaven and who live for
ever, die only definition of a god or supernatural being. All
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
159
religions can, and did, claim to be monotheistic, as explained by
their best priests. They had one supreme god, and the others were
merely names for the various manifestations of that one God, as in
the case of Jupiter. Dr. Pinches Jour, Victoria Inst. XXVIII. 8-10,
published a tablet in which the chief divinities of the Babylonian
Pantheon are resolved into forms of Merodach. Enlil becomes
** the Merodach of sovereignty,” Nebo the ” Merodach of earthly
possessions,” and Nergal the “ Merodach of war.” As we, how-
ever, theoretically stood out for a kind of monotheism, it would not
do for us to take our religion from a polytheistic document, and the
translators disingenuously render the word Ale-im as “God”
(singular), whenever it refers to “ our ” or the Hebrew God, but as
** gods ” (plural), whenever it refers to the Philistines or the “ other
man’s ” Gods, with the further ” mental obliquity ” that the trans-
lators put a capital “ G ” when they translate Ale-im as a Hebrew
?“ God,” and a small ” g” when they translate the same word as
another tribe’s ” gods.” This ” grammatical inexactitude ” is not
perpetrated by the Hebrews but by the English Ecclesiastical
translators.
Now it is exactly the’ same word, used in exactly the same
sense, as Colenso proved and Dr. Cheyne now states (p. 157),
yet the translators gave it a different meaning to suit the kind of
doctrine they were teaching. The word Elohim is the plural of the
Eli or Eloi, to whom Jesus bitterly cried when He found Himself
deserted on the Cross. It is the well-known Hebrew plural,—
cherub, cherubim ; seraph, seraphim ; Eloh, Elohim. “Elohim,”
says the Rev. Dr. Duff, ” means simply Elohs.” {Hist. Old Testa-
ment Criticismp. 17.) The phrase Lord God, ” Yahweh Ale-im,”
ought to be'translated “Yahweh of the Ale-im,” or, if you like,
“the Hebrew tribal god amongst the god family,” or, poetically,
“the wrathful one of the heavenly host.” That they were names
is shown by such names as Elijah,—Eli is Jah,—” The Ale-im are
Yahweh,” which makes Yahweh plural, as it sometimes is. That
the word Elohim is plural is now admitted even by the Ecclesiastical
Or “ interior ” school of critics, and it is actually nearly always
translated so (as “ gods ”) in the authorised version, except where
its translation as a singular word is dishonestly used to support the
theory of a monotheistic religion.
For instance, in Deuteronomy xi., 16, we have: ” Serve other
Elohim (gods), and bow down to them ” (pi.); “ go after other
Elohim (gods) and serve them“ (pi.); Deuteronomy.xvii., 3, “Go
and serve other Elohim (gods) and bow down to them ” (pi.); so
tlpt, odt only was Elohim a plural word for a group or council of
160
-CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
gods; but there were other councils of Gods besides that of the
Hebrews. Each tribe had Elohim of its own.
A few of the texts, giving plural translation, may be cited.
Deut. xxix. 26 Job. xxiii. 16
,, xiii. 6-13. Ex. xxxiv. 14.
,, xi. 28.
1 Kings ix. 6.
,, ix. 9.
,, xi. 10.
2 Kings xvii. 35.
„ xvii. 15.
Ju. xi. 12.
Jer. xiii. 10. Ju. ii. 19.
,, xvi. 11, xxv. 6. Jos. xxii. 22.
,, xi. 10. Exodus xxii. 28.
,, xxii. 9. Ps. cxxxvi. 2, xcv. 3.
„ vii. 6-9. Genesis vi. 2.
,, xliv. 3. Job. ii. 1, xxxviii. 7.
-
But there are over 60 other texts scattered through the Old Testa-
ment, all of which are frankly plural. Yet in the first chapter of
Genesis the translators have falsely translated the word as ” God,'*
even when the “ gods ” confer with one another. The shyness of
English scholars to say anything which might shake the faith of their
communicants, and perhaps weaken the authority of their Church,
has led to English scholarship being a bye-word on the Continent,
but 1 am glad to notice that this conspiracy of silence is breaking
down, and Sir George Birdwood is allowed, in the Royal Society of
Arts, to say:—
“ Journal Royal Society of Arts,” 30th December, 1910.—
“ Where in the English Authorised Version of the Bible the word
God is used, the original Hebrew was Elohim, * gods.’ This false
translation, which is followed in the Revised Version, is excused
on the pretence of Elohim being the * plural of majesty ’; an ex-
planation utterly untenable, at least, in all the earlier Biblical in-
stances of the use of the word.”
Of course, all scholars have known this for sixty years, but
few have publicly cared to state it. All honour to the fearless
Colenso.
We speak loosely of "‘the story of creation in the Bible,” and
some of us may know that there are two different, and contradictory,
accounts. But few know that there are two main accounts, and
three fragments of other accounts, with glimpses of a sixth account,
all contradicting each other.
So strong is the desire in the human mind to have a neatly
completed picture that the cry ” Tell us of origins ” has been a
universal or^e, and all religions profess to tell man how this world
was created “ in the beginning,” and the Bible begins in this way.
Modern thought has become conscious of one great fact; that
it is impossible to postulate a beginning to anything. It will always
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
161
be found that the ” beginning ” of any thing, state, or epoch, is
only an artificial line drawn, and that on the other side of that line
is the “ end" of some other thing, state, or epoch, and, on
examining carefully the region of the line of division, it is found that
there is no break, no dividing line, but that events were happening
or popularly ” things were going on” at the division line just as
at any other epoch.
We are told: “In the beginning the Gods created the heaven
and the earth,** explaining that before the creation *“ the earth was
without form and void, and darkness was on the face of the deep.”
There is then a mysterious unfinished sentence standing alone,
with no connection with what goes before or after—“And the
Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.** This is the
first story of creation. Unfortunately it is a mistranslation also,
as the word rendered “ spirit of god ** is “ Ruach,” and is a feminine
noun, meaning the spiritual Queen of Heaven. This will be treated
fully in its place (pp. 162-170).
The second account of creation begins at the third verse of
Genesis i. This second account is the work of a priest of late date,
and is an attempt to systematise the various pagan accounts existing
in the Hebrew writings. It is imported from a Babylonian source.
The third account begins at the 4th verse of Genesis ii., and this,
with the Garden of Eden story, is a purely Hebrew story of native
growth, a piece of real folk lore. It has, however, a Babylonian
form, and was probably written down by Babylonian scribes (Nehe-
miah or Ezra) from the oral traditions of the Hebrews.
The fourth account is in Genesis v,, the “ Book of the Genera-
tions of Adam.** Cain and Abel are unknown in this account.
The fifth account is scattered through the Psalms, Isaiah, and
Job, and begins with the slaying of a dragon.
The sixth account, which is phallic, is dimly shadowed forth
in Job (pp. 153-154).
RUACH—CREATION
The short sentence, in the second verse of the first chapter of
Genesis, should read: “ The mother of the gods brooded over the
fertile abyss,’* and the unfinished part should be, “and brought
forth life.”
Dr. Wallis Budge says this Ruach is feminine, and has descended
from an earlier mythology as the wife of God.
Ruach, or Ruakh, is written in Hebrew, and all old languages
R.K.H., and is identical all over the East, from Chaldea to Egypt.
It has the prosthetic “A” prefixed, and becomes arkh, ark, or
M
162
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
arc, or arch, and as ark is the feminine box or bowl shown hefce (in
three forms, the dove, the bow, and the ark, or Argha (Fig. 96],
from which all life originates, and is used to symbolise the womb ;
in fact, all boxes, arks, and boats, are simply the womb from which
arises all life when coupled with the Phallus (p. 239). The two
combined, form the Hebrew Lingam-Yoni altar—the Ark of the
Covenant. The ark is the dwelling place of Yahweh, or his symbol
the Eduth, or Phallus. All Queens of Heaven are arks, boats, or
ships, and all churches are called naves, or naves, ships, and are
feminine. The nave of a church is still called Schiff (ship) in
Germany. The bishop, on his appointment, weds his ” bride,” the
Church, with a wedding ring. The Catholic Queen of Heaven,
Mary, is also an ark, and called the ” Habitation of God,” the
“Awful dwelling place,” the “Tabernacle of God” (see pp. 48-50).
Ruach means spirit, as in Genesis, and is used as the spirit of
understanding, supposed to be infused into children by anointing
or baptism; or spiritually opening the eyes and ears by touching
with spittle. R.K.H. or Rekh, Egyptian for spittle, an early form
of baptism still used by ignorant people all over the world, and
used by Jesus to cure blindness. The combination of spirit and ark
makes her the dwelling-place of the Holy Spirits or Gods, or the
mother of the Gods.
The Chaldees and Babylonians used the word Ruach as an
adjective to mean spiritual, as in the case of the Arkite Venus who
wept for Adonis (Fig. 118]. Ruach is generally rendered Rekh by
the Babylonians, and Rkh means pure or purifying spirit or Holy
Ghost (in Elizabethan English), or simply spirit in modem Eng-
lish. Semiramis, the earliest Queen, of Heaven of whom we have
fables, was known as D iune oj Juno, the dove* or the Holy Spirit
incarnate.
Every Queen of Heaven had the dove as her symbol. Now
Semiramis was chased by the “snake-footed” Typhon [Manilius
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
163
Astro, lib. IV., V., 579-582 (p. 323)], and this “Venus Urania,”
Diun6 or Dione, the Heavenly Dove, plunged into the waters of
Babylon to escape, and so consecrated these waters as to fit them
for giving “ new life “ or regeneration by baptism. So comes the
Catholic phrase “ the Holy Ghost “ (Queen of Heaven) who suf-
fered for us “through Baptism.” The Holy Ghost Ruach, or
“ Spirit of God,” was therefore Semiramis, Rhea, Cybele, Venus,
Aphrodite, Isis, Istar, Astarte, or Terra, in fact, all the Queens
of Heaven or ” Goddesses of Love,” and their symbol was the
dove. They were called ” flutterers ” or ” brooders,” the exact
meaning of the word used in Genesis i., 2. (” Two Baba. App.,”
303.)
The phrase " Holy Ghost,”—really ” Holy Spirit,”—pertains
to the Queen of Heaven in each of its words. The word holy has
a special signficance in all religions as ” set apart,” undefiled, or,
as Christians say, immaculate or ” virgin,” as we speak of ” Virgin ”
purity, ” Virgin ” gold, and all the Queens of Heaven were virgins,
no matter to how many ” Saviour Sons ” they gave birth, so that
Holy Ghost, or Spirit of God, is identical with the Virgin Queen
of Heaven, or Spirit of God, the mother of the Ale-im.
Semiramis was the original of the other mothers of heaven, such
as Rhea, Cybele, or Juno, who were all doves or Holy Spirits. She
became, in Egypt, Athor, or Hathor, the ” Habitation of God,” the
” Tabernacle ” or " Temple ” in whom dwelt (or of whom was
bom) ” all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.” Then she became
Heva, Persian Queen of Heaven, and Eva, the “ Living One,” or
“Mother of all living” of Genesis. In the Apocryphal ” Prot-
evangelicon ” we find a curious statement which links up Eve with
the Virgin Mary, as it says that Saint Joachim had a forty day and
night fast, and mentions him as father of ” Eve, the blessed Virgin
Mary.” This figure Ruach was the mother of the Gods, and yet the
wife of the same God ; just as all Gods are. The husband of Semi-
ramis was of little account, being called by his wife’s name, Ark-el,
the Ark God, Arkels, Herkels, Arkelus, Heracles, and, finally,
Hercules.
We have seen above then the Ruach, the Spirit of God of
Genesis i., 2, as Semiramis giving life to the waters of baptism in
Babylon, and in the Hebrew writings, hatching life out of the fertile
abyss or giving life to the waters of Genesis (p. 162). We know that
her symbol was a dove, and this is expressed by the Roman Catholic
Church in their church windows by a dove sitting in the midst of
water as here shown [Figs. 99, 100].
She is also shown actually creating or moving or fluttering upon
164
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
the (ace of the waters (Dicjron), God looking on approvingly. " She
is greater than God, without her, he could not act." Note the
ecclesiastical self-importance. Churches were a part of God’s first
creation [Fig. 97].
In Fig. 98 Jahweh is seen proceeding to the location of creation
accompanied by his creative wife. This Is the ecclesiastical ex-
pression, in picture, of Genesis i., 2.
OF ITS TEACHING ANb SYMBOLISM
165
That this dove is the Queen of Heaven is clearly proved by the
representations of the Trinity.
The intense masculinity of the Hebrew prophets, and their
despisal of woman owing to the Garden of Eden story, made them
deny to woman a soul, and caused them to look upon her as not
only the cause of all sin, but as handing sin on to her offspring, as
we hear Job saying, xxv. 4, “ How can a man be clean that is born
of a woman,’* hence she could have no place with their Ale-im.
This terrible doctrine is still prevalent in India, and results in
terrible cruelty to women at the holiest and most critical period of
their lives. 44 When the time for child-bearing draws near, they
are not sheltered in their homes as with us, but, considered unclean,
they are turned out to lie in any corner of a back yard, despised
and unattended.” (Ruth I. Pitt, 44 Times,” 20.1.12.)
While other nations blamed man (and sometimes mutilated him)
for the spread of sexual disease (pp. 184-185), the Hebrew phophets
blamed the female peor or ark (pp. 231-232).
The symbolism of the Hindu Svastika (a symbol found all over
the world and used by the early Christians) v |-fj &also places
woman amongst the evil influences. If the transomes are turned
to the right, to rotate with the sun, and made in gold or coloured
yellow or red, it indicates the sun and all joy, blessedness, temporal,
eternal, material, or spiritual, and every variety of blessing, health,
and happiness, or man; whereas if turned to the left, so as to revolve
against the sun, and made of silver or coloured blue or green, or
black or white, it is a symbol of fear, and indicates darkness, male-
volence, terror, disease, bad luck, failure, or woman. (See Sir Geo.
Birdwood, J. Roy. Soc. of Arts, 5th March, 1912.)
I say their 44 prophets ” advisedly, as the actual Hebrew people
were enthusiastic worshippers of the Queen of Heaven, as the Bible
testifies in many texts. To take one passage alone, Jer. xiv., 15-19,
44 The men with their wives and all the women, a great multitude,”
told Jeremiah plainly that they would continue to burn incense and
pour out drink offerings to the Queen of Heaven, as 44 we and our
fathers, our kings, and our princes did in the cities of Judah and
in the streets of Jerusalem, for then we had plenty of victuals, and
were well, and saw no evil. But since we left off to burn incense
to the Queen of Heaven and to pour out drink offerings unto her,
we have wanted all things, and have been consumed by the sword
and by the famine.” Owing then to the Nabi’s (see p. 237, 263)
detestation of women through the Eden doctrine they came to ban
woman utterly from any place in heaven, but as the mythology of
aU other nations gave her not only a place, but the highest place.
m
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
as mother of all the gods, and the chief member of the real Trinity
representing eternal life (man, woman, and child—see frontispiece).
DAXL PVHAND ??????!, i.i iwn i. A —.1.: I.
Fig. 101 Fig. 102
they, the Hebrew Christians, put her secretly or symbolically
as the dove, the third member of the Trinity, instead of
a woman. So we have the father and son joined at their mouths
Fig. 103
Fig. 104
(m their breaths or souls) by a dove, as shown at Figs. 101, 103.
Clearly the dove links the father and son, and what other “ link ”
can we conceive than the mother. On the Cross (Fig. 102) stands
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
167
the dove to make the Trinity with a female member, although she
was well represented by Mary Magdalene—the Gospel Goddess of
Love (Quia multum amavit). Lastly, in a miniature of the end of
the XIV. Century, Didron gives a female Holy Ghost (Fig. 104).
The dove is the symbol of the “ Mother of God.”
The Babylonian story, and we must remember that the Hebrews
got most of their cosmogony from the Babylonians, tells how the
mother of the gods, when her children began to assert themselves,
Fig. 106 Fig. 107
and die found her sway disputed, retired again to the fertile abyss,
and created beings to help her in her struggle against her children.
The Ruach, or Holy Ghost, was the Kunti, or “ Spouse,” the
” Dove." the ” Love of God,” “ Kun," or ” Kiun ” (Queen), ” She
Kunah,” rose on a prolific stem, Zoroaster’s ”Divine wisdom”
(Pdas Athen6), the ” Virgo ” of die Zodiac with an ear of com and
a babe, die Isis, the ” Altrix Nostra,” nurse of man and all exist'
ence, the Eros (creating love), Ceres Mamosa (all fruitful). We
know that Ruach was the ” Ark ” of God (as well as spirit of God),
and aB arks are die womb which brings forth life. Noah's ark
brought dm new Hfe to the world, and many saviours are, like
Motes; delivered from an ark.
168
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
The "brooding” referred to. in Genesis i. 2, is symbolised in
all ancient mythologies by a figure with feathers turned up, gener-
ally, as a hen does to cover her eggs. Even the sun in Egypt was
thus winged, as by its warmth it brought life out of the waters after
the inundation (see p. 116).
The Babylonian and Persian gods were also thus represented.
[See Figs. 105, 106, 107.] Note that the top figure in creating, uses,
not an arrow, but a trident, the Fleur-de-Lys, or male emblem, and
is surrounded by the female ring.
The Romans combined Juno and Kubele as Juno Covella, the
” Dove that binds with cord ” (see p. 227). In the Figure 106 two
bands instead of feet are symbols of the cord-bound women devoted
to prostitution as devotees of Mylitta.
-
We get a glimpse of how the transformation was made in read-
ing the history of neo-platonism, which has given rise to a volum-
inous literature in Germany. This was the form of faith, descended
from Plato, which was absorbed by Christianity. It was too
philosophical and mystic—a purely idealistic faith, and idealism
has never had any followers, except among scholars. The common
world of men and women knows nothing of it. So when Chris-
tianity began, the popular neo-platonism died of ansemia, and
Christianity absorbed those of its tenets which served for a
philosophic basis of its belief. Proclus, or Proklus, was the greatest
o£ the neo-platonists. “ It was reserved for Proclus,” says Zeller
(Die Philosophic der Griechen), ' 'to bring the neo-platonic to its for-
mal conclusion by the rigorous consistency of his dialect, and, keeping
in view all the modifications which it had undergone in the course
of two centuries, to give it that form in which it was transferred
to Christianity and Mohammedanism in the middle ages.” Proclus
gives us a pretty full account of the beliefs and symbolism of his
times, especially in relation to ” Soul.”
The special study of this period, as showing the shaping of the
Christian doctrine, and the compromises between the anti-feminine
Hebrew ideas, and the pro-feminine learnings of all the other coun-
tries, welded together by the Greek neo-platonism and the sturdy
Roman sun worship, csrnnot be entered upon here, u it requires a
large volume for its treatment, and should this present volume find
acceptance with readers, my next care would be to present the
results of my studies of this period.
The Assyrians and Egyptians, in deifying the elements, claimed
that the air should hold the supreme place, and they consecrated it
under the symbol of the dove, the emblem of the Queen of Heaven
(Julius Firmicus, De Err ore, Cap. 4, p. 9). Juno, the dove, was
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
169
the most pronounced Dove-Goddess, the name having run into two
generations as she was daughter of Dione, or D’lune, the dove.
As breath, or ** spirit,” she was held to permeate all things, and
her special' allotment was the air ; ” for,” said Proclus, ” air is a
symbol of soul, according to which also soul is called a spirit ”
(Pneuma). Juno was the special deity who begat or created the
souls of infants, just as their mothers created their bodies. (Proclus
lib. VI., Cap. 22, Vol. II., p. 197.)
The whole domain of spirit, air, breath, and life, was her king'
dom, as she even gave life to the gods themselves. The Hindus
said, ” without her nothing could be created.” She was the
” Spirit ” which stirred the god to action {pp. 48-49, 203).
The soul or spirit of man came, then, from the ” Spirit or Mother
of God,” Ruach ; so that it was certainly the Queen of Heaven
who created life by brooding on the waters in Genesis i., 2.
Didr on, Vol. I., p. 417, says: “Such is the dogma by which
the three persons individually are distinguished one from another,
the father would most properly possess memory, the son intelli-
gence, and the Holy Ghost love.” What is the universal symbol
of love ? Woman, or her symbol, the dove.
“ Thus,” says Hislop, “the deified Queen was adored as the
incarnation of the Holy Ghost, the spirit of peace and love. The
image of the goddess was richly habited, on her head was a golden
dove, and she was called Semeion or Zemeion, the habitation of
the Great,” or God. (Bryant, Vol. III., p. 145.) “ As mother of the
gods she was worshipped by the Persians, Syrians, and all the
kings of Europe and Asia with the most profound religious venera-
tion.” (Joannes Clericus Phil. Orient, lib. II., De Persia, Cap. 9.,
Vol. II., 340.)
Dr. Evans shows us that at Cnossus, in Crete, at 2000 to 3000 B.C.,
the principal Minoan divinity was a kind of magna mater, a great
mother, or nature goddess (see p. 70a), and that the male associate
was a mere satellite. She was the original of Aphrodite, or Venus.
Encyc. Brit., 1911, Vol. VII., pp. 422, 424. (Compare Hercules,
p. 163.)
All religion is built on symbolism, which really means to say
one thing and to mean another, or to speak in veiled or esoteric
language,. which only the initiated can understand. Thus, the
Trinity Is represented by the father, son, and a dove, meaning the
father, son, and .mother, the latter veiled under the a-sexual name
of die Holy “ Spirit,” or in old English, ” Ghost.” However
completely the Jews* detestation of woman obliterated the feminine
from the Old Testament, the birth of Jesus again re-established
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CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
the original pagan trinity which all the ancients adored; and to
the majority of Roman Catholics the Trinity is the father, mother,
and son, personified by Joseph, Mary, and Jesus, with the Virgin
as the worshipped member. [See Frontispiece.]
So, following up Genesis i., 2, where woman as the female
“ Spirit of God,*’ or the active and acting member of the godhead,
(as “ spirit ” is always the word used for " activity ”), this RICH
which brought forth life, is gradually being restored to her old place
as Queen of Heaven, the Mother of God, ** without whom no
creation could be made,” as the Hindus say (pp. 46 and 203), and
is now taking her place as the central figure of the Trinity.
She was the means not only of creating life ” in the beginning,”
but of obtaining ” life eternal ” for mankind in the ” unseen uni>
verse.”
The Catholics practically ignore all members of the heavenly
hierarchy, save Mary, as mediator, and one can appreciate the
poetry and joy of appealing to her of the ” sorrowful heart ” with
her little babe, to ease the burthen of the world. As King, Gnostics,
Introduction, has well said, "There is no new thing in religion.”
and this Mediatorial function of the Virgin Mary is a good example
of this, as it is a slavish copy of the function of the great Mother of
Heaven of all Western Asia,—Mellitta, whose very name means
Mediatrix. The Trinity is sometimes expressed thus:—
Heart of Jesus, I adore thee,
Heart of Mary, I implore thee.
Heart of Joseph, pure and just,
In these three hearts I put my trust.
(“ What every Christian must know and do/' Rev. J. Fumiss.
/. Daffy, Dublin.)
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
171
SECOND ACCOUNT OF THE CREATION.
The first two verses of Chapter I. of Genesis bear evidence of a
very ancient source of myths of far-off times. Chaos, “ Tohuwa
Bohu ” (hurly burley), the darkness on the face of Tehom (the
sulking dragon), and then the mother of the gods hatching life out
of the fertile abyss, all indicate that the two verses are a glimpse
of a piece of very ancient folk-lore.
Not so the second account. It is that of a priest striving to give
exhaustive treatment, as is shown by its catalogue form, and the
phrase, “ each after his kind,” repeated ten times. Research into
its language forms the other points, show that it was not written
till a very late period,—not, in fact, till the Jews had returned from
the Babylonian exile, or about 350 to 200 B.C., the time when the
Babylonian priests, Nehemiah and Ezra, reconstituted the Hebrew
Scriptures.
This is a polytheistic creation by the Ale-im, or Council of Gods
(see pp. 159-160).
It begins, ” And the Gods said. Let there be light,” without
sun, moon, or stars, and they ” divide the light from the darkness ”
as though they were substances, as, indeed, in ancient times they
were supposed to be. Then the ” evening and the morning were
the first day,” and this before the creation of a sun, and no idea
of the earth turning on its axis, and so on, quite a happy-go-lucky
catalogue—not “raisonne.” Then the gods made a firmament to
divide the ” waters from the waters.” Evidently the priest thought
that the falling of rain was a proof of a reservoir of water overhead,
and it wanted something very strong to hold it up, as the word
firmament means in the original, a construction of strength.
On the third day die Gods separated land and water and made
the grass, the herb, and " the tree yielding fruit, and the herb
seed,” but it is a puzzle to know how these things could be brought
forth by the earth and grow before there was any sun to make them
grow. Without a sun there would be universal death, as the
temperature would be somewhere about 150 degrees below zero,
and all water solid ice. Then, said the Gods, let there be lights
in the finnament of the heaven, to ” divide the day from the night,”
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CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
a quite useless proceeding, seeing that they had already done so
in verses 4 and 5. These lights were to be for signs and for seasons
and for days and years.
To the scribe the sun and moon were equally important, both
" to give light upon the earth,” the difference is to the scribe in*
appreciable. The moon was then the time-keeper, and so, as
important as the sun.
” And the Gods made two great lights; the greater to rule the
day, the lesser to rule the night.”
Zimmern considers that these phrases about ” ruling ” point to
a system of belief in which sun and moon were something more than
mere lights in the sky; in other words, to a society in which the
worship of the heavenly bodies played an important part in a
religion primarily astral. We find the Nabis, or prophets, con-
stantly scolding the Hebrews for worshipping the Queen of Heaven,
and the sun, moon, and all the host of heaven. (Deut. io., 19, and
other passages, pp. 165 and 263, et seq.)
Then the Gods made the “ great whales,” or monsters. To an
inland people those were very marvellous. They then commanded
the fish and fowls to be fruitful and multiply,” but did not make
a similar law for “ the living creature after his kind, cattle and creep-
ing thing and beast of the earth after his kind,” which he created
on the sixth day. We may ask why ” after his kind ” ? There
must have been a model of the ” kind ” somewhere which the Gods
were merely copying or repeating. There was a great world of
men and living things outside, which served as a model on which
to build the Hebrew creation. Cain procuring a wife, from ” the
land of Nod,” clearly shows that this was only a tribal idea of
creation.
” And the Gods said, Let us make man in our image after our
likeness.” Here, again, the priest expresses no new creation, but
something already known to the Gods as ” man,” and the Gods
commune together in the plural,—” our likeness.” So the Gods
created man in their own image, in the image of Elohim (A16-im, the
Gods) created he him, male and female created he them. The
word Elohim is plural, and always translated as ” they,” ” them,”
and ” their ” in other pcurts of Scriptures. It ought to read: “ In
the image of the Elohim (the Gods) created they him, male and
female created they them ” (pp. 159-161).
Similar ly# the scribe has treated die name of the creative powei
(dural (us) in one line and singular (he) in another.
Note the Androgynous God indicated, ”in the image of God,
male and female ” created He them. This is the Universal hernia-
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
173
phroditic idea of the God having two sexes in himself, like the
Ardanari-Ishwara (on p. 47) of the Hindus, symbolised by their
Lingam-Yoni altars, the Asherals or Groves of the Babylonians and
Hebrews, the ring and dagger of the Persian, the Ankh in the hands,
the “ buckle ” in the belt and the pschent on the heads of the
Egyptian gods and kings, in fact, the Androgynous a “ double-
sexed ” idea of all Gods (pp. 30-80).
Then he says to male and female : “ Be fruitful and multiply
and replenish the earth,” which is the Elohim’s and the Yahweh’s
first command to man—and the commandment repeated most fre-
quently in the Bible. Here we have child-birth and the “fall”
(sexual intercourse) actually commanded. Child-birth was said to
have been created as a curse on the woman after the fall, but this
command to man and animals shows that procreation and succes-
sion of life by child-birth were intended from the first.
The Elohim gives them : “ Every tree in which there is fruit ”—
to you it shall be “ for meat,”—no forbidden fruit here.
We have, at this point, a very visible example of the artificial
division of the Bible into chapters carried out by the “ Masoretic ”
Monks in the Christian era, as the first or “ Elohistic ” account of
creation goes over to the end of the third verse of the second
chapter, and a totally different and new account begins at verse 4
of the second chapter. These ignorant divisions add to the already
chaotic arrangement of Holy Writ.
In the third account of creation we come to the true folk-lore of
the Hebrews as written for them by Babylonian priests, such as
Ezra. It is no longer “ the Gods ” Ale-im, but their own tribal god
Yahweh (Jehovah), or Ya Ava, given to them by the Baby-
lonians (pp. 156-157), who creates, but he is still called “Yah-
weh Ale-im,” or the Yahweh of the Gods, oak spirits, or
heavenly host, just as Jupiter was Jove of the Olympian host of
Gods, or the Babylonian, Marduck of the Heavenly Host, or Baldur
of the “ Ring.” He made the earth and the heavens just as did
the A16-im, the earth first,—no doubt standing on the earth to create
the other parts of the universe ; a belief common to all early races.
The first full account of creation is a dry catalogue, the second an
interesting piece of poetic folk-lore, pleasant to read, and taking
us back to the ideas of the childhood of a race.
The naive childishness is beautifully illustrated by the forget-
fulness of Yahweh (Jehovah), who, after making (in one day, not
six), the earth, heavens, and every plant and herb, suddenly remem-
bers that “there was not a man to till the ground.” So tilling
of the ground by man, requiring tools, was not new, but an opera-
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CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
don well known and evidently necessary before creation* and tilling
was useless without seed from a former year.
The tale is careful to say of the creation of plants. ” every plant
of the field,” before it was in the earth, “ and every herb of the
field,” before it grew; because it is discovered that the tale had
forgotten the necessary rain, without which plants and herbs would
not grow ; and the tale goes on to explain, ” for the Jahweh of the
A16-im had not caused it to rain upon the earth. So that is
remedied, and ” there went up a mist [not rain] from the earth and
watered the whole face of the ground.” This different cause of
fertility, mist or dew instead of rain, looks as though we had here
small fragments of two different myths.
Just as the second account of creation in the first chapter is an
account of the Spring, or creation, of each year, as it occurs in the
Euphrates Valley, so the third account is a picture of the advent
of Spring (annual creation) in Palestine. The Lower Euphrates,
where the Accadians lived,—from whom the Babylonians got their
culture,—was flooded every winter, so much so that all towns had to
be built on mounds, but the Spring sun soon dried it up, and the
flowers came forth, and a new world was created every year. Mar-
duck, the specially selected creator, was the God of the Spring
sun.
In Palestine, the land, being highland, is arid in Winter; cold
winds raise dust clouds, and no green thing can live. But the
gentle Spring rains cause all the herbs to bloom, and the land is
quickly transformed from a dismal, arid desert, to a verdant garden.
The one habitat is in a land of water, the other is one where
there is no water. The priest who wrote it down says Yahweh of
Ale-im had not caused it to rain upon the earth. Now, if there was
no rain in all the earth there could be -no sea, no rivers, no lakes,
and, in consequence, there was no creation of fishes this time.
That this account is that of a people living to the west of
Babylonia is also shown by the statement that Yahweh of the
A16-im planted a garden eastward in Eden, which was at one time
the true name of the land at the junction of the Euphrates and Tigris,
and situated on the Euphrates and three other rivers accurately
describing the Babylon habitat. Why should they, the inhabitants
of Canaan, make their paradise in the land of the Babylonians who
had so often conquered them, deported them, and used them
cruelly? It^ was because of the great difference between Babylonia
and Palestine.
-
Ezekiel xxxi., 1-9, describes in poetic language , the richness of
the Assyrian land in fruit trees and cattle; so luxurious was the
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
175
vegetation yielded by the constant and abundant supply of water
by irrigation, “ so that all the trees of Eden that were in the garden
of God envied him ” (the Assyrian).
The splendid rivers, with their irrigation canals, made Babylonia
a land “ flowing with milk and honey,” fields rich in grain and well
fed oxen, while Palestine, with its arid, highland hills, could produce
only thin crops. Good pastures were few, and more fit for goats
than cattle, so the Hebrews always looked to Babylonia as a rich
land. It was, in fact, a sort of ” Araby the blest,” and, as Ezekiel
said, ” more to be desired than Eden.”
The watered gardens of Babylon gave a sort of perpetual summer
or Garden of Eden effect, and the Hebrews had been in captivity
there often enough to know of its richness as compared with their
own poor country. Hence, the Hebrews located their Eden there.
The Yahweh Ale-im made a creation quite different from that of
the A16-im alone, consisting merely of earth and heaven, and plants
and herbs ; but with the usual want of foresight, he found he had
forgotten to make rain, and that there was not a man to till the
ground, so he corrected his over-sights by making a mist ” to water
the face of the ground ” and a man from the ” dust of the ground ”
(a fable common to all races), and he breathed life into him.
Then “Yah of the tree stem gods ” planted a garden eastward
in Eden, and out of the ground he made to grow every tree that is
pleasant to the sight, and good for food ; also two special trees, one
of ” life,” and one of the “ knowledge of good and evil.”
And he put ” the man,” not yet called Adam, into the " Garden
of Eden ” to dress it and to ” keep it.” Hence, “ Adam,” or man
laboured from the very first. He was specially created for the
labour of tilling. Even ” Adam ” is Babylonian, as that is their
word meaning ” man.”
Now considering what Eden contained—” every tree that is
pleasant to the sight and good for food,” Adam had a big job for
one man ” to dress it and to keep it,” and to “till the ground,”
so poor Adam, set single-handed to a task requiring hundreds or
even thousands of men, must, before the fall, have truly “eaten
his bread in the sweat of his face.” So the curse of labour was
not pronounced because of the fall. Man was condemned to
labour from die first.
Then Yahweh forbade the man (not the woman, for she was not
yet made) to eat of the fruit of only one of the trees, that of know-
ledge, and told him if h« did so: “In the day thou eatest thereof
thou shah surely die.” He was quite free to eat of the tree of
176
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
life, and so gain eternal life, and yet it was to prevent this that
Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden.
Forbidden fruit was a legend in all old religions, and was often
represented by a fenced tree with fruit and a man and woman stand-
ing on each side of it. One occurs to my mind in “ Rajendralala’s
Antiquities of Orissa,” Vol. II., plate XIX.
Here Yahweh’s first prophecy entirely failed, as we shall see
that in the day man ate of the fruit he did not die. Here, as in all
early religions, the serpent or devil is more clever than the God.
The serpent directly contradicted Yahweh, and said: “Ye'shall
not surely die.” The serpent was right, and Yahweh wrong
(Genesis iii., 4).
The narrative now comes out of the garden into the outside
world, and Yahweh, seeing man lonely, thinks of making turn some
sort of companion, so he go<^ on to complete his creation, which
he had interrupted when he suddenly bethought himself that ” there
was not a man to till the ground.”
He then makes the beast of the field and birds of the air, but
he forgot all about the ” great, whales ” and fishes, so in this account
they were never created.
We see how Yahweh breaks the story to get a reason for making
woman, but he broke it earlier for a more curious reason, the Jewish
cupidity for gold. He is busy defining the geography of Eden when
he mentioned the land of Havilah, and Jew-like, in the midst of the
narrative of Almighty God’s important revelation, he says, “ Where
there is gold.” He can’t stop now, but goes on appraising its
quality, and he says with unctuous satisfaction: “And the gold
of that land is good and there is Bedellium and Onyx stone.” A
fine touch that, showing the Jewish origin of the story. And this
was before man’s creation, before ornaments, jewels, or money
were conceived.
The oversight in the creation of fishes is another proof of the
Canaan origin of this story. Jerusalem was far from the sea, and
the Hebrews probably seldom realised that there was a watery
world of which they had no knowedge.
From verse 18 this seems to be another independent fragment
of another account of creation, for the man is now suddenly called
Adam (the Babylonian word for man), asa proper name.
Out of all the beasts Adam found no helpmeet, Yahweh made
a woman from one of his ribs. Note the low conception of com-
panionship. The woman was classed with the beasts. She w$s
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
177
laha (Babylonian for woman), because she was taken out of Ish
(man).
In this purely Jewish account of creation, the debasement of
woman is very marked. First man is made alone and is given power
over the beasts by naming them. Yahweh thinks he needs a com-
panion, but they fail to find a suitable one among the beasts.
Then he forms an absolutely sub-ordinate being out of a frag-
ment of Adam’s body, and, by implication, classes her as one of the
higher beasts, for, as we know, she had no soul.
This tale also reached the Hebrews from a Babylonian source,
but the rib, called Tzalaa, which is the Hebrew rendering of Tha-
laath, is called by Berosus “ Thalaatth Omorka,” the “mother of
the world,*’ or universe. So we see the Jews altered the story to
debase woman, and reduced the mother of the universe to the
level of a rib of Adam.
In verse 24, marriage is hinted at prematurely, as there was, as
yet, no man and wife relation between Ish and Isha, and Adam
could not leave his father and his mother and cleave to his wife,
as he had no father and mother.
There is apparently a gap in the story at the end of the second
chapter, as in the first verse of the third chapter the serpent is
spoken of quite familiarly, but no hint of its creation nor existence
inside or outside Eden had yet been given. This was unnecessary
in the original, because the word for serpent, “ Nachash,” was the
Phallus (see p. 23). The English translators used the word serpent
to cloak the true meaning. When, therefore, the man blames the
woman, and the woman blames the serpent, she is simply retaliating
against the man (as is always the case), as the serpent is part of
the man (phallus). Then comes the eating of the forbidden
fruit, and the assurance of the serpent that they would not die. The
sexual nature of the “ eating of fruit ’’ is shown by the sudden sense
of shame, and of their covering up their nudity and hiding. Then
the cursing of the serpent, which made no change, as serpents by
nature always “went” on their bellies; the other part of the
curse was ineffective, as serpents don’t eat dust. Eating dust is a
common phrase applied to those in terrible affliction, and may
refer to the incurable suffering which is caused' by sexual disease
(pp* 230-235). No doubt this is one of the passages rendered
obscure by the exercise of Milton’s “ insulse rule.” Then comes a
muddled sentence, as he, in speaking to the serpent, seemingly
says to the woman, “ It shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise
1iis heel,” a purely phallic phrase, as “head” and “heel” are
phallic euphemisms (pp. 41-239), and the phrase refers to the com-
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CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
munication of the deadly sexual disease by intercourse (p. 438).
Serpents have no heels. The phrase means now that the sexual
act has taken place it must always go on" (p. 239).
He curses the women in an obscure sentence: “I will greatly
multiply thy sorrow and thy conception.” But the woman had not
yet conceived; we know of no sorrow, and he apparently curses
her with child>birth, forgetting the first Commandment, ” Be fruit-
ful and multiply.”
He also curses Adam with labour, forgetting that he specially
created Adam to ” till the ground,” and put him in Eden ” to dress
and to keep ” the most extensive horticultural garden ever con-
ceived, and his reason for making him at all was, that there ” was
not a man to till the ground.”
All this cursing was because man had gained knowledge, though
how he could gain knowledge through his stomach is not clear.
“And Adam called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the
mother of all living.” This is premature, as the birth of a child does
not seem to follow from the ” eating of the fruit,” but because, in
two quite different accounts in Gen. iv. and v., “Adam knew Eve,
his wife.” It is instructive, however, as showing that the eating of
the fruit of the tree of knowledge was originally that of the Tree of
Life, causing Eve to be the ” mother of all living,” and this eating
of fruit was the sexual act.
“The mother of all living” was the name of all Queens of
Heaven, so man’s human wife Eve is treated here as a goddess.
She was really Heva of the Persians, Queen of Heaven, and was the
Ruach of Genesis i. 2, who incubated the fertile waters.
Then, as a last error, it turns out that it would have been still
more dangerous, from the God’s point of view, for Adam and Eve
to have eaten of the Tree of Life, as they would, said the Gods,
communing together, have lived for ever ; and, having already
become “as one of us,” as to knowledge, they would have been,
in every sense, Gods also, and this must be prevented at all costs.
This fight between Gods and men, and the God’s jealousy of
man attaining eternal life is common to all early mirologues.
After eating the fruit in Eden it must have become colder, be-
cause the fig leaf apron was not enough, so Yahweh made coats of
skins for Adam and Eve, while still in Eden.
Now this is a fragment of the Solar myth that Summer is Paradise,
and Winter is the ceasing of Paradise, or expulsion from the garden.
Astronomically, it is expressed by Virgo rising along with Bootes
(Adam and Eve), led by die Balance or Phallus (p. 140), and pre-
ceded by the serpent (sexual passion) into the Spring and Summer
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
179
of the year. They pass slowly across the sky and disappear as it
grows colder, led by the serpent. Then Perseus, with his flaming
sword, appears in the sky to keep them out of Paradise till next
Summer.
Hence, the need of fur coats. The fall was Autumn, or early
Winter.
All deaths of Gods, of ** falls,” or expulsions from Paradise,
are caused by the cold blasts or thorns of Winter (see Job), as the
garden (Paradise) half of the year must unhappily end, and man is
turned out into the cold outer world of Winter. Therefore, the
warm fur garments were necessary. The fig leaf apron was not
enough for the cold which ensued, as Yahweh withdrew his coun-
tenance, or as the sun entered Winter. He must, therefore, have
slain animals and skinned them, so we see that ” death ” must
already have taken place in the world, and at the hands of Yahweh.
The eating of the fruit had given, it seems, to man the only
mental faculty, the lack of which had hitherto differentiated him
from ” us,” the Ale-im, and by having come to know good and
evil he was intellectually the equal of the Gods, so that the modern
idea of an omniscient God was not that held by the writer of Genesis.
The God had only the intelligence of man after eating the fruit.
It is difficult to understand the Gods’ anger at man for acquiring
knowledge, unless it is intended as a picture of the Church's
attitude. All Yahweh’s teaching, as well as Elohim’s and Ell
Shadai’s was to teach man this very knowledge. Now if he got it
by eating fruit, he had no need of all the Biblical teaching.
And all Yahweh’s slaughterings and punishments in the ghastly
chronicles of the Old Testament were quite unnecessary (p. 210).
It was pure jealousy on Yahweh’s part. The Hebrew Yahweh
was a purely anthropomorphic God, a big, angry man, with all man’s
short-sightedness, stupidity, and jealousy, making constant mistakes,
and repenting of the things he had foolishly done, as do the early
Gods of all savage nations.
Yahweh does not blame the woman for man’s rise in knowledge,
as he says ” lest he put forth his hand,” etc., when it was she who
put forth her hand. Yahweh evidently thinks she was quite entitled
to take the bruit as she was not created when the prohibition was
uttered, so in Gen. iii. 17 he blames the man alone.
But the record goes on to say : ” And now, lest he put forth his
hand [it was she who put forth her hand] and take also of the tree
of life, and eat, and live for ever : therefore the Yahweh of the Al£-im
sent him forth from the Garden of Eden, to till the ground from
whence he was taken.
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CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
“ So he drove out the man (what about the woman?), and he
placed at the East (the “ eastern position ” of High Churchmen
begins early) of the Garden of Eden, Cherubim and a flaming sword,
which turned every way to keep the way of the tree of life.”
Now, here, we see that the expulsion from Eden was because
the Gods had placed a “tree of life,” there, the eating of which
(not its fruit, this time) would make man live for ever. The Gods,
in all early fables about man trying to scale heaven and become a
God (the tower of Babel is such another), are jealous of man’s in-
telligence, and frustrate him in every attempt to obtain eternal life,
or knowledge. Neither man nor woman was warned against the
Tree of Life.
The danger of its being placed in the Garden along with man
seems to have been an oversight of the Gods ; which, as in all other
folk-lore, could not be remedied by the simple expedient of remov-
ing it. The error of the Gods could only be expiated by grave con-
sequences to some hapless individual, as we And in the thousands
of folk-lore stories all over the world.
It is quite clear from this story that man was never intended to
live for ever, in fact, the Gods were already jealous of his rise from
brutish ignorance to the plane of a knowledge of good and evil, and
they sure greatly incensed at the woman especially, for helping man
to attain to this plane of morality which raised him above the brutes.
It is made quite clear that it was only by eating of the Tree of Life
that man could live for ever.
As made by Yahweh, in council with the Ale-im, man was
mortal, and the Gods intended that he should always remain so.
Their alarm that man might live for ever, and thus become in every
sense their equal, results in their repenting of having made an Eden
at all, and closing it up and probably destroying it, as it is never
heard of again, nor the Cherubim with the flaming sword.
That it was the eating of the Tree of Ufe and not the fruit of
the Tree of Knowledge of which the gods were afraid, is again
emphasised by the special statement that the Cherubim with the
flaming sword were there to ” keep the way of the Tree of Life,”
—not that of Knowledge. Why the Hebrews split the original Tree
of Life into two “ trees ” is difficult to understand. As shown on
p. 52 “ Knowledge,” in the Bible, is sexual intercourse, so the two
trees were, identical, and Genesis says that after eating of the fruit
of the Tree of Knowledge, Eve was the “ mother of all living.”
The muddle caused by the scribes tampering with the original
story as derived from Babylon, results in die fact that man never
” fell ” at all. The fall means the sexual act, and the Bible says
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
181
-
that man was never allowed to eat of the “ Tree of Life ” (the
Phallus in all countries), and, as a fact, the birth of children did not
follow as a consequence of any act in the Garden of Eden. The
story only tells that of the Roman Catholic Church, which punished
with the cruel death of burning anyone who dared to acquire
knowledge.
In this connection, everyone ought to read the history of the
“Conflict between Science and Religion,*’ of J. W. Draper, and
also Andrew Dickson White’s History of the “ Warfare between
Science and Theology in Christendom.” These books should be
read in every school.
Thus a calm reading and discussion of the original story (not its
distorted echoes in the New Testament), shows us that death did
not come into the world through Adam’s first transgression, as Adam
was always mortal or subject to death, and the Gods took urgent
steps to retain him so, and were very angTy when they thought,
through their own oversight, there was a chance of his becoming
immortal or gaining eternal life. In their intense jealousy they de-
stroyed their beautiful garden, where Yahweh loved to walk “ in the
cool of the evening,” and gave up all the plans they originally had
for the happiness of mankind. The Garden of Eden is the old,
old story of a lost ” golden age,” which must come to an end some-
how, as it never exists within the knowledge of the historian. It
only existed in a fairy land of the past.
The whole myth is made up of fragments of three world-wide
myths. The first is the ” Golden Age ” myth. The second is a
myth, containing a homily, telling man and woman that youth is
their paradise, happy youth with no responsibility and no worries;
but that, with the advent of sexual passion (the serpent) and
marriage, the man is cursed with the labour of finding food, cloth-
ing, and shelter for the woman and her children, a constant toil,
from marriage to the grave ; and the woman with the pains of child-
birth. The third myth is the myth, common to all races, of how
near man came to gaining the secret of eternal life, and how the
jealousy of the Gods frustrated his glorious dream. This idea
appears in Prometheus and his fire from heaven, and led to prac-
tical attempts to realise it by the Alchemists in their search for
the elixir of life, and to much fine literature, such as Faust.
Genesis, therefore, yields no support to the tale that man brought
death into the world, and lost eternal life on earth by eating fruit,
a&dthat a Messiah, the Son or lah or Jehovah, by shedding his blood
appeased die blood-thirsty Yahweh of the Ale-im, and repurchased
etethaf' Kfe for man,-^-not, of course, on this earth, but in some
182
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
far-off heaven in the skies, ruled by the Eternal Father, El Shadai,
Ancient of Days, Zu Pittar, Jehovah, Yahweh, or love or Jove.
The story of Genesis teaches us exactly the contrary. It teaches us
that man was born mortal and could only have become immortal
by eating, not fruit, but " of the Tree of Life " ; and that Yahweh
and his Council of Gods were quite determined that he never should
become immortal, but that death would always be his portion.
This determination that man should always remain mortal caused
them to abandon all their pleasant plans for the being who was the
apex of all this great work of creation, and to drive him forth from
his beautiful garden to become a wanderer, and to suffer labour and
sorrow all the days of his life,—all to prevent his gaining "life
eternal."
It was certainly not because he and she disobeyed, and ate the
fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, of good and evil, that they were
expelled. It is expressly stated that the reason was " lest he eat of
the Tree of Life and live for ever “ therefore Yahweh of the
Al£-im sent him forth from the Garden of Eden." (Genesis in.
22-23.)
It was logically argued, by the Free Church of Scotland, that,
unless the Garden of Eden story were absolutely and literally true,
the whole fabric of the Christian dogma falls to the ground, because,
without the " fall " and loss of eternal life (erroneously stated by
New Testament theologians to have occurred in Eden), there could
be no need of redemption, and the regaining of " Paradise," or
" the Garden " in another world. The Free Churchmen " were
quite right in their logical argument, rendered invalid, however, by
being founded on a false assumption, and if they had read the
account in Genesis with the care they would give to a newspaper
paragraph, they would have seen that there was no fall and no loss
of eternal life, as man was created to die, and hence there was
no need of a redemption to gain what had never been lost.
Man was commanded to be fruitful and multiply before the Fall
in Genesis i. Now supposing that the world we're only 6000 years
old, what would happen in the 200 generations since the Creation,
if the accumulation of human beings had not been kept down by
death and decay? The accumulation would amount tQ a sphere
over two hundred million miles in diameter of living beings, absorb-
ing Mars, Venus, Mercury, and the Sun (see p. 340).
So, whether Genesis is an absolutely true story of an actual
occurrence, or only folk-lore or myth, the offering of a living
sacrifice, whether man or god, and the spilling of his actual blood,
were absolutely useless to restore a state of affairs which had never
existed.
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
183
But the Bible is not read by Christians.
They cannot read it. They can only hum it over in a deep
hollow tone ventriloquially, or “ belly-voiced ” as the ancients say,
or ” Eggastri Muthoi ” as the Greeks called their priests, and apply
to its words the meaning burnt into their minds by their early train-
ing.
And “nothing matters” to the man with “faith.” You may
destroy the basis on which he founds his creed, he goes along smiling
in serene faith, and ignores the destruction, says his creed never
depended on the truth of any earthly utterance, it is ” eternally
true,” or he makes a new basis for the old belief.
Destroy Bibles and they are quietly reproduced, burn relics and
they are back in the old shrines after a decent interval. Buddha’s
tooth ground to powder and destroyed matters nothing, the true
tooth re-appears, the Holy Coat of Treves is lost, stolen, or strayed,
but there it is again as good as ever, pieces of the true cross are
lost or destroyed by fire, but never mind, there are plenty more.
The fact is that the craving of the human mind for a proof of its
religion, through a Mirodox, will always find satisfaction by ” faith ”
in some thing, god, soul, or paradise, not visible nor capable of
proof here in this world, but seen by the “ eyes of faith ” in a world
beyond the skies.
This is what gives very religious nations their strength in war.
They don’t think their god will desert them, and so they will face
fearful odds, and consider death a pass to Paradise, as do the Turks
and Japanese. The German Kaiser appreciates this, and is never
weary of inculcating religion in his recruits, and of addressing them
in Cathedrals when they have piled their arms round an altar
(p. 240).
No other religion has a forbidden fruit of a “Tree of Know-
ledge,” it was always a “ Tree of Life,” or “ Water of Life,” or
” Bread of Life,” which played the part. The Jews seemed to hate
knowledge.
When the Old Testament was written or re-composed, the
anthropomorphic idea of God was being somewhat upset by Greek
thought. Istar was adopted by Greece, as Astarte, and was called
” Idaia Mater,” Mother of Knowledge, so the tree of knowledge
disaster may have been written by the ignorant Jews against Greek
philosophy, and to condemn knowledge. The Hebrews had no
God of Knowledge. ' No Minerva, or Pallas, or Idaia Mater, held
up the sacred lamp in Judea.
The Jews condemn woman for this ” fall,” but the woman was
not warned by the gods about the fruit. Other nations have
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
similar stories, but they do not degrade woman as the Jews did.
We have seen on p. 179 that Yahweh did not blame the woman
for the fall, he condemns man alone. It was the Nabis. who repre-
sented an intensely masculine cult, who created the " sinful
woman" dogma, which unfortunately the Christians adopted.
Other nations have a fall (p. 188), but sexual intercourse is openly
stated to be the cause. The Hebrew myth had the same cause, as
the eating of the fruit made Eve the " mother of all living."
That sexual intercourse is the cause of all evil, with the Phallus
as the active agent, as symbolised by the deadly serpent, is a myth
common to all nations.
We see it in the story of Attis. He was beloved of Agdistis,
but Midas gave him his daughter la, and closed the gates of Pessimus
that none might disturb the wedding. Agdistis burst in, however,
and filled the guests with madness. Attis mutilated himself, and
cast his genitals before Agdistis (as Moses* wife Zipporah cast
her son's foreskin at the feet of Yahweh, p. 218) saying, "Take
these, the cause of all evil."
Jesus approved of men becoming eunuchs for the Kingdom of
Heaven's sake, and we know that such practices were common all
over the world in ancient times. Lucian tells us, in " The Syrian
Goddess," that in the Syrian celebrations at Hieropolis (priest town),
at the vernal season, there were feasts and sacrifices of the most
extravagant description, everything being conducted on a scale of
the greatest magnitude. People came from all neighbouring coun-
tries, bringing their gods with them. Here, in their religious frenzy,
they sacrificed to their protectress, Mylitta, or Kubele, not the
symbolical, but the real Phallus. Seized with sudden religious fury,
a devotee would snatch up a sharp knife left on the altar for the
purpose, castrate himself publicly, rush off, and throw what he cut
off into any house he fancied, when the occupier must give him a
complete suit of women's clothing. Thus they not only made vows
of perpetual virginity to the goddess, but took means by this great
sacrifice to prevent themselves from breaking their vows. Kubele's
priests were eunuchs. (Herodotus, lib. /., cop. 199, p. 92.)
The Roman Catholic clergy of to-day, when they take the vows
of celibacy (the modern equivalent of castration) assume women's
clothing (frocks) just as did the devotees of Kub616 or Cyb6le in
Syria.
In Kappadokia, the goddess Ma (their Venus) had 6000 conse-
crated eunuch-priests (" made themselves eunoche for the King-
dom of Heaven's sake," Matt. six. 12), and this worship of the
Mother of Heaven, Ma, gave rise to outbursts of self-torture and
frenzied lust. (Herodotu$.\
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
185
Referring to the worship of the Great Mother .of the Gods
(Cybele) in Rome, Prof. Showerman describes the orgiastic and
frenzied worship of her devotees and eunuch-priests, and says:
“ Self emasculation sometimes accompanied the delirium of worship
of the part of the candidates for the priesthood.” (Encyc. Brit.,
1911, Vo l. XII., p. 402, a.b.)
In Matthew xix., referring to marriage and the sexual act, Jesus
actually approves of the castration of men in order to prevent this
” fall.” He argues, in verse 12, that ” some are eunuchs from their
mother’s womb, and some are made eunuchs of men,” evidently to
gain a salaried place in the harem of the palace, ” and there be
eunuchs which have made themselves eunuchs for the Kingdom of
Heaven’s sake,” like Origen, who was castrated for righteousness
sake. He evidently thinks this is one way of gaining the Kingdom
of Heaven, and approves of it. So, at least, think the poor, de-
luded Russian peasants, a sect called Skoptsi, from Skopet, to
castrate, who, basing their faith on that text, and the ” fall ” in
Genesis, mutilate themselves in hundreds at secret nocturnal meet-
ings, amid songs and Bacchanalian ” dancing,” carried on till ex-
haustion. (Anthro. Soc. Journ., July 1870, p. 126. O’Donooan,
Mere Oasis, 1882. M. Gaster, “ Times,” 9th May, 1912, p. 5.)
So, whether the occasion is the enjoyment of the sexual act, or
that of its extinction for life, the same sort of ” Bacchanalia ”
result. The Russian Government strenuously repress this
sect, yet scores of converts are daily added to their num*
bers. This sect call their fathers and mothers fornicators, and
we can see Tolstoi in his old age leaning towards this opinion. Life
is so terribly hard in Russia that to add to their population is con-
sidered by some to be a crime. How inborn is this idea of shame
and sin in every country in the world, medical men can tell. There
are many cases of attempted mutilation of themselves by boys and
lads owing to the depression caused by sensuality. The victims
Bunk by mutilation to get rid of all this temptation and misery.
The Christians show their faith in the dogma of all evil coming
into the world through woman, by their treatment of women in all
religious ceremonies and beliefs,—a curious phase of which is the
greet horror with which ultra-protestants regard the admission of
a woman, a goddess, such as the Virgin Mary, into the inner circle
of Gods. For instance, Hislop, the ultra-Protestant, says, that the
Melchite section of the Catholic Church held that the Trinity con-
sisted of the Father, the Virgin Mary, and the Messiah their son
[frontispiece} , and exclaims, ” Is there one who would not shrink
with* horror from such a thought!” (“Two Babylons,” p. 89.)
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CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
The word goddess is excluded from the Hebrew mythology, and is
unknown to Christians. Lecky, in his ” History of Morals,** II.,
p. 338-340, says : “ Woman was represented as the * door of hell ’
and the mother of all ills. She should be ashamed that she is a
woman, and live in continual penance on account of the curse she
had brought on the world.”
According to the Jewish view, from the first creation of the
beasts, before man’s advent, the commandment went forth ; ** be
fruitful and multiply the Hebrew god had no better or higher
message for man. The message is often repeated to man and
beast alike, and is emphatically without a trace of sentiment.
Nevertheless the Jewish ” this worldliness ” has had much better
results than the Christian ** other worldliness,” as we see from
the much stronger condition of Jewish children.
We have seen (p. 165) how Jeremiah tells us that the Hebrews
loved the worship of the Queen of Heaven above all others, in spite
of their Nabis’ constant insistence on Yahweh-worship and denun-
ciation of woman as the cause of all evil; and one is almost driven
to conclude that such worship with its sex celebrations were the
real religion of the nation (p. 262). It was constantly carried on
"under every green tree,” “at every street corner,” “on every
high hill,” in the temple, and in special temples by Solomon s
wives (p. 237). It must, therefore, have had the sanction of the
priests and civil powers, as Well as the king, and was condemned
by the Nabis alone.
-
This view is strengthened by the fact that the Jews, far from
despising their women or using them badly, are more solicitous for
their welfare than almost any other race, as we see even in London.
In going to the British Museum Library for many years, I noticed,
on taking a short cut through Hanway Street, some school children
who seemed of a much better appearance than was common to
scholars of London schools of the working class. I do not
mean richer, but more warmly clad, — their clothes in
better condition, their bodies better nourished, and their
whole appearance betokening better parental care than is
shown by the average English child. On exploring this stream of
children to its source, I saw that it issued from a Jewish school. I
then remembered the Jewish system, whereby a responsible mem-
ber of the community is expected to supervise the households of
those in the peighbourhood, and to see that kindly help is afforded,
especially to the women before and after the birth of their children.
All honour to them for showing such an example to us Gentiles.
This is borne out by the investigations of Dr. Wm. Hall, of
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
187
Leeds* who attributes the very remarkable superiority of even the
poor city Jewish children over the better class English at good
schools, such as at that of Ripon Cathedral, to the extensive use
of fat and oil in their diet. Jews use oil even in the dough of their
bread and make cakes of flour and oil as they did in Old Testament
times. Also parental care and breast feeding of the children had
their due effect as ninety per cent, of poor Jewish mothers feed
their children a la nature, while only twenty per cent, of English
do so.
Even now we have men who take the Hebrew view. Even at
the end of 1910 (14, xii., 10.) Signor Marinetti, who call's himself
a ” futurist,” calls women the root of all evil and stigmatises romantic
love as an ” evil blight.”
He thinks that this romantic love has been a poison ” in which
all the vice of man has been bred.” The woman ” of beauty with
her amorous desires, her erotic nature, her utter selfishness, her
cruelty, her greed, her frailty,” is like the infamous woman of the
Bible of whom young men are bidden to beware. Of course, no
men have these bad qualities! ! Her snake-like evils have crushed
and choked the noblest ideals of manhood, and so on. Signor
Marinetti does not seem to know that it was the romantic love which
led man out to fight with nature, to feed and clothe ” all his pretty
chickens and their dam,” which has made him what he is, inventive,
poetic, the explorer, the creator, hence all the Gee Urges or earth
creators are male, while woman is only receptive ; and, because
she plays her role as his inspirer and receiver, Marinetti says that
man is seduced and loses all his virility and moral health. It is his
love of woman which gives him his virility and moral health.
The Hindus have the true view when they say that the female
is the ” Spirit ” of God which ” stirs him to action.” ” Without
her no creation is possible ” (p. 48).
Woman’s sphere and man's are complementary, and neither can
invade the other’s sphere, man is the leader or doer. As inventor
or creator, look at their roles in music. Women have been taught
to play music for centuries, while men were not encouraged and
few were taught. What has woman created in music? She
is often a fine executant of man’s creations, but she does not
create. Marinetti speaks of man doing without woman, and con-
tinuing the human race by mechanical means. Here is a big step,
indeed, but all researches show that the female-produced egg is
essential to the continuance of life, while the male stimulus may
be produced chemically or even mechanically, according to M. M.
Bataillon and Hcnneguy, so it is more probable that woman may
yet do Without die male and turn the tables on Signor Marinetti.
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CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
But it it entirely frivolous to talk of the evil of sex. Sex seems
to be inherent in matter, as we see it stretching back to the very
lowest form of life, and it is probably, like intelligence, inherent in
the properties of the Atom, which seem to be ruled by the “ pair-
ing ” tendency as much as man is.
The instinct of love is strongest in the strongest and best men,
who ought to be the fathers of the next generation. Modern mono-
gamistic marriage, which only exists as a practical morality for a
few hundred years, and seems to have come in about the time of the
Reformation, is destructive of this, and will tend to the degeneration
of the race, unless Eugenists can take the matter in hand and render
the woman economically independent of the man so that she may
be absolutely free to chose the best father for her children. At
present it is money which rules sex matters, and money-making is
altruistically cheating, so that men of mean minds, and often of
feeble body, appropriate the finest women.
The Romans knew the value of the stimulus of sexual love, and
had the temples of Rome and Venus standing back to back, and
the great name “ Roma ” read from the other temple was ” Amor,”
so that the two were interchangeable terms. Amor was worshipped
till 850 A.D., when Pope Leo IV. dedicated the old shrine of Venus
to St. Maria Nova, the new mother of the babe.
However much we may admire the Elizabethan roll of the
language of our Bible, the sacred writings of other races are still
finer. An example occurs to me among many. Holy writ states
baldly that ” contentment is great gain,” 1 Timothy vi., but the
Hindus state it thus beautifully (Jeypore College) “ Oh 1 content-
ment, come and make me rich, for without thee there is no wealth.”
The Indian account of the fall is much more artistic than ours.
There were devotees in a remote time, men and women living to-
gether, in perfect innocence, in a garden of Eden ; but, in course of
time, although their conduct was still quite good, desire had entered
their hearts. Siva determined to expose this, so he sent his beautiful
mountain love Prakriti (rosy dawn in the mountains) to show herself
in a flowing gauzy robe, which the refreshing breeze of the morning
would move, so as to give enchanting glimpses of her perfect form.
The male devotees were making ready for their ablutions and
ceremonies. She approached with downcast eyes, with now and
then a melting glance, and in a low sweet voice asked if she might
join them. They left their pooja paraphernalia, forgot their prayers,
and gathered round her, saying: "Be not offended with us for
approaching thee, forgive us for our importunities—thou who art
, made to convey bibs—admit us to the number of thy slaves, let us
have die comfort to behold thee.” Thus were the men seduced.
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
169
Siva himself appeared to the women beautiful as Krishna
(Apollo). Some dropped their jewels, others their garments, with-
out noticing their loss, or their exposure of their seductive beauties,
all rushed after him calling, “Oh thou who art made to govern
our hearts, whose countenance is fresh as the morning, whose voice
is the voice of pleasure, and thy breath like that of Spring in the
opening rose, stay with us and we will serve thee.” Thus were
the women seduced.
The men remained with the Goddess all night and the women
with the god.
Next morning they found themselves alone ; the god and goddess
had disappeared. Shame took possession of them, and they kept
their eyes on the ground. Then they arose, and returned to their
houses with slow and troubled steps. The days that followed were
days of embarrassment and shame. The women had failed in
modesty, and the men 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 eye often turned to
where the men first saw the beautiful maid, and the women the
glorious young god.
Compare this fine poem, with its beautiful, sad longing for love,
after the first great madness of cupid and Psyche, with the crass
statement of the Hebrews, ‘ ‘ And Adam knew his wife and she
conceived and bare Cain ” (of Genesis iv.). No word of love is
here. After the Indians and Greeks, the religion of the ignorant
Highland clan is most prosaic. They had little fine poetry but that
of fear. (See Prof. Duhma work on Ezekiel•)
In chapter four, the scribe, having covered the join between
the Ale-im and Yahweh narratives, by coupling the names, Yahweh
A16-im, translated Lord God, whereas it means ” the tribal god
Yahweh of the circle of gods,” dropped the Ale-im altogether, and
gives the tale a purely Hebrew tone by writing of ” Yahweh ” alone.
In Genesis v. we have another quite different story of creation,
the fourth account. It takes for granted that the world always
existed, with its plants, animals, etc., and it was only the ” First
Man ” who needed creation.
. In this story we return to the Gods (Ale-im), who again create
i»|n, and call him Adam (Babylonian for man) ” in the likeness of
the Gods male and female,” so again we see the bisexual Gods
creating man, Zakar and Nekebah, Sword and Sheath, like them-
selves.
In this account there is no Eden, no rib story, no fruit eating;
Cain andAbel are not known, Seth being Adam’s first son. Even
190
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
the " Mother of all living,” Eve, does not appear, woman being
such an inferior being in the Hebrew mythology that she is not
mentioned in accounts of Genealogy or Toldhoth. Adam is reduced
to an ordinary patriarch, the sole mirodox attached to him being
that of living nine hundred and thirty years. This is Toldhoth, or
tribal history. Into this early history, the cdbmogomy, the Eden
story* and the Cain and Abel tale were inserted at a later date.
FIFTH NARRATIVE OF CREATION.
We find, scattered up and down the Bible, little poetical fragments
of another story of creation, especially in Job, the Psalms, Isaiah,
Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. This account deals with the slaying of a
dragon in the water, hurly-burly, “ Tohuwa Bohu,” by Yahweh,
and his then commencing creation.
In Psalm Ixxxix. the poet sings :—
“ Thbu remainest Lord when the sea rageth,
When the waves thereof rise thou stillest them,
Thou hast defiled Rahab as Carrion ;
With the arm of strength thou hast scattered thy foes:
Thine is the heaven, thine is the earth ;
The world and its fullness, thou hast founded it;
North and South thou hast created them.”
Here we have a raging sea (Tohuwa-Bohu), then a slaying or
defiling of Rahab, or the dragon, and a scattering of other foes;
then creation.
That Rahab was a dragon, and was slain, we know from
Isaiah li.; ” Oh! Arm of Yahweh awake, as in the ancient day in
the generations of old. Art thou not he that shattered Rahab, that
defiled the dragon ; art thou not he that dried up the sea, the
waters of the great Tehom?” (Tohuwa-Bohu). (The “Great
Tehom ” is rendered in the Bible the “ Great Deep.”)
Here we see that not only is Rahab the dragon shattered or
killed, but she is defiled, and the waters of the great deep dried
up (separated the waters from the earth).
Job xxvi. says : ” By his power hath he stilled the sea. By his
understanding hath he shattered Rahab. His hand hath defiled the
wreathed serpent ” ; again both killing and ” defiling.”
In Job there is mention of proud helpers of Rahab who stooped
under God.
This slaying of Rahab is also sung of as bruising the Leviathan,
as in Psalm boriv., 13-17; ” Thou hast divided the sea with might:
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
191
hast broken the heads of the dragons in the waters. Thou hast
bruised the heads of the Leviathan. Gavest him for meat for food
to the jackals ; Thine is the day, and thine is the night; Thou hast
established moon and sun (moon first); Thou hast appointed Summer
and Winter. All the powers of the earth ; them hast thou formed.’*
Here we have further details. There were several dragons which
were defeated, their heads broken,—but there was a special dragon,
or Leviathan, who had several heads, which he not only bruised but
gave him for meat to the jackals, " defiled ” his body, as we saw
in former statements.
Again, in Psalms Ixxxvii., 4, and Isaiah xxvii., I, the same men-
tion is made of slaying “ leviathan ” (like a proper name), or the
dragon. ** Babylon and the Hebrew Genesis.”
Now Eusebius, who wrote an account of all religions for the
Council which discussed the Arian question, tells us that a
Babylonian priest, Berossus, whose works have been lost, wrote an
account of the beliefs of his native land, and described the Baby-
lonian account of creation. From Eusebius and Josephus we gather
that darkness, water, and chaos reigned, with all sorts of monsters,
but over them all ruled a woman, called by the Greek writer
” Thamte,” allegorically the sea. Bel, the Lord, came and cut her
asunder, and of the divided parts formed heaven and earth, and
at the same time destroyed the other creatures who were with her.
He then created man and animals out of the dust of the earth mixed
with the blood of a God, and made the stars, the sun, the moon, and
the five planets.
The Cuneiform clay tablets, found during the last 60 or 70 years
in the library of Assurbanipal, show this to have been nearly correct,
but now we have much more detail.
The epic in clay tells us that when the earth and heaven were
unnamed, and while yet Tihamat, the begotten of the primeval
ocean, ruled over them all, the first of the Gods appeared. (See
Zimmern a “ Babylonian and Hebrew Geneaia.”
Now Tihamat is simply Tehom with the feminine ” at ” (or ” t ”
alone) as the feminine determinant. Note that, in all international
subjects, the pronunciation is always Continental, all other nations
except Britain pronounce ” i ” as our “ ee,” and “ e ” as our “ a,”
and M a ’* as our ” ah.” Berossus, writing in Greek, tried to imitate
the name as Thamte,, the Greek “ Th ” being like “ T,” but he
detained the final ” T,” showing the feminine. The Hebrews, by
omitting the female determinant ” T,” turned the feminine Tiamat
into the masculine Tehom. Again we see the Hebrews* (Nabis)
refusal to admit a female into their creation story, even as a demon.
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CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
Tihamat was the mother of the Gods ; she rebelled against her
ancient solitary reign being superseded, and created monsters to
help her.
The gods elected Marduk (the Biblical Merodach) to destroy
Tihamat. He accepted, on condition that, on succeeding, he would
become the ruler of the universe. Marduk (Merodach and Mor-
decai of the Bible) had the title Bel, meaning Lord, and is often
mentioned by that title, especially in the Apocryphal book, " The
story of Bel and the Dragon.” There are poems extant telling of
this election, and praising Marduk telling of his miracles—[no
religion without mirophily]—and giving him weapons to overcome
Tihamat. He goes forth in a grand chariot drawn by fiery steeds,
with bow and arrows, scimitar, and trident, to conquer.
He defeated her companions and took them prisoners.
He cut her body in two, forming the ” firmament with one half,
the earth with the other ” ; the firmament held up the waters of
the sky, like the separation of Seb and Nut in Egyptian Mythology.
[Fig. 56, p. 72.] ” Bounds he set to it, watchers he placed there,
to hold back the waters he commanded them.” The rest of the
story, as far as yet unearthed, is similar to that told in the first
chapter of Genesis.
-
We now see that the original form of the creation, current
amongst the old Jewish prophets or poets, was identical with the
Babylonian myth. But the first chapter of Genesis was written at
a very late date, probably about 300 or 400 B-.C., and the ideas of the
Jews were too far advanced to admit of them attributing creation
to a foreign God slaying a dragon, and so the writer cut out all the
first part, and had it not been for the references in the poets’
writings, in Psalms, etc., we should never have known from internal
evidence that the Jews obtained their religious account of creation
direct from the Babylonians.
The exact agreement may be summarised as follows:—
It begins with the mysterious second verse of Genesis i., by a
description of the world as water and darkness, Tohuwa-Bohu, the
words conveying an idea of storm and stress, called Tehom, and
tells us that Ruach brooded on the abysmal waters. Hie clay
tablets tell an identical story. But Tihamat was the mother of the
Gods, and we find that Ruach was the wife or mother of the Gods,
and we know that in all mythologies the wife and mother are one
(see p. 136)*'
But let us continue the summary. The feminine Tihamat be-
comes masculine Tehom by dropping the feminine affix, but,
although Tehom is used to mean the primeval ocean, it is used as a
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
193
proper name without the article, as was Tihamat, and represented
a mythological being.
Both myths represent the monster as dragon-like. Both myths
have variants implying that she had several heads.
She has seven heads in the Babylonian myth and in '* Revela-
. « M
Pons.
Both myths have auxiliary monsters.
Both say the dragqn was against the Gods (plural).
Both make the dragon and her helpers rebels,,
In both, the dragon claims dominion over the world, and in both
this is indicated to be an insolent rebellion.
Marduk (Babylonian) and Yahweh (Hebrew) both go forth armed
with weapons.
Both slay the dragon with a sword.
The helpers are more leniently dealt with in both stories, dis-
persed, conquered, and made prisoners.
In both myths, the dividing of the deep Tehom into the water
above and beneath, preludes the creation of heaven and earth.
In both myths the creation of heaven and earth immediately
follow the destruction of the monsters.
The differences in details, and the changes in sex and nomen-
clature, are exactly what one would expect from the racial ideas
of the nation which adopted the Babylonian myth, but the details
are so similar that it shows that, either the myth had not long been
transplanted, or that the Hebrews were still under the tuition of
their Babylonian conquerors—which we have seen to have been fre-
quently the case (pp. 145-146). I have already pointed out that the
story of Chaos and the waters could only have arisen on Babylonian
soil, and was, as we now know, extant in Babylon long before the
Hebrews inhabited Jerusalem. The Babylonians had a story of
how eternal life was lost to man, as all nations have ; but it differed
somewhat from the Eden myth. Instead of the Gods resolutely
denying eternal life to man, they freely offered it to Adapa, the first
man. The story is that Adapa's boat was sunk by the sudden fury
of the South wind, and in revenge he broke the wings of the South
wind. Anu, the God of Heaven, summoned him to account for his
action. Ea, Adapa’s father, warned him that “ Bread of Death ”
and *' Water of Death ” would be offered to him, pnd he must
refuse them or *•* Thou^shalt surely die ” (like Yahweh’s threat to
Adam). But the God Anu commanded ” Food of Life ” to be
brought to him; he refused it, owing to the warning of Ea, and
' Water of Life ” also. Anu was amazed at a mortal refusing
immortality, and cried, **Oh! Adapa, wherefore hast thou not
194
CHRISTIANITY : THE SOURCES
eaten, wherefore hast thou not drunken? So also shall thou not
live. Take him back to his home on earth/'
A much more loveable God was Anu, sorry for the man's folly,
compared with jealous Yahweh, who punished man for the blunders
of the Gods.
But the Garden of Eden was only brought down to earth in late
times; like the Heaven Adapa visited, it was originally far away
in the sky, and, just as we have fragments of the Yahweh-Tehom
myth in the older poetic books, so we have glimpses of the early
Eden in Ezekiel and Revelation.
Ezekiel, in a rhapsody on the beauty of the land of the Assyrian,
chapter mi., 3-9, says, of the Assyrian trees fostered by irrigation,
“ The cedars in the garden of God could not hide him ; the fir trees
were not like his boughs, and the chestnut trees were not like his
branches; nor any tree in the garden of God was like unto him in
his beauty.
“ 1 have made him fair by the multitude of his branches; so
that all the trees of Eden, that were in the garden of God, envied
him.”—Ezekiel xxxi., 8-9.
This is a part of the usual ” prophecy ” written after the event.
The Scythians (Skuthians) had destroyed Babylon, and had
plundered the Pharaoh’s tombs in Egypt. They left the tombs in
the chaotic state we now find them, taking a rich plunder of gold
and precious stones, crowns, necklets, rings, etc., in which the kings
and queens had been buried.
They destroyed the irrigation canals of Babylon so completely
that it became the desert which it is to this day.
Ezekiel writes a “ prophecy,” solemnly warning the King of
Egypt that ” therefore, because thou hast lifted up thyself in height,
and he (the Assyrian) hath his top (in pride) 1 haoe therefore de-
livered him into the mighty one of the heathen (Skuthians), and he
shall deal with him.” Note that the future and past, turn about,
trying to make a prophecy of what had already happened.
So we see that all the trees in the Garden of God (Eden), even
the Tree of Life, and that of the Knowledge of Good and Evil,
envied the Assyrians. No wonder they placed their- Eden there.
Our St. George and the Dragon is die Western version of the
Babylonian fable. Marduk was a ” Gee Urge,” Earth Maker, and
slew a Dragon.
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
195
THE FLOOD.
The Babylonians had also a deluge story as had all other nations,
as floods are such incontrollable disasters, and always superstitiously
considered to be specially sent as a punishment. The Babylonians
had an excuse, as they had a flood every winter, occasionally a very
destructive one, by typhoons driving up the sea in the Persian Gulf
(see pp. 204-205).
But it is of little use to go over all these myths, for myths they
undoubtedly are. One has only to ask ; is there water enough
available on the world to cover the mountains, to And, on calcula-
tion, that, if all the water were extracted from the air, leaving it
chemically dry, and put into the ocean, it would not raise the
level of the sea more than 10 inches, an amount absolutely invisible
to savage man, in view of the tides and the rise and fall by winds.
Of course a rainfall of ten inches often takes place locally, but
that is the water deposited from a vast volume of air constantly
changing, entering an area of low pressure, and depositing rain,
then passing on to be replaced by more moist air ready to yield up
its moisture in turn, a continuous process. Then the rain over a
large area is concentrated into a narrow valley, and causes floods,
which become exaggerated by the excitement caused by the disaster,
into a flood of the whole world—in fact, the flood was over the
*' whole world ** of the inhabitants of the valley.
In the case of the flood, we have again two contradictory stories.
One gives the flood at forty days and nights, and the other,
a part of a year, a whole year, and anothet a part of a
year. The Babylonian flood lasted only two weeks, but the
cause of the flood and the results were the same, while the minutely
detailed sending out of birds is very similar in both cases, even
down to the sacrifice, and the Gods " smelling a sweet savour.1*
From early times the Zodiacal signs governed the symbols under
which the sun should be worshipped, but the Hebrews were very
ignorant (they had no'astronomers when Babylon had advanced
scientific astronomers), and they clung to the old Phallic worship
and necromancy. But their Bible was written very late, about 400
to 200 B.C., in a highly astronomical period ; so the Babylonian or
Persian priests, Nehemiah and Ezra, who re-composed their Scrip-
1%
CHRISTIANITY : THE SOURCES
tures, may have given (hem an astronomical turn. For instance, we
see the number 40 linked with all Jewish mirologues. Now the
death and re-birth of the sun is the subject of nearly all the folk-lore
of the Bible ; Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are shown by Goldziher
to be Sun Gods. Samson, Job, Esther, and Mordecai, and Daniel,
are all dim reflections of sun myths, while their great miracle play
in the tabernacle, once a year, represented the death and re-birth of
the sun from the Virgin of Israel.
The three days and three nights of Jonah’s incarceration in the
whale’s belly, and of Jesus in the tomb, were, as we know from
the latter, 40 hours,—from Friday afternoon till Sunday morning,
or Thursday till Saturday (pp. 109 and 333).
This represented the time the sun was supposed to be dead
on the winter Solstice ; from 4 p.m. on the 20th of December
(or equivalent on other calendars) till 8 a.m. on the 22nd December,
the 21st being the “lying dead’’ or “standing still” of the sun
(Solstice).
This makes part of a day, a whole day, and part of a day or
forty hours, and the two accounts of the flood were evidently
written by two scribes regarding this same solar period from two
points of view, viz. :—The first as part of a year, a whole year, and
part of a year, and the second as forty days, part of a month, a
whole month, and part of a month, one scribe calling the days of the
Solstice years, and the other calling the days months, or the forty
hours forty days. The flood and the Solstice both refer to the
absence of the sun, or its weak power or death at the winter solstice,
and the use of the words hours, days, and years, was quite
promiscuous ; “ And the days of his years are three score years
and ten.”
These Babylonian accounts, having become fixed by being
written, and having formed part of the liturgy of the
Babylonians, had become widely disseminated over the East
a thousand years before the Hebrews, or Jews, or Israel-
ites, or Judeans, or Canaanites (they have so many names),
had settled in Palestine. Copies of these myths were used
in 1400 B.C. at Tel El Amarna as exercises in writing in the time of
Akhnaton (Flinders Petrie, Tel el Amarna Tablets.). Cuneiform
writing was used for all official correspondence, even in Egypt,
where they had the priestly hieroglyphics, but the Babylonians were
a trading*people, and had developed a more practical language and
writing.
Hence, when the Hebrews either arrived, pr arose, in Palestine,
they would find all these legends current, and they formed the
originals of the Bible folk-lore.
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
197
We have preserved for us a great many of the Babylonian
legends, and much of its litany, exactly as it was written, owing
to the imperishable nature of the burnt brick tablets on which it was
written. They were buried by the destruction of all the great
Babylonion cities by the Scythians or Skuthians in the ruthless
invasion which caused the great Song of Fear of Ezekiel
(see Dr. Duff's translation of Prof. Duhm’s poetic analysis of
Ezekiel in Duff's “Old Testament Criticism.*’) These tablets
show us the Babylonian literature of 3,000 to 4,000 years
ago without any change or modernization, whereas the Hebrew
Biblical narrative has been the subject of profound alteration, due
to incessant editing, necessitated by the changes of religious ideas
and beliefs, which are inevitable in any living religion. The
Hebrews gradually evolved their “law,” each prophet or high
priest adding or altering the details to suit the ideas of the day,
and statements about miracles and the ancient history of the race
were inserted or altered by the priestly caste in order to give
authority to their precepts and practices. Thus, all the old Baby-
lonian folk-lore was altered so as to debase woman, and Carpenter
tells us (p. 141), “ In the priestly code much important legislation is
conveyed in the form of a narrative leading to a difficulty, a question
and a decision.”
In other words it is full of “ cases ’’ elaborately designed as pre-
cedents. They are legal fictions by which fresh rules are made
binding, and permanent enactments were evolved out of hypo-
thetical incidents in the wilderness (p. 116). Early races always
require some authority to make their laws enforceable, hence the
“ inspiration ” theory so dear to mirophilists, or the " legal fiction.”
That astronomical facts were the basis of the majority of feasts
and religious rites and of the tales of their gods we have much
evidence.
A large proportion of the cuneiform tables was devoted to
astronomical information and tables, and a further large proportion
devoted to the more popular and superstitious side of astronomy,
viz.: Astrology, showing that the broad facts of astronomy had
filtered down in a distorted form into the general population.
” Babyloif was really the cradle of astronomical observation,”
and ” the astronomy of the Babylonians has been celebrated by
'many Greek and Latin authors.” (Sayce, “ Hibbert Lectures
p. 229.)
Even the bitter tongued Isaiah, bewailing the heavy yoke Babylon
had laid upon his people, and telling her that although she has said,
" I shall be a lady for ever ” (Isaiah xlvii., 7), yet should desolation
m
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
come upon her, sarcastically calls out (Isaiah xlvii., 13), “ Let now
die astrologers, the star gazers, and the monthly prognosticators
stand up and save thee.”
But the ignorant and superstitious Hebrew poet only knew the
degraded side of Babylonian knowledge, the “ enchantments,” the
” multitude of the sorceries,” and could not appreciate the laborious
and accurate work of the astronomers in mapping the heavens,
naming the stars, and recording the motions and eclipses of sun and
moon, and keeping correct dates by practical astronomy, as Green'
wich does by more refined methods to-day.
They had mapped the limits of the wanderings of the planets
and the apparent course of the sun amongst the stars (a combination
of observation and reasoning beyond the powers of even the
majority of educated Europeans in the 20th century), and divided
the ecliptic belt, called the Zodiac, into twelve signs or ” houses of
the sun,” as far back as 4700 B.C., or nearly 7,000 years ago, when
the sun in the Spring equinox was in Tammuz, The Twins, our
Gemini. Their signs of the Zodiac were founded on Phallism and
the Totem names of the ancient Accadian religion, and as they
started their Zodiac at the Spring Equinox and made their first sign
the strong bull ploughing a straight course through the heavens,
directing the course of the year, we can calculate that this arrange-
ment must have come into existence about B.c. 4700 (Sayce,
**Hibbert Lectures”)
” Astronomical science underlies the whole Babylonian religion.”
” The cuneiform determinative for a deity is an eight-rayed star ”
(Sayce). In fact, the very word star is said to be derived from the
Babylonian Venus Istar, as is the Church word Easter.
We have seen that while the main story of the creation is Baby-
lonian, and based on the conditions peculiar to the Euphrates
Valley, there is another story with an atmosphere much more suit-
able to the Arid highlands round Jerusalem. These two narratives
use different names for their gods and are mixed up with curious
fragments derived from neither.
-
The Bible writer ” E ” tells his stories always without the least
attempt to be consistent, or even without apparently reading over
them again, when he has put in all he could think of, to see whether
the details were consistent.
For instance, when Abimelech took Abraham's wife (Genesis
xx. 3) he assumes that Abimelech had his warning dream on the
very night he took Sarah ; and that he immediately gave her back,
rising early in the morning so as to lose no time.
But, at the end of verse 17, the writer tells us- that, on
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
1$
returning Sarah to her husband, " God healed Abimelech
and his wife and his maid servants, and they bare child-
ren.*’ He had apparently been cursed on account of Sarah,
but there could be no sin on Abimelech's part as he was told she
was unmarried. Then it suddenly occurs to him that he had scud
nothing about this novel sort of curse, so he explains that the *‘ Lord
had fast closed up all the wombs of the house of Abimelech because
of Sarah, Abraham’s wife.” Now it would take some time for such
a curse to become known ; no evidence could be had for nearly a
year ; so Abimelech must have had Sarah for some time. We are
not told of what trouble God healed Abimelech.
The same story is told of Isaac and Abimelech, and also located
in Gerar (p. 239).
Abraham prostituted first one of his wives and then the other.
David’s wife was lent to another man. They had their wives' hand-
maidens for their pleasures, made the excuse, possibly, of the com-
mandment, ” Be fruitful and multiply,” but that this gave rise to
intense jealousy is shown by the elaborate tests and ritual in cases
of jealousy (p. 232).
In Jerome’s time there were ten or more distinct forms of the Old
Testament.
i., The Hebrew; ii., iii. and iv., the official Greek texts of the
three great provinces of Asia, Palestine, and Egypt; v., the old
Latin text; vi., a second Latin text; vii., viii., ix. and x., the four
Greek texts shown in Origen’s Hexapla ; and xi., Jerome’s own
New Latin text. This last has come to us, in altered form, as the
“ Vulgate.”
“Here,” says Dr. Duff, “was liberty in interpretation and the
possibility of healthy progress at the very time when Jerome was
trying to fix an iron rule or canon and was wishing there were only
one absolutely authoritative textl ” ("Hist. O.T. Crit.” p. 79.)
Jerome, who has been highly praised, was the man who
originated the great movement, one of the most unfortunate the
world has ever seen, for an inspired inalterable text, and his brain
it was which forged the iron laws which found a fitting triumph in
Torquemada and his priests. Jerome followed on the creator of
catechisms and inquisitions, the great Paul, whose banner ” By
faith alone ” was the starting point of the Dark Ages; beneath
this banner have grown up the awful doctrines under which millions
of the best men in all western countries suffered persecution and
death.
Even dre apologists for the Bible and Christianity now recognise
that the crushing out of all criticism, which began with Jerome, led
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CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
(o a period of “ wintry Negation, sterility, and death.'* (Dr. Duffs*
** Old Testament Criticism," p. SO.)
Yet Jerome began this era by being the most sweeping critic of
all, selecting what he (like a Pope) declared to be the true version,
and rejecting anything he did not like.
Origen had prepared his Hexapla, or six parallel column Bible,
comparing the differing texts of the Old Testament detailed by Dr.
Duff as follows :—
(i) The Hebrew written in its own characters.
(ii) The Hebrew written with Greek characters—(a very gold
mine, by the way, for the student, since it shows us
how Hebrew words sounded to the Greek ear of Origen).
(iii) Aquilas’ (or Onkilos's) translation, severely exact and Jewish
to controvert extravagances of Christianity,
(iv) Symmachus’ translation.
(v) The Septuagint Greek version.
(vi) Theodotian’s translation.
Acquilas was a learned Jew who had once been a Christian, but
reverted to Mosiac faith owing to Christian extravagances.
Symmachus had been a Samaritan, but reverted to Judaism.
There were a great number of varying Septuagints ; this (No. v.
above) was only one among many.
Theodotian was a follower of Marcion, who rejected the Old
Testament, and taught Christianity or the sayings of Jesus as inter-
preted by Paul. Yet Theodotian was driven to Judaism by studying
Marcion*8 teaching.
Dr. Duff says: “ Such was the Hexapla lost, alas, ere many
generations had passed over it, yet fairly well known to us through
quotations and descriptions."
" The loss of it is not altogether without its valuable lesson,
it shows us the historical fact that early Christianity did not prize
very highly such study of the Bible faith, much less was there any
serious Bibliolatry. Another of the last services done for us by
Origen’s construction of the great six-fold work is its clear evidence
that the meaning of the Old Testament writings was far, very far,
from being a fixed thing to which anybody might appeal as giving a
definite utterance of the laws of God. Origen may, or may not have
recognised how he was showing us a vivid picture of the great
variety of opinions held in his time concerning the actual utterances
of Old Testament Scripture, but the criticism of the great Alexan-
drian fathers was thus a distinct and autographic declaration of the
facts. It shows that uniformity of 'Canon* was non-existent in
the time of Origen.*’
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
201
Jerome accused Origen of heresy, and then tried to construct
from Origen’s work a middle text which would form an “ iron rule ”
or canon.
Harnack says: Jerome became the father of Ecclesiastical
science.”
Even now there is a variety of outlook. Dr. Duff, for instance,
frequently refers to the fact that, outside the J and E narratives,
there was a priestly narrative (p) which expounds at great length
in Exodus 25pp. the priestly system of worship, and that *' this book
was brought from Babylon to Jerusalem in or about the year 450 B.C.
(when a chastened Babylonia was under Persian rule) in charge
of Nehemiah, who was sent from the Royal Persian Court at
Shushan, east of Babylon, by the Persian Emperor, to render any
possible assistance to the little Jewish province in Judea.” Then he
goes on to analyse the composition of the priestly narrative as though
it were a natural product of Judea. The Exterior Critic's idea
would be that a study of early Persian religion might give us the
key to this priestly document, but the materials for this do not yet
exist, as we have little information of the trend of the later Perso-
Babylonian religion.
Nehemiah was, in fact, sent on two commissions of inspection by
the Persian Emperor from Shushan, now the Perso-Babylonian
capital, since the destruction of Babylon by the Scythian.
He brought with him a book of “Torah” or “doctrine or
teaching,” and, says Dr. Duff, “this book was evidently the
priestly documents (p) “ ; in fact, later he makes the definite state-
ment “ Nehemiah *8 document (p) became the great * Torah' or
doctrinal book in 450 B.C.”
Now this was either an old “Torah” of the Hebrews, or a
new “ Torah “ introduced by the Persian Emperor.
The ” Torah ” of an ignorant highland tribe would never be
adopted by the proud and powerful priesthood of Persia. The
laws of the Medes and Persians were looked up to by the Hebrews
as being unchangeable. They could not have previously inherited
it from the Babylonians or Nehemiah need not have brought it. As
we see, the Jews adopted the Babylonian religious myths, and the
Babylonian King sent priests to teach the clans of Palestine “ about
their Gods ” (pp. 145 and 228).
So it is scarcely possible that the Torah, which Jeremiah carried
to Jerusalem, was a Hebrew Torah. It was, no doubt, the later
form of the Persian Torah, and was used to correct and modernise
the old Hebrew practices.
That is, of course, an " outside ” view, but the evidence necea-
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CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
•ary to form an opinion as to the “ Law Books ” Is so feeble, at
compared with that about the creation story, that it is not yet ripe
for a final opinion.
That it was a foreign dogma or Torah, is shown in Nehemiah viii.,
when it is chronicled that Ezra possessed a single copy of the
” Law,’* which he read to the people, who had never even heard
of its commands before. The first clear sign of the existence
amongst the Jews of some recognised collection of sacred books is
found in the writings of Jesus, son of Sirach, about 200 B.C.
(Colenso.)
In Maccabees 2, 13 we have some information, “The same
things also were reported in the records in the memoirs of Neemias
(elison of h, and addition of s to Nehemiah), and how he, founding
a library, gathered together matters concerning the Kings and
Prophets and the (Psalms) of David.”
" Hie great point is that no Canon or “ iron rule ” of Scriptures
existed in early times, and the literature was in a fluid state down to
the time of Jerome, who began the evil work of fixing the details
of religion and faith which led to a period of ” wintry negation,
sterility, and death.” (Duff's “Hist. O.T. Critp. 80.)
After Nehemiah and Ezra’s time an editor, probably native
this time, and wishing to preserve the old literature, inserted J and
E into the P document, and so produced the present complicated
text.
While the Scriptures were narrowing in, and approaching an
” iron rule,” the- ” faiths ” founded on them, under Paul’s “ faith
alone ” doctrine, seem to have wandered into every form of vague
and debased superstition ruled by sorcery and ” magic words ”
till we arrive, under its guidance, at that debased welter of devil,
serpent, ” abraxas,” and sacred sign worship, called Gnosticism.
Dr. Duff tells us that out of the ” grand faith of Paul arose a
condition of would-be-wise subjective opinions, gotten through so-
called * visions ’ and dreamy fancies, or * faith,’ which led to ' the
kaleidoscopic array of Gnostic theories, a sea, in which anything
really rational might have been (and was) lost.” In fact, Paul’s
sophistry led to an orgy of Mirophily. The Christian idea, under
Paul’s guidance, gave rise to the most superstitious cult the world
has ever seen, as credulous faith can “prove ” anything.
The adoption of Paul’s dictum led to the eclipse of all reason
and to the rejection of all true knowledge which was characteristic
of the dark ages which followed.
Paul’s sophistry, backed by Jerome’s iron rule, was the ground-
work on which the ghastly spectre of the inquisition was erected.
203
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
#•
The enslavement of men's freedom of mind is even worse than
the enslavement of their bodies. This theme has been treated by
three great masters—Draper, Buckle, and White,—whose works
should be studied by every thinking man, and read in every college.
While the Jews* religion gave them a practical rule of life, and
a rather rigid morality enforced in a mirodox of a severe, vengeful
god, the Christians revelled in a perfect feast or eucharist of un-
governed mirophily, with its "tongues of fire," "speaking with
tongues," "cloven tongues," and midnight "Agapic" orgies.
These orgies were not the honest nature worship of the old Phallic
times, they were authorised from a "spiritual " point of view, as
we see in the early Christian times, when the " saints " or proselytes
of both sexes lay together all night in the early churches to increase
their " religious ** zeal. Their Agapic feasts scandalised even the
Romans (pp. 89-91 and 147).
The orthodox Jews were austere and moral, whereas the
Christians followed no strict tenets, "Faith being all," and their
meetings degenerated into Agapic love feasts, like the sacred pro-
stitution of old, or the Saturnalia of the pagans.
Religions being written to tell all about the god's actions and
intentions with regard to man, they must contain a creation story,
and some of the old writers, seeing that there could be nothing
before creation, were struck with the same feeling as Shelley,
" From an eternity of idleness I God awoke."
Most systems recognise the necessity of two sexes for the creative
act, and the Hebrew Ale-im were probably double sexed, but the
Jews* despisal of women prevented this being stated.' It was, how-
ever, implied in the phrase, " So God created man in his own
image, male and female created He them.**
The Hindu account is more explicit, and the Rig Veda says the
creator produced the universe "with her who is sustained within
him,*’ " without her nothing could be made." She is the spirit or
Holy Ghost which excites him into action.
The writer of the Sama Veda felt like Shelley, and thus ex-
pressed the Androgynous creation :—
" He felt not delight being alone. He wished another, and
instantly became such. He caused his own self to fall in twain,
and thus became man and woman. He approached her, and thus
were human beings produced." (Colebrookc, “ Asiatic Re-
searches,” VIII., p. 4i0.)
This is the original form of the Creation story produced by India,
> the Mother oi religion, and it has filtered down into every Asiatic
and European religion in the form of the universal bisexualism of
their Symbols and Vestments.
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CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
We then go into another fabulous time, when “ the sons of God
saw the daughters of men were fair and they took them wives of aU
which they chose,” and bred giants who evidently were very wicked.
The folk-lore of every nation has giants, and they are all wicked;
the Jews conform to the line along which mankind developed.
We need not enter on a detailed criticism of the flood story, as
I have already touched on it, and Colenso, with his arithmetical
analyses, has proved the utter impossibility of the whole tale.
That the Hebrew account came from Babylon is shown by their
identical details. Both accounts say :—
(1) The only virtuous man is told by his god that a flood is
coming to destroy mankind.
(2) Told to build an ark. The word used for pitch is borrowed
from the Babylonian language as the Hebrews had no
such word. '
(3) Take in the families and all beasts, birds, and creeping things
and food.
(4) Both send out a bird three times, the third time it does not
return.
(5) Both land on a mountain.
(6) Both sacrifice to their gods.
(7) Xisuthrus, the Babylonian, was the tenth king, and Noah the
tenth patriarch or king.
(8) Both had three sons.
The Babylonians lived in a land of deluges, both by river and
sea, and the myth was a growth of the national conditions.
They had to build their cities on mounds, as the land was flooded
every winter. Akkad was subject to cataclysmic floods from the
sea, and as late as the year 1876 a violent tornado, coming from the
Bay of Bengal, accompanied by fearful thunder and lightning, and
a gale blowing with such force that ships at a distance of 200 miles
were dismasted, approached the mouth of the Ganges, and the
tornado drove the sea into high cyclonic waves, forming a gigantic
tidal wave, with the result that, within a short time, an area of 141
geographical miles was covered with water to a depth of 45 feet,
and 215,000 men were drowned. An account of such a catastrophe,
written on cuneiform on clay tablets, was found dating 2,000 B.C.t
the original, no doubt, of the Babylonian Deluge.
The Hindoos have a flood, with a Rainbow as a promise when
Water subsided.
The Chinese have a flood dividing the higher and lower ages
-of man, as did the Hebrew.' No more ” sons of God ” are heard
of after the flood.
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
205
The Parsees’ god destroyed mankind with a deluge; excepting
a few, who re-peopled the world.
The Zend Avesta describes a similar flood.
The Greeks also had a mankind destroying flood, with its hero
Deukalion.
The Kelts had a similar tale, and the men who escaped Drayan
and Droyvach peopled Britain.
The Scandinavian had a deluge tale on the same lines.
The Mexicans had the same tale, with the sending out of a bird,
and landing on a mountain, and it was common property of the
American Indians.
-
The Hebrews had two writers, each giving a different history,
and, as usual, directly contradicting each other. For a full account
of their contradictions, and the impossibility of the whole tale, the
reader must consult Colenso, or Howarth’s book '* The Mammoth
and the Flood.”
The Tower of Babel story, one of the most interesting pieces of
folk-lore in the Bible, shows the Hebrew god as a big man who
needs to “go down ” to see what the people are doing.
Colenso also examines this story, and his demolition of it is a
clever piece of analysis. It seems to have been based, as many
myths are, on a philological error,—the similarity between two
words “ Babyl ” (Gate of God), the name of the Assyrian capital,
and ” Balbal ” to confound. Hence, it is really, as shown in many
works, such as “ Myths and Myth Makers,” p. 72, or the Encyc.
Brit., 10th Ed., Art Babel,—a purely philological myth, as so many
myths are.
Many nations, like the Hindus, Armenians, Australians, Mexi-
cans, had a similar story of the confusion of tongues.
Dr. Kalisch, in his “Commentary on Old Testament,” says:
” Most of the ancient nations possessed myths concerning impious
giants who attempted to storm heaven, either to share it with the
immortal gods or to expel them from it. In some of these fables
the confusion of tongues is represented as the punishment inflicted
by the deities for such wickedness.”
The Exodus incidents have been mercilessly riddled by Colenso,
in a masterly analysis, showing that the whole story is impossible,
and simply the outcome of Hebrew pride and exaggeration.
Colenso’s great work, to which no Churchman has attempted a
real answer, is embodied in seven volumes, and is a monument of
careful reading and criticism. The history of this work is a fine
illustration of the difficulty that Christians,—owing to their early
training, and the terribly complicated and fragmentary character
206
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
of the Bible, find in really reading the Scriputres. Besides these
difficulties, the Hebrew is such a terribly elastic language that its
meaning is often quite unknowable. This was not accidental, but
was created by the scribes, in trying to give to purely sexual physical
words, a spiritual meaning.
Colenso, like every Churchman, had studied his Bible from the
ordinary religious man’s standpoint, but, when he began to trans-
late it for the African natives, he wakened up from his dream and
found that the book which he had seen through the spectacles of
" faith," was not at all the same book when examined openly with
a view to translation. The questions of the natives troubled him,
and he found many ideas untranslateable ; also, when attempting
to put Biblical language into clear statements, he found there was
no clearness in them. He then threw himself into a new study of
the Hebrew Scriptures, which led to his masterly work.
Every student of Christianity ought to read Colenso’s work, as
it is quite unbiassed, and he remained a Christian after rejecting
the Old Testament records. I have availed myself of much of
Colenso’s work, and was tempted to quote largely from him, but
his work is too long and too valuable to bear condensation.
I cannot, however, pass on without giving a sample of his method,
in the hope that others, who have not read him, may be tempted
to look into his volumes.
He found, in trying to translate the Exodus story, that, as there
were 603,550 warriors, there must have been a population of over
two millions (a very moderate calculation ; others say two and a-half
to three millions). Kurtz, How, and Kalisch corroborate this.
Jahweh said, ‘-‘Gather the congregation unto the door of the
Tabernacle.”
The word '* congregation ’’ he proves to mean the whole body
of the people. The door of the tabernacle was within a small court
(1 give all dimensions pp. 244-245). Tabernacle was 17ft. 6in. by
52ft. or thereby. Giving 2ft. for each person, only nine people
could stand in front of the tabernacle, so that the crowd would
reach back for 20 miles. The whole court, packed solid with
people, could not hold 5,000, and the warriors alone numbered over
600,000. How could Aaron’s voice reach the ears of 2 millions, in
a 20 mile column.
If there were ten people in each tent, there would require to be
200,000 tents? How did they get these? They did not have them
in Egypt, as ' door posts " and " lintels" showed they lived in
houses.
How did'they carry the tents? Their shoulders were already
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
207
occupied with their clothes and arms for an army of 600,000, and
their kneading troughs and food, for the manna did not fall in the
Wilderness of Sin. They would require 200,000 oxen. Then we
find the 603,550 warriors were all armed. How did Pharaoh allow
.such an army to get arms? (It was nine times Wellington’s army
at Waterloo; and the whole Egyptians’ army, in any historical- ac-
count, was never more than 160,000; so the Hebrews, instead of
being expelled, could easily have conquered Egypt.)
The Hebrew warriors would have made an army column 68
miles long.
Then they held the passover. This sacrifice would require
200.000 lambs—male lambs in their first year ; so that would mean
400.000 lambs of both sexes (even if they killed every male Iamb and
let the stock become extinct) or two million sheep.
These figures are necessary corollaries from the statements in
Numbers i., 3, and ii., 32,—600,000 able to go forth to war in Israel.
Colenso goes on with his relentless arithmetic (he was an
enthusiastic arithmetician long before, and wrote the best school-
books of arithmetic in his day), and shows us that there would be,
in this two million people, 264 births every day, or one every five
minutes, day and night, and yet they all left Egypt in one day. and
left not one behind (not even a ” hoof.”—Exodus x., 26).
They, and their flocks, which would have required the whole
Delta of Egypt to sustain them, went out in one day.
These two million sheep (necessarily many more of these lambs—
200.000 male lambs had to be provided for the annual festival) and
much cattle and two millions of men, women, children, and help-
less babes, lived in a ” waste howling wilderness,” a ” desert land ”
without grass, grain, or water ; for no manna was sent for the cattle.
And this went on for forty years.
Then Colenso goes on figuring that there were 22,273 first born,
or only one in every 42 children; so every mother had 42 sons.
But the average, calculated out of the records of families in Exodus,
was only three children in each family.
Then, out of the 70 people who went down into Egypt (other
accounts say only 66) there could only have been 1,377 fighting men
in the fourth generation, instead of 600,000. It would take 46
children by each woman—without allowing for deaths—to get the
600.000 fighting men.
Sayce, in his ” Higher Criticism,” p. 463, notices this constant
boasting of the Hebrews as to their numbers, and he says that,
during die war between' Ahaz and the kings of Damascus and
Samaria, 120,000 fighting men are said to have fallen in one day;
208
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
and the army of Uzziah is said to have consisted of 300,750 men
and 2,600 generals. ,
But Ahab could only raise, 10,000 men, and Damascus 20,000 ;
and Shalmaneser does not claim to have slain over 14,000 out of all
his enemies. In fact, to show the petty natures of the tribal strife,
Assar-Nanr-pal boasts when he has slain of 50 and 172 of the enemy
in different battles.
When Sennacherib over-ran the whole country except Jerusalem,
and sent all the inhabitants, men, women, and children into
captivity, he gives the number of all the Israelites as 200,150, all
told ; and he was not likely to understate his captives ; moreover,
the counting was done by official numberers.
Therefore, the whole country did not contain over 30,000 men
capable of bearing arms.
The Samaritans who were led into captivity were only 27,280,
and yet Samaria was a more powerful state than Jerusalem.
Yet Zerah of Egypt came against Asa with a thousand thousand
(a million) soldiers ! ! ! (2 Chronicles xiv. 9.)
Colenso’s work must be read to enable the student to appreciate
his thoroughness and moderation.
The historical truth about the Exodus, as narrated by Justin
in his “Historium Judseorum,” is, that a band of leprous and sexually
diseased Jewish slaves were driven out of the Delta of Egypt into
the desert, as the oracle of the god Amen had declined these in-
sanitary slaves to haye been the cause of a pestilential disease which
had spread all ovei^Egypt (see p. 231).
Lysimachus, Diodorus Siculus, Tacitus, and Manetho all agree
in this account, and the Hebrew Bible narrative admits the truth
of the historians’ account, in Deut. xxviii. 27, by remembering the
“ Botch of Egypt and Emerods ” (syphilis, etc.), *•’ of which thou
canst not be healed.”
The story of God hardening Pharaoh’s heart, and then punishing
the innocent Egyptian labourers must also be dismissed as a
medicine-man tale.
I have tried to give the reader a view of the conclusions arrived
at by all sorts of scholars, unanimously inimical to the claim made
by the Christians, that the Jewish writings are the actual, personal
word of God to man.
It is often claimed that these writings give such an exalted picture
of a god that they are valuable, and even ” divine,” for that reason
alone.
We may ask what picture of a god does the Old Testament paint
for us? Not only is he far more short-sighted than man as every-
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
209
thing he “ plans ” fails, and does he again and again repent him of
his blunders, and visit the punishment for his own blunders on
innocent people, but he is not even a jovial god of human build like
Jupiter, but absolutely maleficent. Where could one find a more
complete picture of the embodiment of evil than in this picture of
the Hebrew Yahweh irae, taken from his own sacred record?
210
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
GOD OF THE HEBREW BIBLE.
AFTER all the thousands of volumes by “ divines,” praising the
“ wonderful ” God revealed by himself to us in the Jewish Scrip-
tures, it has always puzzled me to understand through what
spectacles these men have read their Bible. I suppose they only
seek for texts or parts of texts which will bolster up the great system
to which they belong, and that they are really capable of under-
standing plain English as it is written in the Bible. Every man who
has, like Colenso, translated the Scriptures, has had borne in upon
him irresistibly the true character of the Hebrew Jhvh. Most people
have heard of Thomas Paine ; and many of those who have never
read his book hold up their hands in pious horror at the mention
of it. Yet such men as he and Colonel Ingersoll were only doing
what Colenso, a bishop of the Church, did, in reading the Bible,
and telling us what it really contains. Most parsons have to refer
to Bible dictionaries when they want to be accurate in their state-
ments, but do they ever tell their congregation what they find in
these Bible dictionaries ? Not one word of the information in Hast-
ing's, Cheyne’s, or other Bible dictionaries is spoken from the
pulpit. I will not waste the reader’s time by quoting the great army
of Doctors of Divinity who, as parsons and professors, have written
down the true account of what they have found in their Bible ; but
it may be admirably summed up in a few paragraphs mostly taken
from Forlong.
All Ale, including Yahve, are spoken of as partial, hating, loving
and jealous ; as creators they were pleased and then displeased with
their work. All Elohim repent alike of their good and evil inten-
tions (Genesis i. 31, vi. 6, viii. 21 ; Jonah iii. 10) they associate with
lying and deceitful spirits and are often unjust and ignorant, and
visit the sins of the parents upon innocent children, a cruelty
Christianity has virtually accepted in her leading dogmas. The
Elohim required bloody sacrifices, human and bestial; innocent and
cherished victims, even the first-born of man and beast. They
gloried in creating evil as well as good (Isaiah xlv., 7; Amos iii., 6).
and so loved savoury food and the burning odours of sacrifices that
these were called ” the food of the Elohim.” They were seen in
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
211
the ravings ol madmen and the discourses of prophets, and as a
rule were demoniacal, jealous, wrathful, and terrible.
Our liturgies truly say that it is a fearful thing to fall into Yahve’a
hands. He “ abhorred ” even his chosen people, and was like a
fire which burns to the lowest hell, and consumes the earth and all
its increase ; he delights in heaping mischief upon them, and dart*
ing arrows at them; in burning them with hunger, and devouring
them with heat and bitter destruction. He sits in heaven throw*
ing stones at the Amorites (Joshua x. 11). He sends upon them the
teeth of beasts, and the poison of serpents. He sends the sword
without, and the terror within, to destroy the young man and the
virgin, the suckling and him with grey hairs. Yahveh is to “Whet
a glittering sword and arrows which shall devour flesh and be drunk
with the blood of the slain “ (Deut. xxxii., 41-42). He sets snares
for his erring children, to provoke them to wrath, so that they may
be destroyed and consumed with fire and everlasting burnings.
Yahveh was also the sun-god of the Phoenicians, says the Rev. Sir
Geo. Cox, who demanded hecatombs of human burnt offerings, and
the Israelites were not to be out-done in feeding his altars with
human blood. The “ passing through “ of children meant the burn-
ing of their sons and daughters in the fires of the high places of
Tophet and Baal, and this as late as the days of Josiah. Ahaz,
King of Judah, burnt his children in the fire (2 Chron. xxviii., 3).
The children of Judah built the high place of Tophet, which is in
the valley of the Son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and daughters
in the fire (2 Chron. xxxiii., 6).
Nor, say Bishop Colenso and the Rev. Sir Geo. Cox, had these
matters much improved in the captivity or middle of the 6th century
B.C., as Ezekiel charges Israelites with sacrificing their sons and
daughters to be devoured (Ezek. xvi., 20-21 ; xxiii., 37-39), and with
slaying their children to their idols and coming red-handed to the
sanctuary, the courts of which were filled with the blood of inno-
cents. Kings Ahaz and Manasseh set the example by burning their
own sons to their Jehovah—and Cox describes the popular and
national religion of the Jews as a gross, sensual, and cruel idolatry.
Their God’s symbols were very savage, monsters of the deep,
crocodiles, dragons, the Phallic Bahamath of Job, his Elehiun,
“ worm of the rivers ’’ with serpents’ poles, and sacred pillars. He
needs the spilling of blood for remission of sins, and that the just
must die for the unjust.
The Hebrew Jehovah was similar to Chemos of the Samaritans,
and afforded no impediment, nay, encouraged murder, vice, and
violence. Yahveh was essentially a local Baal, caring only for
212
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
his own little portion of Palestine, and his followers firmly
believed that he delighted in human sacrifice like Chemos,
and therefore did the Yahvists at once fall back from their
siege of Mesa's fort, when they saw the King offer up his son to
Chemos burnt alive (2 Kings iii. 27). Yahweh was always cruel
and implacable, no mercy or quarter could be shown, neither age nor
sex was respected. He gloried in man's ignorance, and a thirst for
knowledge disturbed and irritated him. “ Every step in the develop-
ment of humanity was made in defiance of this God’s Will. He
invented * original sin,’ and the doctrines regarding man's innate
corruption, which Paul amplified into the most terrible instrument
of persecution man has ever seen." (Here Forlong speaks wisely.)
The world has not yet recognised the untold blood and misery which
many of his quasi commands have wrought as that one " thou shall
not suffer a sorceress to live." Yet a sorceress, Huldah the Weasel,
was employed to identify his holy Scriptures (p. 144).
His ferocity found a fitting echo in the words of " Saint"
Jerome (who firmly set up Paul’s Fetish of " Faith ”), and who
wrote : “ If thy father and mother be lifeless and naked across the
threshold trample on them, yea, on the bosom which suckled thee."
-
As a moral teacher, the Hebrew Bible yields the first legal pre-
cedents for the commission of every sort of crime with the full
approval of the Hebrew God. When Ammon wished to force his
sister Tamar, she said : 2 Samueljriii., " Speak unto the King, for he
will not withhold me from thee "—showing even this close relation-
ship was allowable, under Yahweh’s law.
Marriage with half-sisters, aunts, and sisters-in-law, while the
first wife was still living, was common.
Jahweh sanctioned polygamy and concubinage (Deut. xxi., 10-15),
God himself married two profligate sisters, Aholah and Aholibah
(Ezek. xxiii.), figuratively it is true, but the fact shows it was not
sinful so to do. The passage relating this is not fit for public read-
ing, and even the translation tones down the true meaning. Hicker-
ingill, a learned Hebraist, and a clergyman of the Church of Eng-
land, explains the true meaning of David being a man after God's
own heart. It was not in holiness—that would be impossible, after
his lies, hypocrisies, murders, adulteries, and transgression of every
human and humane law; but he. tells us that " after God’s heart"
is a Hebraism, and signifies, in English, the same as the common
phrase, " a (nan for my turn," " the man for my money.” That is,
be will loll and slay as the priest commands and directs.
Many people have been astonished that such a phrase should be
applied to such a dishonest profligate and cruel man as David,
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
213
especially as he constantly worshipped rival gods, as shown by the
(act that his children’s names and his religion were the same as
those of the Hittites and Moabites ; but the explanation is that it
was bestowed because of his pre-eminence in the commission of
every crime which they required him to commit in the bolstering
up of their power. 'In fact, he appointed his own sons priests
(2 Samuel viii., 18). That the priesthood and their Jahveh were
identical is evident from the tale of the cool and atrocious slaughter
and plunder of the Midianites, when Jahveh (Jehovah), after com-
manding the cold-blooded slaughter of all male children, and all
women “ who had known man by lying with him,” went on to
say, ” but all the women children that have not known a man by
lying with him keep alive for yourselves.” Not " spare,” no idea
of ” pity,” but ” keep alive ” as an addition to your vicious pleasure,
Fig. 108
as once prisoners were kept alive by all savage nations, even among
the Romans, that the captors might have the pleasure of witness-
ing at their leisure the torture of the captive. “ They can be
slain at any time, when your vicious lust has been cooled ” was the
idea. Then the Lord's (Yahveh’s) tribute of these maidens was,
out of the ** Thirty and two thousand persons in all of women, that
had not known man by lying with him ” (a phrase three times re-
peated) was thirty-two. But as the Lord was not corporeal, and
could not use these " women children,” ” Moses gave them unto
Eleazer the Priest.” Hence, we see that all that was done for or
214
CHRISTIANITY
by Yahveh, was done for or by the High Priest. The inference is
that the High Priest was working for his own ends.
By applying Colenso’s arithmetic, we may figure out that, to
get these 32 “ women children ” for his own use, the High Priest
or Yahweh had to order the slaughter of about half a million of the
beings his God had created in his own image. His character is
like that of the Hindu Siva, intensely Phallic and cruel, and the
statue of Siva (shown on p. 213) might well stand for the Hebrew
Yahweh, Fury and Lust.
The change from this " fear *' religion to the gentle Hindu teach-
ing of Siddartha adopted by Jesus (p. 270) is illustrated by another
portrait. The Egyptian God founded on Siddartha’s teaching was
Serapis, from Sar or Tsur, “ the rock that begat thee,” the phallus
(pp. 88 and 252) and Apis the Sun God of the Bull period. His
portrait, as a calm, benign, bearded man, was adopted as that of
the Christ, Son of Iah.
CHAPTER III
PHALLISM IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
We may first ask ourselves what sort of a people were those whose
prophets evolved the Bible.
In the first place they were part of a race which inhabited Pales-
tine, comprised of Jews, Philistines, Samaritans, Zidonians,
Phoenicians, and numerous clans (like the Samaritans) who split the
mountainous part into so many tribes. Their religion was so
entirely Phallic that it gave its name to the country, for Palestine
is “ Pala-8tan,” like Afghanistan and other “ stans,” the Land of
the Hindu Pala, or in Greek Pallas, or Phallos, in Latin Phallus.
It was called in Latin Pala-estine, and Pales was a Roman double-
sexed god (see p. 217), represented by twin phallic pillars—the
Palikoi, and the Hebrew temple had two identical pillars called
Jakin and Boaz (p. 256).
The derivation of the name Palestine is often given as Philistan,
the land of the Migrants; but the Philistines were also intense
Phallic worshippers; and, as we know, the word Phallus had
the form in Greece of Philis or Phylis, "love,” and Philip, “the
loving one." All facts show this to be the true derivation. Thus
Philistine is much more likely to be the land of those who worship
Philis love, than the home of the " wanderers.”
Not only is Palestine so named, but the whole country to the
East and South of Palestine had a similar name, and was generally
known to the natives as Louristan, now applied to the Southern part
of Persia lying along the Persian Gulf, and written in our maps as
Laristan. The name is derived from Laz, Luz, or Lars, the
"Wanton Goddess," or the "Loose One." Luz is the word for
Almond, a euphonym for the Yoni, hence, Luz is a symbol of Venus
(pp. 36-82, Figs. 3£jand 36), where Venus and the Divine babes are
inclosed in almond-shaped openings.
The Gothic arch, which has a feminine signification, gives an
architectonic form to the almond or Vesica piscis, symbol of woman.
This significance of the Almond has come down to the modern
dinner-table in applying the term " matrimony " to the toothsome
combination of raisins and almonds.
Raisins are grapes, the special symbol of all creative sun gods.
216
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
Dionysius, Bacchus, Jupiter, etc. (I am the true vine), and so it is a
very masculine symbol, and coupled with the almond symbol of
the Yoni, we have the double sex symbol of matrimony.
Larissa is the definitively female form, and this, with the male
word Penates, was carried west to Rome, and formed the names
of the Roman household Gods, Lares and Penates. Larissa in
Greek means a vessel such as is held by female gods to indicate
fecundity, as shown in Figs. 38 and 39, p. 63. Laristan is therefore
the land of the Laris, Roman Lares. Amongst the surrounding
nations the natives pronounce it Louristan, and Forlong says he
cannot translate Louri but it indicates the Phallus, or a place
devoted to the worship of the Phallic emblems.
The old Eastern word Louri, or Lari, is still very common all
over India and its coasts, and is used indiscriminately as a term of
abuse to both male and female. We must not forget that India gave
the Phallic Crown to Egypt, and it was along these coasts of Persia
and Arabia that Indian Phallism passed to the conquest of Egypt.
Our troops have been actively engaged since December, 1910, in
putting down gun-running and brigandage in this very country, and
the chief town, where they had to fight the filibusters, at the mouth of
the Persian Gulf at the end of 1910, bears the name of Lingah (the
Phallus), which name might well constitute a central shrine for seven
hundred million worshippers. The word is common right round to
the Malay Peninsula and China.
Baluchistan, which is now occupied by very mixed nations, as
every conqueror passing East or West left many followers there, to
live or die, owing to the barren character of the country, was
probably Palakistan ; P and B being equivalent, and vowel sounds
varying continually. Palakistan means the land where Venus or
Phallus worship was carried out by the Palakis or Temple women
(p. 32), all names derived from the Indian word Pala, the male
organ.
That the whole country still called Palestine, including the parts
where the Philistines lived, always bore that name, is confirmed
by the Hebrew Scriptures. In Exodus xv. 14, and Isaiah xiv. 29-31,
reference is made to the " inhabitants of Palestina " and those of
“ whole Palestina " as people against whom the Hebrews have a
grudge, as they speak of the Assyrians or Egyptians, or die Philis-
tines, and not referring to themselves, which shows what an in-
significant clan they were, occupying only a small part of Palestine,
itself a small cftuntry. Neither Herodotus nor any other historian
makes any mention of the Hebrews or Jews. This also renders it
more probable that Palestine and Philistine had the same derive-
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
217
tion. The Philistines lived in Palestina, so the two words were
etymologically and geographically identical.
Even moderns have applied the word Phyllis, the Greek form
of Pala, in finding a name for the terrible scourge from which we
shall see (pp. 230-232) all highly Phallic people suffered. They
took the term syphyllis, “ with love,” the disease accompanying
the loving act, from the Greek Syn or Sy “with,” and Philia
“ love,” or Philos “ loving.”
We have the same word in the Palatine Hill in Rome, which was
the centre of Phallic worship. The word seems to have crossed
to America in very ancient times, as we find that at Palenque, be-
tween the Bay of Campeachy and the Pacific Ocean, there is a
sculptured palace or temple with the elephant symbol of India;
the Chief Temple there is called the Temple of the Cross, and on
the inscribed altar slab is carved a great cross, and the God sits
cross-legged on a lotus (Phallus) throne, on the back of a tiger, as
is common in India and Java. The sun shines on his breast, and he
has the three Phallic symbols par excellence, used all over the
world, the serpent, the lotus, and the Fleur-de-lys. They have even
Egypt's winged globe.
The Romans applied the word Pales to the God of flocks and
shepherds, who was double sexed, or Androgynous. His symbol
was twin Phalli, or posts, representing no doubt the ” Palikoi,”
twin sons of Zeus by Thalia, the Goddess of Green Things, grass or
vegetation.
Pursuing our inquiry as to the nature of the race who produced
the Christian Bible, we find that they were a race who mutilated
themselves phallically, by cutting off their foreskins ; and they
showed that this was a sacrifice to their gods by various stories in
their Bible. They called their God a “ God of the Circumcision,”
and, in choosing their priests, they insisted on the circumcision of the
priesthood, and further, as though to advertise their Phallism, they
had all candidates for priesthood examined, and none but those
phallicalfy well developed and perfect could be admitted. There-
fore we see that their imposition of this rite on conquered tribes was
not a mutilation, to insult a subject race, but an admission of the
conquered tribe into the Jewish circle, increasing the number of
the subjects of Yahweh—or the tributaries to the Jews.
This custom of examination existed down to a late date, and, in
the case of appointing a Pope, may still exist, as they do not publish
all their secret rites in the Holy of Holies of Rome. Roscoe, the
historian, says: ” On the 11th August, 1492, after Roderigo (Borgia)
had assumed the name of Alexander VI. and made his entrance into
218
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
the Church of St. Peter, he was taken aside to undergo the final test
of his qualifications, which in his particular instance might have
been dispensed with.”
Roscoe, of course, alludes here to the already numerous chil-
dren of whom Borgia was the father, some due, like those of the
” early Christians ” in their midnight ” religious zeal,” to inces-
tuous excesses. Roscoe says in Italian that after a solemn
examination in the Holy of Holies of Borgia’s toccatogli i testi-
cola,” and ” benediction,” he returned to the Palace. Toccatogli
means the ” toucher ” or “ Baton,” and the other word we already
know as covenant, witness, tortoise, testimony, or one medically
testated, so that he was fully examined.
The examination proved him masculine. He then assumed the
gown or frock of a woman, and so became double-sexed, like the
God he served. ” After his own image male and female created
He them” (p. 172).
In Exodus iv., 24, 26, the story goes : “ And it came to pass by
the way in the inn that the Lord (Yahweh) met him (Moses) and
sought to kill him. Then Zipporah (wife of Moses) took a sharp
stone and cut off the foreskin of her son and cast it at his (Yahweh’s)
feet, and said, * Surely a bloody husband (lover) thou art to me.'
So he (Yahweh) let him (Moses) go; then she said, ‘A bloody
husband thou art, because of the circumcision.’ ”
The orthodox have tried to soften the crudity of this old myth
by saying that it was not Moses, but his son, that Yahweh tried
to murder, and others that the foreskin was cast at the son’s feet
not Yahweh’s ; but it would be curious for a mother to call her son
a ” bloody lover.” The Targums of the Jews say the foreskin was
cast at the Lord's feet to pacify him, which is evidently the true
reading. Both the translators, trying to make a decent out of an
indecent passage (according to Milton’s ” insulse ” rule), translate
” Kathan ” husband, a meaning it never had. It was never used
after marriage; but means a betrothed bridegroom or lover, or a
recognised lover ; as Dr. Cheyne says, it may be a newly-admitted
member of the family, admitted because of betrothal. The revised
version translates it a ” Bridegroom of Blood.” It could, therefore,
have been addressed neither to her son nor her husband, but only
to Yahweh.
In this story we see the lever of fear being used to compel cir-
cumcision. J^uenen considers this passage an indication that cir-
cumcision was a substitute for child sacrifice, which was a religious
practice of the Jews. The act of circumcision was probably
a symbolical rendering of the sacrifice of emasculation cutting off
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
219
-
the whole organ as being the root of all evil as dealt with on p. 184
et seq.
In any case it is symbolically, and indeed practically, an example
of the great central idea of all Jewish belief and practice, that all
transgressions, whether against God or man, could only be wiped
out, and the deity or enemy appeased, by a spilling of blood, as in
the dogma of the death of Jesus.
This tale has every indication of being one of the most ancient
fables of Judaism, and Dr. Cheyne, in the Encyclopaedias Biblica
and Britannica, expressed the opinion that it is of Arabian origin,
Arabia having been the home of the Israelites before they came
north.
Circumcision may be a useful sanitary measure, as argued by
some, or it may have been found to be an aphrodisiac to increase
sexual pleasure, as argued by others, and so retained by the highly
sensual Jewish race. It may increase the fecundity of the race,
whose God’s first commandment was, “ Be fruitful and multiply ” ;
but, as it was imposed on the whole nation under penalty of death,
and was especially necessary to priesthood, it must have been a
religious rite.
We find the penalty of death common to the infringement of
religious rites, and incurred even by accidentally looking into the
ark (1 Sam. vi. 6-10, men of Bethshemesh). This seems barbarous,
but in merry England anyone touching the Pyx was to be hanged,
drawn, and quartered, and burnt to ashes, as late as the
reign of Richard II., about 1400 A.D. The ark was the
^ftii, and the stone in it the Phallus, so it was the double-sexed
symbol of life universally worshipped all over the world, but, the
priests did not want the ignorant to know the real nature of their
God, or later editors have modified the words (pp. 41 and 232). Yet
it is a strange thing that there is no record of Moses having seen
that the sacred rite of Circumcision was carried out in the forty
years* wandering in the wilderness, so that Joshua would have re-
quired (if the numbers of the Jews wandering is correctly related)
to circumcise personally over a million males at Gilgal. Circum-
cision is practised by tribes in parts of the world where communica-
tion with Jews in early times was impossible, but the tribes who
practise it are of a low grade. Seeing that it was so obligatory on
the priesthood, it was probably a substitution of a mild rite for the
barbarous emasculation by which the priests of Cybele (or Kubele)
were initiated into the office (compare pp. 184-185). The worship
of Cybele was at one time universal all over Western-Asia, and the
Jews may have adopted circumcised priests, instead of Eunuchs, in
220
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES'
their ritual. That it was considered by the Jews to increase the
virility of the men so treated, is shown by the statement in Genesis
xxxiv., 14, that ” One who is uncircumcised is as a woman to us.”
Thus, as we shall see, the Jewish Nabi’s religion was a strongly right-
handed cult, worshiping only the male emblem, considering the
temptation of the feminine organ as the origin of all evil, and deny-
ing to women even the possession of a soul; while surrounding
nations emasculated their priests or made them wear women’s
dress, so as to imitate the double sex of the Creator, just as is done
at the present day by making the priests of Rome wear a woman’s
” frock,” after taking their vows of celibacy. We talk of ” unfrock-
ing ” a priest; the clergy of other reformed Churches still wear a
” gown,” and the choir boys and subordinate clergy surplices, all
feminine, whereas, the Jewish clergy wore masculine breeches,
and it was, as usual, death to any priest officiating without
them. The curious phrase, a “ bloody bridegroom,” is still retained
by the Jews, who call their newly-circumcised children “ bride-
grooms of blood.”
It is probably very ancient; even before the age of iron, as it
was performed by a flint knife, and not by a metal one.
In Polynesia the rite is propitiatory, not only for the person
operated upon, but for others ; and when a member of a family is
seriously ill, youths of the family of any age may be called to the
Temple of the God, to deliver up their foreskins, as an offering for
the recovery of the patient. (Joum. Anthrop. Inst., August, 1884.)
The rite is followed by indescribable revelry—men and women array
themselves in all manner of fantastic garbs—general license is
allowed, and relationship is no bar—an exact description of the
fetes of Cybele, Maternalia, and the Hilaria, Saturnalia, Bacchanalia,
Phallic feasts or fetes (pp. 87-92).
Dr. J. G. Frazer, in his ” Golden Bough,” Vol. II., pp. 52, 53,
quoting Plutarch, deals with the subject, and says the Jewish Feast
of Tabernacles ” is exactly agreeable to the holy rites of Bacchus,”
of the Greeks and Romans, and practised by early peoples all over
the world.
Circumcision is imperative in Islam, and is called a ” Divine in-
stitution ” descended from Abraham. It is very necessary, in study-
ing the religious practices of a people, to arrive at a clear concep-
tion of the meaning of the words they employ, and we will see, by
an examination, of words and names, that the Phallicjcnlt saturated
all the religious practices of the Hebrews.
The word ’’Bosheth,” translated “shameful thing” (Phallus)
or ” shame,” is especially, as Dr. Donaldson points out, “ sexual
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
221
•h&me,” as in Genesis ii., 25. The substantive meaning as Phallus
is made clear in Micah i., I I, “ having thy Bosheth naked,” or in
Hosea ix., 10, where he says, “they went to Baal-peor and con*
secrated themselves to Bosheth ” (the shameful thing, the Phallus),
” and became abominable like that they loved/’ or in Jeremiah xi.,
13, “ For according to the number of thy cities were thy Gods, O
Judah, and according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem have
ye set up altars to Bosheth, altars to burn incense to Baal.” Note
the connection between Bosheth and Baal.
The Phallic altar of all nations was an upright pillar, as we have
seen in pp. 15*103, and its anointing was the principal act of worship.
The Bible record is, in great part, taken up with this subject,
and yet not a word of this has leaked through to the general public.
Is it right that a book which is the most intensely Phallic record
known, should be entirely misrepresented by false translation? I
am glad to see the reticence is breaking down, as shown by this
quotation from the paper of Sir Geo. Birdwood that I quoted at
p. 160.
” When Jacob took the stone (Genesis xxviii., 18*19) on which
he slept on his way from Beersheba to Haran, and set it up on
end for a pillar, and poured oil on the top of it, and called it
*Beth>el,* ‘the house of God,’ he performed a distinct act of
Phallic worship, such as may still be witnessed every day, at
every turn, in India.” (See p. 51.)
Sir George refers all through his paper to the wide-spread practice
of Phallism, and in a later paper, Royal Society of Arts, 1st Dec.,
1911, referring to the gross, or Phallic names applied to some of
our English plants, he says:—While the universal prevalence of
such objectionable names in the vernacular languages of India,
without the slightest idea among the Hindus, or any but Moslems
and our English folk, of there being anything improper in them,
would seem to indicate that their existence in England is but a
survival of the pagan period of Europe when every natural object
of the remotest phallic suggestiveness, in colour, form, etc., was
accepted as an apocalyptic symbol of the Almighty Creator of all
the material existences through which He is first apprehended by
mankind. Like the polygamy, the harim, and the ” seraglio,” of
Islam, these, to us, prurient names, have, at least in India, an
obvious hieropsychic origin, and are there everywhere still of sacro-
sanct significance.' The people of the historical East have always
looked the Cosmos full in the face, and ingenuously yielded them-
selves to its every genial impulse as of divine ordination; and as
for die opinion of others.—Horn soft qui mal y penae.
222
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
From the texts above quoted, it is clear that Baal was the
Bosheth or Priapus, and Baal-peor was the bisexual symbol; we
have the connection of the two specially handed down to us in
several passages. In the Septuagint version of Kings xviii., 25, the
prophets of Baal are called the “ prophets of that shame
* Bosheth.* ’* Baal was of uncertain sex (see p. 325), or probably
bisexual. Arnobius says his votaries invoked him saying, Hear
us whether thou are a God or Goddess,** and the reason for the twin
sexed or Hermaphroditic God was to express his self-contained
power of generation. We know that Bosheth means the “ shameful
thing ** as it is always so translated, and we find the two, Baal and
Bosheth, were equivalent and used indifferently in names. Thus
we have Jerub-baal, Judges vi., 32, and I Samuel ii., II., called
Jerub-bosheth in 2 Samuel xi., 21, and Esh-baal in 1 Chron. viii., 33,
called Ish-bosheth in 2 Samuel iv., 8 and 10. We find the connection
carried into the very heart of the Jewish religion, in the Eli, to whom
Jesus appealed on the Cross, in calling Baal-jada, in 1 Chron. xiv. 7,
Eli-ada in 2 Samuel v. 16, so that Baal is Eli, or Elohim, or
Ale-im, or the Gods. The other Hebrew God Jehovah, Yah-
weh, or simply Iah, is linked up with Baal in 1 Chron. xii., 5, in the
name of one of David's heroes Baaljah, “ Baal is Jah ** (Jehovah).
In fact, we find that Larousse, in his “ Grande Dictionnaire
Universelle,’* says: “The Herbraic Phallus was during nine
hundred years the rival of the victorious Jehovah/* They were
more probably only nominally rivals, being merely two names for
the same idea (see p. 254).
There is another word intentionally mis-translated in the Bible,
“Grove** or “Groves,** so often mentioned, and its worship so
constantly condemned as “ shameful,** by all the prophets or Nabis,
that we must conclude it was the ineradicable worship of the entire
Jewish race.
The word mis-translated “Grove,** is Ashera, sometimes
Asherim (plural), and Astaroth, as is shown by the authorised
version saving in Judges iii., 7, they “served ‘Baalim* (plural of
Baal) and the Groves,** whereas the revised version says, “served
Baalim and the Astheroth ’*—the Babylonian Love Goddess.
In Bagster*s Bible, the Grove which King Manasseh set up is,
in the margin, stated in Latin to be a wooden image of Astarte
(Venus).
Then we have Astaret, Astara, Oester (our Easter), Ister, Aster,
Star, and Stefta, our word star and the Latin Stella (exchanging
the R for L, identical letters) are derived from the star symbol of
the Venus of Babylon worshipped all over the middle East, even
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
223
in Egypt, where she is Astrt. She was represented by the brightest
fixed star in the firmament Sirius, as well as by the brightest wander-
ing star or planet we call Venus, and the Pleiades was her habita-
tion, hence the “ Sweet influences of the Pleiades ” of Job.
Babylon impressed its religious ideas on all the nations of the earth.
Aster is a pole, tree, stem, or other erect object, like the *' noble
pillar “ of the Egyptians (p. 61), and is the Hebrew Yashar, Bashar,
or Bosheth, or the Phallus. Astarte is the feminine form.
This word runs through many languages ; in Arabia and in
Phoenician is Oshr and Osir, a husband or lord, the plural being
Ostharim or Asharim of the Bible, probably the Egyptian Uaser or
Asar, and Greek form of that name Osiris.
Ashre, Ashera, Ashira, are feminine forms of Ashr, Assyrian
Ashrat, where the “ t ” is the feminine determinative as in the
Assyrian and Egyptian languages. Ashl is simply Ashr, as “1'*
and “ r ” are the same letter in most early Asiatic languages, as seen
in our lamb and ram, which were once identical.
Ashl is a tree, tamarisk, terebinth, oak, or any thing firm and
strong, both in Hebrew and Arabic.
Ashruth or Asharoth is the regularly formed Hebrew feminine
plural or Ashr or Baal, and was the Goddess of Good Fortune, or
the Yoni, exhibited so often in nude figures at church doors, to
give good fortune, and was the Jewish Aphrodite or Venus (p. 96).
Astarte was the Phoenician form, and the Greeks used that
name for Diana.
In Babylonian she is sometimes called Ishtara or Istar—and the
name Israel is very probably named from Ishra-el, the people with
the Phallic god or worshippers of the Grove or Yoni.
Ashr and Ashire, or Asherah, are translated “ groves ” thirty-
nine times in the Old Testament.
Asherim may include male or female, Baalim; the Revised
Version says, ‘ ‘served Baalim and the Asheroth,” and no translation
of Asheroth is given, though Baal and Ashtaroth are common phrases
for the Phallic worship so often denounced as “ shameful ” by the
Hebrew prophets, nabis, or fanatics.
Solomon also “went after Ashtoreth ” (I Kings xi., 5), and he
builded the mount of corruption for that “ abomination of the
Zidonians “ (2 Kings, xxiii., 13).
A tree or grove could never be an abomination, and that the
Asherah was no tree, except symbolically as the “ Tree of Life ”
(Phallus), is shown by the statement in 2 Kings xxiii., 6, that Josiah
•“ brought out the Grove from the house of the Lord.” Other refer-
ences speak of breaking the shameful thing in pieces and stamping
224
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
it to powder (2 Kings xxiii.' 6), “made dust of them" (2
Chronicles miv. 4). No tree can be stamped to powder; it
was a clay or stone Phallus. The practices which were carried
on round the “ Grove “ altars are well shown by the verse 7 of the
same chapter, where the writer says: “ He broke down the houses
of the Sodomites that were by the house of the Lord where the
women wove hangings for the Grove.”
So the Grove worshippers were Sodomites.
According to the Revised Version as above, it was in the house
of the Lord where the women wove hangings for the Asherah
(Grove).
The “ Grove ” worship had 400 priests under Queen Jezebel
(I Kings xviii. 19).
These 400 prophets of the Ashera (phallus) spoke in the name
of IhVh, so IhVh and the phallus were the same I Kings, xxii. 6).
We know that the Asherah, Asherim, Asheroth, and Ashteroth
were the Ashteroth of the Babylonians, their Venus, whose worship
was carried on in the Succoth-Benoth, or Tents of Venus, and
was accompanied by orgies similar to the Liberalia of Rome, and
that was the worship against which the Hebrew nabis or prophets
protested.
We find this idea of nakedness and shame linked indissolubly
in the Hebrew text and always in connection with worship.
-
In Exodus xxxii. we read of the people making a golden “ calf "
and worshipping it with naked rites, just as the Hindus do to-day in
Sakti worship. We have the same thing in verse 25, when Moses
saw that the people were naked, “ for Aaron had made them naked
unto their ‘ shame ’ “ (Bashar or Bosheth, shameful thing).
Calf is thus the English translators* euphemism for Phallus, which
was universally worshipped and was represented generally by a
simple cone, the Assyrian representation of the glans.
Again, the nomenclature of the shameful thing changes with
the Hebrews—no doubt after one of their numerous captivities, or
their enslavement in their own land, when they were ruled by
foreign priests, as in the cases of Jeremiah, Nehemiah, and Ezra, to
which 1 have already referred (p. 145).
We find the names containing Baal become later on, Beth’s, as
Baal Peor, Baal Meon, Baal Tamar, Baal Shalisha, etc., become
Beth Peor, Beth Meon, Beth Tamar, Beth Shalisha, etc., so that the
sacred Beth-le-hem was at one time a Phallic shrine.
The Nrfbis seem to have favoured severe Eduth worship of the
masculine Lingam symbol, in which women had no part, whereas
the people desired either mixed bisexual worship, or even Yoni.
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
225
Ephod, or Ashtoreth worship, with its Dove Temples of Kadesha or
consecrated women. Hence, the prophets* constant scoldings. '
When Gideon ruled, the Nabi writer in Judges being an Eduth
or Lingah worshipper, condemned Israel as going a-whoring after
the Ephod, and when Gideon died he says that they then went a-
whoring after Baalim, and made a Baal-Berith their God, that is,
they used the bisexual symbol of Lingam-Yoni, dagger and ring,
sword and sheath.
Dr. Kalisch, a great Jewish Biblical scholar, says : “ The unchaste
worship of Astarte known also as Beltis (my lady or madonna), and
Tanais, Ishtar, Mylitta, Anaitis, Ashera, and Asteroth, flourished
amongst the Hebrews at all times, both in the kingdom of Judah
and Israel ; it consisted in presenting to the goddess, who was
revered as the female principle of conception and birth, the virginity
of maidens as a first-fruit offering, and it was associated with the
utmost licentiousness. This degrading service took such deep root
that in the Assyrian period it was even extended by the adoption
of new rites borrowed from Eastern Asia, and described by the
name of Tents of the maidens (succoth Benoth), and it left its mark
in the Hebrew language itself, which ordinarily expressed the notion
of Courtesan or Harlot by the word ' Kadeshah,* a consecrated
woman and a Sodomite by * Kadesh,* a consecrated man,” so that
the temple nuns and harlots were identical.
“Consecrated prostitution was a revered practice.** Judah
and Tamar shows that,” says Loisy, p. 119.
The word Venus is derived from Benoth, because B and V are
often interchanged, and so are ” th ” and ” s,” while “o“ and
“ u ” are used indifferently as in Greek and Latin.
Plutarch says that the Feast of Tabernacles, the merriest festival
of the Jews, was ” exactly agreeable to the holy rites of Bacchus,”
and we know what Bacchanalia were. Benoh means, to pro-create
children. McLennan tells us that when a man married into his
wife*s family, it was a Beenah marriage, and there was great feast-
ing. This is the same word as Benoh to procreate (or Venus), and
the slang phrase, “a good old Beenoh ” for a wild feast is
•no doubt derived from Hebrew through the East-end London
Jews. “Succoth Benoth,** says the orthodox Dr. Adam Clarke,
“ may be literally translated the Tabernacles of the daughters or
young women, or nymphs of Venus, or, if Benoth be taken as the
name of a female idol (Venus) from B N Th, or its equivalent V N S
(an unpoirited or unvowelled word meaning to build up * pro-
create children *), then the words will express the tabernacles
sacred to the productive powers feminine, and agreeably to this
Q
226
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
latter exposition, the Rabbins say that the emblem was a hen
and chickens. But, however this may be, there is no room (or doubt
that these Succoth were tabernacles wherein young women exposed
themselves to prostitution in honour of the Babylon Goddess
Melitta,’* the ‘ great Mediatrix,’ like the Virgin Mary.
That such Venus worship is inherent in human nature is shown
from this cutting from the Sunday Chronicle, of 23rd April, 1910.
NAKED AND UNASHAMED.
Berlin’s beauty evenings puzzles the police.
Saturday, 23rd April, 1910.
The organisers of the notorious “ beauty evenings,” at which
men and women appear unclothed, have gained a notable victory
over the police.
Herr Vanseler, the chief propagandist of the regenerate virtue
of nudity, and editor of the journal Beauty, has been prosecuted
for circulating the literature of the new movement. The jury ac-
quitted him, on the ground that he was a genuine idealist, and had
no intention to break the law.
Professor Strauss, of Vienna, the well-known expert, Dr.
Ehrecke, and other authorities gave evidence in Herr Vanseler’s
favour.
An attempt made at Hanover to revive the beauty evenings,
which had such success last winter, has been stopped by the police.
The authors of the movement have taken steps to contest the legality
of the prohibition.
Meanwhile ” private ” beauty evenings are being held all over
Prussia. The various societies which preach the new gospel are
stated to have already 75,000 members.—Sunday Chronicle.
Lately, April, 1912, at a most respectable social party, a lady
danced and posed entirely unclothed. This led to a prosecution,
but there was a complete acquittal. Witnesses of high standing
gave it as their opinion that the study of the beautiful human body
was in no way degrading, but stimulating to all the finer feelings
of Religion and Art.
This protest is the natural result of repressive religion, which
considers the sexual act the ” Fall.”
Herodotus, translated by Rawlinson (lib. 1 c. 199), tells us:
” Every woman born in the country must once in her life go and sit
down in the precinct of Venus and there consort with "a stranger.
Many of the wealthier who are too proud to mix with the others,
drive in covered carriages to the precincts followed by a goodly
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
227
train of attendants and then take their station. This great show of
wealth was to keep off men of mean parentage or low up-bringing,
as only men accustomed to good society would approach such
•* grande dames.’ But the larger number seat themselves within the
holy enclosure with wreaths of string or cords about their heads
and here there is always a great crowd, some coming and others
going; lines of cord mark out paths in all directions among the
women, and the strangers pass along and make their choice. A
woman who has once taken her seat is not allowed to return home
till one of the strangers throws a silver coin into her lap and takes
her with him beyond the holy ground.
“ When he throws the coin he says these words, * The Goddess
Mylitta prosper thee' (Venus is called Mylitta by the Assyrians).
The silver coin may be of any size ; it cannot be refused, for that is
forbidden by law, since once thrown it is sacred. The woman goes
with the first man who throws her money, and rejects no one. When
she has gone with him and so satisfied the goddess she returns home
and from that time forth no gift, however great, will prevail with
her. Such of the women as are tall and beautiful are soon released,
but others who are ugly have to stay a long time before they can
fulfil the law. Some have waited three or four years in the pre-
cinct. A custom very much like this is also found in certain parts
of the island of Cyprus (Paphos, p. 88). (“ Bible Studies.”
Wheeler, pp. 12-13, etc.)
This custom is also alluded to in the Aprocryphal Epistle of
Jeremy (Baruch IV., 43). “ The women also with cords about them
sitting in the ways, burnt bran for perfume ; but if any of them
drawn by some that passeth by, lie with him, she reproacheth her
fellow, that she was not thought as worthy as herself nor her cord
broken ” (see p. 168).
The commentary published by the Society for the Promotion of
Christian Knowledge corroborates this, saying, “ women with
cords about them the token that they were devotees of Mylitta, the
Babylonian Venus, called in 2 Kings xvii., 38, Succoth-Benoth, the
ropes denoting the obligation of the vow which they had taken upon
themselves.” (See Fig. 106, p. 167.)
Strabo says the “ Armenians pay particular attention in a similar
way to Anaites, their Venus Goddess. They dedicate there to her
service male and female slaves, as did the Egyptians (p. 102); in
this there is nothing remarkable, but it is surprising that persons
in the highest rank in the nation consecrate their virgin daughters to
the goddess. It is customary for these women, after being prosti-
tuted a long period at the temple of Anaites to be disposed of in
228
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
marriage, no one disdaining a connection with such persons/*
Hosea thus finds it quite natural that the Lord should tell him “ Go,
take unto thee a wife of the Whoredoms/* that is, a consecrated
woman, expressed in the usual rude Hebrew manner. Mary
Magdalene was probably a temple woman.
In the same chapter, 2 Kings xvii., where it says that the ** men
of Babylon** (who were sent into Israel to replace the Israelites,
who were “ carried away out of their own land to Assyria,” verse
23) ” made Succoth-Benoth,** Venus shrines, showing how such
worship was imposed upon the Hebrews.
In verse 27: ‘‘Then the King of Assyria commanded, saying,
carry hither one of the priests whom you brought from thence ; and
let them go and dwell there, and let him teach them the manner of
the Gods of the land,” we have Phallic worship of Baal-peor.
Here we again see the intimate connection between Babylon and
Israel so fully proved by Hislop. We see the official priests sent
down like Ezra or those mentioned above, to teach the Israelites
their religion, and yet we marvelled when Layard and George and
Robertson Smith showed us the Hebrew Bible in the Babylonian
Cuneiform tablets.
Thus were foreign gods imposed on the Hebrews, who, in turn,
have imposed them on the Saxon nations through Rome.
Everywhere in the Bible we find a special regard paid to the
organ of generation. As I have already pointed out, their oaths
were taken on the Phallus, as, when Abraham swore his servant,
he said: “Put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh/* Genesis
xxiv., 2, and, to show that that was no isolated case let me recall
the passage in which Jacob swears Joseph in the same way, Chapter
xlvii., 29, also I Chron. xxix., 24, mistranslated 44 submitted them-
selves unto Solomon,** when it really means “ placed their hand
under Solomon,** the usual way of taking an oath, or testifying.
The custom has lasted among the Arabs to the present day, and
there is little doubt that the Latin word, testiculi, refers tp the same
custom, as the Phallic word testes is the basis of testis 44 witness/*
and 44 witness ** is largely used in a vague way in Scripture, and it
runs through the ideas contained in Testimony, Memorial, Coven-
ant, the latter being always made on the Phallus. -
In Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, and Hosea there is one long
warning as to the awful punishments of all nations—-Babylon,
Assyria, Egypt, Tyre, Sidon, the Greek Ides, in fact, of all the
nations round and including Palestine. Their faults are told, but
the terrible denunciation of Phallic sins or 44 whoredoms,” as the
Hebrew Nabi loves to call them, is reserved for Samaria and Jeru-
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
229
salem, called in Ezekial xxiii., 4* Aholah and Aholibah (p. 212).
Even as translated, Ezekiel is unreadable in public; but, if, trans-
lated into vernacular English and published, there would be a quick
demand (or police intervention.
In Ezekiel xvi., 24, et seq., the same language holds the text,
and in Jeremiah ii. we have the old phrases; upon every high hill
and under every green tree.” And in Lamentations Jeremiah can-
not get away from ” seeing her nakedness,” and ” from the filthiness
which is in her skirts.”
The “ Hangings ” which women wove in the house of the
Lord, 2 Kings xxiii., e.g., were very probably merely the coloured
ribbons indicating gaiety or joy, which we still see streaming
from the remains of Phallic worship in Fiji and Parthia (p. 58)
and in Britain, where young maidens still weave the
brightly coloured ribbons into a pattern on the “Asher,”
” erect thing.” gate post,” or “ May pole,” in the Season of the
return of life in Spring, when the sun “ cometh forth as a Bride-
groom.” Of course, our maidens are quite as unconscious of the
nature of their worship as are the uneducated Hindoos of the true
meaning of their Lingam-Yoni altar, or as the same modern girl
who nails up a horseshoe with gay ribbons for luck. Still, she
is a Yoni worshipper or Sakte adorer.
Amos ii., 7-8, tells us that a ” son and father would go in unto
the same maud to profane his holy name.” We know that all such
“ maids " dwelt in the House of the Lord, devoted to the service of
Yahweh.
Jerome, whom we have seen setting up the ” iron rule ” of Scrip-
ture (p. 199), says that Baal-peor was Priapus. This points to the
derivation of this difficult word Priapus from Peor the opening and
Apis the Phadlic Bull, aw the Bull always represented male force, as
did Baud. Others derive it from ” pir,” meaning principle of, and
” Apis.” the bull, signifying bull principle, of universal principle
of reproduction. But it was a bisexual symbol, so Peor-apis is most
probably its true origin, as the Ancients preferred plain God names
to express ideas, and were never deep in the intricacies of philo-
logical derivation. Peor-apis is made up of two God names, like
most of their Holy amd priest names. (See pp. 89, 241, 254.)
So universal was this cult amongst the Hebrews, that they even
had prostitute priests, amd sodomy was amongst the temple prac-
tices. Can we wonder, then, that disease was rampant? We
leaum from ” Leviticus,” p. 344, that on account of their worship
of Baal-peor, the people were smitten with a fearful plague, and
that 24,000 worshippers were destroyed on account of this sex
230
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
-
worship in the Succoth Benoth (Tabernacles of Venus). These, no
doubt, were epidemics of venereal disease. Syphilis must have
been common, with such promiscuity.
Another proof that the existence of some contagious disease,
such as syphilis, was common, is shown in making the sexual act
the cause of great trouble to mankind, and making the serpent the
symbol of sensual passion, especially the deadly cobra. The
tortoise is as good a symbol (Fig. I, p. 18), in fact, it was the earliest
symbol in India, where the “ world rests on a tortoise,” and its
name Testudo is connected with the words testament and testimony,
connected with “swearing,” “witness,” “covenant,” etc., which
amongst the Eastern nations were Phallic. But the serpent has two
r£Ies; it not only erects itself, but it bites. It is the universal
symbol of sexual passion and love, yet always accompanied by
horror and fear (see p. 17). This is wide-spread over all the world,
and must have some special significance. The cobra's poison
and syphilis were then both fatal. We know of no disease
which will “ visit the sins of the father upon the children to the
third and fourth generation,” except syphilis, and very probably
the custom of circumcision found acceptance as a sanitary measure,
in a community having such customs as are described to us so
minutely in the Hebrew Scriptures. Medical men of the present
day recommend circumcision as a healthy, sanitary measure.
In Deut. iv., 3, we have : “ Your eyes have seen what the Lord
did because of Baal-peor—for all the men that followed Baal-peor,
the Lord thy God hath destroyed them from among you.” Thus,
those who had engaged in the sacred prostitution died. Baal-peor
is Lingam-Yoni, Ish-lshi, Om-Phale, or Man-Woman.
In Numbers xxxi., 16, there is an account of such a plague, in
consequence of consorting with the Midianite women, as Moses
said: “Behold these [the women they had ‘ saved ’ for * their own
use,* p. 213] caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of
Balaam, to commit trespass against the Lord in the matter of Peor
(Yoni), and there was a plague among the congregation of the
Lord.” That it was venereal disease is shown by Moses telling
them “ to kill every woman who had known man by lying with
him.” The mysterious disease of “ emerods ” was an outbreak of
the same kind.
Here is an example of the exercise of Milton’s “ insulse rule.”
No such word as emerods exists in the English language ; the trans-
lators may have disguised the word Haemorrhoids, as being con-
sidered germaine to venereal disease, or created a new one to hide
the meaning of the passage. They did not leave die original word
untranslated, as its meaning was fairly apparent to scholars.
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
231
The word in the original is Ophelim, and, although Calmet says
that interpreters are not agreed as to its signification, the translators
might have given its obvious meaning. We see it on p. 18, in the
construction of the bisexual word Omphale. The female is as often
represented by a circle O as by Om, the Yoni (pp. 23, 45), and
Phelim is simply Phalim, a plural of Phallus ; so Ophelim was a
disease which needed the two sexes or sexual organs for its pro-
pagation ; and when they made five golden “emerods,** or
44 Ophelim/’ they simply constructed five Lingam-Yoni altars, which
were so prevalent all over the East. They hoped that, by a worship
of the symbol of life in the form of copies of the injured parts, the
disease would disappear, a superstition common to all nations—
like cures like.
The Golden Emerods, or Ophelim, were modelled on the organ
of the seat of the disease, and as that was bi-sexual we know
what disease it was.
It is curious to see the disease and the charm for its cure called
by the same name.
They called it woman-man disease, or bi-sexual disease : we,
more politely, veil it under the name of 44 love disease/* in the
adjective venereal, from the Latin Venus, or the noun Syphilis,
from the Greek Syn or Sy with, and Philia love.
Many have argued that this is a modern disease, but careful
study has shown that it was known and described in China before
2367 B.C., when Emperor Hoang-ti collected the medical writings
of the Empire, and they knew all about its hereditary transmission
to the third and fourth generations. It was known in India
1000 B.C., and the description in the Old Testament could be
applied to no other disease.
The Hebrews seem to have been liable to disease caused by
want of cleanliness. Yahweh threatens to smite them, for dis-
obedience, “with the Botch of Egypt and with the Emerods
(Ophelim, or sexual disease) and with the scab and with the itch
of which thou canst not be healed** (Deut. xxviii., 27). Not a
very enticing state of affairs ; in fact, they were so afflicted that
they could not perform the sexual act, as in consequence of
Ophelim, 44 thou shalt betroth a wife, and another man shall lie
with her/* and historians tell us it was for these diseases they
were chased out of Egypt. Mention of Egypt in the above text,
and in verse 60, sliows that the tradition of the true cause of their
expulsion was still extant (see p. 208).
Jehoram (2 Chron., xxi.) made 44 high places,** and caused the
inhabitants of Jerusalem to commit fornication,** so that he prac-
tised phallic worship with its attendant religious prostitution.
232
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
“ Behold a great plague shall smite thy people and their
children and thy wives, and thou shalt have a great sickness by
disease of thy bowels until the bowels fall out by reason of the
sickness ” (2 Chron. xxi., 13-15). '* The Lord smote him with an
incurable disease . . . his bowels fell out; so he died of sore
diseases ” (plural).
Again, we read in the famous trial of jealousy chapter of
Numbers v., 22-27, that if a woman had lain with some man instead
of her husband, then the curse and a bitter water shall cause her
belly to swell and her ” thigh ” to rot,—a pretty good definition
of Syphilis, just as the phrase “ to the third and fourth generation ”
in the commandment, is a good definition of its results.
Belphegor, Baal-peor, or Priapus, son of Bacchus and
Venus (Lingam and Yoni), was another Phallic God whose
legends speak of venereal disease. He was sent by Venus
to Lampsacus to be educated, and he became the dread of
husbands ; but, on his banishment, the people were afflicted with
a distemper of the secret parts, and they recalled him, and built
a temple, and worshipped a Phallus in his honour.
In I Samuel, vi., 6-10, we read that as a punishment for keeping
the Hebrew ark, and for looking into it, the Philistines were
smitten with “ emerods " in their “ secret parts," so the trouble
could not have been Heemorroids (p. 230), and there was very great
destruction. As a penance, they had to make five golden
“ Emerods,” one for each Lord of the Philistines ; so the practice
of Phallic worship by the Philistines was indigenous. After
contact with this fatal ark, which symbolised the female member,
the men of Beth-Shemesh died to the number of fifty thousand
three score and ten men. This story is, no doubt, introduced to
account for Syphilis, looking into the Ark being a euphemism for
sexual intercourse, but the number of fifty thousand is probably a
Hebrew exaggeration. The Ark and Peor were evidently the
same.
Disease of the private organs is often mentioned in pagan ”
writings, and Aristophanes incidentally mentions it in his explana-
tion of die beginning of Phallic worship. Statues of Bacchus were
brought to Athens by one Pegasus, a native of Cleutheris in Bceotia,
but he was treated with ridicule. The deity, in revenge for this
insult, sent a terrible disease which attacked them in the private
organs, and the oracle said the only way to get rid of this disease
was by adopting Bacchus as their God, and the Phallus as a symbol
of his worship, in memory of the affected organ.
Then, again, in India, die tale is told of certain ascetic devotees.
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
233
whom Siva exposed, because they pretended to be ascetics while
jd'.ey retained beautiful women.
To be revenged on him, they produced a great tiger by incan-
tations to devour Siva, but he killed it with a blow. They tried
deadly serpents, which also failed. They then used the true Indian
method. Yogis hold that by austerities holy men may gain great
power, even power dangerous to Gods, and may accumulate this
wealth of power to an almost infinite extent.
Their great God himself gains power by this method. Accord-
ing to the Christian dogma, the Jewish God could not get the power
to wipe out man’s sin till he had wounded himself in the flesh of
his earthly counterpart, the co-eternal portion of the Trinity, called
the “Son.”
Fig. 109
These devotees collected all their prayers, fastings, charities,
and penances, and, so to speak, sold them, or exchanged them,
for one great blow at Siva, and purchased a great consuming fire
to destroy his genitals.
Siva turned this malady against the human race, and all the race
would have been destroyed by a disease which consumed the
genitals, had not Vishnu intervened and pacified him. But it was
ordained that the parts they had impiously tried to destroy should
in future be the chief emblem of their worship, the Lingam-Yoni
altar. All these stories tell us of a sexual malady which agrees
with the symptoms of modern Syphilis.
The serpent and death-from-disease symbol is well expressed
by the virgin and child statue shown in Hislop’s work, page 19,
234
cHRisnANiTVs t^aouftw*
which I give here. It will be seeii that the Virgin nt> tinder the
Tree of Life and on a lion, die symbol of Salaciousnes* or Phallic
energy, with the divine babe on her knee, thus representing eternal
life by three emblems, but the organ of reproduction is represented
by a skull signifying death [Fig. 110}, just as the same idea is
represented by the poison of the deadly cobra.
Mary Magdalene, who had loved much and who is the New
Testament Venus, and was probably a temple woman, is repre-
sented with a Book, Liber, Liberty, and a Skull, death, or deadly
disease like the Indian virgin and child. The Liber and the Skull
are placed together to indicate that ” freedom ” or liberty in a
woman is associated with death [Fig. 111].
In the Saxon countries we find the same idea. Friday is Fria’s
or Freia’s day, and in German Freitag is literally Free day, or
Fig. no
the day of the free (liber) one, Loose one, Luz, Venus, or Fteia,
Even the ancient Gauls adopted the symbol, as is seen in this
from Maurice’s “Indian Antiquities” [Fig. 109].
Ezekiel v., 24, translated by the Westminster ” divines,” says,
“ Thou hastalso built unto thee an eminent place, and thou hast
made thee a high place in every street,” which is carefully trans-
lated (by Milton’s ”insulse rule”) to convey nothing; but the
more accurate Douay Bible, perhaps too crassly, says: " Thou
didst also build thee a common stew and madest thee a brothel
house in vysty street ”—the real meaning of the words no doubt;
but, to the people who considered the sexual act the great sacrifice,
the meaning of the words lay between these two translations.
The primary cause of the Hebrews’ ecclesiastical debasement of
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
235
women was no doubt the Eden theory, but the prevalence of
Syphilis, which we have seen was caused by religious prostitution,
must have been a terrible scourge to the nation, and afforded a
strong cause for increasing their condemnation of woman. Other
nations blamed man and introduced castration. (See pp. 184-186.)
It is curious to find the " every street ” phrase, used so often
in the Bible about the setting up of Phallic worship, used also of
the once terribly savage Kingdom of Dahomey. Mr. R., after-
wards Sir Robert Burton tells us, in the “ Journal of the Anthropo-
logical Society," Vol. I., No. 10, "Amongst all barbarians whose
primal want is progeny we observe a greater or a less development
of the Phallic worship. In Dahomey it is uncomfortably prominent;
every street from Wydah to the capital is adorned with the symbol,
huge Phalli."
The self esteem of the Jewish race, as the chosen of God, is
illustrated in Amos iii., 2, " You only have 1 known of all the
families of the earth,” and in a hundred similar passages, made
them think that their customs—however " vile " as is said of
David—were quite right. Nudity to the nation, such as the
Egyptians on the Nile, or Akkadians in the lower Euphrates Valley,
was a natural condition, and Phallism brought no shame.
The climate was such that no clothing was necessary, and
nudity was the natural state.
But, to a highland tribe like the Hebrews, where the winds are
cold, and snow common, warm clothing was a necessity; hence
grew up a sense of the identity of " nakedness " and " shame.”
This may make a religious people, but does not necessarily
make a moral race. Religion and conventional morality have
nothing in common; — witness the illegitimacy in Scotland or
Rome, where "religion" is rampant (pp. 259, 338).
In fact, as we shall see in the course of our examination of facts,
all " religions " had Phallism as a basis, and therefore religion
and our so-called immorality were synonymous terms with the early
races.
Unfortunately we couple sins, such as “theft,” "murder,"
" bearing false witness," or other breaches of the laws necessary
to hold the community together, with " immorality," or the exercise
of the sexual act; except when performed under the priestly
sanction.
In Germany, where there still lingers the very severe Nabi ideas,
the sex instinct and crime are linked in the words Schlecht, bad,
wicked, and Geachlechtlich, sexual.
But the scdhial act,is a natural act and not an act against the
236
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
community. Wives were then purchased, as we see by Jacob giving
a high price (seven years* labour). Even David purchased his wife
Mical from Saul, not by money it is true, but by foreskins, as told
in Samuel xviii., 27, ** Wherefore David arose and went he and
his men and slew of the Philistines two hundred men,** and David
brought their foreskins and “they gave them in full tale to the
King, that he might be the King’s son-in-law, and Saul gave him
Mical his daughter to wife."
The manner in which wives were exchanged then was very
free, as we see that David took other wives, and Saul gave “ Mical
his daughter, David’s wife to Phalti, the son of Laish.*' But he
recovered his property, as we read in 2 Samuel, iii., when he makes
a bargain with Abner for her recovery, mentioning again the price
he had paid for her (stating only one hundred foreskins this time).
She seems to have left a loving husband for a masterful one, as
poor Phalti goes weeping behind her for his loss of a loved one.
We find her as David’s principal Queen, after her father’s death,
when she rebuked him for his Phallic dance. This dance is
exactly the same as is performed to-day all over the world, even
in Sicily (p. 95), when an ark, or relic, or even banner, but
especially an ark, which signifies the womb, is paraded in any
town (see Phallism in India and in Europe). The “ Ark ’’ or box
held the Yahweh, Eduth, Shechina, “Testimony” or “significant
thing” on which the Hebrews swore their oaths; here we have
the old, old Lingam-Yoni combination.
When David brought this Ark into the “City of David,” to
consolidate his power, he went “ dancing and leaping ” before
the Ark or “ before the Lord,” as our version has it, clad only in
a linen ephod, and exposing himself, “ leaping and dancing ’’ being
a euphemism for a Phallic exhibition of himself. Mical saw this,
and said sarcastically: “ How glorious was the King of Israel to-
day, who uncovered himself to-day, in the eyes of the handmaids
of his servants, as one of the vain fellows shamelessly uncovereth
himself ” (as in India to-day). David persists that, as he has been
chosen ruler over Israel: “ Therefore I will play before the Lord.”
We remember the children of Israel “playing” naked before the
Golden Calf (pp. 224 and 238). He threatens, ‘ ‘I will yet be more vile
than this, and will be base in my own sight, and of the maid servants
which thou hast spoken of, of them shall I be had in honour ”
2 Samuel, vi.
The truth probably is that Saul’s household was of an aristocratic
type, which would never think of joining in the vulgar exhibition
of the crowd, which we see still practised in India, while David was
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
237
-
one of the common people, a shepherd, as neither Saul nor Abner
knew “ whose son the stripling was,” I Samuel, xvii., 56. David
said of himself: ” Who am I or my father’s family in Israel that I
should be son-in-law to the King?” Samuel xviii., 18; and, again,
“ I am a poor man and lightly esteemed.”
Being then one of the poor, he took a delight in the popular.
Phallic fetes as do the common people all over the world. Mical
had never seen the severe aristocratic people of her father’s Court
doing such things, and was shocked ; but David, well knowing
that the ” hand-maidens of his servants ” were of his own class
and appreciated such fetes, declared that the more disgracefully
he exposed himself the better they would consider him, ” have
him in honour,” as an ancient worshipper of the Ashera, Bosheth,
Baal-peor, Phallus, modern “shameful thing,” Lingam-Yoni, or
“ Ark and Testimony ” of the Hebrews. We find, from I Kings,
xi., 1-8, and Nehemiah xiii., 26, that Solomon built temples for
his foreign wives; and the worships of Ashtoreth, Milcom, Chemosh,
and Moloch, all highly Phallic Gods, so much condemned by the
Nabis, were practised in them.
But the Nabis did not dare to attack Solomon, for this worship of
the false gods of the Hebrews’ enemies. He would probably have
made short work of them.
On page 8 of Maspero’s delightful “ New Light on Ancient
Egypt,” is given a photo of a sculpture from Coptos, which he calls
King Sanonsrit (Usertesen I.) bringing the oar and rudder to Min
of Koptos.
Now Sir Gaston Maspero’s books being written for general
readers, and he himself having been brought up in, and holding, I
suppose, to the ** Mid-Victorian ” point of view as to any
recognition of Phallism in this “ clothed ” world, does not tell us
anything about Oars or Rudders or the “ spiritual ” meaning of
Min. But Forlong quotes from Smith’s Dictionary of Antiquities,
238
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
and shows us a rudder crossed by a cornucopia, the symbol of
female fertility, par excellence, and he shows a nude Venus with
a rudder in her hand proving its meaning. Sailors held sacred
rites to bring * ‘ luck ” in connection with the rudder of their boats.
The oar is the Phallus, so Usertesen has the two sexual symbols,
the rudder being feminine. Ships being carriers are always
feminine, the mast making them true bisexual or Lingam-Yoni
emblems. Fig. 112 shows the Egyptian rendering of this bisexual
combination. The boat feminine, and the mast a phallus, make the
double-sexed symbol. But note the curious stride of Usertesen in
Fig. 113, he is not walking nor running, he is dancing—or “dancing
and leaping “ as did David before the Ark, and the naked Israelites
before the Phallus or calf, and it is to the Phallus of Min that Usert-
sen’s dance is addressed. We know what Min was by the statuettes
(p. 81) in the wall case in the British Museum. He was the God of
reproduction, and his extended emblem, or ithyphallic condition,
is here decently covered, by the English authorities in Egypt, by
a board with an inscription. What does it say? “Usertesen 1.
dancing before Min.” This is another proof of the nature of the
Hebrew Ark. We know the scandal caused to Saul’s decently
brought up daughter, David’s wife Mical, by his naked dance
before the Ark. Here it is in another form; Usertesen’s dance
before “ Min,” and David’s dance before the Ark, are exactly
parallel acts of worship of the creative function in gods and men.
The statues of Min abound in every comer of Egypt, and the British
Museum has many specimens. These were die sort of Groves,
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
239
Ashers, or “ Baals ” in which Jerusalem abounded, and were
condemned again and again by the Nabis or prophets, not by the
priests or magistrates, but were never suppressed (p. 243).
All the old “Fathers” admitted the Phallic view of Eden;
men like Clement of Alexandria and Jerome held that the sin of
Adam consists in indulgence of the sexual appetite, and Dr.
Donaldson, in a work which he felt compelled to express in Latin,
gives a very literal translation of these Phallic parts of “ Holy
writ.” Dr. Perowne, the late Dean of Peterborough, says that
his translation of the “ Messianic promise ” in Genesis iii., 15, is
“ so gross that it will not bear translation into English.” It really
means ” now that the sexual act has been committed the practice
must go on ” ; but the command has the true Hebrew directness
and detail.
Dr. Donaldson considered the Garden of Eden was the human
body, and the Tree of Life the Phallus.
We know that any Ark means the womb, so we have the
Phallic story of the flood. Ararat is Allah-Lat, the letters R and L
being identical. Lat means any pillar representing the Phallus, so
Ararat is Allah’s-Lat, like “Adam’s Peak” in Ceylon, or Allah’s
Phallus. So the Ark or womb rested on the Phallus of God, and
brought forth all life. Allah is the Eli to whom Jesus cried at his
death (see p. 154).
The words “leaping and playing” are, in the original, very
gross, and are used in the tale of Isaac in Gerar, where he had
told the people that Rebekah was his sister, lest they should slay
him to get possession of her, if they knew she was his wife. Abime-
lech caught him “sporting” with her, and taxed him with being
her husband. The word used here, the meaning of which cannot
be mistaken, is the same as that used for “ playing ” naked before
the Golden Calf, and means the “great sacrifice” in which the
“ Saints ” of the Agapae and early Christians exercised themselves
when they lay together promiscuously in the temples all night.
The word “calf” is used like Baal, Beth, Baetyl, etc., to dis-
guise the phallus. They were kissed, Baal at I Kings, xix. 18 and
calves at Hosea xiii. 2. There were special priests for calves, 2
Chronicles xi. 15. Kissing the calf is identical in meaning with
kissing the Pope's toe. Toe, finger, foot, hand, thigh, head, heel,
rock, pillar, cedar, etc., were synonyms for the phallus, our modern
Pyx. All were kissed (pp. 258 and 316. See Genesis iii. 15 and
Jet. xiii. 22, etc.)
The reason for our incorrect translation is thus obvious. Even
the Rabbis, who were not very delicate in their language, held
240
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
that the first chapters of Genesis, the Song of Solomon, and
certain parts of Ezekiel, were all of the same type, and were not
fit to be read by any one under thirty.
But it is not by direct translation alone that the true meaning
of the God names can be discovered. For instance, words like
Brahma, Eli, Ale or Allah, Ayaus, Zeus, Deus, Jehovah, Jove, or
Jupiter, do not convey much to us ; but when we find that “ Brah ’*
means to burst forth into life like a bud or sprout, and has a
sense of creation and therefore Brahma is the creating being, we
see its significance. Likewise we know that the Roman Jupiter or
Yupiter or Iupiter are forms of the Babylonian Zu pittar or Yu
pittar, and have identical meanings, and that the Hebrew Yahweh
or Jehovah is derived from the Babylonian Yahava or Yaho, so
that on the one hand Jehovah is Babylonian, from Yahu the “ Sky
God,” and Jupiter is also Babylonian from Zu pittar “ sky father ”
and lastly that Jehovah and Jove are the same, e and h are nearly
silent—mere aspirates, so Jovah sounds exactly like Jove. Thus,
the God’s names from Babylon to Rome through Judea are all
derived from a common source.
Those represent the divine bursting forth or reproduction in
nature, while Vrih or Virdh, the original of our Vord or Word, is
the divine bursting forth in speech or writing, from an Aryan root.
We find ” Heaven spirit ” as Zu-ana or Ziana,—and the
“Earth spirit ” or Lord of Hosts, or war, Zi Kia, but also* written
Kia-zi, and written up in the great temples of Egypt by the Roman
Conquerors as Kisares or Lord of the earth, and coming home
to Rome as Kaesar, or, as we erroneously put it Caesar, but pro-
nounced Kyesar.
The German Emperor adopted this title (as did Queen Victoria,
as Kaiser-i-Hind, in India) after the creation of the huge military
engine which makes him virtually Lord of Hosts, and a possible
over-Lord of the earth, as the name means. We see how small
words may lead to ideas which may decide the fate of nations.
The glorious descent of the word Kaiser, and its all-powerful mean-
ing, might well invest the German Emperor with such ideas as
would make him delight in conquest were he so inclined, and
believe himself destined to render the name a reality.
The German Kaiser never leaves out the religious support of
Government and war, and while urging his soldiers to pray con-
stantly he made them stack their arms and rifles around and against
an altar Greeted in the Lustgarten, thus sanctifying the engine for
the official murder of the human images of his God.—“ Times,
18th November, 1910.)
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
241
We find the name even away in the North, from whence came
the Hordes which threatened Assyria in the time of Esser-Haddon
II,, the armies being led by Kastarit, the Kyassares.
Then we find a double descent of the Holy title of the
Emperor of Russia.
He is called Czar and Tzar, words very much alike, and both
descended from Asiatic sources. The form Czar is most probably
the same as Kaiser of the German Emperor, but with the first
syllable shortened, as in Kisares, while the other is derived from
the Hebrew, Tzur or Zur, the rock or stone, " Thy rock (tsur) that
begat thee," Deut. xxxii., 18. The word tzur occurs as the name
of Deity over twenty times, as tabulated by Colenso. It is a purely
Phallic word, and is indentical with the English Phallus on p. 56,
and the Indian at p. 221. The Tzar is considered by the peasants
as God personified.
But both are gods* names, as are all king’s titles. Originally
every king claimed to be a Son of God. They still say in China,
Japan, and other Eastern countries, " Son of the Sun," which was
their god, and, in fact, the gods of all nations (pp. 106-109).
The Hebrew God, of whom we first read, is " Aleim," the gods,
but that was in writings of a really late date.
In the names of the people we see many other names which
they used for their Gods, probably the result of conquest by other
nations, and these nations’ Gods having been imposed upon them.
Thus we have Baal, Adon, Melech, Malach, or Moloch,
Tsur and Ur (Fire God), Jeho, Hanah, and Eli on whom Jesus
called, coupled with other names and often with Jah, Yah, or
Iah, all the same, and called Jehovah in our Bible.
Baal-yah, Adoni-yah, Malchi-yah, Uri-yah,
Baal~iada, Eli-ada, Jeho-iada,
Baal-hanah, El-hanah, Jeho-hanah,
Hanan-jah, Hanniel—(El-hanan), Hani-baal,
(Jeho-hanan is shortened to Johanan and finally to John.)
Bel-iel, Ei-iel, Joel, Zur-iel (or Tsur-iel), Malch-iel, Uriel,
Malchi-zedek, Adoni-zedek, Jeho-zedek,
Malchi-sua, Adoni-sua, Jeho-shua,
Malchi-ram, Adoni-ram, Jeho-ram,
Beth-il, Beth-zur, Beth-dagon, Beth-Bahl,
Beth-Shemesh, Beth-zur, lsa-iah, etc., etc.,
showing the remnants of old names of Gods.
Joel is Io-el coupling the Iu of Babylon (Iupiter of the Romans)
with Eli to whom Jesus appealed on the Cross.
We have traces of fire worship in the names Esh-Baal, Esh-
R
242
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
Jehovah, Esh-Elohim, and as Esh is fire, this is the “ Fire of Baal,”
Jehovah, and Elohim, showing a parallelism in the worship of those
gods. But amidst all these fragments of the worship of many
gods, there persists, in all Hebrew history from the Eden story
down to Christian times, the most intense Phallic worship of any
nation. Even Sodomy had the status of a religious rite, as we
see from Deut. xxiii. 17-18, I Kings xiv. 24, xv. 12, xxii. 46, and
2 Kings xxiii. 7; and connection with goats, which Payne Knight
illustrates in Greek sculpture, is mentioned as a custom of these
Hebrews in Deut. xxvii. 21, and elsewhere. The same word is
used for consecrated men and sodomites, and the same word is
used for nuns or consecrated women, and prostitutes or harlots.
The old writers gloried in these Phallic or semi-Phallic phrases.
For instance, they had to mention that the linen breeches ” shall
be put upon the flesh of his nakedness ” (Phallus), again and
again ” rolling the sweet morsel under their tongues ”—twelve
times in Exodus and Leviticus. The Hebrews turned even their
vestments from feminine to masculine. Other nations put frocks,
gowns, or stoles oh their priests to make them double sexed, like
the creative god, but the Hebrews changed that into male breeches.
They repeat the injunction of not ” seething a kid in its mother’s
milk ” in three different places, evidently because it represents the
ideas of a savagery unknown to contemporary savage nations, while
the few beautiful passages or injunctions in the Bible are never
repeated.
We have the phrases ” going a-whoring,” ” committing whore-
doms,” repeated more frequently than any other phrase in the
Bible, showing the bent of their ideas, and we find that the Nabis’
scoldings against these practices, which were the essence of
” Grove ” worship or Asherism, with its universal sacred prostitu-
tion, are scattered through the entire Bible.
So universal was this worship of the Phallus amongst the
Hebrews, that we are told they set up Phalli ” upon the hills and
under every green tree,” Deut. xii. 2. ” Upon every high hill, and
under every green tree,” 1 Kings xiv. 23, 2 Kings xvii 10, Jer. ii 20.
” Upon every high mountain and under every green tree, and there
played the harlot,” Jer. iii., 6. ” Upon the hills and in the fields,”
Jer. xiii., 27. “ By the green trees upon the high hills,” Jer. xvii.,
2, Ex. vi. 13, Is. lvii. 5. “ In every street or at every street comer,"
Ezek. xvi. 25-31, Jer. xi. 13.
Oth£r passages may be mentioned: Ex. xxxiv. 13, Deut. vii. 5,
xii. 3, xvi. 21. Jud. iii. 7, 1 Kings xiv. 23-24, xv; 13, xvi. 33, 2 Kings
xiii. 6. xv. 4, xviii. 4, xix. 10-16, xxi. 3-7, xxiii. 4, 6, 7, 14, 15, and
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
243
many other texts, showing the universality of this worship ; and it
is further quite clear that, for all the prophets’ scoldings, they re-
fused to discontinue or to remove the " high places,” as we see in
1 Kings xv. 14, “But the high places were not removed,” or
“ Only the high places were not removed,” or “ The people were
still sacrificing and burning incense in the high places,” of I Kings
xv. 14, xxii. 43-44, and 2 Kings xiii. 3, xiv. 4, xv. 4-33.
“Ashera,” “Grove,” “Baal,” and ” Ashtoreth" or
“ Asherim,” represented the same Phallic worship.
So completely do Phallic peoples desire to imitate nature that
not only do they make the Phalli a most natural imitation of reality,
but they constantly anoint them with wine and oil (passion and
fertility), and many writers speak of the disgusting condition of
the Lingam-Yoni altars in India and elsewhere. The Hebrews
never omitted to anoint the pillars they erected, as an indication
of the fertility of their Phalli, and to show how much they had in
mind the first and oft-repeated commandment: “Be fruitful and
multiply.” It will not be forgotten that that was always the first
command given to man on creation, again repeated after the
expulsion from Eden, and again to Noah’s family after the
destruction of the rest of mankind, and to all the brutes.
We have seen that their oaths were Phallic, and that their ideas
about priests' dress gave due weight to the Phallus, so now we will
see that their great annual miracle play, in the Holy of Holies, was
also a Phallic play.
It is held by many writers, including eminent architects, after
a very exhaustive examination of the construction of the tabernacle,
that no such building ever could have been erected, as it would
not stand, but inevitably fall down. The whole account of its
erection, and of the practices carried on in it, is very probably,
like much else in the Bible, quite apocryphal, and simply evolved
by some priest in his study to give some account of his idea of
how religious exercises were carried out in the desert, but the
description involving great beams 30 inches by 20, and weighing
half a ton, which could never be obtained in any desert, and
shod with great silver wedges weighing 100 pounds each, buried
in the ground, is simply ridiculous. Any silver the Jews had would
have been used for decoration, not for shoes for posts, where
iron would have been much better. I suppose it was its great
holiness, which the'priest wanted to emphasise, which caused him
to put in such a ridiculous statement. Where could the Hebrews
get such timber? They were a tribe of lepers and scrofulous
people driven into a desert (see p. 208), where trees and silver
244
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
-
were unknown. Colenso has shown that the whole tale is the
myth of a scribe. Large beams were in great demand, and were
often conveyed, at enormous expense, from foreign lands, for
Egyptian and Assyrian buildings, so the Hebrews would have had
to buy them, and to contract to get them transported to the
wilderness.
The “ Encyclopaedia Biblica ” sums up the latest opinions on
this subject in an article by Dr. Isaac Benzinger, who concludes
this subject in an article by Dr. Isaac Benzinger, who concludes
that the whole account is apocryphal. Although the tabernacle,
and the practices said to have been carried out in it, may be
Phallic and Solar worship as was, and still is rampant in Eastern
nations, that I believe the tabernacle story to be the work of a
foreign priest trying to bring in a more modern religion, and dating
it back, in order to give it authority, to the time of the supposed
wanderings in the wilderness. It is a “ looking backward ” written
copy of the Temple of Jerusalem. Dr. Driver says of Joshua and
Judges, that they are not historical, but mere " idealification ”;
and I believe the Tabernacle to be such an idealization of the
crude tent temple, that it is nearly all the work of imagination.
Still we can learn from the priest’s story something of these ideas
of religion.
Let us see what the scribe, who evolved this impossible structure
from his inner consciousness, tells us was its principal use. In the
first place, the important materials used in its covering were
entirely symbolical, and arranged to represent the heavens, and
the annual birth of the sun from the womb of the “ Virgin of
Israel.”
There was an enclosure or yard 100 cubits, 60 yards, long and
50 cubits, 30 yards, wide.
The only entrance to this open court was at the East end.
Except at this doorway, the court was fenced in by a network
of linen 9 feet 9 inches, or 5 cubits high. The entrance left at the
East end was 26 feet 3 inches wide, taking the cubit of 21 inches.
This entrance was hung with hangings of blue, purple, and scarlet,
with a fine linen network “wrought with needles” covering it.
These brilliant hangings were held up by four pillars which
rose to a height of 15 cubits, or about 30 feet, above the fence
by which the space was inclosed. This was the ” court.” In
the middle of this “court” a building was constructed of those
impossible “boards”—huge beams, really-decorated with gold
and various draperies and. skins, forming a tabernacle 30 cubits
by 10 cubits.
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
245
This building had two entrances, one at the East end, and the
other at the West end. The interior was divided into two unequal
parts by a " great veil."
The Western room, called the Holy place, was the larger,
and was 20 cubits, 35 feet long, by 10 cubits, or 17 feet 6 inches,
wide, and the smaller at the East end was called the Holy of
Holies, or Most Holy place (Josephus), and was 10 cubits square ;
an ordinary room of 17 feet 6 inches square.
The Holy place was open to the priests for daily sacrifices,
but no human being, except the High Priest, and he only once
a year, dare enter the Holy of Holies, He entered it on the
great day of Atonement, at the Autumn Equinox, through the
Western room, and crept under the veil. Josephus calls the Holy
of Holies the "secret end," and, again, "the most secret end."
The Western entrance was protected by another gorgeous
curtain or veil, which did not reach to the ground but left a space,
through which the priests, by stooping, crept in and out of the
Holy place. The entrance was thus like modern Christian
Churches from the West; the worshipper on entering faces the
East. Inside the Holy place stood the golden altar for the daily
burning of incense ; and as the God dwelt in the Holy of Holies,
and liked to smell a "sweet savour," incense was burnt on this
altar, so that it might percolate through the veil, and please the
god in the "most secret end," the "Holy of Holies."
There were the golden candlesticks (p. 332), with seven branches
for lamps, symbolising the seven planets, seven days of the week,
or other holy sevens. Then there was the table with twelve
loaves, symbolising the twelve months or signs of the Zodiac.
The great veil of sky blue, purple, and scarlet, with Cherubim
(signs of the Zodiac) woven into the fabric, was embroidered with
beautiful flowers, and finally covered with a net of " twined linen
wrought with needlework." This is the veil of the Temple which
was said to be rent on the death of Jesus, when " the sun was
darkened and graves opened and the earth did quake," and many
rose " from the dead."
In the centre was a small coffer, the Ark of Testimony, on
which rests a gold plate, 53 inches by 33 inches. On this stood
two winged figures, with their wings raised towards each other, and
a mysterious something, called the Shechinah or Eduth (p. 254),
stood between the faces of the two winged figures. This Shechina
is never described, but we are told vaguely that it shines "with
strength." Most Biblical scholars are of opinion that this was a
Phallus which, combined with the feminine Ark, gave a symbol
246
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
like the Ankh, Buckle, Lingam-Yoni, or double-sex emblem,
” covenant,” or ” witness ” of eternal life.
The Egyptians had an altar exactly the same here illustrated
[Fig. 114] with the two identical Cherubim protecting the Phallus
with their wings and adoring it (Forlong).
It is also represented in hundreds of hieroglyphic texts in Egypt
as a pillar protected by the four wings of one Cherub. This pillar
is often replaced by the ithyphallic Osiris between the Cherubim
exactly as Yahweh was placed, so Yahweh was an Osiris. Some-
times he is replaced by a Dad (pp. 73-74) his symbol, just as
Yahweh was replaced by the Eduth or Shechina which were Lingam
stones as was the Tat, or Dad. This symbolism was evidently
brought with them when the Hebrews were expelled from Egypt.
It is strange to hear the Scotch Presbyterians singing “Shine
forth, oh thou that dost between the cherubims abide ” (Psalm
lxxx. 1). Would they still sing it if they knew what the words
mean?
Now as to the covering of the building.
There were first ten curtains of fine twined linen—Hue, purple,
and scarlet—with Cherubims, signs of the Zodiac, “of crowning
work,” each 28 cubits long. Now the building was only 10 cubits
wide,.so there were 9 cubits left hanging on each side, or only
21 inches from the ground. Then each of the curtains is 4 cubits
wide, making 40 cubits, and as the building was only 30 cubits
long there were 10 cubits hanging down, to cover the door, of the
Holy of Holies at die East end, and to give an overlap at the joins.
Then came another set of roof curtains, eleven of them this time,
of goats’ hair, “ long and silky,” four cubits broad, and 30 cubits
long; so that, when stretched over the roof from side to side of
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
247
the Tabernacle, they would cover it over, and come to the ground
at each side* By having eleven widths there was a long piece left
at the East end, where it is to be looped up in the centre* Over this
was to be a covering of rams9 skins dyed red (ram means coition),
and another of 9 dolphins 9 skins—Delphys Womb. (The authorised
Version gives badgers9 skins, but the Revised Version gives the
true reading, dolphins' skins.)
These are considered so important that these instructions are
repeated four times (Exodus xxv., 5, xxiv., 14, xxxvi., 19,
xxxix., 34); and, contrary to most repetitions, there is no blun-
dering or contradictions ; all four are very exact to give the same
skins with same order* This indicates that the description is the care-
ful creation of a scribe as separate accounts of folk-lore always
differ.
There was an old, world-wide tradition that all life came from
water, and the Eastern nations had a mother of all, called Der
Ketos, or the Druidical Ced, or Ked, or the Whale ; but as
Dolphins are much more common in the Mediterranean, and as
they suckle their young, later races adopted that fish as the univer-
sal womb, and called it Delpheus. It is Venus’s fish, and is
adopted into the Catholic calendar as St. Delphin on 24th
December, as the sun was supposed to be born of a Dolphin*
As the long over-plus of these curtains was looped up at the
Eastern end, they would form a slit of the womb, viz., dolphins*
skins surrounded by imitation flesh (rams' skins dyed red), and with
an outer line of goats’ hair forming the vulva of Der Ketos from
which all life emerged,—poetically the “ womb of Time.”
The Miracle play I am about to explain was that taught on
Greek coins of the annual death and re-birth of the sun in winter,
which they symbolised on their coins by the images of Bacchus,
who was the reigning sun-god for the moment. One side showed
the aged, decrepit Bacchus, bald and toothless, falling into the
sea, All descents of the sun in Greece, Palestine, and Phoenicia,
were descents into the sea, owing to their geographical position.
On the other side was a Dolphin, out of whose mouth came a
glorious babe with a nimbus of glory round his head—the young
Sun-god Bacchus, re-born for another glorious journey round the
year.
Hus drama or miracle play was supposed to be enacted annually
by the High Priest. '
, As I have explained elsewhere, the Jewish New Year's Day
being founded on a lunar year, wandered, as it does now, all round
the year, but they could not allow the feasts to wander in this way.
248
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
as they were connected with some seasonal phenomenon, such as
Spring time (Passover), and Harvest, or Midsummer (Pentecost),
or Autumn (Tabernacles), and so, at some period, this great miracle
play got anchored to a given date, the Autumn equinox, and for
several reasons.
It was followed by rejoicing,—the Feast of Tabernacles, which
we saw (p. 220) was a Phallic feast, and was very merry with
wine and revelry. No time could be better than the temperate,
yet balmy, Autumn for that.
But 1 believe that it was an astronomical fact which fixed the
period. Both Equinoxes were observed by the Hebrews.
The Spring festival was the Passover, the ” Blood of the Lamb,”
as the sun rose in Aries, the lamb or ram, obliterating it or slaying
it, but at the Autumn Equinox the sun rose in Virgo, and Aries
was opposite, or at the Western horizon at the sun-rise. It is
necessary to remember this.
Now what did the High Priest do? The Bible and Josephus
both give us many details of dress, furniture, and ceremony, but
the meaning of the ceremony is never touched upon, after all the
elaborate preparation of the coverings of the tabernacle and its
symbolical womb, and the elaborate grave clothes, prepared for
the ceremony.
However, we do know that the High Priest appeared at first in
all his brilliant robes fringed with golden pomegranates and bells.
The pomegranate signifies the fruitful womb, in every Eastern
country. For instance, the famous Nana placed a pomegranate
in her bosom, and she became with child, so the fruit became
the symbol of the graVid uterus (p. 255).
The bell, with its clapper, is always treated as a Lingam-Yoni
symbol, or symbol of eternal life. The bell being the Yoni, and
the tongue the Phallus. That is the origin of its use at Altar Service
in the Catholic Church.
It is equally used in India, both in the Temple practice, and
in the private practice of Linga-puja, when the little bell is rung
at intervals to scare away evil spirits. The idea still exists among
educated people in Britain (see p. 14).
There are supposed to be evil spirits, inimical to life, hovering
about, trying to undo the good work of the priests, but an exhibi-
tion of the organs of reproduction, especially when the presence
is emphasised by sound or the God’s voice, defeats their object, just
as their exhibition on the Church porches in Ireland averted the
Evil Eye.
This was in use centuries before Christianity was evolved.
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
249
The word Bell is very probably the Babylonian Bel, the
*'Beautiful God," as it is bisexual, and is the only altar symbol which
has a voice. The greatest Bel of the Euphrates valley was Ninus,
the mighty Hunter, literally hunter of women, not animals (see
Riven of Life, II., p. 33). The wall-sculptures in the British
Museum show how hunting became a Royal or God-like occupation.
Ninus, says Genesis x., founded Babylon, Accad, and Nineveh,
amongst other great cities, the last, named after himself, and he
has drifted over to Europe as St. Ninian, who names so many
" Hunters’ Wells " in Britain.
We have a famous St. Ninian’s bell in Scotland (where Baby-
lonian words still linger (pp. 121-122), and this bell is not only a
double-sexed creative symbol owing to its Bell and Tongue, but
it has curious decorations which repeat the natural Lingam-Yoni
symbols of all gods (see Forlong).
The derivation of the word Bell is unknown, because, although
Skeat supposes it comes from Bhels to " resound " the noun or
substantive usually precedes, or is the origin of all the other parts
of speech, so Bhels is more likely to be derived from the resounding
representation of the Creative Bel. We find Bell used in the
English sense by the " Celtic fringe" (where Babylonian words
linger), in old Gaelic and Erse, and also in Norway, Denmark, and
Sweden, where Bell is Bjaelde and Bjalla. Probably the French
Bel and Italian Bello, the “ Beautiful One ” are derived from Bel,
as all these gods were " beautiful ones." " He cometh forth as a
bridegroom." Bel in French becomes Beau, a common transforma-
tion, giving beaute, our beauty. So Ninus, Bel, and Beauty are
linked in our language.
The Hindus call the Lingam-Yoni altar the Maha-Deva (the
Great God) and so the bell, being exactly the same symbol, may
well have been called the Bel or the Great God of Babylon or
Nineveh and may still represent him in the Roman service. Bell
and Balance (pp. 79, 140) are linked in the Italian word Campana,
Bell, " applied also to a sort of Balance." (Chamber's Etym. Diet.)
Thus we have the Chief Priest clothed in the symbols of the
first commandment, " be fruitful ” ; the emblems of the continuity
of life entering the Holy Place at the setting of the sun of the old
year, 4 p.m. of 20th December. The old sun has now died, and
the High Priest puts on his grave clothes, and not only has he
a face-cloth of linen, and his arms tied to his body, like a mummy
as Osiris had, but had his private parts bound up as the Hebrews
actually did with dead men, a special binding for the " Flesh of
the Nakedness," and in this way he entered the Holy of Holies.
250
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
Now this was a small room without a window, quite dark, except
for the supposed shining of the Shechina, and it represented the
grave, the Pit, Sheol, Hades, or Erebus, and there the High Priest
may have been supposed to lie over the solstice in the original
service, when that was held at the astronomically correct New
Year. This solstice, like the lying of Jonah in the whale’s belly,
or of Jesus in the tomb, lasts 40 hours; in the case of Jesus from
Friday at 4 p.m. when the sun sets till Sunday at 8 a.m., or in early
times from Thursday till Saturday, when Saturn was the God.
Then it rises, to begin its ascent into the Paradise or garden half of
the year (hence, the holy number 40).
The High Priest laid aside the grave clothes, and evidently
re-appeared in his ” robes of life ” again.
But the writer never finished the account of the miracle play,
or part may have been lost, like other parts of the Bible, or later
prophets may have deleted it, as savouring too much of nature
worship and sabeanism, or the much-condemned worship of the
host of heaven. After the 40 hours, that is on the second morning
after the High Priest acted the death of the old sun, he, no doubt,
pushed his way out of the loop of rams’ skins dyed red (flesh),
dolphins’ skins (womb), surrounded by hair—(they were terribly
literal these old Jews), the Vulva of Der Ketos, or Dolphin, and
was born again of the Virgin of Israel, as Bacchus was bom again
of the dolphin.
The reason that this New-Year play, when it had drifted away
(owing to the Hebrew lunar year) from the real New Year in winter,
finally got anchored down to the Autumn Equinox, was astro-
nomical. When the High Priest pushed himself out of the
“ delphys ” or womb, he was facing the Sun and Virgo, in which
the sun was at that time, and he was thus brought forth by the
** Virgin of Israel.” This is referred to in the mystic language in
Isaiah vii., 14: ” Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son.”
” Butter and honey shall he eat ” ; that is to say, the sun shall
need to be re-bom before the summer, with its butter and honey,
can return. This ” Virgin of Israel ” is referred to several times
in the Old Testament.
-
Another point of this Miracle play is that when the High
Priest was re-bom out of Virgo, where the sun dwelt, the earth
was in the constellation or sign of Aries, or the Lamb of God,
who, though dying now, was the Saviour of the world at the Spring
Equinox.
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
251
EDUTH.
THERE is a word used in the Old Testament which has puzzled
many scholars, and it is only by the comparative method of Higher
Criticism that its meaning can be traced.
This word is the name of something worshipped and called the
Eduth.
This word is a pure creation, like the word Emerods, in order
to hide the real meaning of what was carried in the Ark by the
Hebrews. It is spelt Heduth, Gehduth, Geduth, or Eduth, in-
differently, but no Hebrew scholar has any clue to what it means
or its derivation, nor does any Lexicon tell us.
It is translated as Testimony, but it was no testimony, but a
“thing” or “idol,” which represented Yahweh in or upon the
Ark.
The rod or serpent (Phallus) of Aaron, after being placed in
the Ark, is not heard of again, or is re-named the Eduth; in any
case its place is taken by the Eduth.
But the Ark, we know, contained two stones, and Moses’ rod,
which was once a serpent. Now all Arks contained Phallic stones,
and generally serpents, so we see the Hebrews’ conformity to
the practices of the neighbouring nations.
“ Eduth ’’ is used in Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers 35 times
says the accurate and arithmetical Colenso.
The Yahweh and Eduth seem to have bteen the same, as both
were sometimes in the Ark, and both were sometimes on the top
of the Ark, on a plate of gold between the Cherubim, like the
Shechina (p. 246).
In the third century B.C., the Scribes, who were gathering
together the oral traditions of the Jews, being rather ashamed of
the nudity of the tales, softened down the strong realistic names
by which parts of the human body were attributed, in all their
nakedness, to God (pp. 41, 153); so, in Eduth, probably an emas-
culated word, or one coined to hide a rather gross name, we have
one of those creations, like “ Emerods,” used to hide what they be-
gan to consider a disgraceful thing. But “ Emerods ” were con-
nected with the “ secret parts,” and we have a clue through the
Hebrew Ophelim to their being caused by venereal disease, owing
to the Hebrews’ “ Grove ” practices. In the case of Eduth we have
no such “ pointer.”
The Ark was built for this Eduth, not it for the Ark, so it
must have been the very centred and most sacred symbol of the
Hebrew faith.
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CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
It was given directly by this God, as all Palladiums are. Palla-
diums. as I perhaps do not need to repeat, are Gods of the Phallus
or Lingam gods, Palla—diums.
This Eduth had an altar and offerings long before the " Law ”
was formed, and so was a very ancient altar-god or relic in theil
shrine.
We know, however, that the Hebrews always, at any important
juncture, erected a Phallus, stone, or post, anointed it, and then
made their vows (p. 221). The symbol of their God then was the
Phallus, as to-day in India and Africa, where long or round stones
are erected as male or female symbols, anointed and coloured
with pigments and decorated with gay ribbons, just as the Jewish
women wove ** Hangings for the Ashera.” Early Britons did
the same, as shown by Hardy’s stone (p. 56). Christian converts
worshipped anointed stones. Arnobius says, “ I worshipped . . .
paintings, wreaths on trees.” [See Phalliam in India, p. 49,
Fig. 14.) ” Whenever I espied an anointed stone or one bedaubed
with olive oil, as if some person resided in it, I worshipped it, I
addressed myself to it, and begged blessings ...”
All these stones were ” anointed ones,” and therefore ” Christs ”
(see pp. 51, 111, 221, 284), and we know that “hand” is a
constant euphemism for the Phallus (p. 42), so Hardy’s “Christ-
in-hand” pillar (p. 78) may be rendered "the anointed Phallus”
or “ Saviour of Life,” as it is the symbol of eternal life.
When the two or three million! ! 1 Jews were driven out of
Egypt, they had no altar, tabernacle, or ark, nor had they a
•” Law ” or ” Testimony ” or fixed place to lay them, but when
Moses said to Aaron: ” Take a pot of manna and lay it up before
the Jhvh,” and in Exodus xvi., verse 34, we are told, “As the
Jhvh (Jehovah) commanded Moses, so Aaron laid it up before the
’testimony’”—(Eduth). (See pp. 139-140.)
From this we see that ” Jehovah ” or ^ and the Eduth or
Testimony are the same thing.
This ” testimony ” was a rock or stone, Tsur, and as we know
the derivation of ” testimony,” from the part held in the hand
when swearing an oath or testifying, the ” testimony,” which is
synonymous with Jhvh, as shown by these two quotations, was a
Phallus, probably of stone—a Beth-el, or “Rock of Salvation,"
as instanced by Dr. Oort, translated and edited by Colenso, where
he quotes 21 instances of adoration of this ” Rock,” ” which begat
thee and thou neglectest,” Deut. xxxii., 18 (“Jhvh my rock,”
” Ale-im my rock,” Deut. xxxii. 3-37). This rock or Tsur is called
die father ” hath he not made thee ” and is the same as Fig. 21.
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
253
p. 56, or the Egyptian phallic pillar [Fig. 62, p. 73], which was also
called Dad or father. (See also Fig. 114, p. 246.) No doubt, the
word “ rock ” was not that used at all; the early Jews were much
too direct for the later scribes in their naming of Phallic parts, so
it was probably toned down, as were all references to bodily parts
and passions ascribed to their Jhvh, the famous JU, JV, IV, or
the Lingam-Yoni symbol still used by the Freemasons and other
mystic bodies. (Milton’s ” insulse rule,” p. 41.)
Before the “ Breeches ” edict, their god told them to make
low, mud altars (Exodus xx., 24-34) in case the god should “see
their nakedness,” if they mounted high.
The ” testimony ” on the altar was probably the same Phallic
symbol, like the wonder-working rod of God, by whose power
the Hebrews defeated the Edumeans at the foot of Mount Sinai,
where, however, it had to be “erected” (as was the Phallus in
Spring in Egypt, pp. 81-82) by Moses, and when he got tired
Aaron and Hur had to support his hands to hold up the ” Jahweh
Nissi,” “rod of God,” or “pole of fertility.” As it rose and
fell so the Hebrews gained or lost. Joshua similarly erected his
spear during the slaughter of the people of Ai. This rod of God
was the wonder-working Phallus, which, when erected, discom-
fited Israel’s foes from generation to generation, budded as did
that of Bacchus, turned into a serpent, cleft asunder rocks and
seas, and was altogether their saviour, “ Sotor Kosmoi ” (p. 84),
and was no doubt the “ Eduth ” shut up in the Ark in the Holy
of Holies*
The character of this “ Nissi,” or pole god, is clearly shown
by ite use in the Song of Solomon, when, in chapter ii., 3-4, the
love-sick one says that she is in raptures sitting under his shadows,
and that when he takes her to a house of wine his Nissi (mistrans-
lated Banner) over her is love.
This banner is described as terrible in the battle of love in
chapter vi., so, by this comparative method, we know that the
” banner ” or Nissi of Jhvh was the Phallus of the outspoken
Eastern love songs.
Except for this etymological parallel, I make no reference to the
Phallism of the “ Song of Songs as it is purely an Eastern love
song, and, contrary to the foolish headings put to the chapters by
the Christians, it has no connection with Religion or Christianity,
except that both are Phallic. The subject of such love songs has
been exhaustively treated by Sir Robert Burton.
The Gods which the Israelites went after were Baal-
peor, Asher ah, and such like, and Baal has a signification of
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CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
“ erection ” and “ upward ”—hence, a Phallus, while “ peor ”
philologically means ** open,” or spread out, so it is feminine.
Thus, the combined word is the usual double-sexed Lingam-
Yoni symbol. We remember also the plague sent for sins with
the " peor,” and that woman was to the Hebrew the origin of
all evil. We see then the constant association of male and female
symbols, so the Hebrews had an Ark or Argha, which, being
feminine, would be no complete symbol of life unless associated
with its male counterpart; so that the Eduth must have been a
Phallus, and Eduth, Elohim, and Jehovah were synonymous terms
—the male god. So the Eduth and its Ark were the androgynous
pair, bisexual or hermaphroditic.
The Rev. T. Wilson says, in his Archeological Dictionary
Article, “ Sanctum,” that the Ark of the Covenant, which was the
greatest ornament in the first temple, was wanting in the second,
but its place was supplied by a stone, which is still in the Mosque
called the ” Temple of the Stone,” in Jerusalem, where the original
temple once stood. Such stones are invariably Phallic.
The Temple being feminine (Nave, Navis, or ship, or ” Mea
sposa ” my wife, when the bishop marries the church with his
ring on his appointment), needs a Phallic or Lingam symbol, a
rod, pillar, spire, or bell tower, in order to form the true bi-sexual
symbol of the creative power. But the Ark is unnecessary inside
a true Church or Temple, as that would make two female emblems,
so the Ark was omitted in the built Temple. Hence, the Eduth
inside a Church or circle (p. 131) is the complete symbol, the ring
and dagger of the Persians.
The Eduth, the Shechina, the Tsur, and the Yahweh were
identical,—simply different names for the same thing,—the Phallus.
They occupied the female Ark, with which they formed the double-
sexed life symbol, and so they were male. They were occasionally
placed on a gold plate on the top of the Ark or Box, between the
Cherubim,—each with its four protecting wings (Fig. 114, p. 246).
They were never mentioned as being there together, but the one
was the equivalent of the other. They were equally the actual
God, and the supreme object of worship of the Hebrews (pp. 222,
246, 252, 253). The Hebrew religion had thus a purely Phallic
basis, as was to be expected from a ritual and symbolism derived
from two extremely Phallic nations, Babylon and Egypt (pp. 140,
257).
Joshdh xxiv., 26-29, set up a great stone (or Asher or Lingam)
under a tree (under every green tree), and said, “ Behold this stone
shall be a witness, testimony (Testis phallus), unto us; for it hath
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
255
Heard all the words of the Lord,” so the great stone Phallus was a
” living god ” who could hear. This setting up of stones is in
constant practice in India to-day. They are anointed, and vows
made ” in their hearing.”
We know that the Phallus in Egypt stood for strength and
justice, and we also know that the Libra (balance), the
“scales” Justice holds in her hands, was the reproductive
organ of man, now replaced by its modern symbol the
ball of power of our coronation [Fig. 72, p. 73], so the
Eduth is the symbal of a Just God. When the Israelites got
quit of Gideon they went back to the ” Lord of the Covenant ” or
“testament” called in Judges viii., 33, “Baal Berith.” As Baal
is a Lingam, and Berith is the sacrificial circle which envelopes the
Lingam as a sign of circumcision, they went back to the universal
symbol of life, sword and sheath, dagger and ring, Lingam-Yoni.
The “ephod” they deserted was a female emblem, as pome-
granates (the emblem of the fruitful womb) were embroidered all
over it. Bacchus metamorphosed a girl who died for love of him
into a pomegranate, and in modern times it is still used, as in the
device of the Empress Ann of Austria, having the motto written
under a pomegranate, “ My worth is not in my crown,” a very
beautiful idea in a queen, not ruling,—her husband does that,—but
as a woman begetting children to rule future generations (p. 248).
Lingam worship was universal, and the Southern tribe of
Palestine condemned Yonism or “Worship of doves” (which
Jesus tried to suppress in the Temple at Jerusalem, and which was
simply worship of the emblems of the Queen of Heaven, Mellytta,
Venus, Juno, etc.), which was practised by their Northern
kinsmen on Mount Gerizim, where the left-hand cult was pre-
dominant. Judeans cailled Samaritan Temples dunghill temples,
while the Samaritans called the Temple at Jerusalem the House
of Dung.
Maimonides (the second Moses) described the worship of Baal-
peor as simply an exhibition of the Yoni, but St. Jerome said it
was principally worshipped by women, so it was more probably a
double-sexed emblem as we shall see, and sometimes had the Bull
apis as an accompanying symbol. Baal—masculine, and Peor—
feminine.
But the word Eduth, which belongs to no language, and has no
meaning, took its vise from the exercise of Milton's “ insulse ” rule
employed by the later scribes in covering up all sexual expressions
relating to Deity by mild expressions or indefinite terms.
That the Eduth was a Lingam stone is borne out by the fact
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CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
that the Islamis, who also have the old Hebrew Bible as part of
their Scriptures and who are the direct heirs of the Hebrew cult
and of circumcision, had an Eduth or Lingam stone built in their
temple. It was 18 inches long by 3 inches thick; it was placed
in their El Kaba, and is there now, their most sacred emblem.
All these symbolical ideas have drifted down into modern
Christianity, whose symbolism is still highly Phallic and'Solar.
The old celebrated Phallic pillars of Solomon's temple, Jakin
or Jachin, and Boaz, the ” establisher ” and the ” strong one,” are
repeated to-day in the spires of churches, with the inevitable cock
on the top [pp. 59 and 66, Figs. 29, 44, 45], and Phallism filtered
down through all the church paraphernalia, to the clothes and hair
trimming of the priests.
The shaving of the priest's head is Phallic. Hislop, quoting
from Herodotus, tells us that the tonsure was a symbol of Bacchus
worship. ” One of the things that occupied the most important
place in the mysteries was the mutilation to which he was subjected
when he was put to death” (symbolical of the sun’s loss of
fertilising power in winter [Fig. 94, p. 127], and probably repre-
sented in man’s body by the wide-spread practice of circumcision).
In memory of that, he was lamented with bitter weeping every
year, as ” Rosh Gheza,” the ” mutilated Prince.” But Rosh Gheza
also signified ” the clipped or shaved head,” so that the tonsured
head represents the circumcised Phallus, and it probably took its
rise in India, as Gautama Buddha, 540 years before Christ, insisted
on the practice and was himself called ” shaved head.”
The ” shaved head ” or priest wears a Pallium, which in early
times was a cloak that the young men received on reaching man-
hood. They were then allowed to join the Phallic procession of
initiated men, who wore the Pallium—originally worn by married
women to show they were now under Phallic yoke. This Pallium
is shown in a drawing from the Venice Missale Romanium of 1509,
and it shows that it was decorated by the Crux Ansata, the Egyp-
tian Lingam-Yoni symbol of life, and that the confessor's phallic-
ally shaved hedd was passed through the Yoni opening or handle
of the cross. Head is a euphemism for phallus (pp. 41, 239).
Both the monk and the nun are wearing the Ankh or Egyptian
symbol of eternal life. Figs. 115-116.
Forlong calls this the ” Perfect Phallic man.”
The Brahmin priests in India wear a silver dove, which forms
a small casket containing a Phallus as the bi-sexual symbol of
eternal life. It is suspended by a chain round the neck, as is our
priest’s symbol of eternal life—the Cross. This is the original form
of our monstrance and pyx.
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
257
-
The Roman Catholic Church has re-established the old Queen
of Heaven of Asia, by decreeing that their doctrine is that
the Virgin Mary saw no corruption, i.e., did not die, but was
carried up to Heaven, body and soul, and is now invested with all
power in Heaven and in earth. (Exit El Shadai, Yahveh, Aleim,
etc. The “ ancient of days ” has finally faded away. Even Jesus
takes second place.) The Roman Catholic Church took over all
the myths and godlets and feasts of the Pagan, and even adver-
tised the Phallic organ of worship on the doors of St. Peter’s.
Payne Knight, p. 186, says: ”Hence the obscene figures observ-
able on many of the Gothic Churches, and particularly upon the
If UK WITH STOLE.
Fig. 116
ancient doors of St. Peter’s at Rome, where there are some groups
which rival the devices on the Lesbian medals” (see p. 88).
All the Church vestments, symbols, altars, bells, and towers,
are Phallic.
Mr. Stadisland Wake, in the ’’Anthropological Journal” of
July, 1870, p. 286, says: ” The fundamental basis of Christianity
is more purely Phallic than that of any other religion now existing,
and its emotional nature shows how intimately it was related to the
older faiths which had a Phallic basis,” and ” the Phallic is the
only foundation on which an emotional religion can be based.”
We have looked into the case of the Pallium.
The priests wear the ” stole,” which is the name of the Roman
S
258
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
Matron’s gown; so the man becomes bi-sexual, or symbolical of
the Lingam-Yoni combination. The Priests' petticoats are usually
decorated with costly lace, a chief distinction of women’s garments.
All the subordinates in Church worship are clothed with frocks,
or surplices, the double sex thus produced being symbolical of the
Creative God, as all early religions taught that two sexes were re-
quired for creation (see p. 173).
The pyx is a vessel shaped like a Phallus containing oil (fertility),
and is, indeed, the Phallus as shown by its name and Hardy’s poem
(p. 56). Combined with the Monstrance, the almond-shaped female
symbol, they form the usual bi-sexual symbol of eternal life (pp. 61
and 215).
The Pyx was kissed by the people in the time of Richard II.
(1380) like the Pope’s “toe.” Anyone touching it except at wor-
ship was to be hanged, drawn, and quartered,—a penalty similar to
that imposed for looking into the Hebrew ark (p. 219). The Mon-
strance was also very sacred, and was the receptacle for the Host—
a portion of the body of Jesus (male like the pyx) and so the Mon-
strance was female, the two forming a bisexual creative symbol or
emblem.
The Pyx is used for extreme unction (or oiling) at death by
dropping oil on the dying to insure their soul’s life.
In India the pyx has the actual form of the phallus and the Mon-
strance, which contains it, is a dove mother of God, Venus, Militta,
Mary, etc.
Just as the Hebrews and all other nations, such as the Hindus
to-day, dropped oil on their stone phalli to symbolise its power to
implant the seeds of life, like living phalli, so the Pyx is a phallus
used to drop oil or soma on the dying man to implant the seeds of
eternal life in his departing soul.
Both were emblems of God in his highest function, and hence
extremely holy. They are also extremely valuable when designed,
as they often were, by great masters. Recently, July 1912, a mon-
strance described as a Pyx but formed of a dove in a battlemented
heaven with a lid on its back, hence a female emblem (“ Tabernacle
of God,’’ and house of the masculine Pyx), designed by Leonardi da
Vinci, in copper gilt, was sold at Christie’s for £3255.—-“111. London
News,” 6th July, 1912.
The candles represent Phalli, the flame representing sexual fire
(Fig. 30, p. 59), but they have another descent from Persian fire
worship, as temple symbol of the great life-giver the sun.
The spire is the Phallus. In Roman Catholic countries it was
not a “ glorified roof,’’ as Ruskin calls it, and it Stood not on the
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
259
church, but beside it, as we see in Florence, Venice, and other
Cathedrals, as a bell tower or campanile. It was the Church’s
“ Ishi,” or husband; as the Church is the “Ark of God,” the
delphic “Queen of Heaven,” and is always feminine. The dome
on the other types of Church is the om, womb, nave, navis, ship, or
ark of life, always symbolical of Isis, or the womb, and the central
mast or spire is the Phallus, or erect one, so the finished structure
is the Lingam-Yoni altar of India.
The High Church clergy who delight in “ The Mysteries,” and
go into the Rhapsodies, as Cardinal Newman does on the Virgin,
” the Mother of Fair Love,” are those who wish to introduce the
confessional for young girls with its libidinous questionary into the
Church of England (p. 327).
The * ’ Three-in-one, ” “ Incomprehensible Mystery ’ * of the
Creed, referred to at pp. 24 and 155, is, like the Fleur-de-lys, a
common feature in the coats of arms of old families all over Christen-
dom. Fig. 117 shows the common form. Here we have the
female Ark floating on the waters of fertWty (see Fig. % on p. 162),
and the phallic symbol of male fertility, the triple crossed dagger,
producing life. The Three-in-one is the most sacred “ mystery ”
of the Christians and is the modern “ Pyx and Monstrance,” or
“ Ark and Testimony ” of the past, for touching which the punish-
ment was death. As a family talisman, it means good fortune,
numerous children, and eternal bliss. The triple cross is the same
as the trident of the Greeks and Romans, the Ivy leaf of Bacchus,
the Trisool of the Hindus, or the Fleur-de-lys of France and the
Broad Arrow of Britain (pp. 23, 24, 162, 238).
Fig. 117
This figure shows the phallic significance of the Christian Cross.
It is often shown as a cross in the heavens representing the sun
fertilising the earth as a crescent, barque, or corackle, hence it
is the same as the Broad Arrow with the “Logos” (p. 155), or
“message of Hernies ” descending, bringing life from heaven to
earth. It is the reverse of the phallus in Fig. 2, p. 30 on
grave stones, which represents the spirit or soul ascending.
The Christians adopted the Cross from the male-worshipping Jews,
with the sun as their God-day, while the Mohamadans adopted
the female crescent and their God-day is Jumah, or Venus’s day
(p. 108).
CHAPTER IV
SUN WORSHIP IN THE OLD TESTAMENT.
MeLCHISIDEK is a Sun-God, and his life is the year or one round
of the sun. He lives 365 years (days), is without father or mother,
and without descent, knowing neither beginning of days nor end of
life, ” Does not die,” but was translated and begins another year.
He was a sage,—the inventor of astronomy, astrology, arith-
metic, and writing. He represents the year, is keeper of the time
and seasons, or dates. His life is the number of 365 days in the
year, expressed as years.
The Hebrew Patriarch, Enoch, did not die like the others at
600 or 900 years, but was translated, or disappeared, ” for God
took him ” when he was 365 years old. He is the year, or a Sun-
God, an echo of Melchizedek. That Jesus was a priest ” after the
order of Melchizedek ” is emphasised by the apparently useless
repetition of the phrase seven times in Hebrews. This repetition
was to emphasise a secret announcement to the initiated that Jesus
was a sun-god (p. 314). Samson, Job, Daniel, and many others are
fragments of the sun myth.
The Rev. Sir George Cox, in his great work on the " Life of
Colenso,” tells us that, ” In Josiah’s temple stood vessels made for
the Sun and Moon, Baal and Asherah, and for the Host of Heaven.”
Thus we see that Solar and Phallic faiths went hand in hand, but
Phallic was the elder and beloved by the people, being a faith
they could understand, while Solar worship came only at a higher
state of development, and, although it became the Official Priestly
religion in many countries, it never replaced the Phallic cult with
the common people. We will now briefly touch on the Solar
religion as revealed in Holy writ.
As astronomers, the Babylonians (p. 119), from whom the
Hebrews got most of their religious ideas, were the wonder of
surrounding nations, and kept accurate data of the motions of the
moon and planets. In India also astronomy had reached a fairly
high standard, and so also in Egypt, but the rude Highland clan
of Hebrews knew nothing of these things, and mutilated all astro-
nomical myths till they are scarcely recognisable. I need not go
into the facts of the widespread nature of Solar worship, as 1 have
CHRISTIANITY
261
already done that (pp. 104, 137; alao p. 178), but the Bible itself shows
that it was not only Kings like Manasseh who worshipped sun,
moon, and all the host of Heaven, as we have the statement re-
peated very often in the prophets* scoldings. It is curious to read
that even the reforming Josiah had to erect vessels and symbols for
sun and moon, Baal and Ashtaroth, after condemning all these
things and having them destroyed. As we read in 2 Kings xxiii.
after taking a Phallic oath, by standing by a 44 pillar,” he
commanded Hilkiah to bring forth out of the Temple of Yahweh
44 all the vessels made for all the host of Heaven, and he burned
them.'* They seem to have been of wood.
44 And he put down the idolatrous priests *’ (or really caused
Chemarim worship to cease), *4 that burnt incense unto Baal, to the
sun, and to the moon, and to the planets, and to all the host of
Heaven.** But the custom was too strong for him, so he had to
make some concession in the temple to sun worshippers.
The worship is condemned in Deut. iv. 19, 44 And when thou
seest the sun and the moon and the stars, even all the host of
Heaven shouldst be driven to worship them and serve them.**
Deut. xvii. 3, 44 And hath gone and served other gods and wor-
shipped them either the sun or moon or any of the host of
Heaven which 1 have not commanded,**—such a one shall be put
to death by stoning.
There must have been a perfect anthropological museum of
religions in Jerusalem, as we are told, in 2 Kings xvii. and xxi. that
44 they built themselves high places ** (places for religious prostitutes)
in all their cities from the Town of the watchmen to the fenced City,
and they set up images and 4 groves * in every hill and under every
high tree, and they burned incense in all the high places. And
made them molten images, even two calves, and made a 4 grove *
and worshipped all the host of Heaven and served Baal. And they
caused their sons and daughters to pass through this fire (Sun
worship and human sacrifices), and used divination and enchant-
ments and sold themselves (Kadeshah) to the evil** (p. 225). In fact,
so bad were they that Yahveh made the Assyrians enslave them, and
removed them to Assyria, and to the Cities of the Medes and
Assyrians (2 Kings xxv.). Manasseh, who was only a boy of
twelve, and therefore under the control of his mother, and the
priests 44 again built up the high places,4* reared up altars for Baal,
and made a grove and 44 worshipped all the host of Heaven and
served them.44 And he built altars for all the host of Heaven in
the two courts of 44 the House of Yahweh.** And later he made his
son to pass 44through the fire4* (Sun worship) 44 and observed
262
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
tidaes (astrology) and used enchantments and dealt with familiar
spirits and wizards, and he set a graven image of the ‘ grove ’ that
he had made in the house of Yahweh " ; and in Jeremiah xix., 13,
“And the houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the Kings of
Judah shall be defiled as the place of Tophet because of all the
houses upon whose roof they have burnt incense to all the host
of Heaven “ ; or, in Zephaniah xiv., 5, “ 1 will cut off men from
the land and them that worship the host of Heaven upon the
house tops.”
Many other texts show that their worship of the hosts of
Heaven was universal.
It is difficult, at first glance, to understand who were the pro-
testing prophets. They could not have been the High Priests, or
they would not have allowed Lingam and sun worship in the temple,
but would have carried on the orthodox temple worshippings under
the “ Law.” They would certainly have had command during
the minority of Manasseh. They could not have been the Baby-
lonian priests, sent to re-establish the temple practices so often
destroyed and forgotten, as the “ Host of Heaven ” was a part of
Babylonian worship. They must have been Mullahs, or Yogis,
ascetics, like John the Baptist, called Nabis, living severe lives in
the desert places, and, by their fasting and scourgings, gaining a
great reputation for sanctity ; men to whom a King now and then
listened, but whose message had only a temporary effect, as there
is no doubt that these practices constituted the regular religion of
the mass of the Hebrew people.
As much of the scolding was directed against the defilement of
the temple by such practices, it cannot have been uttered by the
Jewish priests, as it was owing to their laxity, or even their en-
couragement of the popular practices, that such defilement could
take place. The temple furniture was phallic and solar (p. 332).
. A view has sometimes presented itself to me, that sex worship
and that of the Queen and the Host of Heaven were the actual
official religion of the Hebrews, as they were practised universally,
” at every street corner,” ” in all high places,” ” under* every
green tree,” and in the Temple, and therefore encouraged by the
Magistrates and Priests, and only condemned by those excitable
ascetics, the Nabis or Nazarehea, who were trying to introduce
a monotheistic creed of the cruel Yahweh, like the Scotch High-
landers, the Irish Orange-men, or the Swiss, represented by mascu-
line symbols, and that the exhortations were a purely literary
creation of a late date to create the idea of a nobler religion.
We are driven then to place die authorship of this type of
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
263
-
literature on the shoulders of the Nabis, or Naziris, who were like
our energetic revivalists of the present day. Such men are excited
to deliver their polemics by very different stimuli. Some really
think they have a mission, and are pushed on by the holy spirit;
others think they have a fine eloquence, and are impelled by vanity.
Some love power, swaying great multitudes, and others are after
the loaves and the fishes, men who like to make an easy, perhaps
lucrative, position out of the rabble who become their disciples
or followers. Israel had plenty of all kinds, in fact, so troublesome
were they, that, as Loisy tells us ("Religion of Israel," p. 153),
there were actually overseers of the prophets appointed, whose
business it was to keep these unruly members in order, and the.
too excitable Nabis were punished by being put in the stocks in
the out-buildings of the Temple. Even Jeremiah went “ over the
score " in his frenzy, and was thus confined in the stocks till he
cooled down. Ezekiel, Elijah, and Elishah were Nabis.
The Seers, Nabis, and Nazarites were probably of the lower
classes, and uneducated, except in that they had the Scriptures as
far as they were known learnt by heart, and so were able to con-
found even a priest by an apposite quotation. They were John
the Baptists, wild, half-mad prophets, who wore long hair and rough
clothing. Probably, in the hot part of the year, they went naked,
like the Indian Yogis, or wore only ashes,—Isaiah walked three years
naked, Is. xx. 3,—and by their austerities gained great power over
the people. Loisy tells us that it was occasionally a lucrative pro-
fession.
Nebo or Nabi was the Herald or Prophet of Marduk, the great
Babylonian Deity (" Bel is bowed down, Nebo hath fallen ”). So
the Nabis claimed to be the Heralds of Yahweh. They were called
Nazarites, and Jesus is called a Nazarene.
The Nabi, or native religion, founded on the Eden story, was
severely masculine with its anointed lingam pillars, whereas the
religion imposed by the Babylonian priests was bisexual, and in
fact strongly feminine, with the Queen of Heaven as the chief
object of worship. The Nabis girding at the Babylonian “ grove ”
worship would be precluded from preferment in the Temple.
Hence they remained austere, and in bitter opposition to the Baby-
lonian teaching, calling Babylon “ The Mother of Harlots,**—one
of the few Bible texts printed entirely in capitals (Rev. xvii. 5).
. It will be noticed that while Baal, Asher, Peor, High Places,
graven images of the' Grove, Ashtaroth, molten images of calves
(all indicating worship of the Phallus) were absolutely constant, the
Solar worship was only mentioned occasionally so that the Hebrews
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CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
were in the earlier stage of religious development,~PhaHic
worship,—and only hearing of Solar adoration from surrounding
nations. Hence, their stories of “Solar houses,” constellations,
soon became tinged with the local colour, and drifted away from
their original lines. The other nations had the twelve signs of the
Zodiac as a guide to all their stories, such as the twelve labours of
Hercules or Izdubar; but the Hebrews do not seem to have been
quite familiar with the Zodiacal signs, and hence, had no guide
for the details of their stories. In many of the Psalms, modem
critics have come to recognise the Sun in the “ Lord God,” and
the Zodiac in “ Zion.”
We have, in the tale of Samson, a parallel or copy of Hercules,
the Sun-God. The Arabic name of the Sun is Shams-on, Samson,
and the Hindu name Shams. The gates of Gaza are the pillars or
gates of Gadez (Cadiz), which Hercules carried off. Hercules was
made prisoner of the Egyptians. They prepared to slay him; but
he breaks loose and slays them all like Samson.
Their exploits, killing the lion, etc., are identical, even to the
loss of strength in Samson by the cutting of his hair.
The Christian, whose Scriptures are to him the only “ holy **
ones, says: “Of course, these pagan heroes or demi-gods never
existed, they are only sun-myths or local heroes deified.”
It is open to the Persian or Hindu to say likewise : “ Of course,
these Hebrew heroes or demi-gods never existed, they are only
sun-myths or local heroes deified.” The learned Goldziher, a Jew
himself, holds that view of all Old Testament characters. Let us
look at the parallel more closely:—
Both were ” marvellous ” children.
Both were announced by a god.
Both slay a lion.
Both slay many men.
Both slay their wives and children.
Both cause fires in harvest fields.
Both cause great slaughter.
Both are taken prisoner and bound.
Both break loose and slay many.
Both a>thirst in desert; water comes out miraculously.
Both carry off gates of Gaza (Cadiz). ^
Both become weak by consorting with a woman Delilah and
Ompfiate.
Hercules dies in the sea; Samson at the Feast of Aquarius
(Water).
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
265
Job is another fragment of the sun-myth used by later poetic
writers as a theme on which to hang a philosophic poem. Gold-
ziher says it is originally of Persian origin. But it is coloured all
through with the ‘'Host of Heaven” idea, as in ix., 9, "which
maketh Arcturus, Orion, and Pleiades, and the chambers of the
South.” ” Can’st thou bind the sweet influence of the Pleiades
or loose the bands of Orion—or can’st thou guide Arcturus with
his son,” xxxviii., 21-32. The “sweet” influence was that of Venus,
whose dwelling-place was the Pleiades. We find that Job’s seven
good sons were the seven warm months of the year, slain by the
cold blasts of winter. But, at the end, job is seated in the new
summer, with all his riches, and his seven sons round him as before,
the summer re-established.
In all religions the God-like Adonis is slain by the tooth of the
boar of winter, or by the thorn of winter, and generally the wound
is in the Phallus showing the sun’s loss of fertilising power in
winter (p. 127, Fig. 94).
The swallowing of Jonah by the fish is simply the death and
re-birth of the sun, as shown by the Greeks on their coins, one side
showing the sun (Jonah) being thrown into the sea, and the other
a whale or dolphin (womb) yielding up the young re-born sun to
the world again.
Hercules and other sun gods had a re-birth, being, as Jonah
was, 40 hours in a fish’s belly. The Jonah story is that of Hercules,
with a Hebrew-Babylonian setting.
The sun lay in the fish (sea) over the solstice or 40 hours,
erroneously called three days and three nights, but, like Jesus in
the tomb, from the 20th December (or equivalent date) at 4 p.m.
till 22nd 8 a.m.—40 hours.
The number 40 thus became the Holy number, and is incor-
porated in all sorts of tales.
Matthew xii., 40, shows that three days and three nights meant
only 40 hours, as Jesus* entombment was from Friday night till
Sunday morning. The day and two nights of the sun’s winter
solstice become only 33 hours crossing the Equatorial line at the
Equinox, but the original miracle play of the sun crucified, ” crossed
over ” or “ passed over ” from winter to summer, “ to the salvation
of mankind,” was enacted at the winter solstice, when, in all the
Northern lands where this myth had birth, the time is from 4 p.m.
on the 20th December, when the sun sets, till 8 a.m. on the 22nd,
when the sun's rest or ” standing still ” ends a period of 40 hours.
Probably, in earlier times, the astronomers could not detect the
commencement of the re-ascent of the sun before three days; in
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CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
fact, it is wonderful that they even did that, as die Solstice is by
no means a simple phenomenon, as the mean length of the day
is the resultant of two varients, and so most difficult for early races
to define accurately.
That is why Christmas Day, the day of the birth of all sun gods,
or world saviours, is on the 25th instead of 22nd December. Both
are New Year’s days, but the 22nd is the more scientific. Our 1st
January should be altered to the position of 22nd December by the
excision of ten days, and Christmas held on that day, the true
birthday of all Saviours.
Daniel has also the rags of sun-myths in the furnace and lion
stories, but it has been used by various editors in one place to lower
the power and character of Nebuchadnezzar, the hereditary foe of
Judah, and, again, at a very late date, to bolster up the Divinity
of Jesus. “ The fourth is like the Son of God,” Daniel iii. 25.
There was no Son of God in Judaism till Jesus, so this part must
have been written in the present era.
The New Testament attempted to replace the Phallic cult by
sun worship, and Jesus was as the ” Light of the World,” a Sun
God, as will be seen by comparing Him with the sons of the Sun.
He is the sun born at the Winter Solstice, 25th December, and St.
John represents the sun at Midsummer, 25th June. The winter sun
increases in warmth, whereas the Midsummer sun begins his re-
turn to Winter; so John says: “He must increase, 1 must de-
crease ” (John iii. 30).
The Sun was called Oannes, Joannes, Jona, Iona, Ion, John (St.
John’s Day is Midsummer Day when the sun is worshipped), Jawna
(Persian), Jona, or Yona (masculine of Yoni). (See orientation,
pp. 132-133.)
Little Red Ridinghood is our version. The little maid in her
bright red cloak (the sun) is swallowed by the great black wolf of
night, but comes out, as bright as ever, when the “ hunter ” cuts
open the wolf of night. The fleecy clouds of the early dawn were
often called the hunters. (Tylor, “ Primitive Culture.”)
Several other smaller fragments of sun-myths have drifted into
the Hebrew Scriptures, but. as I have said, die Hebrews were a
Phallic people, and never adopted Solar worship fully, as the more
enlightened nations did. The Solar myths they borrowed from
neighbours were soon distorted out of recognition, for lack of
knowledge of the true astronomical key.
The worship of Yahweh, and the polytheistic A16-im, never
had much root in the history of the common people. Those were
the gods which - die Nabis wanted them to worship, probably
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
267
given to them by Babylonian Priests late in their history, but we
see by the constant up-braidings and scoldings of their Nabis that
they loved- their Eduths, Ephods, Baals, Peors, Asherahs, and
Ashteroths, and other Phallic emblems, as well as the Queen of
Heaven, much more than the wrathful Yahweh, or the jealous Ale
Gods.
It was quite otherwise with the philosophic writers, who in every
nation have little in common with the working people. Carpenter
has well sketched the development of their ideas in his *’ Bible in
the Nineteenth Century,*’ from which I borrow and paraphrase.
CRYSTALLIZATION OF JUDAISM.
It was the conquered position and the slavery of the people—their
whole cry to Yahweh was that of broken spirit—which gave the
tone to the Israelitish religion.
They found the hand of the Assyrian, Babylonian, or Egyptian
Kings very heavy, and their advance over their country as inevitable
as die hand of fate.
All these apparently fateful disasters were attributed by their
prophets to Yahweh‘s punishment of their sins. ** To what pur-
pose is the multitude of your sacrifices, I am full of burnt offerings
of rams and the fat of fed beasts,” says Isaiah, speaking as Yahweh.
And generations later the Psalmist answers: ” Thou desirest not
sacrifice else I would give it; thou delightest not in burnt offering.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite
heart, O God, thou wilt not despise,” and again, ” Come now
and let us reason together ; though your sins be as scarlet they
shall be white as snow; though they be red as crimson they shall
be as wool.”
The broken-spirited people reply: ” Purge me with hyssop and
I shall be clean ; wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.”
Amos tragically pictures the awful power of the Yahweh.
“Though they dig down into Sheol thence shall my hand take
them, and though they climb up to heaven thence will I bring them
down.”
To the contrite and poor in spirit this majestic might brings
consolation, as that of a mighty protector: ” If I ascend up into
heaVen thou art there; if I make my bed in Sheol behold thou art
there.” (Carpenter’s ” Bible in the Nineteenth Century,” p. 205,
ef. seq.)
The prophets thus, out of a tribal god at war with other gods,
evohred an all-powerful Creator, and attempted to establish Ethical
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CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
Monotheism. But this was not followed by the people. They
remained Phallic worshippers.
How was it that the Hebrew prophet’s ethical position has so
profoundly influenced the thought of Western nations ?
Many of the great nations of old attained to a very high concep-
tion of the supreme rule of one deity.
The Egyptians conceived Amen-Ra as the ** Ancient of Heaven,
Lord of Eternity, Maker Everlasting, Judge of the Poor and Op-
pressed, Deliverer of the Timid.”
Pindar sang of “God who overtaketh the winged eagle and
outstrippeth the dolphin of the sea, and bringeth low many a man
in his pride while to others he giveth glory incorruptible.” “ Zeus
is the first, Zeus shall be the last, all things are framed of Zeus.”
Apolonius, Sophocles, Empedocles, and many Greek writers rise
to the highest conceptions of universal law. Plato, after extolling
God’s Sower to punish, says: “Now God ought to be to us the
measure of all things, and he who would be dear to God, must as
far as is possible be like him and such as he is.”
The early sages of China represented perfect social order as
the reflection of the order of the living sky.
Confucius taught the golden rule, both positively and nega-
tively : ” Do not do to others what you would not like done to your-
selves,” centuries before Jesus.
No higher idea of a god can be laid down than Gotama's, when,
as a Buddha, he declared Bramha to be ” The Supreme, the Mighty,
the all seeing, the Lord, the Creator, Father of all that are and are
to be, steadfast, immutable, eternal.” (” Dialogues of Buddha,”
Rhys Davids, Vol. I, p. 32.)
It was partly the Indian teaching of Gautama that influenced
Hebrew thought into the chastened idea of the inutility of sacrifices.
Gottama Buddha had long before pointed out that it was not
sacrifices which were wanted to undo evil, but the inner light of
doing good and making the world better.
As Dr. Oman says, ” He taught that the way of deliverance
manifestly implied the insufficiency of the natural gods, the futility
of the ceremonial law, the inutility of sacrifices and austerities and
the uselessness of the Brahminical priesthood.” (” Cults, Customs
and Superstitions of India,” p. 53.)
No system of ethics or conduct could be more beautiful than
that of Zarathustra, who made the victory of good the basis of all
faith.
The Zend A vesta teaches of the union of the faithful in a
beautified life of righteousness and worship, the renewal of heaven
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
269
-
and earth, the final destruction of evil and abolition of hell; yet
none of these have impressed Western nations as have the Hebrew
prophets. This was probably because they were ignorant of any
writings but those imposed on them by the Romans, who, when
they ceased to be military masters of Europe, always remained
our masters in letters and religion.
The Romans, in their guidance of the formation of the Christian
cult, adopted into its practices all the old feasts, superstitions, and
godlets, or saints, already existing in Europe, and they were for-
tunate in finding 44 Hesus ’* or 44 Jesus the Mighty’4 installed from
remote times as the Druidical god all over Europe and in Britain ; so
they appeared to teach every man his own religion in a more clearly
defined form.
The great cause, however, lay in the mirologue of the Christians
established by Jerome, that they brought to man the official book
of religion—every word of which was directly written by thd%ternal
God and was his message to mankind. Once the divine origin of
these crude writings was set up, the mirophily of the people found
the food on which the superstitious side of man’s mind lives.
But, five hundred years before Jesus, the humanising teaching
of Prince Siddartha, the Gottama or Buddha, had sunk deep into
the Indian mind, and rapidly spread east and west until finally it
reached Judea.
As Dr. Carpenter puts it: 44 When Ezra and his helpers com-
piled and published the Law and wrote the 4 Eye for an eye, tooth
for tooth ’ maxim, and incorporated it in the Levitical Code, as
4 he who has caused a blemish in a man so shall it be rendered unto
him,* the Indian sage had a generation before written:
44 Let a man leave anger, let him forsake pride, let him over-
come all bondage. He who holds back rising anger like a rolling
chariot, him 1 call a real driver.
44 Let a man overcome anger by love ; let him overcome evil
by good, let him overcome the greedy by liberality, the liar by
truth.
44 He abused me, he beat me, he defeated me, he robbed me ;
in those who harbour such thoughts hatred will never cease. For
hatred does not cease by hatred at any time, hatred ceases by
love.**
It took many hundred years for this philosophy to penetrate into
Judea, and to be reproduced by Jesus, and introduced into the
New Testament.
PART III
Ancient Cults in the New Testament
CHAPTER I
THE NEW TESTAMENT EXAMINED.
PHALLIC AND ASTRONOMICAL SOURCES OF CHRISTIAN
TEACHING
In comparing the New Testament with the Old we are met with
a totally different sort of literature. In the old we had a rough
history of an old, uncivilised people, written with the view of show-
ing that they were under the personal guidance of their own tribal
God, who won their battles for them. Him they honestly trapped
out with all the usual savage attributes and thunderings, to make
him “ terrible.*’ In fact, we have here the full expression of the
early religions of all savages, a pure, unadulterated ** reign of
terror ” or religion of “ fear.” This religion was that inculcated by
the priests, to keep the people in subjection.
But the people heard of other Gods, really the mirrored re-
flections of their own happy nature, when not overshadowed by
the great God of Fear and Trembling,—and the Old Testa-
ment is in great part employed in showing us the terrible
sin of these poor people, preferring to worship love, instead
of fear or hatred, just as George Eliot imagines Cain doing,
when the Terrible One accepted Abel’s sacrifice of blood and
death, and rejected Cain’s offering of beauty and sunshine, em-
bodied in the fruits and flowers, of which the Man of Sorrow said,
” Solomon in aU his glory was not arrayed like one of these.”
CHRISTIANITY
271
When Cain had fled from Yahweh,
” Who walks unseen but leaves a track of pain.
Pale Death his footprint is, and he will come again ;
He sought some fair strand,
Ruled by kind Gods who asked no offerings,
Save pure field fruits, as aromatic things,
To feed the subtler sense of frames divine.
That lived on fragrance for their food and wine;
With joyous Gods who winked at faults and folly.
And could be pitiful and melancholy.
He never had a doubt that such Gods were;
He looked within and saw them mirrored there.”
The New Testament is such a curious mixture of the oIcTjewish
idea of the necessity of some innocent person’s death, to obtain
forgiveness for sins, the awful Yahweh’s requiring a draught of
blood, like an African savage’s Ju Ju, and the gentle teaching of
the prince, who threw up a kingdom to try to ameliorate the lot of
the poor and suffering that it is extremely difficult to extract
and reconstruct the teaching of the gentle Ebionite or Essene,
Jesus, the far-off echo of Siddartha (Gotama) from the debris of
the ancient Jewish cults on the one hand, and the poisonous
sophistry of the creators of the official Christianity, which grew
up during the three centuries after the Galilean teacher had
delivered his anti-Javistic message of humanity and gentleness.
The mental development of the two men followed, however,
exactly contrary courses. Siddartha was born a prince, and began
as a high ascetic, but became gradually humanized, and taught,
at last, pure kindness, pity, and humanity. Jesus, on the other
hand, began lowly, with gentle teaching, but became convinced
that he was destined to re-establish the Jewish Kingdom, and would
be physically aided by angels sent from heaven to overturn the
Romans by supernatural means. He would be the new King, dis-
pensing with Royal hand his bounties to those who had belived in
him and encouraged him.
, See how, in Markka., when Peter, in verse 28, told how much
he had sacrificed in worldly position to follow Jesus, he answered,
29-30, " Verify I say unto you, there is no man that hath left house
or brethren or sisters, or father or mother, or wife or children, or
lands for my sake (and the gospels) but shall receive an hundred-
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CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
fold now in this time houses and brethren and sisters and mothers
and lands,” some later hand adducing ” with persecutions; and
in the world to come eternal life.” Note the words, “ and the
Gospelsfor the Gospels were written centuries later. These last
words are an attempt to turn a would-be emancipator’s promises
to his followers—of rewards, land, and houses, ” Now, in this
time ”—into a Mullah’s promises of the rewards in Paradise. The
” with persecution ” and ” eternal life ” phrases are especially
typical, and are apparendy placed there to spiritualise the promise
of ” houses ” and ” land,” the invariable gifts of all successful
emancipators to their patriotic friends and helpers. (See also Luke
xviii. 28-30.) As this meant throwing off the Roman yoke, it is no
wonder that the Romans suppressed him.
In spite of the refusal by the Bishops to grant the prayer of a
petition of two thousand of the best of the Church of England
Clergy, asking that the same freedom of criticism might be applied
to the New Testament as had so clearly elucidated the true char-
acter of the Old, the criticism of the New Testament, once taboo,
is gaining ground. The old dogma is dying, even amongst the
parsons, and they are falling back on the old Roman Catholic line
of defence of an infallible church.
The Rev. S. Baring Gould says: ” The claims of the Pentateuch
rest on tradition that springs out of the conjectures of certain
obscure lawyers of the third century B.C., whose very names are
forgotten,” but he still claims, without proof, that these incom-
petent scribes " performed their task on the authority of a church
animated by the Holy Ghost.” This view is pure popery, and all
other Scriptures can make the equally valid claim.
Sir Robert Anderson, one of the few whose robust orthodoxy
is still proof against any and all reasoning in these domains, justly
states the position of the ” Lux Mundi ” school as follows:—
” The Bible is not infallible, but the Church is infallible, and
upon the authority of the Church our faith can find a sure founda-
tion. But how do we know that the Church is to be trusted?
The ready answer is, we know it upon the authority of the Bible.
That is to say, we trust the Bible on the authority of the Church,
and we trust the Church on the authority of the Bible. It is a bad
case of the confidence trick.” (” The Silence of God,” 1898, p. 92.)
At the time when the teaching of Siddartha had reached Pales-
tine, through the Ebionites or Essenes, and had been combined by
Jesus with the idea of a Jewish Messiah, who would establish the
rule of Yahweh all over the earth, the Jews received the blow which
shattered their great dream, expelled them from their holy-land.
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
273
and finally crushed their ideas of an earthly kingdom (see p. 147).
All their writers then turned to the consolation of the new idea of
a glorious resurrection, and of a new Zion beyond the skies. That
which was now hopelessly unattainable in the ruins of the old Jeru-
salem, with its Temple destroyed, its Holy Scriptures removed, and
its inhabitants in bondage, was to be realised in the New Jeru-
salem, to and from which Jesus and the angels so easily ascended
and descended, and to which the “ saints ” were to be caught up,
as promised by Paul. At first this idea was a hybrid one, namely,
a New Zion on earth, though in a future time. In the twinkling of
an eye all was to be changed. The hated Romans would disappear
or turn to Yahweh worship, and the new Kingdom would be a
reconstruction as a Garden of Eden, an earthly paradise or garden.
The earliest books of Apologetic Christianity all inculcate this idea ;
but gradually it is abandoned, and the final dogma of spiritual
salvation through faith in Jesus, now called the Christ or
“ anointed one,** is set up.
There were two main causes of this change. The one was the
death of the promised Messiah, the Crucifixion of the **King of
the Jews ** shattering the hopes of an immediate Kingdom; and
the second was the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem and
the deportation of the Jewish population by the Romans. This
took place in A.D. 70, just when Jesus had been long enough dead
for his memory to begin to be encrusted with miracles, and his
teaching to become sacred, as we have seen in the case of
Mahommed!
The earthly Messiah idea had received a rude blow by the
death of Jesus, but his return as a conqueror, with his Father's
heavenly hosts, was beginning to be looked for. This immediate
second earthly advent, with its idea of a New Jewish Kingdom,
received its death-blow, when the Romans under Titus Kaisar
(paesar) in A.D. 70, utterly destroyed the Temple in the second year
of. Vespasian's reign. Subsequently Hadrian drew a plough-share
over the sacred ground, as a sign of perpetual injunction.
Titus carried away the Ark of the Covenants and Golden Candle-
sticks, and Josephus, we know, sent all the sacred books to Rome.
The whole race was banished from Palestine, and many were de-
ported to Rome, where they were treated as slaves, and built the
Coliseum and the Pyramid of Caius Sextus, both of which were
constructed by forced Jewish labour. It is even told that the
Coliseum was decorated with spoil from the Temple of Jerusalem,
Constantine later put the Ark, and the Golden Candlestick with
its seven lamps, in the Church now called St. John Lateran.
(*# Rome and its Story,** p. 89.)
T
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CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
But what I wish to convey is that at the psychological moment,
when the story of Jesus’ teachings was beginning to take form,
and when a true account might have been written, the whole
Jewish nation was dispersed and driven all over the Levant and
Mediterranean towns; and it was not for several years after this
event that fragments of stories about Jesus began to be written
down, and “ epistles ” composed, explaining what the writers
understood as the real teaching of Jesus.
In the “Conflict of Religion in the early Roman Empire,” Mr.
Glover says that “ Towards the end of the First Century of our
era there began to appear a number of little books, written in the
ordinary Greek of every-day life—the language which the common
people used in conversation and correspondence. It was not
literary dialect, not intended for a lettered public; but for plain
people who wanted a plain story.”
These little books appeared in a sporadic manner, as the writers
were the expelled Jews—wanderers in alien countries or returned
to a changed Judea.
The tale they tell is, on the whole, a simple one of the teaching
of this essene or ebionite, beginning already to become encrusted
with miracle, but still holding the old Jewish idea of the God’s
abode as in the days of Jacob, when he saw the ” Yahue of the
A16-im ” of Abraham, and Ale-im of Isaac standing at the top
of a ladder which reached up to a ” hole in the sky ” (Sho’r ha
Shamim), and the angels (or Chiefs, as Malakim would be properly
translated) going up and down the ladder.
This Heaven was the dread abode of the wrathful Yahweh, and
no Queen of Heaven shared his throne. The Christian Jews, in
giving Jesus the companionship of Mary Magdalene (p. 297), intro-
duced the pagan idea of the Goddess of Love—” she has much
loved.” But the Christian Church was still dominated by the curse
of Eden idea, a curse supposed to be caused by woman, and so.it
remained the only Church which did not set up a Trinity of Father,
Mother, and Son, but modified the female part of it into a dove or
Holy Ghost, or Ark (still feminine). The puritan protestant revival
of the time of Milton was saturated with the stern condemnation
of woman. In Milton’s heaven there is no mention of woman.
The dove was invariably the symbol of^Melitta, Aphrodite, and
Venus, the great Goddesses of Love and Fertility, and as the dove
was often represented as a tie between the Father and Son (the
only possible tie being the Mother, p. 167) the dogmatic trinity was
only a symbolic modification of the universal Anthropological
Trinity of Father, Mother, and Son.
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
275
All nations seem to have imagined a sole creator of the uni-
verse, then, finding him lonely, to have given him a wife and son
(Budge). So all Gods had a female counterpart, her name being
obtained in Babylonian, Egyptian, and other Eastern nations, by
adding the female affix " at *' or simply '* t " to the name of the
Male God. Dr. Wallis Budge, head of the Egyptian section of the
British Museum, says in his 44 Gods of the Egyptians," that 44 Ra "
and 44 Amen94 and other gods possessed female counterparts,
44 Rat99 and "Ament,9* rarely mentioned in the texts. 44 Man
always has fashioned his gods in his own image, and has always
given to his Gods wives and offspring." So, at last, in the myth
built round Jesus, under Greek and Egyptian influence, the great
Yahweh was provided with a wife and son, but the new idea was
hampered by the Old Testament despisal of women, and for long
the Virgin Mary was not recognised as belonging to the Heavenly
Hierarchy, and is not yet, by severe protestants, though the
Mariolatry of the Roman Catholic Church is gradually restoring
the ancient happy and natural Trinity.
Cardinal Wiseman gave his name to a certain 44 Golden Manual,"
and, on page 649, he gives the following versicle and response:
44 V. The God himself created her in the Holy Ghost and poured
her out among all his works. V.O. Our Lady hear,99 etc.; so
that the Virgin Mary is the Holy Ghost and the third person of the
Trinity, and the only difference between Roman Catholicism and
all pagan religions has been removed.
Cardinal Newman also pointed out that the question of the
inclusion of Mary in the Trinity was not settled at the Nicene Con-
ference (see p. 321), and pleads for her recognition.
-
It is curious how mountainous people resemble one another.
Scotland is a little like Palestine in its Highland character, and
its divisions into clans, as well as in its war-like, stubborn char-
acter. We find the Scotch quite as indignant as the Hebrews at
admitting anything feminine into the Trinity ; and we find Hislop,
in his 4 4 Two Babylons," waxing indignant that sinful woman
(sinful, of course, through Adam's first transgression) could possibly
form part of the Great Trinity. He asked, 4 4 Is there one good
Christian who would not shrink with horror from the thought "III
and speaks of it as an 4*» astounding blasphemy."
The present Pope? Pio X. and his Holy Inquisition have drawn
up a very good list of the points which have been dealt with by
the Abb£ Loisy, who was excommunicated for his heretical
criticism. Excommunication is an ancient practice of the Church.
Maspero, in his 44 New Light on Ancient Egypt," shows us how
276
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
excommunications were carried out at Coptos. The old lists are
very like the documents issued by Papal authority to-day, only
the Egyptian Pharaoh had more absolute power than modem
Popes; but Teti, son of Minhotpou, was effectively cursed, ex-
pelled from the temple, his living cut off, and his memory blotted
out, and if any King, or anyone performing the function of a king,
should pardon him, he, the King, was to be equally degraded
and cursed. All his dependents and the dependents of his father
and mother are equally included in the curse. This text may
illustrate the vagueness of hieroglyphic translation. Budge in his
'*Egyptian Literature'* II., cvii., says: "So much do translators
of hieroglyphics differ that Dr. Schafer says anyone reading his
translation of the decree of excommunication of King Aspelta,
would wonder if his and Professor Maspero’s can be made from
the same inscription." Of course the fact of an excommunication
having been made is not invalidated by the uncertainty as
to details and phraseology. A document 2,000 years later
than this condemned those who were excommunicated to be
burnt alive at Napata in Ethiopia, so we see one of the sources
of the great loving kindness of the Papal Church, who condemned
Bruno to be burnt to death with hypocritical formula : " To be put
to death as mercifully as possible without the spilling of his blood."
When we see able men so far apart as the Abbe Loisy and
Rev. R. J. Campbell, compelled by the study of Scripture itself,
by purely internal evidence, to abandon the miraculous birth of
Jesus by a virgin, and also to question the story of his resurrection,
and so to abandon the whole basis of Christian dogma, we may
well ask, what does the analysis of the Christian story yield us
when examined from the exterior, and compared with other pro-
ducts of Mirophily?
Even the supposed prophecy in Isaiah is treated thus by Drews :
" The passage in Isaiah, * A virgin shall conceive ’ was a sign given
to Ahaz by Isaiah, and he says that if this takes place the land of
the two Kings who were attacking him would be forsaken, and he
would be victorious. To give him heart and secure victory he goes
with his ' witnesses' (Testes, Testimonies, or Phalli) to a prophetess
and gets her with child to make his words true." (" The Christ
Myth," p. 92.)
The passage in Job: " I know that my Redeemer liveth," etc.,
is a falqp translation, to create a reference to a Christ. Job only
said he had been misunderstood and calumniated, and that long
after he had been turned to dust one would arise to dear his
character and vindicate his name.
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
277
There appear to be three sources of material which have gone
to build up the Christian Jesus (p. 279). (I) The man; (2) His
deification long after death ; (3) Dogmatic religion founded on the
deification. I hold that many of the stories of the appearance of
a prophet, or God, or demi-god, and of his miraculous doings,
and, perhaps, of his ascent into Heaven (e.g. Elijah), are based on
some real man or preacher, who became deified long after his
death. From the most learned man of his age, Eusebius (300 to
340 A.D.)’ we learn it took 300 years to deify Jesus (p. 149). Many
Gods have had a human origin. Dr. Evans shows us that even the
great Jupiter was held to have been a man, born, married, and
buried at Cnossus. (" Encyc. Brit.,” 1911, Vol. VI., p. 573.)
This central core is so feeble in the case of Jesus,—no con-
temporary writer or historian (and there were many) even men-
tioning Him,—that many able writers, Drews, for example, have
become convinced that not only the miraculous part, but the whole
story, man and all, is a myth, as the tale of his travels, etc., on
which his human existence hangs, is evidently composed by some-
one ignorant of the geography of Palestine.
But there are several points which favour the idea of the exist-
ence of a human basis, such as the mention of his father and mother,
brothers and sisters, the disbelief of the neighbours in the divinity
of the man they had known as a boy, the damaging evidence of
the cry of failure wrung from him at his death, and the sarcastic
Roman inscription : ” King of the Jews.”
No historians seriously mention Jesus, but we get a glimpse of
the true ideas concerning him, from the Gospels, and from the
tenets of the early, semi-Christian sects.
The Christian confession makes him equal and co-eternal with
the Father,—yet, in the Gospels, he always asserts his inferiority,
saying, in Mark xiii. 32, that no one, not even himself, knows the
day and hour of the Day of Judgment, but the Father (Mark x. 40).
He had no power to give seats in Heaven. In Mark x. 18, he
denies he is good, ” No one is good but God.” Again, in Mark
xiv. 36, ” All things possible to Thee.” Jesus himself is impotent,
** Not what I will but what Thou wilt,”—Then his cry on the Cross.
All these prove that Jesus considered himself the Son of God only
as alt other men were sons of God.
Then his earthly parentage—Joseph is always his real father.
In the presentation at the Temple, and at Jerusalem (Luke ii. 27-41)
his earthly parentage is asserted, and whenever it is necessary to
designate him, he is son of Joseph, or son of the carpenter. His
mother Mary, and his brothers, attributed his prophetic activity to
276
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
insanity (Mark iii. 21, 30-34). This was common amongst the
Jews. Such men were called Nabis, and special cells were con-
structed at the Temple, where they were confined in the stocks till
their frenzy cooled. If they conducted their campaign with suffi-
cient energy—yet within bounds, they often became wealthy, says
Abbe Loisy (p. 263). We see (Mark x. 29-30) Jesus promised
wealth, land, and houses to his followers.
The fact that his mother would not support his campaign, en-
tirely disposes of the story of her divine impregnation, and immacu-
late conception. She was the one important witness of his divinity,
and had she been visited by a God she would have been only too
proud of the fact, and would have firmly proclaimed her son’s
claims. After his death the “ congregation ’’ to which the mother
and brothers of Jesus belonged, and whose chief was his eldest
brother James, knew nothing of his divine parentage, and by the
Ebionites, the successors of this ” congregation,” he was called
” Jesus, son of Joseph.”
The idea of his mother’s impregnation by the ” Holy Ghost ”
could never have arisen among the Jews, as their Holy Spirit or
Ghost was feminine, and Jesus had an earthly female parent.
Eusebius says the Ebionites believed Jesus to be a simple and
common man, born (as other men) of Mary and her husband
(Ecclesiastical History. Lib. 3, Ch. xxiv.) The Cerinthians, Docetes,
Marcionites, Manicheans, early sects who were in touch with the
feeling of the century immediately after Jesus, all held he was born
of earthly parents. On the other hand, had a theoretical son of God
been entirely “evolved from their inner consciousness,” or from the
myths of Asia, the writers would surely haver constructed a more
homogeneous story, and his divine birth and translation to Heaven
would have been told more consistently. I therefore hold that the
story of a central core of a preaching Mullah, or Nabi, full of the idea
of the destiny of his race, to bring all mankind under Yahweh the
special Heavenly Father of the Jews, and also imbued with the
idea that Yahweh intended the Jews to form a magnificent Kingdom
and rule the earth in peace, may be historical.
But he was evidently such a humble person that he caused no
great stir, and had never a sufficient number of followers to be
threatening, but he had no doubt talked dangerous stuff about the
coming great Jewish Kingdom, so the Romans made an example
of him by ^killing him, or more probably simply scourging him or
putting him in the stocks with the sarcastic inscription, as the tale
of his trial and crucifixion is purely invention. Such talk of a
Messiah was intellectual meat and drink to the Jews, and might
lead to revolt.
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
279
When his mission failed, and he was killed or expelled, the
Jews circulated the story that he had ascended into Heaven, a
common idea in these days, some imagining the actual ladder for
the ascent, or wings with which to mount. Some, on the other
hand, still believed that he would come with his Heavenly Host to
re-establish the Jewish Kingdom. Then began to gather round
his memory all the current beliefs about Sons of God, which sun
worship had made common all over the world ; and his life became
incrusted with miracle.
The Jews’ dream of the arrival of a Son of God was not simply
the vague widespread belief, derived from the arrival of the Saviour
Sun every spring. They had a firm faith that they were to rule
the world under their Yahweh, by purely peaceful methods, when
the lion would lie down with the lamb. They considered that in
the twinkling of an eye all would be changed, and all nations lay
down their arms—a beautiful dream. So it was not the universal
vague Son of God, but an actual son (Mess), of their own awful
Yahweh, or lah, or Jah, an idea they expressed by the compound
word Mess-iah, son of lah. Mess was expressed by an ideograph
of a woman giving birth to a child. Hence, the constant phrases,
” born of woman,” ” born of a virgin ” (pp. 285-286).
Then came the evolution of the “ Great Sacrifice ” idea, the
fall of man, and redemption through the blood of God’s son, or
really of the God himself, as Jesus was as eternal as the father,
a creed common to all Asia. We have then, the three stages : (I)
A prophet or teacher is said to meet with a martyr’s death; (2)
Mirophily at work incrusting the simple history with miracles; (3)
his story becomes the basis of religion, and its dogma is evolved.
Those who evolved the dogma would, no doubt, have preferred to
create a homogeneous story, but they were hampered by the simple
biographies mentioned\>n page 274. Mark’s Gospel is a late type
of such biographies when the memory of Jesus began to be in-
crusted with miracles. John’s Gospel is an attempt to get a more
firm support for the early dogma, and to create a new Jesus, a
mystical Son of Yahweh.
I have dealt to a certain extent with the first and third stages,
in treating of the internal or textual criticism of the New Testament,
and shall return to them again. We may consider the first, stripped
of the accretions of the second and third, to be pure secular history,
and the third a sort of philosophy or theory founded on the. com-
posite figure built up of the first and second. The second is,,
therefore, the essential part on which religion is built, being the
mirophilic section, which is the essential core and the foundation
260
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
of all authority, by which any given religion is riveted on man—
without the miraculous, as proving its divine origin, no religion
exists. It is then only a sage’s or philosopher’s advice, or message
of man to man. With miracles it is the message of God to man.
Hence, I will examine all the points which make Jesus the
Divine Son of God, as on that platform is built the Christian Church.
The first thing which strikes a student of religion is, that their
miraculous stories have a very close family resemblance. An
illustration is better than any amount of explanation, and, as an
example, 1 have made a collection of all the myths which have
gathered round Krishna the Buddha, and Jesus, the Jewish Messiah
or Christ, and present them here in tabulated form. This list was
composed many years ago, in a letter to a friend. I have made a
short note to explain the subject, and although written so long ago,
I allow it to stand, as it is as applicable to-day.
IDENTICAL INCIDENTS IN THE LIVES OF CHRISTNA AND
CHRIST.
NOTE.—All authorities agree that from 600 B.C. to 200 A.D. was the 44 great
Epoch of Bible making,** and it has been said that the heathen nations copied
the idea of the ** Angel-Messiah ** (Bunsen) from the Jewish writings. Exactly
the contrary is the case, as the Old Testament does not contain a single reference
to future life or soul (except negatively), and is absolutely silent on the idea of
4* Angel-Messiah " or Redeemer, as set forth in the New Testament—whereas,
all the Pagan** religions are founded on this, and, all the Sons of God, or Sun
Gods, die or cross over into Paradise to redeem the world from sin or winter.
It appears, then, that the ideas in the New Testament were (as is well proved for
those of the Old Testament) adopted from the surrounding nations. I have a
list of 26 Saviours before the Christian one, all with histories identical with Jesus.
Chrishna being well known in Egypt, and especially in Alexandria, whence
Christianity originated, is most probably the type on which the New Testament
writing was founded, although all other Sun Gods have a very similar history.
The history of Chrishna may be said to have been repeated 400 years later in
that of Gautama Buddha, whose parallel with Christ is quite as close.
Note that the incidents Nos. 36, 37, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51,
52, 70, and 71 are Fish incidents in the life of Jesus which have no
parallel in the life of Chrishna.
REFERENCES.
IDENTICAL INCIDENTS. CHRISTNA. CHRISHNA, CHRIST OR
OR KRISHNA. 800 b.c. KRISTOS.
(I) Bom of a chaste Virgin chosenHist. Hindustan, V., II., Matt. i. 20,
by the Lord on account of her p. 327
purity Vishnu Purana, p.502
Luke i. 27
Apoc. Gospel of
Mary, Ch, vii.
Vishnu descended into
Devalue womb Matt, and Luke
(21 Real Father Spirit of God Vishnu Purana, 440
(3) Earthly Father or Foster Father Nanda Joseph,
Asiatic Researches, I., 259, Matt.i. I9,ii. 13-19.
Lukei. 27, il.4.
(4) Of Royal Descent
Muddled Genealogy
Higgin’s “Anacalvpaia *
Astatic ReMwctJCl.. 259 Matt. 1. and Luke
iii.24, generations
of Jesus.
History of Hindoetan, II„ 910, Do, do.
History Hind.
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
261
IDENTICAL INCIDENTS.
(6) Deity in Human Form
(7) Angela hail Virgin
(8) Birth announced by a star
(9) Name of Virgin
(10) Miraculous Father
REFERENCES.
CHRISTNA, CHRISHNA, CHRIST OR
OR KRISHNA, 800 b.c.
Sir Wm. Jones,
Asiatic Researches, I., 279,
285.
Allen's India. 397.
Indian Antiquity, III., 45.
Hist. Hind.,II., 270
Hist. Hind., II. 329
KRISTOS.
Christian Creed.
HUt. Hind., II.. 317,336
Devaki (Maya)
-
Holy Spirit, Vishnu
(11) Birth announced by pleasing Vishnu Purana, p. 502
sounds from the sky
(12) Born in an abject and humilia-Hist. Hind., II., 311
ting state in a Cave (Inn, Farm)
(13 Cave filled with light
(14) Angels sang at night
Cox Aryan Myths, II.,
p. 133.
Higgins Anacal., I., 130.
Vishna Finance, 502.
Vishna Purana Tran.
G. H. H. Wilson.
(15) Spoke to his Mother immediately Hist. Hind., II., 311.
on Birth
(16) Adored by Cowherds and
Shepherds
Luke i. 28-29, and
Mary Apoc. Gospel,
vii.
Matt. ii. 2.
Mary
Holy Spirit, God
Jehovah.
Lukeii. 13.
Cave still shown at
Bethlehem Apoc.
Gospels sacred
Cavern. Farrar’s Life
of Christ, 38.
Apoc. Gos. Plot-
evangelicon, Ch. xii.
and xiii.
Luke ii. 8-15.
Shepherds watched
flocks by night.
" Infancy," Apoc.
Gos.
Luke ii. 8-9.
(17) Magi Guided by Stars
(18) Earthly Father Carpenter
" Infancy " Apoc.
Gos.
Matt. ii. 2
Matt. xiii. 55.
Markvi. 3.
Matt. ii. 2.
Higgins' Annual, VI.,
129, 130.
Hist, Hind., II.. 256,257.
317, also Vishna Purana.
Wise men examine his
star.
Chas. Morris, Aryan Sun
Myths.
(19) Costly jewels, precious sub-Sandal Wood & Perfumes,
stances given to him by Magi or Amberley’s Analysis, 177.
Wise Men Bunsen's Angel-Messiah,
36.
(20) Bom poor, but of Royal Descent Asiatic Researches, I., 259. Matt, and Luke,
Hist. Hind., II., 310.
(21) Father away from home paying Vishnu Purana, V., ch. iii. Luke,
tribute or taxes
(22) Shown in a Manger Asiatic Researches, I., 259. Luke ii. 7.
(23) Mother on a journey at an Inn Aryan Sun Myths.
(24) Preceded by a Forerunner Rama.
Hist. Hind., II.. 316.
(25) Ruler sought Fore-runner's life Kanza
(34) King slays Fore-runner
(26) Stayed at Mutarea or Mattura
Hist. Hind., II., 318.
Savery, Egypt, I., 126
Apoc. Infancy.
Higgins Ana., I., 130
Ana., I.. 129.
Mathura is Christina's
Birthplace.
Luke ii. 7.
John Baptist.
Herod.
Matt. xiv.
Markvi. 14.
Farrar's Life of
Chriet, p. 58. Apoc.
Infancy. Higgins
Anac.% I., 130.
Savery's Travels in
Egypt, 1., 126. Hist.
Hind., II., 318.
282
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
REFERENCES.
IDENTICAL INCIDENTS. CHRISTNA, CHRISHNA. CHRIST OR
OR KRISHNA. 800 b.c. KRISTOS.
(35) Babe*s life preserved
(27) Very learned when young Hist. Hind.. II.. 321.
(28) Chosen King by boy companions Hist. Hind., II., 321.
(291 Son of Father’s old age Vishnu Purana.
(30) Father warned in a dream that J. C. Gangooly, Life and
King or Ruler sought to kill Religion of the Hindoos,
Babe p. 134.
(311 King Kansa.
(32) Father and Mother fled Asiatic Researches, I„
233. 259.
(33) Slaughter of Innocents, so as to Gangooly, p. 134. Sculp-
include Divine Babe ture in Caves of Elephanta
(very old).
Co*. II.. 134.
Hist. Hind.. II., 331
(361 Made Fish Ponds No mention of this.
(37) Struck dead a boy who broke .. „ ., ,,
Fish Pond
(38) Miracles. These are of little Hist. Hind., II., 319
interest, as all Gods, Demi-gods, Raised the dead, etc.
Apostles, Prophets, and even
Witches and Sorcerers, did all
kinds of miracles, but Chrishna
and Christ perform the same
nature of miracles, one of the
first of which is curing a Leper.
The only radical difference is the
mention of fish in the case of
Jesus, and not in that of Krishna
(39) Beginning of Religious Life. Moncure D. Conway,
Fasted. Siamese Life of Buddha,
p. 44. 172, and 173. Fo
Heng of Prof. S.
(40) Tempted of the Devil. Offered Bunsen’s Angel Messiah,
Empire of the world. 38, 39 ; Beal Hardy, and
others.
(41) Reproves Satan Ditto
(42) Anointed by poor woman Hist. Hind., II., 320
Li
!431 Twelve Apostles or Disciples Aryan Sun Myths.
44) Chose two Fishers (Simon and No fish or Fishers
Andrew) mentioned.
(45) Chose two Fishers (Jpmes and Ditto
John)
(461 Two Ships Ditto
(47) Chooses Simon, James, and Ditto
John, fishers
(48) Miraculous draft of Fishes Ditto
(491 Fishers (Apostles) Ditto
(50) Feeds 5,000 men besides women
and children on five loaves and
two fishes Ditto
(51) Tribute money from Fishes Ditto
mouth
(52) Fed 4,000—seven loaves and Small cakes—no Fish,
few small fishes Aryan Sun Myths.
Infancy Apoc., Ch.
Infancy Apoc., Ch.
*viii.
Gospels.
Matt. ii. 13.
Herod.
Matt. ii. 13.
Matt. ii. 16.
Matt, ii., etc.
Gospels
Apoc. Infancy.
Matt. viii. 2
Raised the dead, etc.
Matt. iv. 1-11.
Matt, iv., Luke i. 12,
Luke iv.
Ditto
Matt. xxvi. 6, Mark
xiv. 3, Luke vii. 37,
John xii., 3.
All Gospels.
Matt. iv. 18
Matt. iv. 21, John i.
42. ” Simon, Son
of Jona."
Luke vi. 14
Luke v. 6, John xxi.
6.
Matt. iv. 18, Mark i.
16, Luke v., John
xxi. 7.
Matt. xiv. 15, xv. 32.
Matt, xvii. 27.
Matt. xv. 34.
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
283
REFERENCES.
IDENTICAL INCIDENTS. CHRISTNA, CHRISHNA,
OR KRISHNA. 800 b.c.
(53) Bruiting Head of Serpent Asiatic Researches. I.
Higgins Anac.. II.
Bunsen's Angel Messiah.
(54) Transfigured before Disciples ^Williams* Hinduism.
p. 215.
(55) Meekest and best-tempered of Monier Williams’
beings Hinduism, p. 144.
(56) Alpha and Omega Geeta Lect.. X.. p. 85
(57) Crucified with arms extended ; Moor's Hindu Pantheon
marks on hands, feet, and side. Inman's Ancient Faiths.
Vol. I., p 411.
(58) Sun darkened at Crucifixion ; Prog. Relig. Ideas, I., 71
consoled thief and hunter
(59) Pierced Arrow. Vish. Pur., p. 162.
(60) Descended into Hell Bonwick's Egyptian Belief,
168. Indian Antiquities.
II.. 85.
(61) Rose from the Dead
(62) Ascended into Heaven
Dupui's Origin of Reli-
gious Beliefs, 240. Hig-
gins* Ana. II.. 142, 145.
Bonwick's Egyptian Belief,
168. Asiatic He., I.. 259.
261.
CHRIST OR
KRISTOS.
Corinthians Revela-
tions, etc.
Matt, xvii., Mark ix.
2, Luke ix. 29, John
i. 14. 2 Peter 1. 16
John xiii.
Rev. i. 8-11, xxii. 13
xxi. 6.
Gospels.
Matt. xxii.
Matt, xxviii. Creed.
Mark xvi., Luke
xxiv., John xx.
Mark xvi. 9, Luke
xxiv. 51, Acts i. 9.
(63) Many saw him ascend Hist. Hind., II.. 466-473. Gospels.
Prog. Rel. Ideas. I., 172.
(64) Come again ; Warrior on White Hist. Hind., I., 497, 503. Revelations vi. 2.
Horse ; Sun and Moon will be Williams' Hinduism, 108.
darkened ; Stars will fall from Prog. Rel. Ideas, I.. 75.
Firmament
(65) Judge on Last Day Oriental Religions, Matt. xxiv. 31.
p. 504. Romans xiv. 10.
(66) Had a Beloved Disciple. Arjuna Arjuna, Bhagavat. John.
was both the cousin and beloved John xiii. 23.
Apostle of Chrishna ; but Jesus These two names are really identical,
had two Johns, John the Baptist
his cousin, and John the Beloved
Apostle
(67) Creator of all things Gheeta, p. 52.
(68) Transfigured shining light bright Williams' Hinduism,
cloud p. 215.
(69) Second person in Trinity Ancient of Days, Brama
Eternal one far off.
God on Earth Chrishna
John i. 3, I. Cor. viii.
6, Eph. iii. 9.
Matt. xvii. 1-6.
Ancient of Days,
Father Eternal one
far off.
Son Christ. God on
Earth.
Vishnu, Fertile principle.
Female symbol Dove.
(70) After Resurrection eats Fried No fish reference,
or Broiled Fish
(71) After Resurrection causes Ditto
miraculous draft of Fishes
(72) Light of the World Williams' Hinduism,
p. 213.
(73) Predicts his own Death Hist. Hindostan, II., 275.
(74) Walking over a river or sea Hist. Hindostan, II., 331.
Holy Ghost Ruach,
Fertile principle,
Female symbol Dove
Luke xxiv. 42-43.
John xxi. 13.
John xxi. 6.
John viii. 12.
Gospels.
Matt. xiv. 25-27.
284 CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
1 might have put at the head of this table the name of the Indian
god as sometimes spelled Christna. It is quite possible that the
name applied to Jesus, viz.: Christ was derived from the Indian
name, or that both descend from a common source.
In dealing with the life of Krishna, Chrishna, or Christna, all
Christian writers are prepared to admit that it is simply a sun myth.
The young babe born from the virgin dawn, Maya, in a cave—
the dark East before sunrise, his struggles with the enemies of
winter—cruel winter (personified by Kanza and Herod), which kills
so many innocents by cold every year, of Royal descent—son of
the sun, as were all Eastern monarchs, birth announced by a star—
Venus before sunrise,—adored by agriculturists who are dependent
on the sun for their crops, performs miracles, raises the dead—all
life depends on the sun, makes the blind see—the sun is the light
of the world—and is darkened at his death, eclipse, or sunset,
descended into hades (night), or winter, rose again every morning
or annually at the solstice,—is passed over or crossed over, or
crossified, or crucified over the equator to bring paradise or the
garden of summer, to save mankind, as, without the summer’s sun,
man would perish,—Saviour of the world; for without the sun
universal death would reign. As the facts in the life of Jesus are
identical, his life is also the sun myth.
Jesus was, in the gospels, slain, as the Lamb of God, at the
Jews’ equinoctial feast of the pass-over, which had nothing to do
with their apocryphal sojourn in Egypt and the slaughter of the
first bom, but purely Babylonian, the word Pascha is Akkadian
(p. 304) or Chaldean. (“ Catholic Dictionary,” Addis and Arnold.)
The feast was held, as all spring festivals were, to celebrate the
coming of summer by the pass-over of the sun over the equator
from the winter coldness to summer warmth at the Spring Equinox.
This slaying of the lamb, or ram, was performed because, at the
Spring Equinox, the sun was in Aries, the Constellation of the
Lamb, which was thus obliterated, or sacrificed, or burnt up in the
sun’s rays, as, of course, the stars are invisible by day—hence,
” burnt ” offerings.
The pass-over referred to the sun’s passing the equator to make
a paradise, or garden, to all nations in the Northern Hemisphere,
where all such religions had their rise, and to save mankind from
the eternal death which would ensue by a perpetual winter. This
was called the crossing over or crucifying of the Saviour, long before
the time of Jesus.
The term ” Christ,” the anointed one, applied to all kings, high
priests, and to anyone to whom anointing by the ” Chrism ” or
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
285
holy oil was applied, may have been a Greek work derived from
Chrinoi, to anoint, used instead of Messiah, or it may be Christna
minus the last syllable. By translating Messiah literally, as
son of Jah, an effete tribal god, the Christian position would
have been rendered ridiculous in the eyes of all the world, except
the Jews, so he was referred to as ** the anointed one,** or a later
Christna.
The Jewish God, Jah, or Iah, which we call Jehovah or Yahweh,
was enshrined in the very core and fibre of the Jewish nature, as
we see by the hundreds of names in the Old Testament ending in
Iah. We have very early Eli-jah ; or Eli is Iah, or Ale-im is
Yahweh, Elohim is Jehovah—or, if we follow the Bible mis-transla-
tion, God is our Lord. We pronounce this word Elijah, El-eye-jah,
instead of Eli-yah, the i short as in ” pin.** Then there is Baal-jah,
Baal is Jah, Isa-iah, or Isa is Jah, whom we erroneously call
Eye-say-ah, instead of Eesah-yah, its true pronunciation. This was
at one time an almost universal rule in making names, as shown
by the crowd of Old Testament names—Ahaz-iah, Azar-iah,
Hanan-iah, Asa-iah, Yeda-iah, Hesek-iah, Jerem-iah, etc., all
** lovers,** servants, or followers of Iah, Jah, or Jehovah. But
the Son of God, the Saviour, who was to descend from heaven
and found the universal Jewish Kingdom, was the actual son really
born of lah the Mess-iah.
This word Mess was universal all over Western Asia, as mean-
ing 44 son of,” 44 out of,” or 44 out of the middle of,*’ or merely
44 in the middle of,” as in Mesopotamia, 4‘in the middle of the
rivers/4 from the Greek form Mesos.
In Egypt this word was used in the sense of 44 out of,” meaning
44 born of,” as we still say in the pedigree of horses, etc., and was
derived from a very old hieroglyphic or ideogram which
originally was a picture of a woman standing, and being delivered
of a child. The Egyptian Thet, or Buckle, showing bi-sexual pro-
duction of life, is parallel to this.
This symbol Mess is invariably used when Egyptian Kings claim
to be the son of the supreme god, as when Raineses is written
Ra-Mes; the second “es” is not always in the name, and the
Egyptians had a habit of emphasising an important word by
doubling it. So Raineses should be Ramess, son of Ra the Sun, or
Supreme God. Even the Greek Ptolemy seems to have had his
name corrupted (the Greeks were great sinners in this respect, often
rendering names unrecognisable) from Ptah-mess or Son of Ptah,
then supreme god of Egypt, to Ptolemy.
The doubling of the “ s ” is a common practice in all languages.
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CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
There is no rule ; the single or double is quite arbitrary. It is even
tripled in some cases—reading Ra-mes-es-es and sometimes
omitted, Ra 0 ^ mes giving Ra-mes, and Ra-messu. When
used with Thoth or Tehuti or Aah it is often doubled, but never
pronounced. We have simply Thoth-mes, Tehuti-mes, Aah-mes
(son of the moon), son of Thoth, Tehuti, or Aah. The corrupt
popular pronunciation of Ramess as Rameses is no doubt due to
Greek transmission, as the Greeks were great corruptors of names.
The word Mess, meaning out of the middle of,” has also a
meaning of the ” divider ” or opener, just as Eden might be
described as dividing the rivers, instead of ” between ” or ” in
the midst of the rivers,” and we find that the Phallic Baal, so much
worshipped by the Hebrews, bears the Phallic meaning of the
opener or the Phallus. The great Phallic Greek and Roman gods
were all called ” openers of the womb.” Pylades and Orestes took
their god for a witness Mesitis ” in the middle ”—the same method
of swearing as used by Abraham. So the Mess-jah was the actual
son begotten of Yahweh.
Bishop Hawes admits " that God should in some extraordinary
manner visit and dwell with man is an idea which, as we read the
writings of ancient heathens, meets us in a thousand different
forms.” Not only were Messiahs expected by the old nations, as
Bunsen showed in his "Angel Messiah,” but the ignorant of
modem nations still hold the idea, as we see from the Times of
13th December, 1910, where, writing of the popular hero, Premier
of Greece, M. Venezelos, the correspondent says:—" He is wel-
comed as the Saviour or Regenerator of Greece, and has even been
compared with the long expected Messiah.”
Celestial origins, through immaculate conception, were attri-
buted to anyone who distinguished himself in some striking manner,
or were claimed by anyone who sat on a throne. Greek and
Roman Kings who sat on the throne of Egypt, such as the Greek
Ptolemy Soter, “ Son of God the Saviour,” or the Latin Autokrator
Kisares, the Autocratic Lord of the earth, the Kaisar of the
Germans.
But even the word Auto-krator makes the divine Claim, as it is
derived from Autos ” self ” and Kratos ” strength,” or even
” life,” really meaning ” self created,” that is, a God. “ Krator,”
a vase, was the symbol of the womb—the creator of all life (see
Figs. 38, <39 and 90 (PP. 63, 101).
That the New Testament was composed and edited by a sect
who wished to make a clear break off from the Old Testament, is
evident from the total change of language, and especially of
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
287
names. It was not written in Jerusalem, but in Greek
countries, Alexandria, and Asia Minor, or Latin Rome, and the
Jah of the Hebrews would have been treated with contempt there,
so he is never mentioned. Even the word Messiah, " Son of Iah,”
or Yahweh is rendered *' Christ,” so as to cut the connection. In-
stead of names ending in Iah, or Baal, or Bosheth, we have neutral
names, like those of the twelve apostles, which contain only the
Akkadian God, Johannes, John, and the beloved Tammuz, as
Thomas ; but no Jahs.
We have Latin terminations, like Lazarus, Theophilus,
Cornelius, Crispus, Nicodemus; or Graeco-Egyptians like
Sosthenes, the chief of the Synagogue, Aquilla, Priscilla, and
Sceva, James, Stephen, Paul, Barnabas, Simevu ; but no Iah. This
suggests a concocted document, not national history.
-
There is a disguised Iah in Ananias the liar, thus discrediting
the old God, and the old El, Eli, Al, or Ale-im, in Gamali-el the
Pharisee or Parsee, a sun worshipper, again represented as an
enemy of Christianity.
But the whole New Testament writing shows, by the choice
of words, and the entire ignoring of the old Hebrew gods, and the
utter ignorance of real Jewish geography and history, that it is no
history at all, but, like the first chapter of Genesis, the work of
a scribe sitting down calmly to create history, to support a religious
dogma which was being formed in centres far removed from Pales-
tine or Jerusalem.
1CHTHYS WORSHIP.
It will be seen from the comparative table (given on pp. 280-283)
that the only fundamental difference between Chrishna and Jesus
is the intrusion of fishes (plural) in the narrative.
The myth of Jesus is copied, word for word, from the East;
but we have the introduction of a new element, that of fishes, all
through the narrative. It is not the fish idea of the sea being the
source of all life, and the dolphin the universal womb; it is the
idea of a pair of linked fishes, the sign of the Zodiac ” pisces.”
The sun was always too holy to be addressed in his own name,
hence, he was either called the Hidden One, as the Egyptian
” Amen ” we still apostrophise in our prayers, or he is mentioned
by the ” house ” in which he astrologically dwells, just as are our
monarchs (see p. 125).
The sun had been worshipped, very probably, for one great
round of the precessional movement, before men began to express
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CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
the symbols of their worship in burnt clay, or in sculptured stones
which could come down to us. -
This great movement, or precession of the Equinoxes amongst
the stars, as we call it, or “ movement of the fixed stars," as the
French astronomers say, takes a period of over 25,800 years for
its accomplishment, that is an average for each of the twelve signs
or Houses of the Sun of 2,150 years; but it must be remembered
that the boundaries of the constellations were not clearly fixed
among the ancient astronomers, and, as they varied in extent, this
may be varied by a few hundred years, more or less, for each con-
stellation. It might take 200, or even 300 years, before the old
astronomers were quite sure that the sun was fairly " housed ” in
the new constellation in the Spring Equinox. In dealing with this
motion here, 1, therefore, give only approximate dates, as authorities
differ according to the views they take as to the boundaries of the
old constellations. I gave theoretical figures at page 126. There
were, therefore, two great " years ” of the Zodiacal signs; the
common year, when the sun went from constellation from month
to month, and the great year of twenty-five thousand years of
houses, into which the sun was born or wedded each Spring
Equinox, and which changed very slowly ; in fact, so imperceptibly
that it is a marvel to modem astronomers how the ancients found
it out.
Probably it was their religions, which, being fixed by a “ revela-
tion mirologue ” and unchangeable, gradually revealed that the
sun was leaving one house of the god and passing into another.
About the year 6700 B.C., the sun had entered into Gemini.
This period goes back beyond the time of written or even sculptured
history, and we find that, in the dim beginnings of all religions,
there occurred a period of the worship of Twins. It was only
natural that good and evil should be personified as God and Devil,
a good brother and a bad one, but not natural that evil should exist
in a young child, so, as children, we find they are represented
as beautiful twin babes ; but later we have them as Cain and Abel.
These sons were interpolated in the original lives of Adam and
Eve, as given in chapter v. of Genesis, the “ Book of the Genera-
tions of Adam,” or Toldhoth, and hence, in the authentic history
of the myth, there is no Cain and Abel, Seth being Adam's first
born (p. 336). The twin myth was too far back for the modern
Jews to incorporate it properly in the genealogy of their tribal
history. Every nation had its Cain and Abel.
Rome had Romulus and Remus; Egypt had Typhon and
Osiris; Syrih had Tammuz and Nergal; Persia had Ahura Mazda,
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
289
„or Ormuzd, and Arihman ; Greece had Python and Apollo, and
Castor and Pollux; and all the host of Asiatic religions had their
twin deities.
Goldziher says that solar heroes are regarded as founders of city
life, and a fratricide often precedes the building of a city. Cain
was the first builder of a city. Cain and Abel had doubles, Tubal-
Cain (artifice builder) and Jabal (agriculturist). Romulus slew
Remus, then founded Rome.
Then, about 4500 B.c., the sun passed from Gemini to Taurus,
the Bull, and we have the great period of bull and cow worship.
The Babylonian held to the masculine cult, and had then great
winged bulls, with human head, as we see in the British Museum.
And the Egyptians, who at that time adhered to the female cult,
worshipped the cow, as at Thebes (Theba—a cow), and they had
their Venus, Hathor, represented by a cow.
Later, they seem to have worshipped either male or female,
and adopted the Bull of Apis to represent the masculine half of the
symbol of life. This was adopted by the Romans, and combined
with the Peor, feminine emblem of the “ Baal-peor” of the
Hebrews (both countries, Egypt and Palestine, being provinces of
the Roman Empire), thus forming the new name of Peor-apis or
Priapus, under which name the combined sexual organs were wor-
shipped throughout the whole Roman Empire, even in Britain.
The ancients sometimes put the feminine before the masculine, as
in Om-phale, peor-Apis, but the masculine was generally placed
first as in Baal-peor, Hermaphrodite, Yang-yin. No excavation
can be made where there are Roman remains, in Britain or in
France, without coming across symbolic devices of Priapus in stone,
metal, ivory, glass, or porcelain, which cannot be reproduced in
a book for public circulation.
Slowly the great motion of the earth’s axis went on, till, in an-
other two thousand years, the house of the Bull was vacated for
that of the Lamb, which was entered by the Sun about 2400 to
2500 B.C., so that it was in full swing when the mythical history
of the Hebrews began, and we find their most sacred sacrifice was
a first-born ram lamb.
Aries was either the Lamb or Ram, for the two words are
identical, R and L being the same in early languages.
The word includes Rams, Ewes, Ram Lambs, and Ewe Lambs,
and, as the Church is the Bride of God, or of his representative, the
Bishop, who weds hip “ spouse ” or Church with a ring on his
appointment, the Church is always feminine, represented while the
sun was in Aries by a ewe ; so the English Church planted yews
U
290
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
all round the edifice, as a symbol of the “ Lamb of God,'* and,
at first, spelt it ewe not yew. Every village in Egypt had its special
ram, or lamb, deity, and it became the universal symbol of Solar
Deity. But in a settled land, like Egypt, the old temples dedicated
to past gods still clung to their observances, and, in consequence,
the land was eaten up with priests. The people had to pay for
feasts, baptisms, prayers, burial services, and all the priestly
consolations, to three and perhaps more churches, so we find
Amenhotep IV. trying to effect a simplification of the matter by
declaring that they were all Solar worship. He took the priestly
symbolical name of Khu-en-Aten, or, as others read it, Aknaton.
“ Glory of the Solar disk,” and instituted a simpler worship at Tel
El Amarna ; but no sooner was he dead than they pulled down his
temples, and no doubt the crowd of starving discontented priests
preyed on the miserable fellaheen, as before.
About two hundred years before the birth of Jesus, the sun was
passing out of Aries and was entering ” Pisces,” but as the
boundaries of the constellation were then somewhat nebulous, it
may have been any time, from 150 B.C. down to the time of Jesus,
before the priests would declare the fact definitely. It always took
a little time for the new nomenclature to be accepted, so those
nations which had astronomers would be the first to accept the
new ” House of God,” and others who were ignorant of astronomy,
like the Hebrews, would be later in hearing the glad tidings of the
advent of a new star or house.
So that, a little before the birth of Jesus, other nations were
making the change ; but the worship of the Heavenly Host was
getting laughed at in Greece, and the Venuses and Vestas, Aphro-
dites, Hestias, and Hermes, or Mercuries, degraded to light
comedy; so Pisces or Ichthys in Greek never became a real
worship.
The sun being now well established in Pisces, an attempt was
made to maintain continuity by founding the new or reformed
religion on the old solar basis, and we see the reason of tinting all
the mirodox of Jesus with fishes and fish ideas. It was to recognise
the change of the House of the Sun.
Hundreds of writers, all over the Christian era down to Drews
1910, have shown, by elaborate analysis, that Jesus was clearly die
young sun reborn every year. That is why we have only one year
of his life, like the 365 years (days) of Melchixedek, and die same
with Enoch ip. 260), neither of whom die ; they ” walk with god,”
or are taken up direct into heaven. Or Job, whose one year’s life
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
291
shows his seven beautiful sons (summer months) slain by the blasts
of winter; but next year he begins as before, with all his seven
sons well and strong.
Goldziher, the great Hebrew scholar, after showing that Cain’s
posterity, for instance, Jubal who made the lyre (thus, Apollo, the
sun), are all sun myths; in a most learned and elaborate study,
which has become a classic, tells us that “ We find Cain's posterity,
to be repetitions of their ancestors, mere solar figures of the old
myth," like the Sons of Jove (see p. 136).
Into the whole story of the life of Jesus is woven this thread of
Pisces, as can be seen by referring to my tabular statement (pp.
280-283).
In the apocryphal gospel of his youth, Jesus makes " fish
ponds." A boy who " broke " them, so that the fish would die,
is struck dead with a glance of the eye of the boy Jesus.
In calling his Apostles, he calls first of all a pair of fishers, Simon
and Andrew. They leave the sea, and join him. Pisces is always
a pair. To emphasise this symbol, he calls another pair of fishers,
James and John.
There are even a pair of fishing boats in Luke v. 2, and Luke
seems to think two pairs of fishers required explanation, so he says
that James and John were partners of Peter (Simon).
No other Apostles seem deserving of notice ; the others of the
twelve are only once casually mentioned, never appointed. Some
other writer, in Matthew x. 2, gives the full list.
In all three synoptic gospels, the two sets of fishers are alone
mentioned, so as to emphasise two pairs of fish or Pisces—Matt. iv.
18-22, Marki. 16-20, Luke v. Ml.
In Luke v. 6. Jesus makes a miraculous draft of fishes.
Then he feeds the 4,000 and 3,000 with loaves (like Krishna) and
two little fishes (Matt. xiv. 13-21, Mark vi. 37-44, Luke ix. 10-17,
John vi. 1-14).
He takes tribute from fish’s mouth (Matt. xvii. 24-27).
He makes miraculous draft of fishes after resurrection (John
xxi. 3-6).
Pfcter girds fisher’s coat about him (John xxi. 7).
Fish Sacrament or Eucharist before ascent to heaven (John xxi.
8-13).
The identification, of Jesus with the sun in Pisces caused other
changes.
The change of. the Passover, or Crucifixion, from Thursday to
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CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
Friday, and the Holy Day from Saturday to Sunday came about
between 150 B.C. when the sun went into the house of Pisces (the
Fishes), and was finally confirmed by the establishment of Chris-
tianity under the Romans. There were two causes. The Jews held
to the Babylonian worship to Saturn, as Father of the Gods, whose
Holy Day was Saturday or Sabbath, while the Romans were sun
worshippers, the sun being the creator of life and Sunday the Holy
day. It was natural that Jesus, being the Sun, should be re-born
on the Sun’s day, the Dies invicta Solis of the Romans. Giving
the forty hours in the tomb, this would throw his crossing over or
“ Crucifixion " to commence on Friday. The second reason was
that the sun, being now in the “ Fish ” house, must die on ** Fish ”
day. Friday had always been a “ Fish ” Fete, as representing the
fecundity of Venus, or Freya, the universal fruitful mother. Fish
means fecundity, and was eaten in celebration of Venus on her
day, Dies Veneris, or Vendredi in French. (See day names,
pp. 106-109.) Hence, there already existed a day holy to “ Ich-
thys,” as Jesus was called, up till the fifth century, and hence the
passover day of the “ Great Fish ’’ as he was called, was doubly
fixed for Friday.
Under Venus, Friday was a day of joy and good luck—female
is fortunate or lucky (pp. 43, 87, 123), but the Hebrews or
early Christians, by stating that Jesus was killed on that
day, turned it into a day of gloom, and “ bad luck.”
The Jews held the passover as a day of hope and joy,
as it should be; but the Christians made it a day of horror
by using the term “ Crossover ” instead of “ Passover,” and so
introducing the idea of a cross, and placing a man on it, made it
a day of death and despair. Finally, about 600 A.D. (see p. 304)*
representing him as suffering a cruel death, they turned it into a
day of sorrow and gloom. As the beginning of Spring, and the
garden or Paradise half of the year, it should be a joyous fete, and
it was so with all Pagan nations. By turning ” Woman’s day ”
into a day of wrath or death, the Hebrew Christians found another
powerful symbol for completing the debasement of woman, as the
cause of all evil. They even made Venus’s month, the merry
month of May, unlucky.
Jesus was worshipped as Ichthys, or Ikthus, the Fish (Greek was
now spoken in Palestine) from 360 A.D. till the time of Justinian, 550,
and the doctrine had a deep hold on professing Christians.
(Geiseler, Vol. II., second period, ” Public Worship,” p. 145,
also “•Codejc Theodosianus,” Lib. XVI., tit. I. leg 2, see also
leg. 3.)
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
293
-
We see it all through Europe, fish carved on monuments,
even to Ireland, and St. Augustine said of Jesus, “ He is the great
fish that lives in the midst of the waters." Sir John Rhys, in a
paper read before the British Academy, tells us that out of five
tomb stones found at Cavaillon Vaucluse in 1909 two of the
five, inscribed with Celtic characters have on them the fish
monogram of Christ (instead of the lamb or cross). (Times,
24th November, 1911.) We see the attempt to follow the
Zodiac—fish is the symbol of fertility, and has a Phallic
basis (see p. 280). Fish was eaten on Friday,—Freya’s, or Venus’s
day,—to induce venery, and Semitic races ordered such repasts on
Freya’s day or the night of the Sabbath, our Saturday, but the day
for such observances was over, and the cold, clammy fish did not
take the place of the beautiful, innocent, playful lamb, as the
sacrifice most welcome to the supreme Sun God or Yahweh. Jesus
made a miraculous draft of fishes after his resurrection, says
" John." We know that the Gospel of John was written entirely
as an ecclesiastical text book, and every word is an argument.
So, when Jesus got these fishes caught, and made his Apostles
cook and eat them, it was a sort of sacrament, and declared him
to be the sun in Pisces. That sacrament is still carried out in Lent,
when the sun is in Pisces.
It is called a " fast," owing to the supposed poor nutrient value
of fish, but it is really a Feast, Sacrament, or Eucharist. In the
same way " Lady day " is in Virgo.
The eating of fish on Fridays has nothing to do with the death
of Jesus, and was practised long before the Christian Era. It was
a Sacrament to the Goddess of Fecundity, the Queen of Heaven,
Milytta, Aphrodite, Venus, or Freia, hence is held (see week days,
p. 106) on Venus’s day all over the Continent, and on Freia’s day,
die day of the Saxon Venus, in Saxon countries, as Britain and
Germany. Eating fish therefore is a custom identical with the
adoration of the Horse Shoe. The Christians made an alphabetical
rebus of the word for fish, I K Th U S, Jesus Kristos of God the Son
and Saviour. In Germany fish is eaten on Christmas Day.
Jesus is made to express in the most implicit way that he is the
Sun God. All Sun Gods, such as Dionysius, Bacchus, and young
Jove, had the vine as their symbol (the ripening of the grapes being
very dependent on the sun). So, when Jesus is made to say, ” I
am the true vine," the priest who wrote "John’s Gospel" made
a declaration, whiph was well understood at that time to mean that
he was the true successor of Dionysius and Bacchus, and the Son
of die Sun.
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CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
The history of the active life of Jesus is confined to one year, •
and is simply the sun myth like Melchizedek or Enoch (pp. 260,
260-284). That this was known and insisted upon in symbolical
language is clear from the statement emphasised by seven needless
repetitions in Hebrews v., vi., and vii. that Jesus was a priest for
ever after the order of Melchizedek.
The orientation of Churches whether Catholic or Protestant is a
relic of pagan worship of the sun. Eastern orientation, which is by
far the most common, has nothing to do with God or Jesus, it is
purely adoration of the sun, at the Spring equinox when the sun
is the saviour and brings man out of the “ sin and misery ” of winter
into the garden of summer or paradise.
North-Eastern orientation, the Patron being St. John, shows that
John was the Midsummer sun of the Pagans adopted into the R.C.
Calendar (pp. 131-133).
The other sacred sign I.H.S., now used as Jesus Hominum
Salvator, was adopted, like all the Jesus story, from the Sun Gods
of the past, as that was the insignia of Dionysius, and of his suc-
cessor, Bacchus, both of whom were indicated by I.H.S.
It indicated 600, the great Sothic Cycle of the Sun, when the sun
and planets resume their original positions periodically, and
was also used for Zoroaster and other divine teachers like the
Buddha, who appear every 600 years.
When the Cross was used as a war sign, I.H.S. was used as
“ In hoc Signo.” “ In this sign ” (we fight or conquer) was em-
broidered over the Cross.
To the Isis worshipper in Rome, it meant Isis, Horus, Seb, the
Egyptian Trinity, Father, Mother, and Son.
It also formed the three first letters of Jesus written in Greek
IHSOUS. Now the Church of England Sunday school teachers
tell the children that these letters mean I have suffered, “which
Jesus uttered on the Cross.’* Jesus therefore spoke English.
As to miraculous conception, all the Pharaohs of Egypt were
miraculously conceived, and were gods; in fact, so common was
the idea that Maurice, in his “ Indian Antiquities,” says that, “ In
every age and in almost every region of the Asiatic world there
seems uniformly to have flourished an immemorial tradition that
one god had from all eternity begotton another.” A list of Virgin-
born Gods is given on p. 307.
In Egypt we find that, 4000 years before the birth of Jesus, the
God Horus, the Saviour, was born of the Virgin Isis, his father
being the Amqn. the great hidden god, whose manifestation is the
Sun, and who is still apostrophised in Christian prayers.
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
295
Amen, Isis and Homs are the Christian Gods (Jah, Kurios or
Amen) Mary and Jesus. Amen and Jah belong to heaven, while
Mary and Isis, and Jesus and Horus are on earth.
Christianity took its rise at Alexandria, and Hislop (“Two
Babylons,” p. 182) says that when Christianity entered into Egypt,
the Mother Goddess and Son were worshipped, and the name alone
was changed ; but the idolatrous worship was the same.
The statues of Isis suckling the Horus, and nursing him on her
knee or bearing him in her arms, were made in thousands, and
may be seen in hundreds in the British Museum. Not only were
she and her son the prototype of Mary and her babe Jesus, but her
actual statues brought from Egypt to Rome, were the first statues
to be worshipped as the Virgin and Child (as they really were).
This was the only important part of the Christian religion derived
from Egypt—not the idea of Mother and Child, that was universal,
but the actual idols worshipped. " There is no trace of the old
Egyptian religion in Judaism “ (except the Eduth symbolism), says
Loisy (p. 29), and the captivity and Exodus are exaggerated distor-
tions, as, in fact, Colenso long ago proved.
The Virgin Mary (as an ecclesiastical idea, not her statue) is
absolutely Asian, and she is an exact copy, in name and functions,
of the Great Mediatrix, Mellytta.
1 need not go over the long list of Kings of Egypt who were
“ Sons of God,” “ Son of the Sun,” ” Beneficent God,” for are
they not written in beautiful hieroglyphics over the length and
breadth of Egypt ?
The Hebrew debasement of women is difficult to understand,
in view of the fact that their near neighbours and conquerors, the
Egyptians and Babylonians, placed women on an exact equality
with men.
There was no salic law in Egypt. Maspero, in his ” New Light
on Ancient Egypt ” (pp. 60-81) gives a spirited account of the birth
of a princess who was the heir to the throne of Egypt, which well
illustrates how much women were had in honour.
Amen Ra, the supreme god, was the father of the child.
The Babylonian Kings were likewise Virgin-born gods.
Nebuchadrezzar caused himself to be described in an inscription,
”1 am Nebu-Kuder-Usur . . . The God Bel himself created
me,' the God Marduck engendered me and deposited himself germ
of my life in the womb of my Mother.” (Spencer’s “ Principle of
Sociology,” Vol. I.f p. 421.)
The men like Jesus, who form the Nuclei on which these earth-
born gods were built, were no doubt men of high purpose and good
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CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
teaching, and seldom lent themselves to any false pretences, as to
their being really sons of God, during their lives. It was after they
were dead, and their remarkable lives had become noised about, and
their generally beneficent teaching had begun to take root and
spread, that mirophily got to work and created the myth or miracles.
Jesus never in his life claimed to be a god, ** or the son of god,** in
the sense we use the term, nor did he consciously strive to form a
new religion. It took 300 years to deify Jesus (see p. 149). There is
no word of the divinity of Jesus in the first three gospels. The
fourth was written, as we know, to establish a Creed. Had he
believed himself to be god, he would have had the prayers
addressed to himself, instead of to his “ heavenly father,** a term
anyone may use without claiming godship. Joseph is given in
both Genealogies, Matthew and Luke, as his actual father on all
occasions, such as at his presentation at the Temple, in fact,
wherever the mention of a father is required.
The original Babylonian sun myth had a real mother of. the
sun, or mother of the gods, called Der Ketos, and the sun had a
sister-spouse in the earth, as sun and earth were created at the
same time, and they were married every Spring and the earth
became the fruitful mother ; while without the protecting and
energising rays of the sun life could not be sustained; hence the
sun as a father. Th?‘ sister-spouse (p. 136) was the Queen of
Heaven in all lands—Semiramis, Isis, Aphrodite, Myllitta, Venus,
Heva Terra, etc. But, as the Jews could have no woman in
heaven, Jesus had to be born of an earthly virgin, and being himself
the god—“without him was nothing created**—Roman Catholics
have Mary as representing both Venus, the virgin earth, and Der
Ketos, the mother of the sun. But the old myth will struggle
through. Jesus is surrounded by Maries, a purely symbolical name
derived from Maya .the Dawn, who is always a pure virgin and
the Mother of the Sun. There is Mary, his Mother, Mary sister
of Martha, Mary Magdalene, and ** the other Mary,** Mary the
mother of James, Mary wife of Cleophas or Clopas.
But Mary of Magdala was intimately connected with his death
and resurrection, and she was the first to bewail him at the tomb.
She had ** loved much,** “ quia multum amavit,** and is held to
have been irregular in her loves, as were all Queens of Heaven
down to Guinevere, but was undoubtedly put in the story to
represent Istar or Venus, the Goddess of Love, and beloved of
Tammuz; and Jesus and Mary Magdalene are synonyms of
Tammuz and Jstar, Cupid and Psyche.
Mary, and Lazarus also, tell, in a dim way, the Story of the
death and resurrection of the sun.
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
297
The three Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, of which the
earliest versions were written, probably, by laymen, who told a
simple mirophilic tale, give different accounts of the women who
were with him at the end. Matthew xxviii. says, “ Mary Magdalene
and the other Mary ” ; Mark xvi. mentions “ Mary Magdalene,
Mary mother of James, and Salome ” ; and Luke says, Mary
Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James.” Now John,
who wrote from a purely priestly point of view, and whose story
does not read as the natural narrative of a life or part of a life, but
has a theological ring about it all through, seems, in order to bring
this gospel into line with the mythologies of all the other pagan
sons of god, to go back to the original myth, and has both his
mother (Der Ketos) and his wife (the Goddess of Love) present at
the tame time,' Mary his mother and Mary Magdalene, besides his
mother’s sister, Mary, wife of Cleophas.
All sun gods are wept for by women (see p. 162), and
wo remember Arthur (in the original ” Morte d’Arthur ” of Mallory,
not Tennyson’s ” Idylls ”) had faithful women attendants at his
death. The whole tone of the death of Arthur, in Mallory’s work.
Is very like John’s,gospel. The two deal with the same thing, the
death of the life-giving sun, and there is the same dreary colouring
in both tales.
296
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
In Fig. 116 we have the Egyptian rendering of the women tearing
their hair for the dead god. The dead and mummified Osiris has
the Lotus seed pods sprouting out of him,—symbols of the universal
womb or eternal life.
This is the only case I have found of Egyptian women with
untidy hair. The ancient Egyptians were as particular in this
respect as the Japanese.
“ A prophet is not without honour save in his own country.**
Jesus found no faith in himself amongst his own family, and his
old playmates said : '* Is not this the son of the carpenter?** ; while
his mother Mary, and the other sons, attributed his prophetic out-
pourings to insanity. This shows that, during his life, no inkling
of the subsequent mirologue was known.
If there were any truth in the miraculous conception story, surely
his own mother would have known it, and believed in his mission.
She would have supported him in his exalted teaching, and would
not have repudiated the supernatural status claimed for him.
A woman who could have come through all the miraculous
events related of her angel's message—fertilization by God, the
Magi's visits, Herod's slaughter—and then forget all about it, and
think her son insane, is an impossibility.
This family episode is one of my reasons for the view that there
may have been a real human nucleus for the Jesus myth, as surely
the sacerdotal writers would never have created such damning
evidence of the earthly origin of Jesus, in order to throw doubt on
the very story they were building up. He was, probably, a remark-
able man, and those who thought highly of his teaching made little
biographies of him, which became the bases of the Gospels, and
were widely circulated ; and it was then too late for men like St.
Jerome to cut out the “ weak parts " of the story. The gospel of
Mark, which is nearest to the original biographies, says not a word
about his miraculous birth. The earliest sect of Jewish Christians,
the Ebionites, who arose in the land of his teachings, called Jesus
the son of Joseph, as did all other sects in the first century A.D.,
which held Essene doctrines, Docetes, Gnostics, Manicheans, Mar-
cionites, Arians, and Cerinthians. These Ebionites were the imme-
diate successors of the congregation of Jerusalem, to which Mary
and his brothers belonged. Yet these Ebionites (translated 41 poor
men **) held that Jesus was a simple and common “man born of
Mary and her husband ** (Eusebius* Eccl. Hist. 216, III., Chap. 24).
These were succeeded by the " Cerinthians,’* so called from Cerin-
thus, who held, like the Ebionites, that Jesus, though excelling all
men in virtue, knowledge, and wisdom, was not born of a virgin,
|>Ut was the son of Joseph and Mary.
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
299
-
We have seen that the myth of the miraculous birth of a
“ Saviour ” was wide-spread thousands of years before the time of
Jesus, and that the Christian myth was simply a repetition of what
had been current for ages.
But priesthood determined, once for all, to rivet these fables on
the mind of Europe ; so the attempt to separate Jesus, the man,
from the eternal god, led to a Christian synod promulgating the
threat (like Mahomet’s Book or Sword), “ May those who divide
Christ be divided with the sword, may they be hewn in pieces,
may they be burnt alive” (Gibbon, Vol. IV., p. 516).
Tertullian (a.D. 200), Jerome (a.D. 375), Eusebius and other
Fathers, state that Jesus was born in a cave, the very
cave near Bethlehem where Adonis was born. Of course he
was,—in the cave of dawn,—Tammuz, Adonis, and Jesus were
identical sun-myth gods. Farrar, in his ” Life of Christ,” says that
the cave where Jesus was born was shown at the time of Justin
Martyr (a.D. 150).
Matthew’s tale is probably the true one ; the others being copied
from current myths, such as those relating to Chrishna, Abraham,
Bacchus, Adonis, Apollo, Mithras, Hermes, Attys, and, as sun
gods at dawn, their birth was attended by a brilliant light.
Dates are always muddled in Bible history. For instance,
Matthew says that Jesus was born in the days of Herod the King,
whereas Luke says he was bom when Cyrenius was Governor of
Syria, or later. But Cyrenius was not Governor of Syria till ten
years after the time of Herod. This muddle was introduced by
the writer of ” Luke ” dragging in the old myth of the tax, or
tribute, which is mentioned in the birth stories of previous saviours.
He evidently searched, to find out whether such a taxing took place
about the time of the miraculous birth, and discovering that it was
so he continues, as a proof of the story, ” And this taxing was first
made when Cyrenius was Governor of Syria.” By the use of the
words ” first made ” he indicates that it was at some subsequent
taxing, not the first, that his story opens; hence, even later them
the time of Cyrenius. The blunder was probably caused by the
fact that he was writing at such a late period that this taxing was
a matter of ancient history; and so gave an ancient colour to it
almost unconsciously, just as, in another place, the phrase, ” From
the time of John the Baptist until now ” shows that John’s life and
death were ancient history at the time of Jesus (Matthew xi. 12).
The strange Hebrew belief that to bring happiness to the
powerful and the wicked some gentle, innocent creature had to
be slain—an idea euphemistically disguised by religious people as
300
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
vicarious sacrifice—shows the depths to which the human mind can
descend. With the theory of the innocent suffering for the guilty.
I find myself utterly unable to sympathise.
The idea has still some hold, and, even in 1910, it is bearing
fruit, as we see from the daily papers (Lloyds News).
“DEVIL CHASERS.”
AMERICAN RELIGIOUS FANATICS STRANGLE LITTLE GIRL.
OFFERED AS A “ SACRIFICE.”
An unusually brutal murder has been committed at Nazareth,
Pennsylvania, by a fanatical American religious sect who term
themselves “Devil Chasers,” the victim being a pretty little six-
year-old girl named Irene May Smith, who was offered as a
sacrifice.
The parents of the murdered child and her uncle, a man named
Robert Bachman, who committed the abominable deed, are in
custody, and on Wednesday the jury returned a verdict of
“ Murder ” against Bachman.
The father of the little victim, according to the New York
correspondent of the Daily Telegraph, is a very rich man, who,
to quote his neighbours, "has gone absolutely mad on religion.”
Robert Bachman, the biggest fanatic of all, is a young man, and
to him is attributed the “ conversion ” of the girl’s father to the
religion of the “ Devil Chasers.” Mrs. Smith. Bachman’s sister,
though less of a fanatic than the men, saw no harm until recently
in attending the meetings of the ” Devil Chasers.” Now she is
tortured by the death of her child, and denounces her brother as
a foul murderer.
In a statement published on Thursday Mrs. Smith says that her
brother, Bob Bachman, ” was constantly talking about blood sacri-
fice being necessary to purify converts. My husband Henry
laughed at my fears, and said Bob’s utterances were only symbolic.
1 know now what he meant. Our little girl has been the blood
sacrifice. If I had only yielded to my first impulse and left her at
home with a neighbour she would have been alive to-day, but
Henry said there was no harm to attend the meeting.
” It breaks my heart now to think we even denied the little
thing the food she cried for on Sunday. None of us cared to eat,
for we were so impressed by the services. Even. I, who had gone
there unbelieving, found myself as much impressed as the others.
They danced, shouted, broke the furniture, and beat the devils out
of each other.
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
301
“only another chicken.”
“ Someone thought they saw devils on me, and my best silk
blouse was torn. When I lost my power of reasoning 1 thought I
heard Irene scream, and tried to go to her, but one woman grabbed
me and said, ' Oh, it’s only another chicken being offered up.* We
had already killed several of Bob's chickens, as well as his collie
dog, so I thought nothing more about it.
“ Then there came a terrible cry above all others, and I knew
then that Irene was suffering, I rushed into the room where Bob
had put her when she called for food, and there was Bob holding
her head in a funny way. * The devil’s gone,* he yelled to me.
* You’ve killed her,’ I said, and I tried to strike him, but my husband
Henry held me back. 4 Don’t interfere with the mandate of the
throne,* he said. Then I remember nothing more distinctly until
I awoke in gaol.”
The child died of strangulation. Bachman insists that she
was possessed of a devil, and that he killed her by command of
Heaven. It is quite possible, judging by the indignation created
at Nazareth, that the lunatic will be lynched on a tree, and the
guard at the gaol, eleven miles away, has consequently been
doubled.
On Thursday Bachman gave vent to another form of new
belief. He declared that the sin committed by Adam and Eve in
the Garden of Eden, had never been properly atoned for, and
that part of his mission was to wipe out that offence.
The poet Ovid well said of this universal creed, “ When thou
thyself art guilty why should a victim die for thee? What folly
it is to expect salvation from the death of another l ’’
A tale is told by Dr. Oman of a prince gaining such power by
penances that the very gods were afraid of him, and Vishnu had
to interfere and settle him in a proper station. The idea then is
that no great end can be attained, even by gods, without penance,
and this is carried over into the Christian religion that only by the
hardships and physical suffering of God himself could he attain
man’s redemption. Well has India been called the “ Mother of
Religions.”
The number of Saviours who died to redeem mankind is very
great, as we shall see later. The idea was so common that the
term Saviour was commonly adopted by kings claiming godly
descent, such as Ptolemy Soter, Selucus Soter, Antiochus Soter, etc.
It is very curious to see the same ideas and names occurring in
the ancient literature, as showing the intimate connexion between
die ideas of nations widely separated in their culture. For instance,
302
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
in Aeschylus* tragedy of Prometheus—who is a ** Saviour,” and
crucified on a rock, because he interceded with Jove for mankind,
five hundred years before Jesus—we read of a catastrophe or end
to the tragedy, very similar to that of Jesus. His specially pro*
fessed friend, Oceanue the Fisherman, as his name Petraeus (Peter)
shows (as Petraeus and Oceanus are synonymous), being unable to
get him to make his peace with Jove and get free, forsook him and
fled. Some of the faithful still urged him to save himself, and, like
the Maries in Jesus’ case, remained with him to the end. Here
we have the actual Peter denying his master five hundred years
before the birth of Jesus, and, no doubt, research might find an
earlier one, from which Aeschylus took his type. Truly there is no
New Thing in religion.
Dr. Inman says most truly, in his ” Ancient Faiths” (Vol. II.,
p. 632): ” There are few words which strike more strongly upon
the senses of an inquirer into the nature of ancient faiths than
Salvation and Saviour.
“ Both were used long before the birth of Christ, and they are
still common among those who never heard of Jesus or of that which
is known amongst us as Gospels.”
The very names of the Christian Saviour, Jesus and Christ, were
common about his time. We read in the Bible: ” The devil has
his Christs,” and ” There shall arise false Christs who shall shou>
great signs and wonders.” Miracles were common then, being
performed by devils, evil spirits, necromancers, holy men, and
women, as well as by the selected Apostles.
Long before the time of Jesus the Kings of Israel were all
Christs or Anointed Ones, and the Psalmist says, ” Touch not my
Christ, do my prophets no harm,” meaning, no doubt, King and
Prophets, or even an anointed stone. As Christos represents a
Greek word for one who has received the " Chrism ” or holy anoint-
ment, like Phallic pillars, the crowned Kings of all countries are also
Christs.
The name Jesus or Yezua, Joshua in Hebrew, Jason in Greek,
was very common, such as Jesus, son of Sirach, a writer of
proverbs ; and Josephus mentions, in various parts of his writings,
ten persons of the name of Jesus, priests, preachers, robbers, and
pious peasants, who lived during the last century of the Jewish
state or satrapy.
The name Jesus was written many ways. In Greek it was
Ihcoyc, Ihsous, Esu, Ihsu, Yecoic, Yasas, Yesous. Jesus was a
common Messianic name (Loisy). The first, second, and third
show the equivalence of various letters.
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
303
The Ctom was universally employed as a religious sign, from
the very earliest times ; and the most archaic rock scratchings have
always had crosses amongst the other symbols.
At Knossos, recently excavated, crosses identical with our
present Christian cross were found, even in the lowest strata,
thousands of years before Jesus.
The Greek cross on the robe of the Scotch Judges is identical
with those on the Messiah Bacchus, and with those found by Wilkin-
son on the priests* garments in Egypt, fifteen centuries before the
Christian Era. These priests were judges also (Fig. 119).
Fig. 119
Belief in the cross as a sacred symbol was universal. It was
worn in Babylon and Egypt, suspended from necklaces and collars.
Churches, from Japan and India to Mexico, were built in the form
of a cross, just as our Christian Churches are, long before
Christianity, and are still to be seen at Benares, Mathurea, Palenque,
and other places (pp. 305-306).
During the period of the Spring sun, Aries, in which Christianity
took its rise, a ram or lamb was associated with the cross, some-
times even carrying it, as we see carved on the “ Temple ” build-
ings in the Strand, London, to this day. The Jewish Paschal, or
Pass-over, Lamb was slain at the same date as Jesus was supposed
to be crucified, and in both cases it is specially stated that no
bones were broken. Hence, Jesus was simply a Sun-God myth
304
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
of the Paschal Lamb, or the Spring Saviour Sun in Aries, in his
act of crossing over the equator to save mankind, bringing the
paradise or summer half of the year.
The Catholic dictionary tells us that “ Pascha,’* or “ Pass-over,”
is a literal translation from Chaldee or Babylonian; so the Pass-
over was not derived from Egypt, but from Babylon. The Egyptian
death of the first born and pass-over are pure myth .
About the end of the 7th century, 692 A.D., a special Council
was held in Constantinople, ” under the dome ” (in Trull'o), and it
was decreed that, instead of a lamb standing beside the cross, as
in Fig. 120, p. 304, Worship of the Lamb, by Jan Van Eyck (with
a plain cross and phallic pillar), the figure of a man should be then
substituted. But the figure of a man was to be depicted praying
before the Cross, or adoring it, not nailed to it, and it took some
generations before the purely pagan idea of Crucifixion, as ex-
pressed by a man nailed on the Cross, was adopted by official
Christianity—sometime in the 9th century.
This clearly shows that the actual earthly crucifixion was not
originally believed in, but was, as some of the Christian Fathers
declared, a symbolical' passing over the equator, which they ex-
pressed by saying, ” Jesus was crucified on the Cross of the
Heavens, to the salvation of mankind.”
The origin of the Cross with a man on it was due to Pagans,
not to Christians, as it was about 600 A.D. before the Crucifix was
authorised. Minucius Felix, in his ” Octavius ” (C. xxix., A.D.
211), resists the supposition that the sign of the cross should be
considered a distinctively Christian symbol, saying: “ As for the
adoration of crosses which you (Pagans) object against us (Christians)
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
305
I must tell you that we neither adore crosses nor desire them. You
it is, ye Pagans,—for what else are your ensigns, flags, and
standards but crosses gilt and beautified. Your victorious trophies
not only represent a simple cross, but a cross with a man on it/'
So we see that the symbol of the god on which the Christians
pour out all their sentiment and pity, “ the cross with a man on
it," was not a symbol of their Jesus at all, but a Pagan symbol of
one of the other numerous " Crucified Redeemers." In fact, the
cross is the most universal symbol of religion, and naturally so, as
it is the simplest mark to make, and every religion wanted a mark
it • It
or sign.
Colenso writes : " From the dawn of organised Paganism in the
Eastern world to the final establishment of Christianity in the
Western, the cross was undoubtedly one of the commonest and most
sacred of symbolical monuments. It appears to have been the
aboriginal possession of every people of antiquity.
“ Delineated on temples, palaces, natural rocks, sepulchral
galleries, on the heaviest monoliths and the rudest statuary; on
coins, medals, and verses of every description, and preserved in
V
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
306
-
the architectural proportions of subterranean as well as super-
terranean structures, of tumuli, and temples.
" Populations of essentially different culture, tastes, and pur-
suits,—the highly-civilised, the demi-civilised, the settled and the
nomadic, vied with each other in their superstitious adoration of
it, and in their efforts to extend the knowledge of its exceptional
import and virtue amongst their latest posterities.
“ Of the several varieties of the Cross, St. George, St. Andrew,
Maltese, Greek, Latin, etc., etc., there is not one amongst them
the existence of which may not be traced to the remotest antiquity ”
“ The Pentateuch Examined,” Vol. VI., p. 113.
Even the Mexicans and Peruvians in the new world worshipped
a crucified, virgin-born saviour. I will not weary the reader by
detailing where the statements of these crucified saviours are to be
Jt
found, for Doane has collected and detailed the greater part of
them in his admirable book on ” Bible Myths,” with full references
to the original statements, most of which I had consulted before I
became aware of his great and useful work. I give a rough list
on p. 309.
In order to ingratiate the Christian symbol with the Egyptians,
who used the handled cross or crux ansata, the bi-sexual symbol
of life (p. 75)> and not the Christian Cross, a very curious move
was made. The heir to the Egyptian throne, the Heru (or in Greek
Horus), wore a lock of hair braided hanging down the left-hand side
of the head, like an interrogation mark (Fig. 121).
The Alexandrian Christians put this braid of hair on their cross,
to show tlfat the cross was the symbol of die Son of God, die Horus,
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM 307
M in Fig. 122, which is taken from Martyn Kennard’s “ The Veil
Lifted.’*
It then became conventionalised into *P or even ^
which they called the Ki., Ro., or K-R, the two first letters of
Kristos. This was a pure after-thought; its original signification
was the cross symbol of the Heru, or the Egyptian Son of God.
To show the use of all the New Testament ideas, titles, and
names, in other countries, long before Jesus was born, I place this
information below, in tabular form, so that the facts may be seen
at a glance.
UST OF SONS OF GOD, MESSIAHS. SAVIOURS BORN OF A
VIRGIN TO SAVE MANKIND.
Country. Messiah. Mother. Father. How Conceived. Authority.
India Chrishna Devaki Vishnu God descended into her womb Vishnu Purana
India Buddha Maya Holy Spirit Descended as a White Beale, Hist. Budd,
Siddartha or Elephant—Power and p. 36
Gautama Holy Ghost ; Wisdom
India Salivahana A Virgin Vishnu Immaculately As Res. X. and Hig-
Cape Comorin gins Anacalypsis I. 662
China Fo-hi A Virgin Spirit Tasted the Lotus Squire, Serpent Sym-
bol, 184
China Lao Klun A Virgin The Great Immaculately Thornton Hist. China,
Absolute 1., pp. 134-137
China Han-Ki A Virgin or God Twdf or Toe-print of The Shift-King De-
Childless God cade, I!.. Ode I.
Egypt Horus Isis Seb Not engendered Champollion, p. 190
Egypt All Pharaohs, The Virgin Ra Holy Ghost or Renouf Relig. Egypt,
Ramcses, etc. Queen Sunbeam 161
Persia Zoroaster Virgin Ormazd Ray of Divine Malcolm*s Hist.
reason Persia, I., p. 494
Babylonia Marduk Goddess Ea Immaculately Encyc. Brit., Marduk
Babylonia Nebuchad- Virgin Bel Engendered by Spencer, Sociology, 1.,
nezzar Marduk 421
Greece Hercules Alcmene Jupiter Overshadowed Roman Antiq., p. 124
and
Rome Bacchus Semele Deus (Jove) If Euripides Bacchae
„ Amphion Antiope Jupiter II Bell's Pantheon, 1., 58
Greece Perseus Danae Zeus Shower of Gold 170
and
Rome Hermes (same Maia (same Jupiter Immaculately „ #• II.. 67
as Jesus) as Mary) l. 25
Lipari Islands Aeolus Acastra Visited
Greek Apollo Latona *• Overshadowed Tacitus Ann., 11I.» 61
Aethlius Protogenia it it Beirs Pantheon. 1.. 31
•• Prometheus Virgin lapetos Visited * Faiths of Man, Hi., 151 Draper, Relig. and
Roman Romulus Rhea Sylvia God Overshadowed
Science, p. 8
Macedonia Alexander Olympias Jupiter •• Gibbon's Rome, I««
84-85
308 CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
Country. Messiah. Mother. Father. How Conceived. Authority.
Greece Plato Apollo Perictione Overshadowed Draper, Relig. and Science, p. 8
Aesculapius Coronis A God Bell's Pantheon, 1., 27
Scandinavia Baldur Frigga Odin ,, Mallet's Northern An- tiquities
Mexico Quetzalcoatl SochiquetzaGod .. Kingsborough, Mexi- can Antiq., VI., 176
Yucatan Zama Virgin Kinchahan Visited Squire, Serpent Sym-
Christiana or Hebrews Jesus Mary Holy Ghost Yahweh or „ Kurios bol. 191 New Testament
Besides these, each of whom has a full mythical history, just as
Jesus has, there are hundreds of Gods, or Sons of God, who came
down to earth to teach and save men, scattered through every part
of the Old and New World, in the legends of every religion.
1 give here a list of many parallels in the titles and incidents
common to the lives of Jesus and other Sun Gods. The lists might
be indefinitely extended.
SUN GOD PARALLELS (STAR IN SKY AT BIRTH).
Christna, Rama Yu (China), Lao Taze (China),
Moses, Quetzalcoatl, Ormuzd, Jesus, Rama, Buddha,
Abraham, and many others.
SHEPHERDS ADORINC AND
VOICES AND SONG. GIFTS FROM WISE MEN.
Christna
Buddha
Confucius
Osiris
Apollo
Hercules
Aesculapius
BIRTH PLACE CAVE
(SHEEPFOLD).
Christna—Cave
How Tsah (China)
Abraham—Cave
Bacchus ,,
Aesculapius. Mountain Cave
Adonis—Cave
Apollo „
Mithras „
Hermes—Cave
Attys „ Phrygians
Chrishna
Buddha
Memnon
Rama
Confucius
Mithras
Socrates
Aesculapius
Bacchus
Romulus
GREAT LIGHT.
Jesus
Christna
Buddha
Bacchus
Apollo
Aesculapius
Zoroaster
Moses
MOTHER OR FATHER
TRAVELLING.
Jesus
Chrishna
Buddha
Lao Tsze
Apollo
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
309
ROYAL DESCENT. BUT
HUMBLE.
Jesus
Christna
Bama
Fo. hi, China
Confucius
Horus
Hercules
Bacchus
Perseus
Aesculapius and many more.
TEMPTATION AND FASTS.
Jesus
Buddha
Zoroaster
Quetzalcoatl {Mexican Saviour)
And many others.
Sabians
DIVINE SAVIOUR.
Crucified or died otherwise
to save the world.
Christna
Buddha
Tien (China)
Osiris
Horus
Attys
Tammuz
Adonis
Prometheus
All Sons of Joyj
Bacchus
Hercules
Aesculapius
Apollo
Serapis
Mithras
Zoroaster
Hermes
Cyrus
Mano
Bel-minor
Iao
Adonis
Indra
Ixion
RESURRECTION.
SLAUGHTER OF INNOCENTS,
LIFE IN DANGER.
Jesus
Chrishna
Buddha
Han Ki
Horus (Typhon)
Cyrus
Abraham
Zoroaster
Perseus
Aesculapius
Hercules
Oedipus
Iamos
Chandragupta
Jason
Bacchus
<omulus and Remus, Moses, &c.
(All predicted great men in
danger, in infancy.)
CROSS.
Universal sign of all Sons of
God or Redeemers.
DARKNESS at CRUCIFIXION
and CONVULSIONS of NATURE.
Jesus
Christna
Buddha
Prometheus
Romulus
Julius Caesar
Aesculapius
Hercules
Oedipus
Quirinius
Alexander the Great
Quetzalcoatl
DESCENDED INTO HELL.
Jesus
Christna
Zoroaster
Osiris
Horus
Adonis
Bacchus
Hercules
Mercury
Balder
Quetzalcoatl
All three days and
three nights
" Descended into
Hell and on the
third day rose
again," really 40
hours.
Jesus Bacchus
Christna Hercules
Rama Memnon
Buddha Baldur
Lao Kiun Frey
Zoroaster Hesus (Druids) Quetzalcoatl Dagon
Aesculapius Adonis
Tammuz All Gods were bom or
Apollo resurrected on Christ*
Osiris mas Day as the ear-
Horus liest day on which
Aliys Mithras the ancients could de-
tect the return motion of the Sun.
MILLENNIUM.
Soon to arrive.
Jesus
Chrishna
Buddha
Chinese
Persians (Zoroaster)
Bacchus (Second
Advent)
Kaliwepoeg
(Esthonian)
Arthur
Quetzalcoatl
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CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
ALPHA AND OMEGA-
BEGINNING AND END.
Jesus
Christna
Buddha
Lao Kiun
Zeus
Bacchus
JUDGE OF DEAD
Jesus
Buddha
Christna
Osiris
Ormuzd
SON AS CREATOR.
Jesus
Christna
Iao (Chaldean)
Ormuzd
Adonis
Prometheus
REPRESENTED AS CHILD IN MOTHER’S ARMS.
NAMES OF MOTHERS.
Dagon
Devi
Maya
Devaki
Shin-Moo (Chinese)
Isis
Neith
Chaldees
Mylitta
Nutria
Ruach Hebrews* Queen of Heaven
Myrrah
Ceres
Mary's
Hertha
Disa
Frigga
Mexican
Pali, Mother of Sommona Cadom
Aditi
Judraa
Aithra
Lokaste
Danae
Lets (Darkness)—Apollo
Leda, and all Jove’s nymphs.
DOANE, 186, 187, &c.~P. 16.
” CHRISTS.” MESSIAHS.
SAVIOURS.
meaning ” anointed,” Every nation had its long-
or derived from promised Son of God or
Christna. Messiah.
Christna
Buddha
Horns
Mano
Bel-Minor
J.A.O.
Adonis
JSti
Saviours were anointed to make them representative
of die Creative power, so that in this sense the very
Liberators from Sin,
Redeemers, or
Mediators.
Christna
Indra
Bal-li
Buddhia
Tien
Osiris
Homs
Attys
Tammuz
Prometheus
All Sons of Jove were
slain Ones, Saviours,
Redeemers.
Jesus
Bacchus
Hercules
Aesculapius
Apollo
Serapis
Mithras
Zoroaster
Hermes
Ptolemy (Soterl
Seleucus (Soteq
Dagon
Antiochua (Soler)
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
311
SONS OF DAWN VIRGIN.
Flowing Locks. t All Sun Cods.
Representing Sun's Rays.
India
Mithras
Izduban
Buddha Sakya Muni
All Greek Solar Heros
Helios, “ yellow haired ’*
Perseus
Kephalos
Belerephon
Diorysus
Ixion
Theseus
Born on same day as
Sun God.
All Sun Gods.
Birthday of Jesus altered
from old Jewish New Year,
at 25th September. Autumn
Equinox, to 25th December,
to agree with all Pagan Sun
Gods* birthday.
The Creed says: "He descended into Hell, and on the third
day he rose again from the dead." So did every other of the
numerous Pagan Saviours or Sun Gods; because it is the solstice
or lying dead of the sun at mid-winter. We find that Chrishna,
Zoroaster, Osiris, Horus, Adonis, Bacchus, Hercules, Mercury,
all descended into Hell for the solstice and returned.
The rising from the dead is the great sheet-anchor of Christianity,
as in its occurrence Christians profess to have the proof of the
divinity of Jesus; it being considered that no mere man rises from
the dead.
But, according to the common mirophilic traditions, rising from
the dead was a frequent occurrence. We have Lazarus, Jairus*
daughter, and others in the Bible itself, such as Dorcas or Tabitha,
Eutichas, raised by the Apostles without the presence of divinity,
so that it was an occurrence quite within the experience of these
credulous people. Besides, on the day of the crucifixion of Jesus,
there was an earthquake, " and the graves were opened and many
bodies of the saints which slept arose and came out of the graves
[after his resurrection], and went into the Holy City and appeared
unto many."
I have placed the phrase " after his resurrection " in brackets,
as it is evidently added by some editor, and directly contradicts
the sense of the rest of the sentence.
The rocks were rent, and the graves were opened by the earth-
quake, immediately after " Jesus cried again with a loud voice
the accounts of the resurrection of the " saints which slept " pertain
to the same moment, and, following on the interpolation of *" after
his ressurection," carrying the narrative over the three days,
immediately come back again to the moment of his death; as it
goes on to say, Now when the centurion and they that were
with him watching Jesus (dying on the cross) saw the earthquake,
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CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
and those things which were done, they feared greatly, saying,
Truly this was the Son of God.”
The phrase “ those things which were done ” must include the
dead coming out of their graves as the graves were opened by the
earthquake, and that was the most miraculous and striking miracle
which happened at the death of Jesus. All the other miracles of
raising the dead are told of some one recently dead, who might
only have been in a trance, and we see John labouring the point,
to make sure of death, in the case of Lazarus, by making Jesus delay
his journey two days, and Martha, the practical sister, saying, ” By
this time he stinketh ” ; but, as he did not stink, there is still the
chance that he was simply in a cataleptic state or trance. But the
statement concerning ” many of the Saints,” whose bodies came
from a public grave yard, is another matter; they could not all
have been buried recently, and their decomposition must have
gone further.
Now if dead bodies, which had lain in the grave, had really
arisen and walked into the town, all the world would have
chronicled it, and the new religion would have been at once
established ; but it was never mentioned in any history, not even
by Jewish writers or other contemporaries, nor in the other Gospels.
So the resurrection of Jesus might be considered as quite an ordinary
event, if events such as Matthew tells us of, made no stir.
The unimportant conversion of the Centurion is mentioned in
all the Gospels, but only Matthew tells of the most remarkable
miracle in the whole Bible, and one that would have echoed round
the world.
The resurrection was only what every religion taught, and all
saviours were said to have risen from the dead, when the real
circumstances of the deaths had been forgotten. But, while only
the chosen few saw Jesus ascend, ” All men ” saw Chrishna ascend,
and exclaimed: ” Lo, Chrishna's soul ascends its native skiesj'
Rama the incarnation of Vishnu, the chief Hindu God, ascended
into heaven, and this formed the original source of the Christian
Creed.
” By the blessings of Rama's name, and through previous faith
in him, all sins are remitted, and every one who shall at death
pronounce his name with sincere worship shall be forgiven.” There
is the whole Christian Creed, but no Christian could be saved by
calling on Rama's name, nor could a Rama worshipper be saved
by calling on Jesus. Each must have his own tribal god.
Roman Governors, even, were Gods, often ascending to heaven.
Take, for instance, the hero of the Barberini Obelisk, raised by
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
313
Hadrian to Antinous. The Emperor Hadrian raised an obelisk in
praise of his favourite Antinous, and celebrated him as a God.
The inscription tells us that “ Offerings are made on his altars, he
heals the sick,’* and tells how he is a child of the God, and that
his mother conceived him by converse with a God descended to
earth.”
Irenaeus invented many stories (as have the Roman Catholic
monks since) of others being raised from the dead, to strengthen
the belief of non-imaginative people in the resurrection of Jesus ;
but if they believed the rising from the grave story of Jesus* Cruci-
fixion day, they needed no persuading.
CHANGE FROM SOLSTICE TO EQUINOX.
-
We have seen that after his birth the young sun had a great struggle
with winter before he reached the equatorial position and came
to the salvation of the Northern nations. We have seen that, on
the death and re-birth of the sun, the solstice day, 21st December,
was the day in the grave or in Sheol. Jesus descended into Sheol,
and he, like all sun gods, rose again **on the third day,” after 40*
hours in the tomb. But he did not then actually save mankind ;
he was simply born to save mankind. We find that when the
Jewish Passover and Pagan Equatorial crossing-over, or Crucifixion,
were combined, Jesus still lay in the tomb, from Friday till “ early
in the morning ** on Sunday.
Now this is less than 40 hours, and rightly so. The sun takes.
32.8 or 33 hours actually to pass over the theoretical equatorial
line, so that from 6 p.m. on Friday till 3 a.m. on Sunday makes
up the necessary 33 hours, and we know that when they went to
the tomb ** very early in the morning,” he had already departed.
John says it was “ early, when it was yet dark **; Matthew says,
” As it began to dawn ’*; and Mark and Luke simply, “ Very early
in the morning.” He had then gone away, presumably about
3 a.m.,’ so that the scribes adhered very closely to the astronomical
parallel.
To illustrate Doane’s method in a very careful and complete
study of these matters I beg to refer the reader to his comparison
of Gotama Buddha, and Jesus (pp. 289 to 304, ** Bible Myths ”).
The parallels are quite as close as with Chrishna.
Many authors write on “ Paganism ” surviving in Christianity,
but no religion could be more “ Pagan *’ than that of the Old Testa-
ment. Christianity is the direct heir of the Old Testament theology,
but Jesus, or the Christ, absorbed the Yahweh, who is allowed to-
314
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
disappear, or only appears dimly, as the Kurios, Theos, Logos, or
Sarx (flesh) of the Greek New Testament.
As the emotional part of the Christian religion is Phallic, so the
physical part is purely Solar; though derived at second hand,
Jesus being founded on the already humanised or deified (they
are the same) sun. I give here a rough list of some of their
similarities.
JESUS.
SUN.
Born of a chaste Virgin
Beauty and purity
Real father Great God
Of Royal descent
Deity in human form
Angels sing
Born in a dark Cave
Cave filled with light on birth
Adored by cowherds, shepherds,
agriculturists
Father, Carpenter. Creator,
Maker
Poor and lowly, cradled in a
manger
Early chosen King
Son of Father’s old age
Attempt to kill babe
Connected with Heavenly signs
of Zodiac Lamb, then fishes
Miracles, life-giving, sight-giving
Twelve Apostles
Feeding the Hungry
Meek and good tempered
Alpha and Omega
Passes over, or crosses over, or
Crucified to save mankind
Saviour of mankind
Died and rose from the dead
Sun darkened at death
Ascended into Heaven
Creator of all things, " Light of
the World ”
Walking on the water
Born of a chaste Virgin Dawn
What purer than Dawn
All ancient nations had the Sun for their
Great God
Son of the old Sun—Son of Jove
Son of the Sun, Deity
Morning stars sing for joy
The dark sky before dawn
Sun-rise
The returning Sun is the Farmer’s God of
Salvation from Winter
The Sun is the Chief of the Sons of Great
Creator
Sun poor and weak in January
All know that the Winter Sun will triumph
and govern the year
Young Sun born from decrepit old sun
January's cold and storms destroy any heat
from the Sun and attempt to destroy him.
The Sun symbolised by Twins, Bull, Lamb,
and, in Jesus* time, Fishes
Sun the light-giver and healer
Twelve months or attendants
Sun ripens grain and yields harvest food for
man
Sun goes on its course daily, troubling no
one
Sun as all in all to man. Without Sun there
is no life
Crossing the equator disperses Winter and
brings the paradise or garden of the year
Saviour of mankind
At Winter Solstice, annually, or every night
and morning
Night, Sun can give no light. Dies every
night, is re-bom every morning.
Up till 22nd June
True of Sun
Sun crosses the seas
We Have a faint echo of the old Phallic cult in the “ word made
flesh,” as the **flesh” or sarx of the Greeks is the same old
” Bosheth,” ” flesh of his nakedness,” of the Hebrew Old Testa-
ment.
No mention is made of the Trinity in the New Testament, as
this was a highly Phallic conception, as shown at p. 24. But our
”confession of faith” writers, who were intimately acquainted
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
315
with the Old Testament Phallism, imposed symbolic Phallism on
die modem Church by their *' three in one ” fantasy, which they
themselves declared to be “ incomprehensible,” but which is quite
comprehensible to any person when the secret key of Phallism is
applied to it (pp. 24, 155).
They tell us of Jesus protesting against the practice of the Phallic
cult in the Temple or Succoth Benoth, Tents of Venus, by his
expulsion of the sellers of doves.
This sale of doves (symbol of Venus worship) in the Temple was
universally the proof of the existence of Sakti, or Venus worship,
with its nunneries of religious prostitution.
Of this there is not the faintest echo in the New Testament;
yet we know from profane history that the cult was supreme in
all nations down to a very late date, our own Knight-templars
being an example, and the Jews were amongst the most ardent
practisers of this cult (p. 147); their country being phallically named
by surrounding nations on this account (p. 215).
But, in spite of accidental admissions, the Gospels were written
to introduce a new dispensation of the old Mess-jah idea of the
Son of Yahweh descending to establish the universal Jewish
domination of the world, coupled, in order to capture the scientific
hierarchy of solar and astro-priests, with the advent of the sun in
Pisces.
The Gospels are not, in any sense, history, like the Old Testa-
ment.
They deal with a set of ideas far removed from those of the Old
Testament, and quite foreign to Jerusalem.
The Old Testament is a crude history telling what the writers
believed had actually occurred, and letting us know in plain
language what the people worshipped. It told us much about the
intimate life of the people, their courtings, marriages, schemes,
ambitions, deceptions, lies, jealousies, thefts, and murders.
The New Testament, on the other hand, has no relation to real
life nor to true history; it is, from beginning to end, a skeleton
created to form the frame of a dogma, written to establish a re-
formed religion, and it creates only such facts as are wanted,—
miracles and sayings of Jesus, or Buddha.
We are never told what were the practices of the common
people, and all references to Phallism are carefully avoided. Yet
we know that it was rampant in all lands, and that the Eucharistic
feasts of the Christians were simply the Saturnalia or Liberalia of
all nations (p. 316).
The Council of Trent (p. 336), the same Council which shows us
316
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
that priests and prelates kept concubines, and that Venus worship
was the great cult of the Ecclesiastics, as late as 1560 A.D., anathe-
matises anyone as a heretic who denies that the whole substance
of the bread and wine of the sacrament are changed into the actual
flesh and blood of Christ, and not a mere sign or figure of it. The
crass way the Council goes on to emphasise that one is eating the
actual flesh and drinking the blood of a man is quite characteristic
of the age when the religion of bishops, as practised, consisted
of a series of immoralities (see p. 338). As to the first institution
of the Eucharist or “ Lord’s Supper idea, there is no trace of a
beginning ” to the practice,—it has always existed in all religions.
Sir Henry Scott found a Bilingual stone at Axom, near Adowa,
in Abyssinia, containing phrases “ UPER DE EUCHARISTIAS
TO EME GENNESANTOS ANIKITO AREOS.” This was a
stone erected by Aeizanes, the last native King of Ethiopia, after
whose death the Kingdom was taken over by Ptolemy Euergetes
about 250 B.C.
By the way, Aeiza called himself, “We, King of Ethiopia ” (and
a big list of countries), “King of Kings,” “Son of God,” “In-
vincible God of War,” and in acknowledgment of him who begat
me, “ I dedicate . . . Golden statues, altars,” etc., claim-
ing the usual god-head or divine descent.
We see from the above that the “Eucharistic” feasts, and
worship of the “ Lamb of God,” were the core of their religion,
250 years before Jesus was born. What description of feast it
must have been we can gather from St. Augustine when lie com-
mands the “ Ladies who attend the feasts of the Eucharist to wear
clean linen as the holy kiss was administered.” We well know
what that phrase covered. The Hibbert Lecturer of 1888 says
that “ debasing licentiousness and sanctified lust” were rampant,
and that prostitution was a virtue and a religious duty at the time
of St. Augustine. Such practices were continued down to the
times of the Knight-templars, and even on to at least 1563, when
all priests had concubines. Mary Magdalene was respected in the
time of Jesus.
With the final destruction of the Temple, and the deportation
of the Jews, all intimate history of Palestine is lost. There were no
men left who could write—all were exiled. There were no Nabis*
scoldings to be recorded, no prophets* wailings over the Phallic
practices of the people, but their more mystically-minded men were
busy spinning their mirophilic webs at Alexandria, or in Asia Minor,
or as slaves in Rome, where they were deported about 40 years
after the death of Jesus, and just before he had time to become
completely deified. 1
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
317
Thus the Gospels were written by men who had probably never
been in Palestine, or had been deported as children, or born in
exile, and written in foreign lands where Greek language was
spoken, and Greek ideas prevailed. It took another two centuries
for the complete deification to be effected, and for Epistles to be
written—and converted into Jerome’s Dogma.
The Roman Empire then took up this religion, and imposed it
on Europe.
One reason which made it easy for the Romans to impose
Christianity on Europe, was that the Druidical worship, which was
universal before Roman times, had for its highest object of worship
“ Hesus the Mighty,” the exact name of the Saviour the Romans
came to tell them about, H. I and J being the same letters, hence
Hesus, or Iesu, or Jesus in various countries to-day.
As the Romans had an advanced literature, and the Druids only
archaic tablets, the Romans were immensely better armed for
propagating a new religion, or rather a reformed religion ; for there
never was a really new religion, as they were all founded on bases
going back to dim antiquity. Lucan, I. V., 445, tells us that
the Gaulish Druidical god is called Hesus by the Romans.
Of course the Romans used other means of converting the
people from Druidism to Christianity; a great ” round-up ” and
slaughter of Druids is related by Tacitus, son-in-law of Agricola,
who was present at the fight; so the account is probably authentic.
The Druid Priests and Priestesses were gradually chased into
the North-West corner of Wales, on the island of Anglesea, then
called Mona, as the straits are to-day. The Romans crossed partly
on horseback and partly by boat.
The Priests were massed on the shore, hands uplifted, while
the women rushed about with torches, like furies, while the priests
poured out the curses on the Romans, and prepared to make their
last stand. The Romans were at first afraid; no doubt they tried
to cross under cover of night, but finally plucked up courage, and
slaughtered every man and woman of them. Thus ended the
struggle of the Druids against the Romans, and the ground was
left free for Christianity.
In a garden, near a vast cemetery of bones on the side of Menai,
probably the bones of the Druids, have been found Roman coins—
one of Romulus and Remus being suckled by the she-wolf.
It is difficult to Vrive at a real understanding of that inexplicable
abstraction called the Christian Trinity. There is no mention of
the Trinity in the Bible. Whenever this subject is dealt with, we
feel ourselves face to face with “ words without knowledge/' and
318
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
that the writers used formulae or phrases which had no meaning,
even in their own minds. The distracted artists, called in to give
it pictorial reality, had to descend into puerilities of making a three-
headed man, or in one case (reductio ad absurdum) three men with
each a foot in one boot common to the three.
The old, anthropomorphic Trinities were easily comprehensible,
as they simply dealt with man, woman, and child, and every
peasant could see his own life reflected in that of the Holy family.
We find this idea made much of by the Christian teachers, and
just as Joseph, Mary, and their babe are taken to the people's
hearts, so the Ancient of Days, the “ awful ” God, as painted by
Rubens, retires further and further from their thoughts (see frontis-
piece). The reason is not far to seek. The “ Awful One,** drawn
for us by the Hebrews in their Yahweh, is entirely a god of extreme
fear, and really a demon,—man’s constant scourge and enemy,
and he represents the god created by all savage nations, as a reflex
of their own terrible struggle with the forces of nature, and with
their tribal enemies. They do not, in that stage, deify their
women,—on the contrary, marriage and the begetting of children
only intensified their responsibilities and struggles. Although
driven to it by the natural desires underlying the inexorable necessity
of continuing the human race, they look upon the taking of a wife
as resulting in the loss of the happy protection of their parents,
by leaving the family circle, and having to depend on themselves,
or, as Genesis expresses it, their expulsion from the Garden of Eden,
and being plunged into the struggles of the outside world.
Hence the Christian religion teaches that woman is the cause
of all evil, and we find that idea strongly expressed by the Ultra-
Protestants in their detestation of the Roman Catholic worship of
the Virgin (see p. 183). Then, probably, as the struggle grew less
intense, the fact that man is irresistibly drawn, by the most powerful
passion to which he is subject, into sexual relationship with woman,
his keen delight in her, his love of seeing her with her children, his
desire to protect her and give her every pleasure, softened his
ideas; and, as Budge says, finding this single, creative god lonely,
he gave him a wife and child.
-
So the complete Trinity came into existence. No doubt the first
abstract gods were imagined by man to account for how this world
was “made,” and, as man, not woman, was the doer, artificer,
and constructor, and even the active creator of children, woman
being passive, so the early gods were all masculine. Tri-form
or “ tgnity ” symbols of Ivy-leaf, Fleur-de-lys, and trident
represent man’s reproductive organ in its entirety. But a
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
319
masculine Trinity is an extremely unnatural idea in an an-
thropomorphic conception. Three men or male gods, living
together in one single body is unthinkable. An Andro-
gynous god is a sane idea, when compared with a male Trinity.
The old male Trinity idea sometimes had its rise in the three-sided
view of any phenomenon ; such as the course of the sun—its birth
in the morning, its strength (and even cruelty in tropical lands) at
noon, and its old age or death at sunset. Hence we have many
Trinities, really three phases of one god, which came by ignorance
to be considered three separate gods with three different names.
They were merely changing manifestations, and did not all exist
at the same moment. But Yahweh was not the sun. He was
a mere angry Mumbo Jumbo, a wrathful, blood-thirsty, jealous
tribal god, and to work this into a Trinity of Father, Son, and
Holy Ghost is the most remarkable " volte face ” ever executed in
any religion. The old god who used to “ come down ” and walk
in the garden in the cool of the evening, and discuss matters with
his brother Ale-im, and with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, with
Moses, Aaron, and Joshua, is true and beautiful human folk-lore,
but he has not the very faintest relation to the ghostly abstraction
of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. I can only conclude that the
evolution of this phrase (because it is only a phrase and has no
realised counterpart in any human mind) came about as a com-
promise between the Babylonian, Egyptian, Greek, Roman, or, in
fact, universal trinity of the King of Heaven, Queen of Heaven,
and their son, or man, woman, and child, and the Jewish despisal
of woman. Woman brought sin into the world and was unclean ;
besides, no woman could possibly be associated with their terrible
Yahweh Yirea—the conception is masculinity in its most stormy
and malignant form; hence no woman could be admitted into a
Trinity founded on Judaism. But, as a concession, the third person
was expressed by an abstraction of the feminine gender, called
Ruach, who first brought forth life, as in Genesis i. 2, under the
symbol of the dove,—the most feminine symbol known to the
ancients, and representing the fruitful Queen of Heaven, ever
Virgin, yet ever having sons.
The Roman Catholic Church has done its best to remedy this,
but is still hampered with its Trinity, of which the Virgin Mary is
no part. That they (the Catholics) quite naturally hanker after the
old, loving Trinity of man, woman, and child, is shown by their
hymns, and by the writing of their great prelates, as quoted below.
There is nothing more beautiful in this hard world than the vision
of a mother with her child, and, except in the Protestant conception
320
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
of the teaching of the Old and New Testaments, every religion is
based upon this idea. The Phallic faith, which 1 have shown to
be so widely spread, was early man’s rude expression of this
beautiful idea, and in the countries where it arose, and where men
worked naked, there was no sense of shame about the idea. It
is only with clothing that a sense of shame arises. H. W. Johnson
tells us that, in the Lower Congo, at Stanley Pool, the natives were
devout Phallic worshippers, but with clothing their morals are
corrupted, the worship of the Phallus as a holy and serious religion
dies out, and their morality becomes greatly lowered. These
people were as devout in their worship of their symbols, as Catholics
are of the Virgin Mary and her sweet babe.
So, as the Roman Catholic prelates see the men, and especially
the women, appealing to the soft heart of the pure Virgin, with
her little ’* bambino,” they are gradually following the lead, and
making a new Christian Trinity, without returning to the old, as
shown in the annexed hymns and writings, although they stultify
the beauty of the conception by loading it up with unpoetic dogma.
The Roman Catholic Church, which caters for all tastes, has
hymns which worship Joseph, and leave out God.
The real Trinity worshipped by the early Christians, called
Melchites, was shown, at the Nicene Council, to be “ The Father,
Virgin Mary, and the Messiah their Son.” (” Cath. Diet.” Nimrod
III., p. 329.)
One of the Catholic prelates produces this hymn—
Heart of Jesus I adore thee,
Heart of Mary I implore thee,
Heart of Joseph, pure and just,
In these three hearts I put my trust.
“What every Christian must know and do,” by the Rev. J.
Furniss, published by James Duffy, Dublin. This was issued signed
by Paulus Cullen,6 Archbishop of Dublin (” A Church Manual"),
also issued by Richardson and Son, 141 Strand.
Or see this prayer issued by the Roman Catholic Clergy of
Sunderland, as ” Paschal Duty,” ” Blessed be Jesus, Mary, and
Joseph ; Jesus, Mary, and Joseph 1 give you my heart, my life, my
soul; Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, assist me always; and in my
last agony, Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, receive my last breath.
Amen.” (” Paschal Duty,” St. Mary’s Church, Bishopwearmouth,
1859.)
Rewards are freely promised, as thus: ” In the morning when
you get up make the sign of the Cross and say, Jesus, Mary, and
Joseph, I give you my heart and soul. (Each time you say this
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
321
prayer you get an indulgence of 100 days which you can give to
the souls in Purgatory.)” (P. 30. Furniss* Manual, “What every
Christian must know.”
In Hislop’s minute and painstaking examination of the connec-
tion between the Roman Catholic Church and the Babylonian and
Egyptian religions, there occurs the following passage :—
“At the Council of Nice, says the author of Nimrod, the
Melchite section, that is, the representatives of the so-called
Christianity of Egypt, held that there were three persons in the
Trinity, the Father, the Virgin Mary, and Messiah their Son. In
reference to this astounding fact, elicited by the Nicene Council,
Father Newman speaks exultantly of these discussions as tending
to the glorification of Mary. 4 Thus,* he says, * the controversy
opened a question which it did not settle. It discovered a new
sphere, if we may so speak, in the realms of light, to which the
Church had not yet assigned its inhabitant. Thus, there was a
wonder in Heaven ; a throne was seen far above all created
powers, mediatorial, intercessory, a title archetypal, a crown bright
as the morning star, a glory issuing from the eternal throne, robes
pure as the heavens, and a sceptre over all. And who was the
predestined heir of that mystery ? Who was that wisdom and what
was her name? the mother of fair love, and fear, and holy hope,
exalted like a palm tree in Engaddi, and a rose plant in Jericho,
created from the beginning before the world, in God’s Counsels,
and in Jerusalem was her power. The vision is found in the
Apocalypse, a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under
her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars.’ The votaries
of Mary,’ he adds, ’ do not exceed the true faith unless the
blasphemers of her Son came up to it. The Church of Rome
is not idolatrous, unless Arianism is orthodoxy.’ This,” says
Hislop, “ is the very poetry of blasphemy.” (The Two Babylons,
p. 82.) *
Now the transformation of the female member of the Trinity
into the Holy Ghost was made possible by the symbolical manner
of representing her. The Dove, as a symbol of the Queen of
Heaven, was so universal that the Latin Queen of Heaven, Juno,
was named from the dove, her mother being D’ione, “ the woman
of the dove,” and her own being Iune—dove (Indian Yoni, Hebrew
and Greek Iona). lone is Yoni the female organ, and as Juno was
a dove, the dove is the essence of feminity. So the dove in the
Trinity is the essence or Queen of Feminity. Through her symbol,
the dove, all the Virgin Venuses were identified with the air.
Julius Firmicus (see p. 168) says: “The Assyrians and part of
X
322
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
the Africans wish the air to have the supremacy of the elements
for they have consecrated the same (element) under the name
of Juno or the Virgin Venus.” “ Air ” is the same word as is
used for ” breath " or ” spirit ” ; and in Chaldee air signifies
" Holy Ghost.” Thus, the Ruach or Rkh (p. 161)—the wife or
mother of the gods, who hatched out life (translated the breath or
“ spirit ” of God who ” moved on the face of the waters ”)—is the
Queen of Heaven, and is represented, on a painted window of
the Cathedral of Auxerre (p. 164, shown here also, Fig. 123), as
the Divine dove of Genesis i. with a cruciform nimbus floating
between the waters of creation and hatching out life (” Didron,”
Vol. 1, p. 500, Fig.), symbolised in every Venus or Queen of
Fig. 124
Heaven ; so every Virgin or Venus is the Holy Ghost. Her symbol is
here in the medals from Hislop’s book (Fig. 124) .and I have shown
her at pp. 164-166 creating and uniting the Father and Son in hun-
dreds of books, altar pictures, miniatures, illuminated MSS., stained
glass windows of the Catholic Churches of Europe, as shown by
Didron. This mother of the gods, or tabernacle of the gods, Iona,
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
323
the Divine Dove, this Queen of the Aijr, or 44 spirit through which
the God acts,** is then the third person of the Trinity, so that the
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost is the hidden, or symbolical, way
of speaking of the old Trinity of man, woman, and child. ‘‘The
mother of the Gods,** says Clericus, “was worshipped by the
Persians, the Syrians, and all the Kings of Europe and Asia with
the most profound veneration.** (Joannes Clericus, “Philos. Orient
Lib. II. De Persis,** Cap. 9, Vol. II., p. 340.) Tacitus gives evidence
that the Babylonian Goddess was worshipped in Germany (Tacitus
“Germania** IX., tom II., p. 386), and Caesar, when he invaded
Britain, found that the priests of the same goddess, called Druids,
had been there before him (“ De Bello Gallico,** lib. VI., Cap. 13,
p. 121). Herodotus says that the Queen of Heaven was the most
worshipped of all divinities (Herodotus, “Historia,** lib. II., Cap.
66, p. 117, D.), all from Hislop.
We have seen pp. 48, 162-170, and indeed all through this work,
that all nations except the Hebrews, or rather, their Nabis, honoured
the Mother of the Gods above all the Heavenly Host, and how the
female is used to express unity and to symbolise the Church.
The Bishop weds the Church (his bride) with a ring.
It is significant to see the modern scientist returning to the
same idea, even phrased in the same words, in a wise treatise
whose appreciation by the people would have incalculable con-
sequences for good in the future of the race. Dr. Saleeby, in
“ Parenthood and Race Culture,” p. 93, writes:—“The body of
woman is the temple of life to come, and therefore, as we shall
some day teach our girls, the Holy of Holies.” The Holy of Holies
of the Jewish Tabernacle was the Womb of God, or Ked, out of
which came all life (see p. 247, et seq.).
That the dove really stood for the Queen of Heaven in the
early Catholic Church is seen from many of the Church practices.
The Queen of Heaven, as mother or “ Tabernacle ” of the gods,
had her symbol, a box in the form of a dove, employed to inclose
or “ house ** the Pyx, the Phallic symbol of all life. Just as at the
present day the Brahmin priests in India wear a dove hung by a
chain round their necks, and this dove is a box containing an
accurately modelled Phallus, thus forming the Lingam-Yoni
emblem of eternal life, defined in our Dictionaries under Columba
as a dove-shaped receptacle for the sacrament, and derived from
the Latin Columba—a dove. Tertullian in the third century writes
of the Church as “ Columbus Domus,” the House of the Dove.
There was a piece of altar furniture, now discarded, in a tower
of silver or gold, representing heaven, and on the top of it was
324
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
a dove, also in gold and silver gilt, defined in our dictionaries
under Columba as a dove-shaped receptacle for the Sacrament
and derived from Columba—Dove. This dove represented the
Mother of God ; and when the sacrament was dispensed, and the
Eucharistic wafer (representing the sun's disc) was broken into
three parts, one for the congregation, and one for the priest, the
third part was placed inside the dove representing Jesus returning
to his mother, or the sun marrying the earth, or a general bi-sexual
symbol. I have explained earlier how any hollow vessel repre-
sented the universal mother ; so, later, the dove was replaced by
a covered cup, or a ship, or small boxes suspended over the altar—
all representing the Universal Womb, or Queen of Heaven.
Some churches still retain the dove.
The Dove worship in connection with Miriam or Mary is illus-
trated even in Scotland, where St. Columba (Latin for Dove), came
to Iona (Greek for Dove), and brought the message of God to the
Morven shore of Scotland, in a boat or Ark. Morven is Gaelic for
Mary, Miriam, or the Mediatrix, or dove (p. 111). This fable of a
dove in an ark, bringing religion to a shore, is very wide spread,
for instance, between Arklow (Arkle or Ark town) in Ireland and
Mervyn in Wales and between Egypt and Palestine. The dove
was rendered masculine by the Hebrews and appears as Jonah who
brings religion to Babylon in an Ark or Ship, and to emphasise
the Dove’s masculinity (in their detestation of woman) they mix
Jonah up with the Bacchus or Hercules (death and re-birth of the
sun) story.
The Harlequin (Arklin) with his miraculous wand, and his elusive
Columbine (dove) of our pantomimes, are descended from Heracles
and his dove love I ole (or lone, as 1 and n are interchangeable)
whom he is always pursuing, and yet to whom he is never mated.
Our pantomime Harlequinade is the remnant of a pagan miracle
play, as Arlequin or Harlequin is Arkle with the affectionate
diminutive “in”,—masculine, while Columbine is the diminutive of
Dove but feminine. Thus Ruach, Dove, or Ark (p. 162) and her
husband Arkel (p. 164) link up the ideas of 6000 B.C., through
Babylon, Greece, and Rome, with our children’s pantomimes of
to-day.
Proclus, Lib. VI., Cap. 22, Vol. II., p. 76 (see pp. 168-169),
says that “Juno” imports the generation “of Soul*’; that is to
say, when a child is born, it is the “ Mother of the Gods,” who
gives dt its heavenly breath, or soul, as the earthly mother gives it
its earthly breath. ” The series of our sovereign Mistress Juno
beginning from on high, pervades the last of things, and her
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
325
allotment in the sublunary region is air ; for air is a symbol of
soul according to which also soul is called a Spirit' ’ (Pneuma),
Ibid, p. 197 (see ante p. 168 and 169). Taylor’s Proclus, pp. 183
and 312.
The Catholic Church is pushing forward the identification ; as
it now calls the Virgin Mary the “ Tabernacle of the Holy Ghost,”
and the ‘’Temple of the Trinity,” Trinity in unity—three in one
(see p. 38), so that they recognise the old conception that the Queen
of Heaven, being the mother of the gods, must be greater than they,
and contain them all. That this female “Holy Ghost,” “Queen
of the Air,” Ruach, mother of the gods, was greater and more
holy than the Father or the Son, is shown by the threat repeated in
three Gospels, that while blasphemy against the Father or the Son
would be forgiven, blasphemy against the female of the Trinity,
or Holy Ghost, would never be forgiven, but would entail everlasting
damnation. It was only the savage barbarism of the old Hebrew
idea of a wrathful fighting Lord of Hosts, which prevented woman
from openly taking her place as the centre of the family of gods, as,
indeed, she does secretly, under the symbolic title of “ Holy
Ghost ” or Dove.
-
It is a curious fact that all creative gods were originally of
indeterminate sex; even Jupiter was sometimes considered
feminine * although he was the most masculine conception of the
Romans, nearly as masculine as Yahweh. “ All things issue from
the womb of Jove.”
When monotheistic ideas prevailed, all gods were bi-sexual, and
hence we find, in Holwell’s “ Myth. Diet.” (Jupiter) that Jupiter
was frequently styled the ” Mother of the Gods,” and sexes
change about—Deva Kala becomes Devi Kali. But when the god
gets a wife, he is henceforth only masculine.
The lovely Istar, wife of the beautiful Adonis, the pair forming
the Cupid and Psyche of Western Asia, was in her home in Babylon
of no special sex, like our angels ; and when she migrated west,
the Phoenicians and Greeks added the feminine determinant “ T ”
to her name, and made her Astarte Astaroth. Even Venus was
female in the evening, and male in the morning. Yet each was the
fruitful goddess of the earth, teeming with fertility, the feminine
development of the life-giving sun, the patroness of love. Their
temples were filled with devotees of sexual passion enjoying con-
secrated orgies.
In Spain and Italy, to-day, local Virgins have different names,
»4 id fierce fights have occurred over the virtues of these Virgins, as
Detween our Orangemen and Catholics, in Ireland, over the wor-
ship of the Virgin Mary.
326
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
It would make a more human religion if Christianity could
re-instate its lady, as of old, but their prelates wish to keep woman
lowly, as otherwise their great power, the confessional, would lose
its potency.
We see how all nations put the mother first in their religions,
while Christians, specially Protestants, debase her, and expel her
from heaven, owing to the Eden Story. The debasing of woman
is the debasing of all humanity, and the negation of Altruism.
This debasing of women creates polygamy which is thus
deeply ingrained in man. We shall see it to be the
practice of European Priests, as discussed at the Council of
Trent (p. 338), how polygamy and concubinage are expressly taught
by every lesson of the Old Testament, and not repudiated by the
New. The abolition of polygamy slowly became a moral and
finally a legal enactment in Europe, and was, perhaps, the earliest
sign of modern civilization and of our ideas of equality.
The ancient Hebrew idea that women had no higher nature, and
were simply the property of the men, caused their conception of the
sexual relation to be somewhat degraded.
The first commandment to man : " Be fruitful and multiply,*'
was repeated more frequently than any other commandment in
the Bible, and that seemed to be the preponderant view of the
relation between man and woman.
There is not a word in the whole Bible which expresses the
modern idea of Love.
The beautiful poetry of Greece, and Rome, and even of the
Dark Ages, the poetry of the troubadours, the high ideals of the
Knight errant, the poetry of love ; a swelling torrent gathering
force down the ages till modern poetry sings of nothing else ; all
this sweet anthology of the most beautiful and precious endowment
of man, is as absolutely unknown to the Hebrew Scriptures as was
the idea of eternal life. The great patriarch Abraham prostitutes
both of his wives, rather than run any risk to his own skin.
The joyous old Greek idea of Eros, and the infinitely beautiful
conception of Cupid and Psyche, have long been killed by the
Churches* public interference in matters which are for the man’s
and woman’s inmost thoughts alone.
The degraded idea of love comes from the Hebrew idea of man
possessing woman as part of his goods ; but modern ideas are
marching in the line of rendering the mother and child economically
independent of the man. Woman’s work for the State, in bearing
and edbcating young children, is quite worthy of the same pay-
ment as man receives for his work, in the production of houses,\
food, clothing, and material comforts.
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
327
The domination of modern religion by the barbarous echoes of
a dead past has been protested against by our best scholars, as
witness Carpenter, p. 463, “ Bible in the Nineteenth Century,**
the Rev. Canon Hensley Henson, in Contemporary Review, April,
1904, Rev. F. M. Wood, Vol. II., p. 67, ” Hastings Diet, of the
Bible,*’ Colenso, and many others.
It is much more easy to formulate a new religion than to
establish it with the people, as old customs die hard, so, under a
new name, itself of unknown origin, the old faiths and symbolism
go on.
The customs of even the modern Christian Church belong ex-
clusively to no one Church but are prevalent in all lands under
Churches of all kinds.
The Abbe Hue, the first to visit Tibet, saw the cross, the mitre,
the dalmatic, the cappa, as in Rome, and services by double choirs,
swinging censors, rosaries, benedictory gestures, and chaplets, and
they had celibacy, spiritual retreats, monastic vows, saint worship,
images, processions, and Holy water, and baptism, all as in Rome.
Father Beony when he first saw China found the Bonzes or
Priests, tonsured, using crosses, rosaries, praying kneeling before
images, in fact, he sums up There is not a piece of dress, not
a sacerdotal function nor a ceremony of the Court of Rome which
the devil has not copied in this country.” Almost the identical
words were used by the Jesuit priests as to the Church service and
teachings of the Mexicans and Peruvians when Spain started the
Conquest there, and by Justin Martyr about early pagan rites
(pp. 135-136).
They all held the idea that their religion was the only ” true ’*
one and infallible—an idea which has received a rude shock in
Christendom during the last 50 years. It was only 50 years since
Hislop could write of the Second Commandment with its immoral
and unjust visiting of the sins of the fathers on the children ;
” These words were spoken by God’s own lips, they were written
by God’s own finger on the tables of stone ” (“ The Two Babylons”
p. 127). What scholar now believes that the Hebrew edition of
Hamurabi’s laws was written by God’s finger ?
The Confessional, the special ” engine ” of the Catholic Church
was the practice of the Babylonians, Egyptians, Greeks, and
Romans, and all so-called Pagan countries ; and the immoral ques-
tions asked of young girls, which caused such a protest when an
attempt was made to poison the English Church by its introduction
by the High Churdh party, were so well known and resented by the
old Romans, that they were made the subject of the licentious
poems of Propertius, Tibullus, and Juvenal (Hislop, p. 10).
328
dmiSTlANitV: THE SOURCES
A very interesting relic of the origin of the vestments of the
Roman Catholic Clergy is found in the Bishop's mitre. In Fig. 125
I give the dress of a priest of Dagon, the Fish God in Babylon,
surd, side by side, a photo of Archbishop now Car dined Bourne,
with the same head gear as a Bishop’s mitre, at the recent consecra-
tion of Westminster Roman Catholic Cathedral. No one can
doubt the derivation of that fish's head from Dagon.
Tertullian, about 230 A.D., bitterly laments that Christians
adopted all Pagan Festivals, showing great fickleness contrasted
with the fidelity of Pagans, who adopted nothing from Christianity.
John and his nativity—midsummer solstice—is the feast of
Oannes, Tammuz and all sun-gods.
Baptism was the custom of all old religions, in every part of the
world, and was not originated by Christianity. The Egyptian
priests baptised the soldiers before going into battle, as did the
Spanish priests baptise the soldiers engaged in the brutal extermina-
tion of millions of inoffensive Mexicans, Peruvians, and other in-
habitants of South America. The Spanish soldiers crucified them
in batches of thirteen, in honour of the thirteen Apostles.
The Roman Catholic Church has adopted from the heathen
church the doctrine of the everlasting damnation of the souls of
infants who die unbaptised.
Aeneas, when he visited the infernal regions, saw the souls of
unbaptised infants. " Before the gates cries of babes unborn,
whom fate had from their tender mothers torn, assault his ears "
(Dryden s " Aenid "). Christianity founded the most brutal state-
ments of the doctrine ever conceived by man. Colenso (Vol. I., 4,
p. 157) calls it the horrible doctrine of St. Augustine. Here it is
in all the brutafrrankness of this religion, founded on, and steeped
in, Phallic ideas. “ Hold thou most firmly, nor do thou in any
respect ,doubt, that infants, whether in their mother’s womb, they
begin to live and there die, or whether, after their mothers have
7o jace p. 328, Fig. 126.]
BISHOP WITH MITRE.
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
329
given birth to them, they pass from this life, without the sacrament
of Baptism will be punished with the everlasting punishment of
eternal fire.**
Compare this “ merciful ’* treatment of innocent, unborn babes
with the eternal bliss promised to adulterers and murderers who
have 4 4 faith/* A Protestant divine of the 18th century thus explains
his idea of the morality of justification by “Faith” :—“Even adultery
and murder do not hurt the pleasant children [those who have faith],
but rather work for their good. God sees no sin in believers;
whatever sin they may commit. My sins might displease God,
my person is always acceptable to him. Though I should out-sin
Manasses, I should not the less be a pleasant child because God
always views me in Christ.**
Verily Paul’s sophistry brought forth fruit “ after his kind.**
This doctrine which was widely held by the clergy, led to
deplorable results when applied to the conduct of their own lives
(see p. 337-338).
So firmly rooted were the old ideas of minor gods that the Catho-
lic Church was obliged to admit them to the calendar as “ Saints.**
The Roman Calendar admitted Bacchus as “Saint** Bacchus,
and Dionysius (both Sun Gods) as “ Saint ’* Denis or Denys. Even
the Paris tradition of St. Denis walking with his decapitated head
under his arm, belongs to many religions prior to Christianity, and
he was represented in the Persian Zodiac as walking with his head
in his hand.
Dionysius was essentially the Sun God ; he was the Keeper of
Time, and the Maker of Calendars ; and all the Sun Gods were
secondary to him. Even the great Bacchus, the later Sun God of
Greece and Rome, had his great mysteries named the Dionysiaca,
and this was why the Council, fixing the birth of Jesus at 25th
December, and generally clearing up the errors of the calendar,
called themselves by edict “Dionysius the Little.’* Their work
was a “ little ’* correction of the work of Dionysius the Great—the
Calendar God. Dionysius the Little created the “ Christian Era,*’
and fixed the Christ’s birth at 25th December.
The mania of the Catholic Church to canonise all famous Pagan
Gods, is well illustrated by this very Dionysius. He had a great,
rustic Festival, called Festum Dionysii Eleutherei Rusticum, 44 The
Rustic Festival of Dionysius Eleuthereus,** on the 9th of October,
to celebrate the end of harvest, just after that of Bacchus for the
same purpose on the 7th. Here were two Sun Gods of exactly the
same character, trying to occupy the same date. Of course,
Dionysius being an imported God and Bacchus a native one,
Bacchus got the earlier days of the festival.
330
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
Dionysius was, however, the earlier God, and the feasts of
Bacchus were called Dionysiaca. The ignorant Roman Catholic
priests came across this God, and thinking that the words “ Eleu-
thereus and “ rusticum ” were two Gods also, instituted the
festival in the calendar, at 9th October, of ' * St. Dionysius and his
companions St. Eleuther and St. Rustic, Martyrs.’*
The creation of fictitious martyrs is seen in the case of the
Catacomb tombs of Rome, where early Roman burials had B.M.
on their tombs for “ Bene merenti ” (to the well deserving), which
the Church says was “ Beato Martyro ” or “ to the Blessed Martyr,”
and so created armies of Christian martyrs.
That the recognition of the old Pagan gods, adopted as Saints,
continued down to a late date, is shown by the facts related in
“ Rome and its story,” p. 358, where we are told that in Rome, as
late as 1513, Biblical and mythological subjects were acted alter-
nately in the churches, and Cybele or Kubele was represented as
a Goddess with a globe in her lap, in a triumphal car drawn by
lions. [See Fig. 38, p. 83.] This was about the time of the great
artistic period of Raphael and Michael Angelo. They revived
Pagan times, and Cardinals were called Senators. The Conserva-
tors inscribed on a great Cistern on the Capitol an invocation to
Jupiter, praying that he should fill it with rain. A bull was sacrificed
in the Coliseum, to appease the hostile demons. Thus, after a
millennium of supposed Christianity, Rome was still Pagan.
“The same thing which is now called the Christian religion,”
says St. Augustine, “existed among the ancients. They have
begun to call 4 Christian ’ the true religion which existed before ”
(see Justin Martyr, p. 206).
The Roman Catholic Church opened wide its arms, and, to get
the Pagans to join its communion, it adopted all the Pagan festivals,
and even Pagan Gods, into its system, as we shall see.
We find in its Calendar the universal womb idea, from which
all the suns (or Sons of God) were born, the Dolphin is absorbed
as Saint Delphin in the French Roman Catholic Calendar, on
December 24th at the Solstice, when the Dolphin gave birth to the
new sun, and we find another Sun God, as St. Thomas, who was
Tammuz, for whom the women wept, in Ezekiel viii. 14.
Tammuz or Thomas, which is Hebrew for “ Twin,” was the
Hebrew form of the Acadian Tam-zi, Sun God (or Dum-zi), and
was one of the famous twins, who were divinities about 6000 B.C.
Latterly, he was still a twin, but coupled with his sister I star, and
they werts the Venus and Adonis of Babylon. His worship was
rampant in Palestine about the time of Jesus, and was, no doubt.
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
331
-
a great obstacle to the teaching of the Ebionites. Hence, he
becomes Thomas the “Doubter,” or one who resisted the new
teaching—and is always called “Thomas which was Didymus,”
or Tammuz of the famous Twin divinity—or the Twin of the Twins,
as the word Thomas itself is Hebrew for twin. There was no need
to repeat this “ Didymus “ every time Thomas is mentioned, so it
had a hidden meaning and lowered the loving Tammuz, the Cupid
of the Syrians, to the level of an apostle of Jesus, as “Saint
Josophat “ (see below) lowered Gautama Buddha. His image in
his mother’s arms, carved on the rocks of Syria, is probably the
oldest Madonna and child in the world. I have shown that all the
twins in every nation were like Cain and Abel, in that one brother
killed the other ; so there was finally only one Twin Thomas.
The Saint Josophat in the Roman Calendar of Martyrs is no
other than Gottama Buddha ; the changes have been traced by
Reinand (** Memoire sur L’Inde,” 349 o. 91). Bodisat is a title of
the future Buddha, constantly repeated in the Buddhist birth stories.
In Arabic this is Yudasatf, through a confusion of Y and B. Then
Yudasatf becomes Joasaph, and finally Josophat.
The tale contains the details of the life of Buddha as a Christian
saint 450 years before Jesus was born ; and yet he was canonised
by the Pope Pius IX., in 1873, as also was Barlaam, who is supposed
to have converted him. The two together are “the Holy saints
Barlaam and Josaphat of India on the borders of Persia, whose
wonderful acts St. John of Dumascus has described.” The
stories were first told by St. John of Dumascus, and embodied in
the lives of the Saints, and a Church is dedicated to Dio Josaphat
in Palermo. Here are two martyr saints as witnesses to the truth
of tales of the Church. Their story is one of the earliest relief
sculptures still in existence in the Baptistry of Parma.
In Saint Espedito we have a spurious saint, whom the church
had to remove from the Calendar.
The story told by Father Taunton, in the Fortnightly Review,
about the origin and history of a saint called San Espedito, whose
memory is still honoured in certain parts of Italy, has been com-
pleted by the statement that this particular saint (who never existed)
has been decanonised by the Vatican—or at least the canonisation
of him has been officially disapproved. The story of the bogus
saint is the permanent delight of the anti-clericals in Italy. He was
created by a party of French nuns, who received for their convent
a box containing the bones of a martyr from the Roman catacombs,
one of the Bene Merentis, and on the box were the Italian words,
“ e spedito “ followed by a date. The French nuns, not knowing
332
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
that “ e spedito’* meant “sent off/* or that the superscription
referred only to the postage, immediately invented Espedito as the
name of their martyr. The saint*s legend grew and flourished,
and to this day, in many Italian churches, you may see altars
dedicated to him. There is one, for instance, in the Church of
the Apostles in Florence—an altar adorned with a picture of this
holy man who never existed, and dedicated, in point of fact, to
the post office. So they make saints of adjectives, as well as of
luggage labels, and create new Christian martyrs out of old Pagan
Sun Gods.
The Crozier, the triple crown, fasting before mass, prayers for
the dead, relic worship, processions of images, extreme unction,
priests, monks and nuns, were common to all ancient religions.
Even the famous candlestick of the Hebrews was both Phallic
and Astronomic. Josephus tells us that the seven branches repre-
sented the host of heaven, sun, moon, and the five then-known
planets. But according to Ex. xxv. 31-36 and xxxvii. 17, it was
extensively decorated with “ knops ** and bowls like almonds, and
flowers. Now Knops were buds, especially lotus buds, and are
universal symbols of the phallus (pp. 18, 55, Fig. 14), while bowls,
especially almond-shaped, were symbols of the Yoni (pp. 63, 216,
and Figs. 35, 36, and 39), so that the whole was covered
with oft-repeated Lingam-Yoni symbols. Between the “knops**
and “almond-shaped bowls,*’ were Flowers, symbols of fruitful-
ness. Compare the beautiful Greek statue Fig. 38 (or 39) where
the Symbolism is identical. There is the bowl with almond-shaped
opening and the fruit and flowers in her hand, but instead of lotus
buds she has a young bull (male fertility) in her lap.
Note that the candlestick ornaments are accurately repeated, as
in the cases of all the careful creations of scribes (see tabernacle,
Abimeleck, Breeches, Melchizedek, etc.). Faint echoes of the
Hebrew symbolism crop up in every ceremonial in Europe. The
Orb or Ball of power referred to on p. 82 is called in Germany the
Apple of Empire (Reichsapfel). We know this was a phallus like
the Fleur-de-lys, and that Eve was tempted by the “ Apple “ in
the Garden of Eden.
Some of the Pagan worship still exists quite unreformed at St.
Peter’s. For instance, the Persian worship of the Cross of Fire is
still carried out in Holy Week, when a huge, blazing cross of fire#
formed of innumerable lamps, suspended from the dome above the
tomb of St. Peter, is solemnly worshipped. The Pope prostrates
himself in* silent adoration of this Cross of Fire, and a long train
of Cardinals kneel with him.
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
333
Then the shifting of the Holy Day from Saturday, or Day of
Saturn, Father of the Gods, to Sunday, in honour of the Dies
Solis, the “ Sun God,” or Mahomet's “ Sole God ** Deus Solis, was
facilitated by these titles, the pronunciation of the Latin for One
God and Sun God being similar. It also facilitated Mahommet’s
promulgation of the “ one God ’’ idea.
On Holy Thursday (not Good or Holy Friday), the Pope, follow-
ing a grand procession of the clergy and of cardinals, in superb
dresses, bearing long wax (funeral) tapers in their hands, walking
under a crimson canopy with his head uncovered, and bearing the
host (body of Jesus, or Saturn) in a box from the Sistine to the
Paulina Chapel, deposits this symbol of the dead Saturn or Jesus
in the Sepulchre prepared to receive it beneath the altar. This
custom of depositing the body of Saturn or Jesus in a Sepulchre
on Thursday afternoon is practised in many churches in Rome.
On Saturday, Saturn's Day (instead of Sunday) he is supposed to
rise from the dead, and the host in its box is removed, amidst the
blowing of trumpets, firing of guns, and ringing of bells, which
have been tied up or muffled silent, in the presence of death, since
Thursday.
Here we have the Babylonian Sabbath (Saturday) restored to
its place on the seventh day of the week, instead of on the first
day of the week, Sunday. (See pp. 105-109.)
The death takes place on the day universally recognised as that
of the King of the Gods, or Sky Father, El Shadai or Ancient of
Days, Thursday, Thor's or Jupiter's Day, and these Gods replaced
Saturn, as is inevitable in all religions ; a ruling God gradually pass-
ing into the background, as Job’s El Shadai gradually got debased
into the whirling sand devils of the desert. So the Father of the
Gods, Saturn, used to die on the Great God’s day, our Thursday,
or Jupiter’s Day, as all over Europe, and rise again on his own day,
Saturday, as the renewed sun, to rule another year.
Good Friday is also kept, so we have the two versions of the
Saviour’s death and resurrection, Pagan and Christian, enacted
side by side at the centre of Christendom.
But, as usual, it was not easy to obliterate every trace of the
original practice, and here we see the actual Pagan passion play
still enacted at the centre of Christendom.
Scotland kept up the Pagan holy days by having their “Fast
Day “ on Thursdays (now abolished) for the death of Thor, and
holding a “ half-holiday ’’ on Saturdays for his resurrection.
The newest school, led by Prof. Arthur Drews, also takes us
back to Pagan times, and shows that a redeemer was looked for by
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CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
all. They say that the Jesus myth took its rise hundreds of years
before Jesus, and that his history is entirely mythical, a mere frame-
work on which to build up the old Sun Redeemer myths.
This school, which is a rapidly growing one, now rejects entirely
the existence of Jesus, and, by very careful internal study, coupled
with the knowledge of Western Asiatic beliefs, is arriving at the
same conclusion as the Bradlaugh type of Iconoclastic myth
destroyers, viz. : That Jesus himself was a myth created as a frame
on which to build dogma, just as the Jewish Tabernacle which
never was, nor could be built, was a myth on which to hang an
account of a miracle play about the annual re-birth of the Sun (pp.
244-251). The two schools are, however, as wide apart as the poles
in their ultimate view, the one being Idealist and the other Realist.
The Bradlaugh type denied everything which had been miro-
philically asserted, and stood boldly and fearlessly on the sane and
firm rocks of actual experience and the material universe of matter
and force, as far as explored and explained by science. Huxley
beautifully expressed it thus :—
“ Elijah’s great question, 4 Will you serve God or Baal? Choose
ye,’ is uttered audibly enough in the ears of every one of us as
we come to manhood. Let every man who tries to answer it
seriously ask himself whether he can be satisfied with the Baal of
Authority, and with all the good things his worshippers are promised
in this world and the next. If he can, let him, if he be so inclined,
amuse himself with such scientific implements as Authority tells
him are safe and will not cut his fingers ; but let him not imagine
he is, or can be, both a true son of the Church and a loyal soldier
of science.
“And on the other hand, if the blind acceptance of authority
appears to him in its true colours, as mere private judgment in
excelsis, and if he have the courage to stand alone with the abyss
of the Eternal and Unknowable, let him be content once for all,
not only to renounce the good things promised by Infallibility,
to follow reason and fact in singleness and honesty of purpose
wherever they may lead, in the sure faith that a hell of honest men
will, to him, be more endurable than a paradise full of angelic
shams.*’ (“Critiques and Addresses” “Mr. Darwins Critics”
P. 273.)
Such was and is the scientific standpoint, and it is an “ open-
air " sane, healthy position, like that of Confucius. The internal
critics, being professors of divinity etc., have their ideas still
coloured by a little of the old “other world “ notions, and they
live in an atmosphere surcharged with “ God.9' This God or
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
335
driving force of the universe is coming dangerously near the
Godless “Force** or “Motion** of the physicists. Even good
churchmen quoting
“ All are but parts of one stupendous whole,
Whose body nature is, and God the soul.’*
Or scientifically stated, matter at absolute Zero would be motionless
or dead matter, but if animated by “ heat,” “ force,’* “ motion,” or
God it lives, and forms living things, so that “ matter and force,”
“ matter and spirit,” “ Matter and God,” are synonymous phrases.
Here, again, we see the close approach of the widely separated
schools. Even the most extreme have now met in the idea of the
entirely mythical character of Jesus.
The “internal” school is voiced by Professor Arthur Drews,
Ph.D., of Karlsruhe, in his able volume on “The Christ Myth,”
for which, in its English dress, we are indebted to Mr. Fisher
Unwin, who is doing such good word in publishing the work of the
most advanced schools.
Even in their terminology the two schools are approaching each
other. The study of radium has shown the structure of the atoms
of the metallic elements, and led to the conception of electrons
which constitute electricity and atoms, and has given new force
to the old theory that they are motions of the Ether, or Helmholtz’s
“ vortex atoms.” This is the materialistic monism, or oneness of
matter and force. Drews concludes, at the end of his interesting
volume (p. 299), “There must be an idealistic monism in opposi-
tion to the naturalistic monism of Haeckel which is prevalent even
to-day.”
“This monism,” says Drews, “must not exclude God’s exist-
ence.”
The very including of God or naming or defining of God, is draw-
ing a line round the infinite, or etymologically setting an “ end ” to
the “ endless.”
To attempt to separate out a God from the phenomena we see
around us, is, in our present state of knowledge and reasoning
power, absolutely futile, and Huxley’s humble “don’t know”
position is the only possible one.
Arthur Drews, of Karlsruhe, says, in his ‘’Christ Myth,” that
the myth of a “ god ” suffering for man was so universal, in Tam-
muz, Adonis, Attys, Dionysius, and all the others, that Paul spoke
of a “Jesus and his redemption scheme” as something not his-
torical, but super-historical (unquestionable, universally accepted)
in the super-sensible world. In fact it had pragmatic sanction.
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CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
Here is a mirologue of the redemption of man by God's son,
founded, says Drews, on the essence of the floating myths of Asia,
every God of which had “ had his day and ceased to be,” mere
phantoms of mirophily.
So the “ foundations of belief” become attenuated, indeed,
and the Christian dogma is reduced to the mirage of past mirages.
(See tabulated matter, pp. 280-284 and 307-310.)
But let us look at Drews* arguments. He declares that the
Jesus, who became the Christian Christ, was crystallised by Paul
from the floating idea of the Messiah or Saviour common to all
Western Asia, and long before Jesus* time widely worshipped
secretly in all the countries surrounding Palestine and in Palestine
itself ; and he goes into the geographical distribution of the belief.
He comes back to the core of the Solar myth. “ It was a Messianic
tradition that he (Jesus) began his activity in Galilee, and wandered
about as Physician, Saviour, Redeemer, and Prophet, as Mediator
in the union of Israel, and as one who brought light to the Gentiles,
not as an impetuous oppressor full of inconsiderate strength, but
as one who assumed a loving tenderness for the weak and despair-
ing. He heals the sick, comforts the afflicted, and proclaims to
the poor the gospel of the nearness of the * Kingdom of God.’
That is connected with the wandering of the sun through the twelve
signs of the Zodiac (Galilee, i.e., Galil-Circle and Circle—Chirchle
or Church), and is based on Isa, xxxv. 5, et seq., xliii. 1-7, xlix.-et
seq., as well as in Isa. xli. 1-11 .*\ [These are all passages describ-
ing the worldly glories of Israel to be brought about by the Messiah
or Mesiah son of Iah or Yahweh.] ” Naturally Jesus, to whom
the Pilgrim Saviour (Jason) corresponded, was obliged to reveal
his true nature by miraculous healing and could not take a sub-
ordinate place in this regard among the cognate heathen God
redeemers. Even the Saviour carrying his cross is copied from
Hercules bearing the pillars crosswise.”
-
The only new point in the Gospels, differing from Pagan
accounts, is ” the account of Jesus’ trial, the Romans and Jewish
procedure worked out in such an ignorant way, to one who knows
something about it, betray so significantly the purely fictitious nature
of their account.”
The final act, the passion and suffering, the corner-stone of the
redemption, is entirely borrowed from Pagan myths. Drews says :
“The derision, the flagellation, both the thieves, the crying out on
the cross, the sponge with vinegar, the piercing with a lance, the
soldiers casting dice for the dead man’s garments, also the women
at the place of execution and at the grave, the grave in a rock are
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
337
found in just the same form in the worship of Adonis, Attis, Mithras,
and Osiris,’* while the resurrection and the ascent into heaven as
the saviour of men, was the common story of the fifty or sixty sun
gods worshipped by Pagans all over the world. Thus Drews
exposes the entirely fictitious nature of the whole Jesus myth.
As to Paul’s placing this figure on the screen, as the central
figure of his religious drama, Drews says, p. 70: ’’Paul himself
never disguised that he had seen Jesus not with mortal eyes, but
only with those of the Spirit, as an inner revelation. ’ It has pleased
God,* he says (Gal. i. 16), * to reveal his son within me.’ ”
Drews insists on this again and again (three times on one page),
saying : “ The fact is therefore settled that Paul knew nothing of an
historical Jesus.” Jesus was a lay figure, on which were hung all
that was formerly ascribed to the Messiah and to the Saviours of
man—the returning sun.
” The Christian religion began long before the Jesus of the
Gospels appeared, and was completed independently of the
historical Jesus of theology.”
Christianity was (as St. Augustine and Justin asserted, pp. 133,
333) contained in beliefs current for thousands of years before the
birth of Jesus, and repeated in the histories of Adonis, Attys,
Christna, Gautama, Dionysius, Osiris, and all the others.
The Faith dogma as taught by the clergy of the Early Church
gave rise to terrible indolence and licence in the Church, because
if you had faith ” Nothing else mattered ” (see p. 329).
The consequence was that priests and prelates alike all led
dissolute lives and kept concubines and practised polygamy besides
brutally robbing the poor to keep their concubines.
So dissolute were they that villagers refused them admission to
their villages unless accompanied by their concubines, as otherwise
they seduced the wives and daughters of the inhabitants.
Writing of the clergy about 1400, Green, in his “Short History
of the English People ” (p. 294), says :—“ 1 found them [the clergy]
(says Poggio, an Italian traveller, twenty years after Chaucer’s
death) men given up to sensuality in abundance.”
When Pope Paul V., meditated the suppression of the licensed
brothels in the Holy City, the Roman senators petitioned against
his carrying his design into effect, on the ground that the existence
of such places was the only means of hindering the priests from
seducing their wives and daughters. The same charge has been
made again and again. In Rome, the centre of the female confes-
sional system, the number of births in 1836 was 4,373, of which
3,160, or three-fourths, were illegitimate.
Y
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CHRISTIANITY
A writer in the Times Literary Supplement, 21st June, 1912, says
of the time of Caesar Borgia about 1590, “ Sexual incontinence was
regarded as a very little sin, a natural failing which tarnished no
man's reputation ; when courtesans, 44 meretrices, honestae 44 were
honoured and protected not only by kings, statesmen, and human-
ists, but by the Princes of the Church; when men held in all
sincerity that 44 there is nothing either good or bad but thinking
makes it so.44
The Germans at the Council of Trent, as late as 1560, com-
plained that the tax on concubines was levied even on priests who
had none. One abbot had seventeen illegitimate children in one
village, and another had 70 concubines, and the Bishop of Liege
had over 70 children.
Faith is the negation of reason or Idaia Mater, the denial of the
evidences of the senses. Faith is slavery of the mind. No one
can really believe in the Trinity as it is quite inconceivable and
officially declared to be “incomprehensible,44 and when any
educated man says “ I believe in the Trinity 44 he means 441 submit
myself to those who declare that the Trinity exists.44 Faith then
is nothing but a base and slavish submission. Instead of being
enchained, thought should be absolutely free, but mankind has as
much need of a “Habeas mentem“ act, as one of “habeas corpus,44
in fact, more so, the slavery of the mind being a crime against the
whole of humanity, while the slavery of the body is a crime against
the individual, and an enslaved genius like Aesop may do as much
for human thought as thousands of free dullards.
But Faith does not really carry even a Bishop very far. Speak-
ing of our ignorance of any such entity as soul, the Bishop of
Llandaff says: 44 This notion was without doubt the offspring of
prejudice and ignorance ; I must own that my knowledge of the
nature of the soul is much the same now as it was then (when a
child). I have read volumes on the subject, but I have no scruple
in saying that 1 know nothing about it.44
CHAPTER II
THE OUTLOOK.
It may be asked, “When you have swept away the delusive
phantoms of mirophily, what will you put in their place/*
My answer is, “ When you have swept away a ghost story, what
do you put in its place?” ” Nothing.** It is simply removing an
obstacle which obscured the truth.
When you disprove false evidence, what do you put in its place ?
Nothing. You simply allow the truth to stand alone, unobscured.
What happens when an invigorating breeze blows away a blinding
fog. We are at least face to face with fact, instead of wandering
aimlessly in a circle of changing hopes and fears, and shivering at
every new mirophilic voice out of the gloom.
The position of the early Church was, that the Church declared
it told all the truth there was to be known about the material world
and its creation. To attempt to seek out more was irreligious and
wicked, as it was sure to clash with what the Church had taught
to be the ultimate and absolute truth.
Science has put an end to that position, so the Church has
retired from its declared infallibility in the material world, to in-*
fallibility in that fantasy of mirophily they call the Spiritual world.
There may be spirits, souls, angels, archangels, saints, gods,
devils, heavens and hells, but the Church cannot prove any such
statements, and the merest child knows as much of such dreams
as the most learned ” divine ” (see p. 338), and in the present state
of our knowledge it is utterly dishonest to enforce such theories
by threats of punishment, or praise of ” Faith.*’
And what is the final outcome of nearly two thousand years of
conferences, studies, adjustments, and attempts by the acutest
minds of Christendom, to construct a creed out of the chaos of
myths from which Christianity was built? The Book of Common
Prayer, given us by a State Church, teaches pantheism in the
** Canticle.**
The sun, moon, and stars, mountains, trees, fire, frost, whales,
fowls of the air, are made into sentient beings or personified and
called on to praise God as man is to do. This is pure Greek
Pantheism.
The attempt to define the Trinity is one of the finest examples
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CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
of the inextricable tangle of contradictions into which all mirophilists
plunge when they attempt to produce a rational explanation of a
Creed founded on irrational and contradictory elements.
“ All men shall rise again with their bodies.’*
This idea of bodily resurrection is quite impossible, owing to
the want of material on the earth. The same carbon has been
used over and over again to build up bodies.
Just as all the water in the ocean has been volatilised, fallen as
rain, and returned to the ocean again and again, so the carbon
required to make man’s body has been used over and over again,
millions of times, and helped to build up the bodies of prehistoric
monsters.
The cycle is this: Man and animals absorb oxygen by their
lungs, burn their carbon to carbon dioxide as the source of their
energy, and breathe out this carbon dioxide. The trees and plants,
by means of Chlorophyl and the energy of the Sun’s rays, are
enabled to break up this burnt carbon into its elements and restore
the carbon (in combination still) to a form whence it can again
produce energy by oxidation, thus reversing the oxidation process
of the animals and storing up the sun’s energy. Man and
animals again eat this, utilising the stored energy, and so
the cycle is complete. All energy and life are derived from
the sun’s rays. The same matter, carbon, has figured in millions
of men’s and animals* bodies, generation after generation. If
that were not so, the world, by the accretion of dead bodies, would
be enormously larger than the sun. Sir John Herschel long ago
calculated out the result of the piling up of the dead bodies from a
single pair, in a hundred generations, as follows :—
“For the benefit of those who discuss the subjects of population,
war, pestilence, famine, etc., it may be as well to mention that
the number of human beings living at the end of the hundredth
generation, commencing from a single pair, doubling at each
generation (say in thirty years), and allowing for each man, woman
and child an average space of four feet in height and one foot
square would form a vertical column, having for its base the whole
surface of the earth and sea spread into a plain, and for its height
three thousand six hundred and seventy-four times the sun’s
distance from the earth! The number of human strata thus piled
one on the other would amount to 460,790,000,000,000.”
(“Atoms,” in the Fortnightly Review, Vol. I., p. 83.)
The tremendous waste of good endeavour which results from
kindly irien trying to follow all this insane twisting and patching
of Pagan mirodoxes, is well described by Ruskin in a lovely
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
341
paragraph on the Pride of Faith, which he says is the most deadly
form of pride—” because it invests every evil passion of our nature
with the aspect of an angel of light, and enables self-love which
might otherwise have been put to wholesome shame, and the cruel
carelessness of the ruin of our fellow-men, which might otherwise
have been warmed into human love, or at least checked by human
intelligence, to congeal into the moral intellectual disease of
imagining that myriads of the inhabitants of the world have been
left to wander and perish, many of them everlastingly, in order
that in the fulness of time, divine truth might be preached suffi-
ciently to ourselves: With this further ineffable mischief for direct
result, that multitudes of kindly disposed, gentle, and submissive
persons who might else by their true patience have alloyed the
hardness of the common crowd, are withdrawn from all such true
services of man that they may pass the best part of their lives in
what they are told is the service of God, namely, desiring what they
cannot obtain, lamenting what they cannot avoid, and reflecting on
what they cannot understand.” (Ruskin's ” Lectures on Art.”)
The Churches have done much to develop the artistic side of
man, and the world owes them a debt for fostering the love of
beautiful sounds, colour and form, in music, painting, sculpture,
and architecture.
The Church, at its best, is just the attempt to express the
altruistic longing for the beautiful and good in man, but the crooked
paths of sacerdotalism have led to much more of evil being attained
than of good. Let us hope that a new congregation of the 9aints
of earth may yet be gathered in a brotherhood of man, foretold
by Bishop Carpenter. ° In the future, not the Kingdom of God,
but that of man, will be the great theme and care of the race,”—a
brotherhood which will not oppose knowledge, nor deny the en-
joyment of the fruit of the tree of knowledge (science), to the
children, teaching them to scorn all promises of reward or threats
of punishment as incentives to truth and gentleness, and to recognise
that the amelioration of life on earth can only be accelerated by
utilising the good which this world contains. The ” other*
worldness ” or mirophily of the dark ages, led not only to the
extinction of knowledge but to the extinction of kindness, and the
crushing of the people by a religion of fear and brutality taught by
the Church.
The Church of Scotland now decides ” God's will ” by a majority
of votes, as has long been the custom in electing the Pope. In
place of their old declaration—
M Declaring the same to be the confession of his faith, and
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CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
that he owns the doctrine therein contained to be the true
doctrine, which he will constantly adhere to, as likewise, etc.,*’
which made a man swear to adhere always to a fixed creed, they
have substituted the following:—
“ Together with a declaration of his faith in the sum and
substance of the doctrine of the Reformed Churches therein
contained according to such formula as may from time to time
be prescribed by the General Assembly of the said Church,
with the consent of the majority of the presbyteries of the
Church, and also a declaration,”
allowing the ” faith ” to be modified according to the sway of
opinion, or the advance of knowledge, but, of course, " absolute
truth ” has disappeared out of their Church as it has out of their
Bible—the truth is now the opinion of the majority, in fact, it has
the Pragmatic sanction.
When one thinks of the enormous amount of good which might
have been done, had the energies of religious men been turned
into courses useful to mankind, “ by their true patience have
alloyed the hardness of the common crowd,” or helped to illu-
minate the darkness of ignorance by service in science, in real
exploration of the unknown, or, if they are emotional, poured forth
their emotions in painting or sculpture, music or poetry, one is
consumed with regret that the energies of this mighty army were
not employed in creating a paradise on earth, in which we might
now have been living, instead of pretending to lead us to a paradise
conceived by man in his early ignorance, but which educated
humanity now know to be a mere dream.
-
Man, however, is advancing, and even an English bishop
(Carpenter, Bampton Lecture, 1889) says that the arguments in
favour of miracles and inspiration, once so popular, are not now
appropriate ; *' These mines are no longer worked because there
is no longer the same demand for the produce ” (Pragmatism in-
deed 1) Happily, he has a belief in humanity, if not in miracles,
as he says : ” In the future not die Kingdom of God, but that of
man, will be the great care and theme of the race.” That was
twenty-two years ago, but the Church has made no move. Let us
hope that day will soon arrive.
In writing of Soul, all seem to forget that the energy or activity
of man in thinking or working is due to the energy evolved in the
combination of the oxygen of the air with the hydrogen and carbon
of his food, just as surely as is the energy or activity of a steam
engine. <•
Cease the supply of oxidisable material, whether coal, oil, or
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
343
“food,” and the activity or "soul” ceases, whether of men or
machines. Cease the supply of oxygen, and the activity, whether
of engine, animal, or man, is at an end.
The course pursued may be infinitely varied, but the result and
the ultimate products cure the same. Poets forget all about such
” material ” things, and soar to ideas of a purely abstract man’s
“ ged-like ” mind, his “soul,” or “spirit,” and people finally
begin to think that all men’s activity arises from Soul, instead of
the oxidation of carbon and hydrogen.
“Soul,” spirit, thought, or action are simply part of the chain
of actions set up by the oxidation of carbon in the human organisa-
tion. All life and motion are caused by the dissipation of the sun’s
energy. In its passage from the sun to infinite space, it causes a
little flutter of life and motion on the earth during its degradation
to a lower phase. As well might a man derive the cause of the
motion of a mill from a beautiful carpet produced, as an ultimate
product, instead of from the combination of coal and air, which
yield the driving power, as derive the driving power of man from
Soul or mind, instead of from food and air, or hold the beautiful
cinematograph pictures on the screen to be the “ soul ” or cause of
the motion of the engines, miles distant, whose electric current
(also derived from the oxidation of carbon) is the driving force of
the life-like pictures we see. Spirit, soul, or intellectual force, are
utterly dependent on food for their existence ; and when a man’s
“ fire ” goes out he is as “ dead as a cold steam engine. Soul,
spirit and thought are products, not producers. A man can no
more help thinking than water can help running down-hill.
Thought, soul, spirit, and action are products of the combustion of
food by air, the force thus evolved drives the human organism or
organic machine.
Conybeare gives us one brilliant glimpse of the possible origin
of human morality, which leaves out all mirophily, in these words :
“If all holy thoughts and good counsels proceed from a being
called God, whence did he derive them? ”
“ Why should they not be as ultimate and original in us who
certainly possess them, ns in this hypothetically constituted author
of them.”
The same idea is stated from the medical point of view by Dr.
C. H. Saleeby, who, lecturing in London, is reported thus : “Several
delusions existed among humanity with regard to the origin and
meaning of morality. One delusion in particular which must be
combated strenuously was that which tried to make us believe
that there was no natural tendency in life towards morality. He
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CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
defined morality as that which made for more life, and said that
the origin of morality was contained in the First Protozoan.
Morality was older than any religion or creed because it had its
institution in the beginning. The self-abnegation entailed in the
reproduction of species was an indication of morality, and it would
be found that morality would survive all creeds and religions.**
How near we are to the position stated so brilliantly by Tyndall
long, long ago at Belfast, in clear logical English, a position much
abused, violently written against, but never answered.
The Roman Catholic Church will yet learn, in the triumphant
words of Emerson, that ** The Creeds of the Church wither like dried
leaves at the door of the observatory.’* They are fighting a losing
battle.
Clergymen talk of the immanence of ** God *’ in man, “ God **
standing as a guide to the hypothetical soul, just as Wallace wants
an “ intelligent ” guide to every atom.
If they would talk of the immanence of ** good ’* in man, as did
Confucius—“virtue has an irresistible charm, and will not stand
alone, but will find neighbours **—they might help to humanise the
trend of thought, but they well know that, without the big stick
of fear, or its equivalent, no one will pay much attention to their
teaching. Let us substitute “ good and evil ** for the personal
“ God and devil.’’
It is to be hoped that some great genius will arise, who will
group all our higher aspirations, and altruism, with music, stained
glass, architecture, and poetry, in some concrete form, that one will
be able to gain the exaltation of religion without the “ revelation **
pretence. Some plays, and some novels, and poetry, and music,
raise finer feelings than any Church service, but the craving of miro-
phily, and the desire of frail humanity for an official declaration
from some higher power, on the things they wish to know, will, 1
am afraid, give churches, in their present crude form, a life for
many generations to come.
It is the mirolatry of religion which prevents the great majority
of Britons from ever entering a Church.
This is a healthy Pagan country ; only a mere ten per cent, are
Christians. We all love elevating converse, fine music, noble archi-
tecture, stained windows, and kindness and gentleness illustrated
to us and impressed upon us in beautiful language, and that is
what the Church ought to do. The Churches would not be able to
hold the people who would attend, if such were their services ; but
they are emptied by the preaching of a creed every one feels to be
untrue, and against the injustice of which every free and intelligent
man rebels.
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
345
We have seen every religious idea which is ruling the Western
nations to-day having its early sources in the Accadian and Baby-
lonian myths, some of which came, no doubt, from the great mother
of all religions, India. But the immense intellectual force of the
Babylonians only comes home to us when we see her teaching her
ideas to all the world, her religious practices and god names ruling
right over to the extreme Western shores of Europe, in Ireland,
and even the far Western Hebrides of Scotland. Not only so ;
but we find her god names coupled with the Indian symbols and
sacred animals, such as the Elephant, all over the two Americas.
King's ** Gnostics " (p. 320) says that the connection between
Indian and Egyptian mythology Ss certain, however difficult to
account for, the names of the principal deities in this latter having
the appearance of pure Sanscrit.
It was from Babylon that Greece learnt her art, as can be seen
even by a study of the Assyrian Room at the British Museum,
although the Greeks, having marble, and high artistic genius, carried
art to the highest level yet achieved by mankind.
Babylon was then the intellectual mistress of the world.
But their methods of warfare were terrible, and, no doubt, even
before the great Skuthian invasion, she had become enfeebled by
the deaths of her best sons in the constant wars. Not only so, but
she had already created a desert in many fertile lands, where she
had put the entire populations, man, woman, and child, to the
sword, as was her custom when any people made a stubborn
resistance.
Then came the Scythian Hordes, and not only sacked Babylon,
but cut the irrigation canals, and put all the inhabitants to the
sword.
Hence perished the Eden of the Hebrews, and with her perished
the old severe religion, with its terrible gods, whose conduct was
but a reflex of the Babylonian method of conquest and government.
Yahweh Yirea, whose character I have sketched, was one of
their gods given to the Hebrew Clan, by the Babylonians (see p. 269).
We can scarcely conceive the immense effect which the down-
fall of Babylonia had on the thought of Western Asia.
The revulsion from the old Fear Gods must have been a great
ameliorating influence. The feelings of kindness inherent in every
human being would now be able to have play. Every feeling of
this kind had formerly to be repressed, and man kept under the
constant fear of death. A vengeful god was the only vision possible
to the mental eye of that age.
With the passing away of this incubus, men must have felt that
the strain was passing, and they could take a new view of life.
346
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
It would not, however, be all gain. We saw, in Ezek. xxxi., the
great richness of the Assyrian, “ with rivers running round about
the plants, and conduits unto all trees of the field/* Therefore his
trees were "above all the trees of the field/* and 44 his bough
multiplied with long branches owing to the multitude of waters/*
44 All the fowls of heaven made their nests in his boughs, and
under his branches did all the beasts of the field bring their young
and under his shadow dwelt all great nations/* So rich, beautiful,
and umbrageous were the landscape and trees that 44 no tree in the
garden of God was like unto them in their beauty, and all the trees
of Eden envied them.** All this had passed away, and desolation
remained. So that, not pnly was the religion of the surrounding
nations softened, but their ideas took a poetic, melancholy turn
and gradually gave an absolutely new tone to the culture of Western
Asia.
The only hope was to build their great Kingdom by the aid of
some non-human leader, some Saviour, who could create Gardens
of Eden and Kingdoms of beauty, with all men dwelling in peace
without war ; in fact, a Messiah or Son of Iah who would combine
all humanity in amity and good feeling by divine power. Thus
arose the active Messianic period.
Then arrived the brilliant period of the Greeks, who, when
their gods were growing dim, converted their Phallic Hermes into
the philosophical 44 Logos/* and who gradually over-ran Palestine,
while, at the other end, the Egyptians gathered libraries, and Alex-
andria, with its marvellous astronomy, physics, and geometry, was
the great centre of advanced knowledge in the whole world. It
was into this period that the old Yahwehism disappeared, and in
it the ideas were matured out of which Christianity emerged.
Just before the establishment of official Christianity—it was not
established for some centuries after Jesus—Plutarch (a.D. 66-106)
states that, in the reign of Tiberius Caesar, a great voice was heard
from the sky echoing down the Ionian Sea 44 Great Pan is dead/*
claimed by Eusebius as god4s means of announcing the death of the
Messiah (therefore Pan and Jesus were to him the same), but really
meaning that the old Pantheon host was no longer believed in. In
truth, as the human imagination created them, it could de-create
them ; and so, when belief perished, the gods died also.
The old gods being dead, and that great fount of Western
mirolatry, Babylon, having ceased to be a power, swept away by
the Scythians, it was now possible to evolve a 44 ghostly ** or spiritual
religion, compounded of high messianic hopes, and the saviour
idea of the Sun Myths, leaving the gross and material Phallic worship
behind with the dead gods.
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
347
Thus was born, of humble people, the gentle and highly poetic
faith which might have brought an earthly socialistic millennium;
but the fair work was marred, and turned into the most mighty
engine for the degradation and enslavement of man, by the sophistry
of Paul and the establishment by Jerome of his iron rule which
ushered in the Dark Ages.
Yet, far back in history, there was a teacher, still a power in the
world, whose message was accepted without the baleful mirodox,
who taught no " salvation by faith ” and who fixed no “ Iron rule ’’
of a god’s word.
There is only one country in the world where the man with no
mirodox was listened to.
China had, in early times, two great teachers almost equally
eminent. Both existed at the beginning of that great epoch of
Bible-making when men wish for some concrete statement of the
unknown, and when every mirophilic statement, however wild,
secured attention. The first, Lao Tsze, was born about 604 B.C.,
and the other, Kung Fu Tsze—Confucius, as he was named by
the Latin-writing Roman Catholic Missionaries—in 551 B.C., about
the same era as Pythagoras, or the Puthu-Guru of the West. It
was the time of Ezekiel's " prophecies the period of the doctrine
of Babylon the Great.
Lao Tsze gave an account of the great Path, Truth, Light, and
First Cause, and set the old vague faiths on a firmer basis, and fie
gave a basis to Eschatology, as he thought that such assertions, by
putting an end to the uncertainty, would help the masses to guide
their conduct in the rough path of life. He taught the old Jaina idea
—which Gotama practised—and then abandoned as leading nowhere
—that “ existence and non-existence are the same. All things are
one, and from this * one ’ or * Tao * all men and things proceed,
and to it will return, thereby losing their separate existence as
rivers merge their waters in the ocean." He taught, as do the
Yogis of India, that all evils come from action.
" A state is at peace till governed. The heaven-born instincts
are corrupted by rule and government, under which men strive
for peace and quietude."
This is the essence of Tolstoi’s teaching to-day.
We see here the Nirvana of the Indians well stated, and also
Tolstoi’s ideas put in clear words, for the Chinese have always been
the most rational of people.
These ideas, given out as telling all about the other world (like
Thomson and Tail’s " Unseen Universe,” a book now forgotten)
were eagerly accepted.
348
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES.
Before his death there arose the great rational, sane, and vigor-
ously-minded teacher Confucius, perhaps the greatest teacher the
world has seen, with a marvellously-advanced point of view con-
sidering the state of man's intelligence at that date.
This true philosopher (lover of wisdom) 44 merely told his
disciples that the rationalist and philosopher had no common ground
on which to combat the unfounded fantasies of a mystic and spiritist,
who chose to accept as matters of fact what could not be substan-
tiated.*’
Here we have the Agnostic position of Huxley stated at the
dawn of civilization.
It is said that the old age of Lao Tsze was embittered by the
teaching of Confucius, whom he blamed for not going far enough
back, into the past for an inspiration. Yes, all inspirations, to be
accepted, must be founded on the past ignorance of our fore-
fathers, when miracles were common belief.
-
“ Once attain Tao,” said Lao Tsze, 44 there is nothing you cannot
accomplish, without it there is nothing you can accomplish/* We
hear the same argument to-day, urged by the Indian Yogis without
an iota of proof, as man has much the same success or failure in
life, all the world over, regardless of his religious opinions or the
want of them.
Confucius, with his bright, clear, and vigorous intellect, described
Taoism as an absurd polytheistic fantasy, and confined his teaching
to the state of things we really know.
When Lao Tsze was old, Confucius listened to his exposition of
his transcendental mysticism, and listened, with all the respect due
to Lao’s years and position, to his fanciful, unseen world of gods
and spirits, his doctrines of the soul’s immortality, transmigration,
etc.
It is said that for three days Confucius refused to give any
opinion upon the good old sage’s eloquently stated views, and at
last he explained that he 44 had simply listened with Kelpless gaze
and open-mouthed wonder, amazed that so learned and experienced
an old man should thus base the hopes of the race and the conduct
of mankind on phantoms and mere speculative ideas.”
The virile mind of Confucius 44 had been a seeker for nearly
thirty years, but had not yet found any belief in souls and divine
inspiration.” Enough for him to follow the Great Models of human
perfection, as Seneca advised, leaving the phantoms of theories and
hazy unknowables for the clear principles of morality, the five
Cardinal virtues, Humanity, Justice, Conformity, Rectitude, and
Sincerity. Looking to the mirophilist tendencies, exhibited in all
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
349
mankind from African savages to men of great mind, like Newton
or Kelvin, it is very wonderful that Confucius was listened to at
all, especially when we consider the early era in which he taught.
That such teaching has held its place down to the present day,
shows that the Chinese are a race eminently fitted by nature to
become leaders in the New Era, when actual knowledge shall rule
mankind's actions, and when truth shall no longer be rejected for
the fictions of the imagination, however backed by miraculous
" revelations," and pandering to the mirophilic sentiment.
Confucius is the one founder of a great religion who took no
lying short-cut to the unknown.
He often counselled his disciples that it ill became the learned
to add the great weight of their opinion in favour of any views
or doctrines concerning matters which, as cultured men, they could
not substantiate, especially theories postulating ex-mundane souls,
spirits, heavens, or hells.
"When we are not cognisant of the facts and fully assured
thereof," he used to urge, " let us be silent and tell the busy multi-
tude not to waste their substance, abilities, and time, on what is
very doubtful and dark, but to study nature's laws and order which
are clear and universal; and live in accordance therewith." (For-
long's " Short Studies.")
He had that healthy virile mind which rejected the extreme
Christian or Tolstoian doctrine of non-resistance or " turn the other
cheek," which was taught by Lao-tsze. He taught that injury
should not be recompensed with kindness, as it was only fitting to
recompense injury with justice, and that kindness should be the
reward of kindness. He condemned turning the cheek to the smiter
and giving his cloak to the thief : such doctrines he held as hurtful to
society and civilization.
As Forlong says : " Only a brave and very sanguine spirit could
hope that this wise, but to the masses, cold, unemotional Agnos-
ticism would make a successful stand against the many warm,
responsive rites and systems of the poor ignorant Chinese of the
5th and 6th centuries, B.C."
He neither wished nor tried to establish a religion, he wrote
no Bible, and, as Prof. Douglas says, " There is no room in his
religion for a personal deity," yet he seems to recognise an un-
known, perchance unknowable, something at the back of pheno-
mena, or, as the Rev. Dr. Matthewson puts it (" Religion of China ”
p. 97), " Confucius taught a pure and true morality without theology.
He held up the vision of heaven on earth, the prospect of a paradise
below. He hoped for the advent of a pure, civil government whose
laws would be a universal blessing."
350
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
He was intensely practical, and taught exactly the opposite of
Tolstoi’s injunction of non-resistance.
“ Never neglect to rectify an evil or redress a wrong because it
is small, nor to resist slight acts of injustice, else they will grow, and
great wrongs may overwhelm thee and others.”
He taught the golden rule that ” we should do as we would
be done by,” and also put it negatively, so that its full meaning
should be understood; ” What I do not wish men to do to )me
I also wish not to do to them.”
This golden rule he re-states three times (it appears only once
in the New Testament), and exhaustingly expands it as ” The prin-
ciple with which as with a measuring square to regulate one’s
conduct.” This was 500 years before Jesus was born. The Chris-
tian Golden Rule was, consequently, Chinese or Indian, not
Hebrew.
He aided the Chinese rulers, advised them in justice and good
government, and condemned all monks and anchorites as misguided
men, shirking life’s duties and living on others.
Forlong gives this story. When, as Minister of Crime with
Duke Chau, a father besought him to punish his son for lack of filial
piety—one of the most heinous crimes in a Chinaman’s eyes—Kung'
fu-Fsze committed both to prison, saying: “Am I to punish for a
breach of filial piety one who has never been taught to be filially
minded? He who neglects to teach a son his duties is equally
guilty with his son who fails in them, and so is the king or law-
maker who neglects his duties yet seeks order and obedience I”
This is the idea which is going to reform our penal system in
Britain, well enunciated 2500 years ago.
And what manner of man was this Kung-fu-Fsze ?
He had an iron constitution, tall, commanding presence, power-
ful frame, dignified bearing, darkish complexion, small, piercing
eyes, full sonorous voice, and a grave, and usually mild and
benevolent expression.
He urged on kings and princes that crime is not inherent in
human nature, and that a good government should not require
capital punishment.
If it is strenuous in desire for justice and goodness, the people
will be good ; ” Let us educate and be educated, and strive to be
honest and manly.”
” Virtue has an irresistible charm, and will not stand alone, but
will find neighbours," a magnificent aphorism, which ought to be
written up on all our public buildings, Parliament Houses, and
Churches.
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
351
Princes who heard him often begged of him to dwell near them,
offering him large revenues to do so; but he would never remain
where his advice was not taken, as he felt that ” he thus counten-
anced their iniquities.** He invariably left at once for the highways
and byway8, content to be but a strolling teacher, and rejected of
men.
" Even in his days of distress, Confucius refused all salary for
teaching, and this even from Governments and Princes.*’
The Society of Friends have followed the wise idea of Confucius
—no one should speak unless he has a message ; and no one
should take money for preaching or teaching men to be good.
” Though gods be hidden from us, not so our brethren. Strive
to be good citizens of earth and waste not time in seeking after
that which lies beyond human right and comprehension.” Such
was his beautiful and practical teaching.
He thought that that which is termed religion is unreality, but
stretches of imagination. The ideas and pictures may perchance
be right and true, but they may not, and none can prove that they
are true.
Thus many great thinkers state the Agnostic position of the
great Hebrew teacher in Ecc. iii. 19-22, the Greeks, Omar Khayyam,
or modern scientists, like Huxley.
I have sketched the man and his teaching somewhat fully,
quoting Forlong, in order that I may emphasise the terrible hold
mirophily has on humanity. Here was a perfectly sane teacher,
rejecting all mirophility as a will of the wisp, and unlike many other
teachers revered by his country ; and yet no sooner is he dead than
all the miraculous folk-lore of Sun worship is encrusted on his birth,
life, and death.
He was said to have been by divine intervention born of a
Virgin, and at his birth there was the usual bright light, appearance
of a star, and so on.
His follower Mencius gathered his sayings as we now have them,
and they became part of national religion.
The State Religion of China is the most grand and solemn
worship ever paid on earth to the Divinity of Nature. Two public
acts of adoration of Tao (or the ” way of the Universe ”) are paid
each year, one at the re-birth of the Sun, at the Winter solstice,
and the other when the sun has reached the highest points of his
career at the Summer Solstice ; with these acts of adoration are
associated the ancestors of the Emperor. The temple has two
great terraces. The great sacrifice is at the winter solstice in cele-
bration of the return of the sun and the coming of the Paradise
352
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
half of the year. The templet are oriented to the south-east, where
the young sun rises on the first day of the new year. On the upper
terrace is a tablet, with the names of the Emperor’s ancestors and
a dedication to Imperial Heaven. The Emperor attends in person,
accompanied by all the princes, grandees, officers, attendants and
troops, amounting to many hundreds, all in their richest ceremonial
dress. The Emperor officiates on the upper Terrace, while the
lower is dedicated to the Sun, Moon, Great-Bear, the five planets,
28 principal constellations, host of stars and gods of clouds, rain,
and thunder. An offering is made of a bullock on a Pyre. There
is another great Jceremony at Summer Solstice, so the official
religion is entirely Solar or Cosmic.
Confucius recognised no supernatural, and the Chinese now call
him a “ mortal man,” not a son of god, but the honours paid to
him are second only to those paid to Tao ” the Way," or the
Divinity of Nature. Hence, China has independently adopted the
beautiful idea of Seneca, setting up, not a divine impossibility, but
a human possibility, as a model for imitation, while expressing
adoration and awe at the sublime ” march of the universe ” or
• • nr • •
lao.
His name is held in the highest honour in the whole Chinese
Empire, from the highest in the land to the lowest peasant. He is
one of themselves—a Chinaman. We have had a foreigner, a Jew,
imposed on us, as a god, by the Romans, to the exclusion of our
own native gods, and he, Jesus, has been accepted by only about
one-tenth of our population. The mass of the people in Britain sure
Pagans, without any religion..
In every city in China a great temple is erected, at Government
expense, to Confucius, containing a tablet on which his titles are
inscribed. The building is generally the most conspicuous in the
city, its walls being painted red.
The special honours periodically paid to Confucius sure com-
plementary to those paid to the Divinity of Nature. As the worship
of the "Way,” or Grand Pageant of the Universe, the National
Religion, is celebrated at the Solstices, so homage is paid to the
memory of Confucius at Equinoxes. Every spring and autumn
worship is paid to his memory in his temple by the chief officers
of the city, and offerings of the fruits of the earth are set forth before
him, and incense burnt. The Emperor himself is required to
attend in state at the Imperial College to perform these functions.
Twice he kneels, and twice he bows his head three times to the
ground, <and then utters the words : " Great art thou, perfect Sage.
Thy virtue is full, thy doctrine complete. Among mortal men
To face p. 353, Fig. 127. J
TOMB OF CONFUCIUS.
353
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
?
there has not Been thine equal. All Kings honour thee. Thy
statutes and laws have come gloriously down. Thou art the pattern
in this imperial school. Reverently have the sacrificial vessels
been set out. Full of awe we sound our drums and bells.”
In every school in China, homage is paid him by masters and
scholars on the first and fifteenth of each month, on the day of his
birth, and at the opening and closing of the school each year. In
every village school his titles are written on red paper, and affixed
to the wall, saying, ” The shrine-tablet of the most accomplished,
holy, first and most eminent teacher K’ung.” (Jening’s ” Confucian
Analects.”)
Dr. Legge, who, I am sorry to say, thinks he (Confucius) was
not a great man, as he gave ” no impulse to religion,” nevertheless
does justice to the bravery of his death.
Dr. Legge’s fine comment on his death is rather a sad picture
of the end of a great man. " His end was not unimpressive, but
it was melancholy. He sank behind a cloud. Disappointed hopes
made his soul bitter. The great ones of the empire had not re-
ceived his teachings. No wife nor child was by to do the kindly
offices of affection for him. Nor were the expectations of another
life present with him as he passed through the dark valley. He
uttered no prayer, and he betrayed no apprehensions. Deep-
treasured in his own heart may have been the thought that he had
endeavoured to serve his generation by the Will of God, but he
gave no sign.” (Legge’s “ Chinese Classics,” Vol. I., Prolegomena,
pp. 87-68.) A brave man, and a humble agnostic, to the last.
A fitting end to a brave, lowly, honest man, who never stooped
to the tricks of priesthood, but taught men to do good for its own
sake.
His teaching was of virtue, knowledge, humaneness, righteous-
ness, propriety, faithfulness, and love, as knowledge is to know
men, so humaneness is to love men.” ” Bravery leads to wrong
deeds without righteousness.” ” To know what is right and not
to do it, is moral cowardice.”
Happy is the country in which such a sane and healthy teacher
is listened to without requiring the mirodoxical dressing.
I give here a picture of his grave—real like all his teaching—not
mythical like most other prophets* graves.
I give this, as it may some day be die real ” most
sacred spot on earth,” as the memorial of one who taught
mankind goodness and just laws, impressed on it a beauti-
ful concept of man’s duty to his brethren without stooping
to make-believe, or trading on the mirophile leanings of the
Z
354
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
-
ignorant. What must his force and personality have been, when
he succeeded in a task in which no other man, prophet, or son of
God, has ever succeeded. Instead of hatred, fear, mystery, and
cowardly stooping down to appease monstrous gods, he taught a
religion of manliness, justice, mercy, education, and knowledge, to
which the bright spirits of the Western world are only now aspiring.
Instead of a religion of secret confessional, swinging censers,
dismal chants, performed in semi-darkness, he taught a manly
code, redolent of open air, green fields, honest endeavour, happi-
ness, and sunshine, with infinite pity for the weak and suffering.
THE FUTURE.
And what of the future? Our first duty is to eliminate the great
god fear from the life of man. Each child born into the world
ought, for the mere selfish security of the rest of the community,
to be assured of proper upbringing. Freedom of the mother from
wage-earning toil while bearing and nursing of children is the first
essential. In fact, a woman has quite sufficient work, even of a
mechanical kind, to do, in tending a family in her own home, if
that family is to be physically and mentally healthy. At present,
nearly all children do get some kind of food, clothing, and housing,
in a ragged, irregular way, till they grow up.
But there is plenty of good food, good clothing, and good
nursing, in the world for all. It only requires proper organization
of labour and wages. The new charter of humanity is good food,
good clothes, good houses, and suitable work throughout life
guaranteed to every child born.
We might paraphase Ahura Mazda's three-word rule of life—
” Good Thoughts, Good Words, Good Deeds ”—by ” Good Susten-
ance, Good Education, Good Employment.” By a system of
insurance, the whole community will, before long, guarantee to
every citizen the chance of a useful and happy life ; and provision
of occupation, food, clothing, and housing till he dies. So will the
last of the old Gods—Fear, Phobos, or Pavor, pass away.
Our national life must be organised on more scientific lines, and
the scientific method is, after all, identical with what we all worship,
—kindness. The criminal must be looked upon as a mentally
deficient individual, and attempts made to ameliorate his outlook
on life or to prevent his birth. The idea of revenge which dominates
our law must go. Punishment is a disgrace to civilization. No
criminaf was ever deterred from crime by punishment. In fact,
the daring of a criminal is often the bravery of a hero, misapplied.
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
355
Many a boy’s first crime has been caused by his companions saying
he has not the courage to do the deed. Every citizen must have
employment suited to his capabilities.
Every child born must, by the principal of state insurance, have
the chance of a healthy and happy life from the cradle to the grave.
When the great God, or demon, Fear, has thus been abolished,
the incentive to crime will also be abolished.
Some of our theoretical socialists are in too great a hurry. They
want to cut down the tree and plant a new one at once. But the
old tree is quite capable of bearing the burden of a new state of
sociology. We must not forget that an old system is extremely
difficult to uproot, and great disturbance is caused in the process.
But the old stem has already produced the splendid branches of
Friendly Societies, Insurance and Annuities, Co-operation, Work-
men’s Compensation, Trades Societies, Free Hospitals, Old Age
Pensions, and Child Protection, Free Education, and now State
Insurance against unemployment and invalidity ; and lately man has
at last wakened to the fact that a hungry child is a crime which lies
at the door of every citizen of the nation.
Not only does modern science agree with the best prompting of
altruism and of national economy; but it seeks to guide to fruition
the religion of kindness sung for us by the poets and voiced so well
by Miss Wilcox :
So many Gods, so many creeds,
So many paths to wind and wind,
When just the art of being kind
Is all that this sad world needs.
Science would apply the “art of being kind” to the actual
conduct of the life of the nation. Altruism has made us ease the
last years of worn-out workers, by old age pensions, but even
selfishness should make us provide for the babies, as all the future
depends on them. Our treatment of the aged can have little effect
on the future of the nation, while our method of feeding and
educating of the young absolutely determines the future of our
race.
There has been much discussion lately as to the prevention of
the breeding of criminals; and terrible statistics have been pro-
duced, such as those of Dr. Potts, where he shows that in one
workhouse (to take, only one little instance) sixteen feeble-minded
females had no less than 116 idiot children.
Dr. Rentoul, in a paper before the British Medical Association,
proposes to sterilise all the degenerates, both male and female, by
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CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
Fallcctomy, in the one case, and Vasectomy in the other; both
simple and harmless operations, which neither injure the mental
nor physical conditions, nor weaken the sexual sentiment or power ;
they merely prevent the actual procreation of children. Thus
degenerates and consumptives, who are so by no fault of their own,
might enjoy all the pleasure of loving companionship and married
life, without being a danger to the community, while their love of
offspring might find useful vent in bringing up in a loving atmos-
phere the children of those who had joined the majority.
As to the healthy. In the working classes we misuse the babies
through their mothers before they are born, and further abuse them
afterwards by insufficient or bad food, poor clothing, and insanitary
houses.
A vast mass of preventible misery, immorality, and crime is
caused entirely by the abuse and mal-nutrition of babies. Arrested
development of the physique, and of the intellectual areas of the
brain, is one great cause of crime, and these areas of the brain
being the last to develop, are most sensitive to bad or insufficient
food and insanitary living.
A few years ago all such ideas were taboo, and Dr. Rentoul
could find no publisher brave enough to produce his book on the
subject of “ Race Culture or Race Suicide.” I am glad to see that
on this side we are now ” wakening up.”
Laws to render sterilization compulsory in the case of confirmed
criminals, idiots, and imbeciles, have been passed in several of the
United States, and the State of Indiana has the honour of being
the first to put the law into operation (a step which many thought
would never be taken), and the results have been entirely good.
No doubt every civilized state will adopt this method of preventing
the breeding of the unfit, and so raise the standard of the race.
This negative method should be coupled by positive action tend-
ing towards inducing the best individuals towards parenthood, by
removing the great handicaps which at present exist against the best
human beings having large families.
Motherhood must be considered as the greatest and holiest of all
the facts of human life and must be treated and legislated for un-
hampered by any of the barbarous ecclesiastical ideas of the past.
The first point is already well begun—that is, care for the child
before and after birth, and Dr. Wilson would make an allowance
or pension for every infant whose parents required such assistance,
for at least two years,—and he calls these grants, “ Young age
pensions:**
This is die first step towards rendering the mother and child
OF ITS TEACHING AND SYMBOLISM
357
economically independent, and recognises woman’s true work in
the world. The next step is to wipe out the ecclesiastically imposed
brand and degradation of illegitimacy. It is a relic of the bad old
system “ of punishment,” visiting the sins of the fathers upon the
children.
Rahel Varnhagen,—Goethe’s friend,— well said “ All mothers
should be held in honour, and innocent like Mary.”
As to the feeding of children by their mothers, Mr. Purvis
picturesquely says:—” I believe that Dr. Wilson would gladly
hang any woman who drank stout whilst nursing her child, or during
her preparations for her confinement. I feel sure he would draw
and quarter any woman who gave gin to her baby instead of milk.
The sellers of adulterated goods, and especially of diluted dairy
products, used by pregnant women and little children, Dr. Wilson
would not fine, but bum at the stake; and 1 shall be happy to
assist him in piling the first faggots.” These picturesque words
should be sent to every young mother. Dr. Wilson’s two books
“Unfinished Man” and “Education, Personality and Crime,”
should be studied by all statesmen, educationalists, and prison
reformers. Then, when the young are all developed by care into
the best state of which their constitutions are capable, their employ-
ment must be regulated on healthy lines, mentally and physically.
For work is not only necessary to health, but to happiness; and
in a healthy state, free from fear, the children cowering no longer
under the horrible conceptions of ecclesiastical dogma, we will have
for citizens men who will rejoice in their labour, and in the creation
of all that ” in work fairly wrought may touch men through hearing
or sight as if it were a breeze bringing health to them from places
strong for life ’’—one of Plato’s most noble utterances.
Then, instead of ” Other Worldliness,” we would have an Eden
here below, and everyone, instead of having his life blackened by
Fear, will be able to echo the grandest and sweetest prayer in any
language ; the one grand prayer without Mirophily:—
O may I join the choir invisible
Of those immortal dead who live again
In minds made better by their presence, live
In pulses stirred to generosity,
In deeds of daring rectitude, in scorn
For miserable aims that end with self.
In thoughts sublime that pierce the night like stars,
And with their mild persistence urge man’s search
To vaster issues.
358
CHRISTIANITY: THE SOURCES
So to live in heaven;
To make undying music in the world.
Breathing as beauteous order that controls
With growing sway the growing life of man.
This is life to come,
Which martyred men have made more glorious
For us who strive to follow. May I reach
That purest heaven, be to other souls
The cup of strength in some great agony,
Enkindle generous ardour, feed pure love,
Beget the smiles that have no cruelty— .
Be the sweet presence of a good diffused,
And in diffusion ever more intense.
So shall I join the choir invisible
Whose music is the gladness of the world.
—George Eliot.
THE END.
-
INDEX
Page
Abimelech and Abraham’s jWife
Sarah - - - ^ 198
Abimelech and Isaac’s Wife
Rebekah - 239
Abominable things - 17, 140, 221
Abraham’s Oath on his thigh - 139
Abraham prostituted two wives - 199
Acorns are Phalli - - 66
Adam to till the ground - - 17$
Adam’s curse of work before
** fall ” - - - -175
Adam’s Father and Mother - - 177
Adam given work for hundreds of
men in Eden - - - 175
Adam, Red one, Tills the Soil - 54
Adapa - 193
Adon of Babylon all over World - 122
Adonis - - - - - no
Adonis, Women weeping for 162, 297
Adultery and Murder not displeas-
ing to God if one has faith—
Result of Paul’s “ Faith Evi-
dence ” Sophistry - - 329
Advent, second - - 279, 283
Aesculapius - - - - 116
Aesculapius, Twin Serpents - 84
Aesculapius, Rod formed by two
Cobras - - - - 84
African us, Julius - - - 148
Agamemnon - - - - 85
Agapic feasts scandalised Romans 203
Agdistis..........................184
Ahriman - - - - - 126
Ahura Mazda - - - - 126
Ahura Mazda’s three words para-
phrased—Good sustenance,
Good Education, Good Em-
ployment, watchwords of pre-
sent day - 354
Ahola and Aholibah - - 212, 229
Ailan - - - - - 154
Ail Ram Tree Stem - - 154
Air, spirit, breath. Soul - - 169
Air, spirit, soul, Holy Ghost, Dove,
Dove moving on Waters - 322
Air is soul, spirit, breath (Pneuma) 325
Akbar combining Religions - 9
Akhnaton on Ku-en-Aten 117, 127
Ail...............................154
A1 as God 272 Times i:a Old Testa-
ment - - - - 153
Al, Ate Allah, All Phallic - - 153
A16 99 times as God - - 154
Ate-im or Elohim - - - 154
359
Page
Ate-im hundreds of times in Old
Testament as God or Gods 154
Ate-im dishonest translations
158-160
Allah is Eli, on whom Jesus called
154. 239
Aiue (Name of God) - - 154
Alun (Name of God) - - 154
Alue God in O. T. - - -154
Al Shadai Phallic powers, or El
Shadai - - - - 153
Al Zedik - - - - -157
Allegories in Sun Worship - 19
Allegory used to express Phallism 87
Alexandrians - - - - 119
Alexandria - - - 119, 148
Alma (Uma) - - 23, 47
Almond, female symbol - 215, 332
Alphabet, equivalence of letters - 27
Altars, flooding with water - -51
Altar feminine - - 15, 131
Altar placed for Sun to^shine on
it at Equinox or Solstice 15, 131
Altars, anointing of, disgusting - 243
Alteration of texts to avoid
Phallism, Bible much^nodified 103
Altruism ----- 3
Ama or 14 Uma ” or Alma - 47
Amen in Bible as God - - 125
Amen of Egypt - - - no
Amen, Egyptian Hidden God,
used in Christian Prayers - 125
Amen Sun Worship - 287
American Sun Worship - 130
Amritsar Solo-phallic Worship - 116
Ancestors, ideas in religion - 21
Androgynous or double sexed—
Two sexes required for Crea-
tion - - 23, 24, 48
Annual journey of Sun—same as
daily, Ptah Totumen creates
Gods every day - - - 112
Animals dancing to Tree of Life - 71
Annual Suns, Sons of Jove 115. 136
Ancient of Days gradually re-
tires ......................134
Ancient Calendars and Con-
stellations - - - - 130
Anderson Sir R. (Silence of God) - 272
„ Confidence Trick - 272
Androgynous Creation - - 203
Analysis of Old Testament List of
Editorial Processes - - 158
Analysis of Old Testament - 152-214
360
INDEX
Page
Ankh,Egyptian Cross, Crux Ansata
75-76
Annual re-birth of the Sun caused
Romans to have many Sons of
Jove - - - 134-13$
Anointing Altars—disgusting con-
dition - 243
Anointing Phalli 50, 51, 89, 221
Anthony and Cleopatra - - 149
Anthropomorphism, Budge - 22
Anu, a lovable God - - 194
Apis...........................126
Aphrodite - - - - 48
Aphrodite in Greece - - 83
Aphrodite means Paradise of Gar-
den - - - - -54
Apollo - - - - - no
Aquilas or Onkilos - 200
Ararat is Allalat, Allah’s lat or
Phallus, Ark (woman) rested
on it and brought forth
life - - - 26, 239
Archimedes - - - - 119
Ard ha-nari-I s war a Bisexual God 47
Argonian Juno - - - - 89
Argiva - - - - - 89
Aries, Lamb opposite Sun in Au-
tumn ; Aries slain or oblit-
erated by Sun in Spring - 248
Aries, Worship of - - - 316
Aristaeus - - - - 148
Ark on Ararat, allah’s lat—
Brought forth life - - 239
Ark, Arch, Arc, Box, Boat, Womb
162, 259
Ark, death for looking into - - 219
Ark, feminine - - - - 15
Ark and Mast—Yoni-lingam 237-238
Ark is Womb which brings forth
life - 167
Ark omitted in Temple, as the
Temple itself is the female—
Eduth and Temple bisexual - 254
Arkle, Hercules - - - 163
Arke-lin Harlequin - - - 324
Arnobius - 222, 252
Arran Islanders still worship
Phallic Stone - 103
Arrow head signs, masonic and
phallic .... 155
Arrow, Broad, and fleur de Lys - 155
Artemis.........................48
Arthur, a Saviour, will return - 93
Arthur, Story Phallic - - 93
Attis..........................184
Atys ..... no
Arya Samaj - - - - 35
Asian Steppes, Races influenced
Religion - - - - no
Ascension of Sun or Saviour - ixx
Asher, Aaron ben, Old Testa-
ment ... 144
Ashr, Ashir$, Asherah 39 times in
Old Testament as 44 Groves ”
Phallic .... 223
Page
Ashr, Ashl same, like ram and
lamb........................223
Asher, Erect one - - - 69
Asher and Ashera true meaning - 69
Ashera—Shameful thing Phallus - 69
Asher, God of Love, Esh, Love,
and Ar God - - - 69
Asherim ..... 140
Ass’s head on Phallic Altar 85-86
Assyrians, Veneration of Sun - 115
Assyria, Phallism in - - - 65
Assyrian Priests teach Hebrews
about their gods - - 228
Assurbanipal .... 191
Assyrians and Egyptians on Soul 168
Astarte...........................48
Astarte, Diana - 223
Aster is the Phallus ... 223
Asteret Female Phallus or Yoni
T is feminine determinant - 223
Astrologers and Star Gazers (ignor-
ance of Hebrews) - 120, 198
Astronomy began in Accad - - 119
Astronomy in Babylon, Sayce - 198
Astronomical Cult too deep for
people - - - 15, 19
Astronomy of Hindus, Chinese,
Arabs - - - 122
Astronomers Royal at Accad, Ur,
Assur, Nineveh, and Arbella - 119
As true - - - - - 152
Atkinson’s Himalayan Tribes (Phal-
lic) ........................37
Attic Comedy, Vilification - - 41
Attis, Genitals, Cause of evil - 184
Attractive short cut to knowledge 20
Augustine, Christianity identical
with paganism - - 33°. 337
Augustine, Holy Kiss - - 316
Augustine, Horrible teaching 328-329
Authority of Miracle required for
Religion - - - - 4
Autokrator Self created - - 286
Awful dwelling place - - 162
Baal-Berith, Tho two organs - 255
Baal Bisexual ... 222
Baal is Bosheth ... 222
Baal, changes to Beth - - 224
Baal is Eli to whom Jesus cried on
the Cross - 222
Baal, Incense burnt to 261
Baal-Peor .... 222
Baal-peor is double sexed - - 255
Baal, erection, peer open - 253-254
Baal, Prophets of (Shame) - 222
Baal, Sun Worship - 118
Babies—We must insure healthy
babies, starting before birth 355
Babies—We misuse them before
birth, and abuse them after-
wards ... 356
INDEX
361
Page
Balbal to confound (tongues)—Phi-
lological myth - 205
Babel and Balbal ... 205
Babel, Tower of, Colenso’s Criti-
cism ..... 205
Babylonian Altars " Grove," etc. 66
Babylonian Astronomy, results
120, 198
Babylonian Astronomy celebrated
by Greek and Roman Authors
197, 260
Bab-Ilu (Babylon of Greeks) - 153
Babylonian Bag and Cone - 68
Babylonian Creation - - 192, 193
Babylon, Cradle of Astronomy,
Sayce .... 198
Babylonian Cuneiform Universal - 196
Babylonia—Egyptian Ankh used 66
Babyl—Gate of God - - 205
Bab Ilu, The Gate of the God - 205
Babylon, a Garden ... 346
Babylonian God given to the Heb-
brews .... 136
Babylon was intellectual Mistress
of the World - 345
Babylonian Creation Watery - 174
Babylonian and Hebrew Creation
compared - - 192, 193
Babylons—Two-—Hislop - 6
Babylon and Israel close connec-
tion .... 228
Babylonians Monotheistic - 159
Babylonian Phallic gem - - 71
Babylonia, Phallism in - - 65
Babylonian Priests teach Hebrews
about their Gods - - 145
Babylonian Religion in Europe - 121
Babylonian Mythology in Scotland
121-249
Babylonian Priests write the Bible 145
Babylonian Science - - - 119
Babylonian Sun Worship - - 117
Babylonian Symbolism - 65-71
Babylonian tablets preserved,
buried in ruins - - - 197
Babylonian Temples, Construction 109
Babylon Waters of Baptism - 163
Babylonian Worship of Host of
Heaven .... 109
Babylonian YA-AVA Yahweh or
Jehovah - - - - 156
us - - - - 85-110
Bacchanalia - - • - 92
Bacchus, death and re- birth as
Sun.......................
Bacchus, Ivy Leaf Phallic -
Bacchus on Medals as Babe
Bacchus as a Christian Saint -
Bag and Cone, Lingam-Yonic sym-
bol .....
Bagha Vati, Lady of the bag
Balance -
Baldur ...
Ball of Power -
Bali, Rev. J. C. Jah
247
24
247
329
68
69
79-140
- - no
8*. *55. 33*
- 156
- 216
- 84
1-
. 94
253
50
328
33*
5*
2
- 37
63-64
- 226
(great
- 173» 243
Page
Baluchistan Palakistan—Land of
Palakis Temple women
Balfour, Br. C. R., on Twin ser-
pents
Banks, Sir Joseph, letter on Phal-
lism .....
Banner of Solomon’s song is Plial-
• lus..........................
Banyan Tree with Phalli-Church -
Baptism is pagan ...
Banaam and Josophat
Basilica, Church, from Basilaeus
serpent -
Basis of Religion is the Miraculous
Batterchargee, Dr. J. N., Hindoo
castes (Phallic)
Baton, man with
Beauty evenings in Berlin
Be fruitful and multiply
commandment) -
Beginning, Priests, tales of
2-20, 166
Behemoth of Job, Phallic - 153-154
Belief without evidencc.a merit - 119
Bells as Gods and eternal life
248-249
Bel as Nimrod - 249
Bells used in all religions - 248
Bell scares off evil spirits - 14, 248
Bell and Tongue or Clapper,
Yoni and Lingam
Belief without proof, great merit -
Belphegor -
Beltane Fires -
Belly-voiced -
Benoh, procreation, marriage,
modern feast -
Beony, Father -
Benjamin of Tudela
Benzingcr, Dr. -
Berlin Sakti Worship
Bergson -
Berossus -
Bible, from Byblos, from Papyrus
(means Book or Paper)
Bible evidence reliable when un-
conscious -
Bible, Old Testament
Bible, First Hebrew writing
Bible, Second Hebrew writing
Bible, Third, Book of Jashar
Bibles of India, China, etc.,
occupied with other world or
Heaven, Hebrew occupied en-
tirely with this world
Bible, composed by Babylonian
Priests ....
Bible, Cosmogony Babylonian—
Often destroyed - - 14 5-149
Bible, written on Shreds of Lea-
ther .... 147-148
Bible, written on Ox hides - 146-148
Bible, Phallic, but kept secret—
Silence breaking down—
Birdwood
248
2
232
122
12
429
327
118
244
226
20
191
141
141
000
142
142
142
- *43
145
- 221
362
INDEX
Page
Bible, Old Testament and New Tes-
tament absolutely unlike. Old
Testament virile; New Testa-
ment, nebulous - - 315-316
Bible mistranslated—No relation
to Hebrew original in im-
portant phrases - - is
Texts mutilated - - - 12
Composite Character - - 13
The Bible - 138
The Bible, History of - 141
Bible, unconscious evidence in 141
Bible, English translation toned down 12
Bible is not read by Christians—
They cannot read it - 183
Bible, proof of divinity, false - 11
Bible, meaningless words used to
disguise Phallism - - 12
Bible in China, Phallic Character
of God - - - - 99
Bible in the Nineteenth Century - 10
Bible Manufactured Article - 12
Bible composed of diverse frag-
ments, State of chaos, Broken
verses - - - - 12
Bible is Phallic 25, 140, 221, 257
Bible too gross for honest trans-
lation - - - - 12
Bible is only authority of Chris-
tianity - - - - 10
Bible is Word of God - - 138
Bible-making epoch 500 b.c. to
200 a.d. - - - - 138
Bible, reliable evidence - - 141
Bibles reproduced when destroyed 183
Bibliotheca Divini, Jerome - 138
Biographies of Jesus in plain lan-
guage - - - - 274
Biot - - - - - 132
Bird wood, Sir G., on Phallism in
Bible - - - - 221
Bird wood, Sir G., on Elohim and
Ale-im as Gods (plural) - 160
Birthday of Sun 25 Dec., because
first visible motion of return
to summer - - - -hi
Birth of Jesus made to coincide
with that of Sun; Natalis In-
victa Solis Birthday of the
Invincible Sun - - 111, 329
Birthday of Unconquered Sun
Natalis Invicta Solis - - 111
Bisexual combination 15, 24, 30, 218
Bisexual Worship - - - 36
Bishop's Mitre derived from Dagon
(vestments all pagan) - 328
Bishop weds Church with a ring
162, 289, 290
Bishop knows nothing of soul 8, 338
Blasphemy against Holy Ghost
unforgivable - -- -325
Bodies to rise again. Impossible-
No carbon to form them - 339
Same carbon used over and
over again - - - - 339
Page
Boat and Mast, Bisexual symbol
237-238
Blood of Jesus - 219
Blood and Fire - - - 14
Bombay Caves of Elephanta Phal-
lic .........................32
Book of the Covenant (1st Heb-
rew Book) - - - 142
Borgia Boderigo Phallically exam-
ined as Pope - - 217-218
Bosheth........................220
Bosheth, Shameful thing, Phallus
Bosheth Altars - - 220
Bosheth, having thy bosheth
naked - - - - 221
“ Botch of Egypt ” shows tra-
ditions of the cause of their
expulsion was still extant - 231
Both sexes required for Creation - 24
Boundary connot be placed to
anything - 160-161
Bowls, Phallic - - 63, 332
Box, Boat, Ark, Arch, Arc are the
Womb - - - 162
Box, or Chest, is feminine - - 15
Bone Cave, Venice, early Phallic
symbol - - - - 29
Bowl or Globe indicates Womb
62, 101, 198, 330
Bowls on Hebrew Candlestick - 332
Bradlaugh - - - - 331
Brahmins, Theists and Muslims of
India - - - - 36
Brahmin Priests wear a Lingam - 256
Brahm - - - - - no
Breath and life, Juno imparts - 169
Breeches instead of frock on He-
brew Priests, Male for female - 242
Breeches on Flesh of his nakedness
this phallic phrase often re-
peated - 242
Breddu-gre - - - - no
Bridegroom, Spring Sun, in Pro-
cessions - 38, 46, 54, 114
Brilliant period of Greeks, Hermes
becomes Logos - 346
Britain Pagan, owing to Mirophily
of Religion - 344
British subjects 250,000,000, phal-
lic worshippers - - - 28
British Museum—Stupas in - 32
British Museum—Phallic statues
and Carvings - - - 81
British Phallic Pillars, List - - 56
Britain, Phallism in - 56
Broken and a contrite heart - 267
Broad Arrow and Fleur de Lys
155. 259
Brooding - 168
Brooding on Waters - - - 22
Brothel - 234
Brothels in Rome for Priests - 337
Bruchium Library contained four
hundred and ninety thousand
volumes - 148
INDEX
363
Bruise his heel, phallic - 177-178
Bruno - 119,276
Bruchium Library burnt with
Egyptian Fleet - 148
Budge, Wallis—Man makes Gods
22, 76, 77, 161, 275
Budge on uncertainty of transla*
tion .... 276
Bull period, end of, Mithras slays
bull........................126
Bud is the phallus - 18, 55, 332
Buckle or Tie in Egypt 77-78
Budd..........................1 jo
Buddha,s tooth (re-created) - 183
Buckle is Lingam-yoni combina-
tion - - - - 78
Buddha: - - - - - 110
Buddha as a Christian Saint - 331
Bull, phallic, accompanies Siva - 35
Bull at mouth of Altar - - 52
Buns, Babylon and Scotland - 121
Bunsen, Angel, Messiah - - 280
Burmese Pagoda poles - - 59
Burning hearts on Phallic Altar 85-86
Burton, Sir R., on Phalli in
Dahomey - - - - 235
"C"
Cabalistic symbols from Lingam-
Yoni - - - - 48
-
Caduceus of Mecury, Origin of - 84
Casear, Julius, fixed New year
falsely at nearest new moon 124
Cain and Abel - - - 126
Calendar, Julius Caesar reforms - 124
Calmet..........................
Campbell, Rev. R. J., abandons
Virgin Birth ...
Calf, Golden - * 224, 236,
Candles are Pagan relics of Sun
Worship -
Candlestick of Hebrews, Phallic
and Solar -
Candles Phallic ...
Canonising Pagan Gods by Roman
^Catholic Church - - 329
Capella Martianus Sun Worship -
Carbon used over and over again -
Carpenter, Bishop, “ Not the King-
dom of God but that of man
will be great theme and care
of the race *'
Carpenter and Harford
Carpenter, J. Estlin
Carpenter quoted
Cartouche, Phalli in
Case Law -
Castration to avoid evil, Jesus ap-
proves (Myllitta's devotees) -
Castration in Russia
Castor and Pollux ...
Catalogue of Creation “ ealch after
his kind ” ...
Catalogue of Creation
214
276
239
258
332
258
"33i
no
340
341
- 157
-267 et seq.
10, 11, 269
- 79
142
184
185
126
17X
22
Page
Catholic Church re-named Sun's
day as Lord's day - - 105
Catholic Church denies reason, in-
fallible ... 9-10
Catholic Church Rigid, only real
church - - - - 10
Catholics deify the parents of the
Virgin Mary - - - 137
Catholic Dictionary, Addis and
Arnold's .... 284
Causes of Change of Outlook
Crucifixion -
Death of " King of the Jews "
Destruction of the Temple
Deportation of Hebrews - 273
Caves of Elcphanta, Phallic Sculp-
tures - - - - - 32
Cedar, Phallic - - 17, 154
Ceres............................48
Change of signs causes change of
God's Symbols - - - 126
Change of outlook in New Testa-
ment, cause of - - - 273
Change of words to hide Phallism 41
Chaos of Worship and symbol - 6
Character of Hebrew God - - 210
Chatta Fergusson's Tree and
Serpent worship - - 49
Chemarim Worship - 261
Cheyne, Dr. - 157, 159, 210, 219
Children shall not suffer for their
father's sin, afterwards re-
versed .... 142
Child Sacrifice, modern - - 300
China, Phallism in - - - 99
Children of Jews stronger than
those of Gentiles - - 186
China, Religion Astronomic 129, 351
Chinese Account of Creation, Void
or Vacuum Same as Genesis,
chap. I. - - - - 134
Chinese, dating Lunar - - 134
Chinese Emperor - - - 352
Chinese Zodiac - - - 118
Chrishna - - - - - no
Chrishna, Christna and Christ com-
pared - 280-283
Chrism, anointing oil - - 284
Christ, a word of wide application - 284
Christ “ anointed one " 252,284,310
Christ as Fish, Ichthus or Piscis - 293
Christ as a title long before Jesus—
Inman - - - 302
Christ's and Christna's incidents
indentical; therefore Christ a
Sun myth ... 284
Christ-in-hand. Phallic Pillar 56, 252
Christ Myth, The - - - 335
Christs .... 252,304
Christ Myth - - - - 333
Christians adopted all pagan
festivals— Justin Martyr,
Tertullian, Augustine - 135, 328
Christian agapic feasts scandalised
Romans .... 203
364
INDEX
Page
Christians cannot read Bible cri-
tically - - - - 12
Christian Churches, opposing - 9
Christian Creed founded on error - 181
“Christian Era'* founded 525
a.d. by Dionysius the Little- 329
Christian Festivals Astronomical
and Solar - - - 114, 128
Christian God Omphallic, China - 100
Christian is most Phallic Bible - 140
Christian religion Phallic - -88
Christian Saints are Pagan minor
Gods - - - - - 158
Christian scriptures from Mesopo-
tamia - - - - 11
Christian Sects, Early - - 278
Christians shocked at Phallic basis
of religion - - - 24
Christian symbols Phallic and
solar ... 256-259
Christianity and paganism identi-
cal - - - 135. 327. 33i
Christianity more Phallic than any
other religion (Wake) - - 257
Christianity most Phallic religion 24
Christianity polytheistic - - 158
Christianity rests on Hebrew Bible 8
Christianity. The son is his own
father and is suckled by his
wife - - - - - 136
Christna, Astronomical explana-
tion of Myth of Christna's Life
incidents, admittedly a Sun
Myth - - - 284
Churches (two opposing) - 8-9
Church customs the same in all
lands .... 327
Church's short cut to knowledge - 20
Church, female. Nave, Navel,
Navis, ship - 162, 238, 259
Churches have developed and fos-
tered Music, Painting, Sculp-
ture, and Architecture - - 341
Church is Columbus Domus, House
of the Dove (Tertullian) - 323
Church and Kirk derived from
Circle - - - 131, 336
Church is Bishop's bride wedded
with a ring - 162
Church of England—Mystery - 2
Church of Scotland Creed - 341, 342
Church, Opponent of knowledge - 181
Church personal, clothed in
women's frocks to become
Bixeual - 258
Church's Phallic Sculpture, Ire-
land - - - - - 96
Church should express the “ good
in man " but the twisty paths
of sacerdotalism lead other-
wise .... 339* 344
Church told all there was to be
known - 339
Church Vestments, Symbols, Altars,
Bells and Towers are Phallic 257-8
Page
Churning the Ocean - * 109
Cicero - - - 4
Circle, Kirkle, Kirk, Church 131, 336
Circumcision - - - - 217
Circumcision of Moses' son - 218
Circumcision, Sanitary - - 218
Circumcision, Aprodasiac - - 218
Circumcision, probably a modified
rite - 218, 219
Circumcision, symbolic or emas-
culation - 218
Circumcision in Polynesia * - 220
Propitiatory - 220
Cleopatra - - - - - 137
Clergy engaged in desiring what
they cannot obtain, Lam-
enting what they cannot avoid,
Reflecting on what they can-
not understand—Ruskin - 341
Clergy, sensuality of - - - 338
Clericus, Johannes - - - 169
Clericus (Mother of Gods) - - 323
Cnossus, Great Mother - - 169
Cobra's deadly bite - - - 230
Cobra, deadly phallic symbol on
account of disease - - 230
Cobras forming Aesculapius' sign
or Caduceus of Mercury - 84
Cobras in Congress - - - 84
Cock on Spires - 59, 66, 256
Cock worship of Babylonians - 66
Coienso 9, 160
Colenso on Crosses - 305
Coienso's Criticism of Pentateuch
206, 210, 211, 214
Coienso, Life of 260
Coienso pulverised Exodus - - 205
Coienso on Crosses, every kind
known from dawn of pagan-
ism ...................305
Cold in Eden, Approach of Winter 179
Coliseum built by Jews in Rome 273
Collins, Rev. Mr. - 139
Collossi at Thebes, orientation - 133
Columba ----- 324
Columbine - - - 324
Columns, Phallic - 56, 57, 58
Comedy, phallic derivation of - 41
Commandment, Be fruitful and
multiply - - - 173
Commandments written in Cunei-
form - - - - 141
Commentary of S.P.C.K. on sac-
rifice of Virginity - - 227
Communistic policy not religion - 8
Comparative method - - 11
Complete Phallic Symbolism Baby-
lonian - - - - 71
Conch shell, symbol of Yoni,
Vishnu - - - - 35
Concha Veneris—Yoni, Venus
Shell.....................60
Concha Veneris indicates woman - 60
Concubines of Priests - - 338
Cone and Bag Lingam-Yoni - 68
INDEX
365
Confessor shaved head and Pal-
lium forms Lingam-Yoni
combination - - - 256
Confessional, Pagan - - *327
Confessional immoral questionary 327
Confidence Trick, Anderson - 272
Confucius - - 10, 99, 268
Confucius - - - 347,354
Confucius, Agnostic like Huxley - 348
Confucius, Bright, clear, vigorous
intellect - 348
Confucius condemned Monks, as
shirking life's duties - - 350
Confucius* contempt for all make-
believe, or mirophily - 353-354
Confucius highly honoured, but not
made into a God. A brave
and humble agnostic to the
last - - - 352-353
Confucius, death of. He uttered no
prayer, betrayed no apprehen-
sions, and taught men to do
good for its own sake - - 353
Confucius, five Cardinal virtues—
Humanity, J ustice, Confor-
mity, Rectitude, Sincerity. - 348
Confucius gave religion a National
character - - - - 353
Confucius—Happy the country
which listened to such a sane
and healthy teacher without
the mirodoxical dressing - 353
Confucius, tomb real, like his
teaching - - - - 353
Confucius taught a religion of
manliness, justice/mercy, edu-
cation and knowledge - *354
Confucius on charm of virtue 21, 350
Confucius protested against fan-
tasies being accepted as fact,
when they could not be sub-
stantiated - 348
Confucius taught golden rule both
negatively and positively -350
Confucius taught nothing he could
not substantiate, especially
ex mundane souls, spirits.
Heavens or Hells - - 349
Confucius taught reverse of Tol-
stoi—Never neglect to redress
a wrong - - - 350
Confucius* teaching wise, but cold;
it is marvellous he was lis-
tened to - - - 349
Confucius—Though the Gods be
hidden not so our brethren - 351
Confucius, Greatest teacher of all
time for a practical world - 351
Confucius,Canonised after death- 351
Confucius took no lying short-cut
to the Unknown - - 349
Confusion of Tongues, Babel, Hin-
dus, Armenians, Australians,
Mexicans, and others had
same story - 205
Page
Congress of Cobras - - - 84
Conspiracy of silence in Britain
about Phallism in the Bible - 25
Consecrated prostitution a revered
practice, Loisy - - - 225
Constant adjustments in creeds
11. 21, 341
Constantine - 147
Contentment - - - - 188
Continuous succession of life, im-
mortality - - - 15
Conversation of Confessional Box,
obscene - - - - 327
Cords symbolical of Virginity - 227
Corinth, Sacred prostitutes - - 88
Cornucopia, Woman with - - 64
Cosimo, Saint - - - *94
Cosmogony 7
Cosmogonies have garden, seduc-
tion, serpent, etc. - - 22
Cosmogony of Bible, Babylonian- 145
Council of Trent - - - 338
Council of Trent, Concubinage
tolerated - 338
Council of Trent, Eating and drink-
ing actual body and blood of
Jesus - 316
Covenant - - 139-140, 228
Cow, Thebes, Cow in India - -126
Cox, Sir George - 17, 24 211, 260
Craving for myths - - 5, 7
Creation - - - - 22
Creation, Androgynous - - 203
Creation, 6 different accounts in
Bible - - - - 12
Creation, Genesis, Psalms, Job,
Isaiah - - - - 12
Creation, composite nature of
Bible - - - - 12
Ceration, essential part of religion 13
Creation story, six accounts - 161
Creation, first story, Genesis 1.2
161, 168-170
Creation, second story, Genesis 1.
161, 171
Creation, third story. Genesis 2.
161, 173
Creation, fourth story, Genesis 5.
161, 189
Creation, fifth story, Psalms, Isaiah
Job - 161, 190
Creation, sixth story, Job 153-154, 161
Creation Stories, Habitat - - 174
Creation, Third Account of
Parched land no water till Spring 174
Rain makes verdure spring up - 174
No rain, no rivers, lakes, or
seas .... 174
Hence no fish created this time 174
People lived far from sea - 174
Garden of Eden in Babylonia - 175
Land very rich there, irrigated 175
Ezekiel says trees of Eden en-
vied Assyrian - - - 175
Analysis of story - - - 17$
366
INDEX
Page
Adam made to dress and keep
garden. Hence condemned to
labour from the first - - 175
They were told to be fruitful
and multiply, so child-birth
and death existed always 173-178
No prohibition of eating Tree
of Life - 175-6
Yahweh was wrong, and the ser-
pent right. Man did not die
on the day he ate the fruit -176
Companion for Adam - - 177
Tries beasts—no good. The gold
of that land was good (Jewish
touch) - - - - 176
Analysis of story, contd. - 177
Yahweh makes a higher animal
for Adam out of a rib - - 177
Even the Rib is Babylonian, the
word meaning Mother of the
Universe. Jews changed it to
rib to debase woman - - 177
Adam to leave father and
mother (marriage). He had
none, and such relationship
was unknown - - - 177
Eating the fruit, shame, cover-
ing, nudity, then hiding, shows
fall was sexual - - 178
Cursing serpent useless, as ser-
pents always went on belly
and have never eaten dust - 177
Bruise his head, phallic - 177-8
Curses man with labour- - 178
Woman with child-birth - 178
Man already created to “ till
the ground '* - - - 178
Woman was created to be “ fruit-
ful and multiply” - - 178
All this because man had got
knowledge - - - 178
Eve, Mother of all living, im-
possible as birth was yet un-
known - - - - 178
The Gods forgot Tree of life 178-180
In terror lest man eat of it and
live for ever - - 179-180
Never prohibited - - - 180
To prevent eating, expel man
from Eden - 180
Sexual intercourse, the Fall - 184
Attys and Agdistis, genitals
cause of all evil - - 184
Creation, Fourth Account - - 189
No rib story, Cain and Abel un-
known, Eve not mentioned,
Eden unknown - - 189 -190
Creation, Fifth Account (Rahab
Tehom) - 190
Creation, Hindu, Androgynous 203
•' Creation cannot be accomplished
without her M—Uma - - 48
Creation of life in Egypt - - 73
Creation, Priests' ideas - 171-173
Creative Gods, Bisexual - - 24
Page
Creative Gods, originally of in-
determinate sex - - 325
Creative God requires a female
member - 24-25
Creator lonely, gave him wife and
son
Creeds, constant alteration
Creeds
Creeds, evanescent -
Creed by vote of majority -
Crescent moon, good luck, horse
shoe - - - 87,
Crescent and Cross -
Crime in youth is daring courage
misapplied -
Criminals treated as mentally de-
ficient, punishment must dis-
appear -
Critics of Holy writ -
Cross and Crescent -
Cross and Phallus
Cross as Phallic signature -
Crosses—Christian, Handled or
Tau, all Phallic
Cross—Christian, on Chinese and
Japanese Goddess
Cross, derivation of - -
Crosses of every kind are Pagan
303-306
Cross of Fire at St. Peter's, Pagan
worship - 333
Crosses repudiated by Christians *2^
as Pagan - 3°4“305
Crosses, Colenso on - - 305
Cross with Lock of Horus - 306
Cross with man crucified, pagan ;
not adopted by Christians till
600 a.d. -
Cross-over, Passover, Crossifica-
cation, Crucifixion
- 275
*1. 34i
- 21
- 21
34*
123
259
- 355
-'4
M
- 355
- 8
- 259
88, 259
- 103
H
67
102
77
304
*•4
15. hi, 265, 313
Crown, triple, of Pope, Babylonian 332
Crozier derived from Babylon - 332
Crucifix, Minucius Felix - - 304
Crucifixion not believed in till 9th V {
Century, a.d. - 304
Crucifixion on no earthly Cross,
but on Cross of the Heavens - 112
Crux Ansata, evolution of - 75-76
Crystallization of Judaism - - 267
A broken and a contrite heart
Awful power of Yahweh
Hebrews' influence on Western
nations •
Other nations had higher ideals
Egyptians, Greeks, Romans -
Confucius, Gotama
Gotama's teaching
Zend Avesta - 267
Cults, customs and superstition of
India - 36, 46
Cults, two great, Solar and Phallic
15-16
Cuneiform tablets, astronomical - 198
Cuneiform Tablets of Creation - 19 *
INDEX
367
Page
Cuneiform writing alone used in
Palestine - 141
Cuneiform Writing, universal - 196
Cupid and Psyche killed by Church 326
Cursing Adam and Eve, Serpent- 178
Curve of Intensity of Festal energy 128
Cushites* Sun worship - - 118
Cuzco, Peru, Sun worship - - 117
Cybel6, Kubel& - - 48, 163
Cybel6 required emasculated
priests ... 185, 220
Cynthia - - - - 48
Cynthus, Kunthos, Kunti—Yoni- 43
Cyrus - - - - - no
Czar from Zur, Rock (or Phallus)) 241
Phallic
62
no
235
73
Dagoba Phallic, Forlong
Dagon
Dahomey Phalli
Dad, tat or tet
Daian-Nissi, Dionysius,
signs -
Dalhousie's Act against obscenity 41-2
Damian, Saint - - - 94
Dancing and playing - 237-239
Daniel (Sun Myth) - - 196, 266
Dark Ages -
Darkness causes religious fear
Darkness is evil -
Darwin Development School
David a common man, of low
origin -
David dancing before the Ark
David threatening to be more vile 236
David's wife, Saul's daughter,
Aristocrat -
Davids, Dr. Rhys -
Dawn of Astronomy
Dawn maidens, mothers of succes-
- 65
119
-
2
2
II
237
236
237
268
130
: 137
35
137
44
44
120
120
104
sive suns -
Dawn, Maya Mary, mother of
Sun-gods -
Dayanand -
Dayanand making sign of Om
Day divided into 12 Casbu, Baby-
lon - - -
Day divided into 12 Casbu,
ghinese -
Day names are God names -
Day names - 105-109
Day Names, Arabic - 108
Day Names, Armenian - - 107
Day Names, Belgian - - 106
Day Names, Chinese - - 109
Day Names, Chinese of 12 hours - 120
Day Names, Dano-Norwegian - 106
Day Names, Dutch - - - 106
Day Names, English - - 106
Day Names, French - 106
Day Names, German - - 106
Day Names, Greek - 107
Day Names, Hindustani - - 109
Day Names, Hungarian - - 106
Day Names, Indian - - 109
Day Names, Italian - - 106
Day Names, Japanese - - 109
Page
Day Names, Latin - - - IO6
Day Names, Magyar - - 106
Day Names, Persian . - 108
Day Names, Polish - - 108
Day Names, Portuguese - 106
Day Names, Roumanian - - 106
Day Names, Russian - - 108
Day Names, Saxon - - 105
Day Names, Sanskrit - - 109
Day Names, Spanish - - 106
Day Names, Turkish . - 108
Days Named after Sun, Moon, and
Planets - - 104
Day Names of Holy Day - - 105
Day of Good Luck, Venus Day,
Friday, turned into day of bad
luck, death and sadness, to
obliterate Queen of Heaven
from Religion - 292
Day, Week, Month, Year, have no
relation, hence muddle of Cal-
endar .... 124
Death did not come of eating
fruit. Man always mortal - 181
Death is the end, Horace - - 143
Death necessary to prevent accu-
mulation of beings - - 182
Death of “ King of the Jews " - 273
Death of Saviour held on Thursday
in Holy Week, as well as on
Friday - 333
Death of Sun, 40 hours. Solstice - 196
Death of Sun, Winter punishment
for sins - - - - 15
Debasement of Women, 165,
169, 176, 19*. 234, 318
Debasement of woman, Friday
Venus (Fish) day turned into
death day of Jesus (Fishes) - 292
Debasing woman, debases hu-
manity, Negation of Altruism 326
Decalogue written in Cuneiform - 141
Defining God is putting an end to
the endless - - - 335
Statement of God destroys him 335
Degradation of Knowledge, Paul - 202
Dei Vini - - - -no
Deification after death - - 296
Deification of Heavenly bodies - 131
Deification of Natural desire
(Oman) - - - ^ 35
Delphys, Womb - - - no
Delphic Phallic Columns - - 60
Deluge - - - - 195
Demetrius, Librarian of Bruchium 148
Deportation of Jews 70 a.d. - 273
Deportation of Jews left no Nabis
to scold . so our information
of practices ceases with Old
Testament - - - - 316
Derivation of Bible God names - 241
Derketos, Mother of Sun - 247, 296
Descended into Hell (Solstice or
sun at night) - - - 311
Despair, cause of worship - - %
368
INDEX
Page
Despisal of woman by Hebrews
165. 109, 176, 191, 234, 318
Destruction of Bible by Soldiers,
Tibet - - - - 147
Destruction of Temple - * 273
Destruction of Temple and Bible
Old Testament * - - 146
Detestation of women by Hebrews,
no Goddess - - 165-167
Deva Devaki - - - - 32
Devaki on Tortoise, double sex - 18
Devil chasers - 300
Devil more clever than God - 176
Diana - - - - - 48
Diana, or Moon Chaste, cold
beams. If seen naked brings
good luck. Must not be seen
through glass (veiled) - - 87
Didron - 167-169
Didron, Dove on Waters, Holy
Ghost - 322
Different narratives in Old Testa-
ment skilfully interwoven
157-8
D'lune 27, 169
Dione ----- 163
Dionysius - - - - no
Dionysius the Little formed the
“ Christian Era ** 525 a.d. 329-330
Dionysius as a Christian Saint
Dionyius the Little altered birth
of Jesus from Autumn
Equinox (Jewish New Year)
to Winter Solstice (Pagan
New Year) - n, 115. 329
Dis - - - - no
Discrepancies in Bible - 12-13
Disease amongst Phallic devotees 230
Disease caused by " Grove **
worship - - - - 231
Disease in Private Organs - - 232
Disease in Secret Parts - 232-234
Disease sexual in pagan writings
233-234
Disgusting state of Phalli, through
anointing with Melted butter,
oil, wine, etc. - - - 90
D'June - - 169
Diversity of objects worshipped - 1
Dividing the Watef s - - - 171
Doctors, Medical, on Eugenic ques-
tions - ‘355-3$6
Dogma.......................................7
Dolphin - - y - - no
Dolphin (womb) as a Christian
Saint - 330
Dolphin on Greek Coins - - 247
Dolphin, Delphys, womb - no-247
Dolphins* Skins (to form a womb) 247
Donaldson, Dr., Eden Phallic - 239
Donaldson, Dr. Messianic promise
too gross - 239
Door of life, Symbols of - 26-27
Dorset Phallic Column - 56,93
Double sex in Hindu Creation - 203
Page
Double sex means Fertility, self
creation and eternal life 23-24
Double sexJPales, God of Flocks - 217
Double sex required for .creation - 203
Double sexed Gods required for
Creation - - 48, 173, 257
Dove - - - - - 27
Doves are "Holy Spirits** Queens
of Heaven - - - - 163
Dove can be replaced by Cup,
Ship, Box, or Ark—Female
Symbol - 324
Dove Creating and Uniting Father
and Son in Hundreds of
Books, Altar pictures, etc.
- 166, 322
Dove for Queen of Heaven in
Catholic Church - 322
Dove as vessel holiding Lingam
256, 323
Dove is secretly Woman in Heaven 167
Dove is Queen of Heaven, Mother
of God - 164-167
Dove is Queen of Heaven, Mary,
Juno, Holy Ghost - - 321
Dove links Father and Son - - 166
Dove, Mother of Gods, worshipped
with profound veneration - 169
Dove on Silver Tower, Queen of
Heaven, in highest Heaven
323-324
Dove, see Columba Columbine, ^
lone
Dove worship—Worship of Queen
of Heaven as Juno, Venus,
Mellytta, etc. - - - 255
Dove Worship in Scotland - - 324
Dragon in Creation - 190-193
Draper, Buckle and White - - 203
Dravidians' Phallism*- - "33
Drews’ arguments - - 335-336
Drews, Prof. Arthur, Christ Myth- 335
Drews* quotation - - "337
Drews says Christianity is essence
of Pagan Myths - - - 336
Drews “ Virgin shall conceive ** - 276
Druids* sex worship - "93
Druids slaughtered by Romans - 317
Dual mind of man 1
Dr. Duff, " Paul's Faith ‘* - - 202
Dunghill Temples, Moriah Gerizim 255
Durga..............................42
Dutt C., India'" past and present
Phallic - - "37
Dwelling place of God, Queen of
Heaven - 162
Dyaus - - - - - 110
« Em
Early Christian Religion, Phallic- 88
Early Christian Sects - - 298
Eearly Religions, Phallic - - 23
Early Gods, Masculine - - 318
Early Hebrew Books or writings - 242
INDEX
369
Early history of mankind, Tyior - 6
Early Races, Col. Forbes Leslie - 43
Earliest beginnings of Religion un-
known - - - - 15
Earliest Phallic Symbol - - 29
Earliest Religious Symbols, Phallic 15
Earth-Bride, Sun-Bridegroom 54-5 5
Earth was void, vacuum, unthink-
able .... 161
Easter Tables, to find, same as
Chinese .... 134
Eating fruit, sense of shame - 178
Ebiomtes, poor men - 298
41 Ecclesiates '' denies soul - - 8
Ecclesiastics do not recognise Sun-
day. Ail say 44 Lord's Day " 106
Eden Ezekiel - - - - 175
Eden abandoned to prevent man's
gaining immortality - 181-183
Man did not lose eternal life in
Eden. He was made mortal
and Gods determined to keep
him so. He was expelled to
prevent immortality, not for
gaining knowledge, expressly
stated ... 181-183
Eden in Ezekiel and Revelations - 194
Eden originally in Heaven - - 194
Eden serpent the Phallus - 177-239
Eden, Solar Myth - - - 178
Eden story composed of three
myths - - - - 181
(1) Golden Age
(2) Youth is Paradise ended by
marriage
(3) Attempt to gain immorta-
lity - - - - 181
Eden was human body—Donald-
son ----- 239
Eduth and Osiris, Testimony and
Phallus - 246
Eduth—Heduth or Geduth Geh-
duth - - - - 251
Eduth—An idol, the Phallus - 251
Eduth takes place of serpent or
Phallic stone - - - 251
Eduth and Yahweh the same - 251
Eduth, Centre of Hebrew Faith - 251
Eduth, Ark built for - - 251
Eduth, A Palladium - - 252
Eduth very ancient, before
" lawr* - - - - 252
Eduth, Hebrews erected Phallic
Stones - - - - 252
Eduth Stones always worshipped
even by Christians - - 252
Eduth and Jhvh the same - - 252
Eduth, a Beth~el Phallus-God - 252
Eduth, a Testimony (Testes) - 252
Eduth and Ark Bisexual idol - 254
Eduth, a Lingam Stone - 246, 256
Eduth, Shekina, Tsur and Yahweh
the same - 254
Eduth, Shekina, Tsur and Yahweh
derived from Egypt - - 246
Page
Eduth inside Circle or Church is
the ring and dagger bisexual
symbol, - 254
Eduth is a word used takeover up
sexual terms - - - 255
Egg and dart Phallic - - -77
Egypt Sun Worship - 117, 126, 133
Eggastri Muthoi - - - 12
Egypt's hidden God, Amen
no, 125. 287
Egyptian Climate, Preserved Re-
cords - - - - 72
Egyptian Crown, Phallic, Bisexual
derived from India - 30, 31
Egyptians' Museums, Libraries,
Astronomy, Physics Geome-
try. Birth of Science at Alex-
andria - - - 149, 346
Egyptian Phallic emblems 72-78
Egyptian Sun Worship - - 117
Egyptian Women tearing their
hair - 297
Eichhorn, J. S. - - - - 152
Eight divine Mothers of the Tan-
tras, are counterparts of Mary 48
El. God............................153
Electricity at Alexandria - - 119
Elephanta, Caves of, Phallic Sculp-
tures .........................32
Eli, Eli, Lama Sabacthani, Jesus’
cry destroyed Jews' hope of
earthly Kingdom - - 154
Eliot, George, Oh May I join the
Choir invisible - - -357
Eliot, George, Joyous Gods- - 271
Eliot George, Hymn - - - 357
Elisha a Nabi - 263
Elijah, a Nabi - 263
Elohim dishonest translation 158-159
Elohim or Ale-im (plural, Gods)
153, 158-160
Elohistic and Javistic writers
contradict - - - - 157
El Shadai - 153-154, *57> 333
Elusis, The Sun called Saviour - 128
Emasculation in religious frenzy - 185
Emerson, R. W. - 344
Emerods, Golden, like cures like - 231
Emerods, Haemorrhoids - - 230
Emerods in their Secret parts; so it
could not be Haemorrhoids - 232
Emerods, Ophelim, Omphale - 231
Emerods, Ophelim, woman-man
disease - - - 231
Empedocles - - - 268
Encyc. Brit. 24, 41, 169, 205, 219
Encyc. Biblica - - 219, 244
Endeavour, Good, Loss of—Ruskin 341
England, Church of, mystery - 2
English Bible, God and Lord,
Mistranslations - - 158*160
English Spelling - - - 27
English Saints same as Egyptian
Gods - - - 131-132
English Bible Scholarship a byword 160
AA
370
INDEX
Page
English translators made Ale-im
singular or plural dishonestly:
singular when applied to
Hebrews, plural when to
others ... 158-160
English translators put Capital
14 G ” when Hebrew and
small 44 g ” when other God
when translating the same
word Ale-im - - 158, 160
Enoch is the year (365) - - 260
Epistle of Jeremy, Virginity,
sacrifice - - - - 227
Equinox 15, 248, 265, 284, 304
Equinoxes, precession of - - 125
Equivalence of letters - - 52
Erection of the Tat in Egypt,
Queen carried male organs in
gold - - - - 81
Erectheum Fire and Serpent wor-
ship - - - - 85
Erekthonius - - - - 8 5
Ermann - - - -81
Eros - - - - - 84
Eryx, Sacred Prostitutes - - 88
Esh, love, or woman - - 69
Essential parts of Religion 4 -5, 14
Esther (Sun Myth) - - - 196
Eucharistic feasts were Phallic
Clean linen for women as
44 Holy Kiss " was admin-
istered , agapae, or promis-
cuous intercourse, sanctified
lust ----- 316
Eucharist in Axom - - - 316
Eucharistic wafer placed in Dove
Jesus returning to Mother - 324
Eunuchs for Kingdom of Heaven's
sake ----- 185
Euphem-isms for Phallus—Head,
foot, thigh, heel, hand, etc.
4U 239
Euphrates Valley, religious effect
on Jewish practices - -83
Europe, Phallism in - - - 93
Eusebius, Egyptian Dynasties - 149
Eusebius, Ebionites (Jesus mere
man) - 278, 298
Eusebius gives Babylonian Crea-
tion - - - - 191
Eva, Eve and Virgin Mary - - 163
Evans, Dr., on the Great Mother 169
Eve............................48
Eve, Mother of all living, not yet 178
Every green tree, under, asherim
140, 186, 242
Every street corner, at, asherim
140, 186, 242
Every symbol worshipped - 6
Evil, cause of - - - 184-186
Evil Eye ... - 7
Evil Spirits, Bell scares off 14, 248
Evolution of Conventional Tat
or Phallus « - - - 73
Evolution of Crux ansata - 75, 76
Page
Evolution, Theory of - • 11
Ewe or Yew Tree, at Church - 290
Exaltation of feelings causes wor-
ship ..........................1
Excalibur, Phallic - - * 93
Excommunication, Maspero, Egypt 276
Exodus of insanitary Jews • - 208
Exodus 17th - 141
Exodus, Colenso, on - 206, 207
Exogamy -
Expulsion from Eden, Astronomic
Expulsion to prevent immortality
179.
Expulsion from Eden, not for
eating fruit of knowledge,
but to prevent eating Tree of
Life
Expulsion of insanitary Jews from
Egypt
Extreme Unction, Pagan - 258,
Ezekiel describes Eden - 175,
Ezra had Babylonian Cosmogony
Ezra's 44 law " new to people
Ezra re-wrote the Old Testament
145.
Ezra sent to establish Jewish
religion
Ezraitic account of writing of
Bible, a paraphrase on Mosaic
account - - - - 150
6
178
180
181
208
332
194
145
202
146
- 145
a
F "
Faith against knowledge - - 114
Faith can 44 prove " any thing - 202
Faith doctrine, what it leads to - 329
Faith doctrine led to dissolute
lives of Clergy
Priests had Concubines
Prelates had harems and hosts
of illegitimate children 337-338
Faith, evidence of unseen - 2
Faith, evidence of nothing- *34*
Faith, pride of, Ruskin - - 341
Faith unknown to law or Justice - 2
Faith is not evidence. Law and
justice based on contrary - 2
Faith, Justice based on direct
opposite 2
Faith is Negation of reason - 338
Fall..............................173
Fall, the - - - - 179-186
Fall, Hindu Account - 178, 184
Fall of man - - - - 17
Fall in Eden means Autumn 178, 179
Fall, Solar myth - - - 178
False proof of divinity of Bible - 10
False translation of Bible, Sir
Geo. Birdwood - - - 160
Faraday placed faith above science 114
Fate - .... 1
Father, Son and Dove mean
Father, Son and Mother 166-169
Fear - I3“I4
Fear, driving force of Religion - 4
INDEX
371
Page
Fear, Man's first God - - 4
Fear in modern life - - 13-14
Fear, most potent engine of Priest 13
Fear must be eliminated from the
life of man ... 354
Fear still rules the Religious - 14
Feast of Lights on 25 th December
sun returning - - - hi
Feast of Tabernacles - - 225
Feast of Mirophily (Faith alone) - 202
Feast, Phallic, Greek and Roman 92
Feast of Tabernacle, like Bac-
chanalia ... 220, 248
Feast of Tabernacles, Merry - 248
Feelings which give rise to religious
belief in supernatural - 2
Female can produce life alone 24, 187
Female emblem, box, ark, or altar
15, 26, 48, 161, 162, 246. 254
Female garments on priests,
24, 218, 257, 258
Female is cause of God's action - 25
Female God supieme; male a
mere satelite 102, 163, 169
Female Member of Trinity
“Holy Ghost" - - 321, 325
Female organ exposed at Irish
Churches - - - *97
Female organ, Kteis-Yoni - - 24
Female Organ, Symbol of - - 27
Female represents Unity - - 24
Female Spirit stirs God to action
48, 187
Female turned into Male by Heb-
brews - - 192, 193, 325
Female, without her no creation is
possible, Hindu - - 48, 187
Ferguson's Tree and Serpent wor-
ship - - 49, 84. 89
Fertile abyss - - - - 22
Festal energy at Solstices and
Equinoxes - - - 128
Festal energy, curve of intensity- 128
Festivals, all Pagan, solar and
Astronomic - 115, 128, 328
Festivals to generative powers,
JPhallic ... 90-92
Fictitious Martyrs - - - 330
Fictitious Saints - - 329-332
Final act of Jesus* passion and
suffering, entirely borrowed
from Pagan myths - - 336
Final destruction of Jewish Scrip-
tures ... 146-149
Fires, Beltane - - -121-122
Fire worship is Sun worship * 18
Fire stolen from Heaven - - 19
Fire Worship.. Sun worship - 19
Fire worship at Rome - - 332
Fire worship in Persia - - 19
Firmament - - - - 171
Firmicus, Julius . r . 168
Firmicus, Julius, Assyrians and
Africans held Air to be sup-
reme, Air is Holy Ghost,
Page
Ruach Mother of the Gods
3*x-2
First Hebrew Book - - 141-142
First visible movement of Sun,
25 December - - - xsi
Fishes, Piscess, in Life of Jesus
126, 280-283, 290-292
Fish on Fridays, Queen of Heaven 293
Fish on Fridays, Venus and Jesus 292
Fish on Monuments - - 293
Fish, Monogram of Christ - - 293
Flame........................18
Flesh, God made Flesh - - 155
Flesh of his nakedness often re-
peated. Love of phallic
phrases ... 242, 249
Flesh, The - - - - 135
Fleur de Lys Phallic - 24, 259
Fleurs de Lys and Broad Arrow
155. *59
Flood .... 195*196
-
Flood and Solstice - - - 196
Flood, contradictory Accounts of 12
Flood, Hebrew and Babylonian
Accounts compared - - 204
In 1876, great wave came in 200
miles and drowned 215,000
men. Similar castastrophe in
Cuneiform, about 2000 b.c.
Such floods form foundation
for Flood stories , - - 204
Floods in Babylonia, river and
sea ... 204-5
Floods, Hindu - - 204-5
Floods, Chinese - - 204-5
Floods, Parsee - - 204-5
Floods, Zend A vesta - 204-5
Floods, Greeks - 204-5
Floods, Kelts ... 204-5
Floods, Scandinavians - 204-5
Floods, Mexicans - - 204-5
Floods, Hebrews, two accounts - 195
Flood impossible, no water to
raise ocean more than 10
inches - - - -9 5
Flooding altars with water - 51
Floralia - - - - 92
Folk lore, founded on Sun Myths no
Forbidden fruit - - 173-180
Foreign gods imposed on Hebrews 228
Foreign gods imposed on Saxons
228-352
Foreign words used for Phallic
terms as Native words
sound indecent 26, 89, 140
Foreign Priests teach the Hebrews
14$, 228
Foreskins as price of wife (David) 236
Forlong 99, 101,105, 128, 147* *49» 256
Forlong, Rivers of Life, Diet.
Relg. 6, 24, 25, 42, 58, 62,
84, 88. 139, 149
Fornicalia - - - - 92
Forty, Holy Number - 196, 265
Frazer, J. G., Golden Bough 7, 220
372
INDEX
Page
Free Church Creed, Scotland - s 82
Freia, the free one ... 234
Frey...........................no
Friday changed from joy to mourn-
ing .............................292
Friday, joyful under venus, but sad
under Jesus -
Friday, Woman* s day, turned into
Death day
292
- 292
- 48
Fruit of every tree allowed, no for-
bidden fruit at first - - 173
Fruit forbidden - - 173-176
“ Fruitful and multiply" chief
command - - - 243
Fruitful and Multiply Command-
ment - 172
Future Life, no mention in Old
Testament (Sayce) - - 143
G”
Galilee, Galil, circle, chirchle, or
Church - - - - 336
Gates of Gaza - 264
Gautama Buddha tonsured - 256
Gay Ribbons on Phallic emblems
44, 57. 58. 229
Gaza, gates of ... 264
Geddes,Alexander, Bible Critic - 152
Geduth, see Eduth -
Gemini, The Twins - - 118, 126
Genesis 2nd, many verses Baby-
lonian - 141
Genesis, Gosmogony Babylonian 145
Genesis, early chapter Song of
Solomon and Ezekiel equally
Phallic, not fit to be read 240
Genesis, Geddes's criticism- - 152
Generative act in Eden - - 23
Genitals, cause of all evil, Attis - 184
German language retains old
Phallic words 82, 234, 235
Germanic, Phallic Column - 92
Ghi, melted butter, for anointing 90
Ghost, Bishop Casting out - 14
Ghost, Holy 162, 163, 164, 275, 322
Guides to reading Bible - - 13
Ginsburg, Dr, (Masorah) - - 144
Glover on early biographies of
J%esus ... - 274
Glover on Tree worship - - 17
Glover on Lares ana Penates
anointing - 89-90
God cannot be separated
from Phenomena around us,
“ Don't know " is only pos-
sible position. ... 335
God cannot create without female 24
God, Character of 210
God identical with man - - 22
God in Bible, mistranslation 12,
158, 160
0 God-in-man" "should be
" Good-in-man" - - 344
Page
“ God's spell" tike Witch's spell
(Gospel) - - - - 139
God, Lord, tree, stump, post, pil-
lar, and Phallus are the same 154
God male and female (double
sexed) - - - - 172
God, Male and female - - 23
God, male, a mere Satelite.
Female, supreme - 102, 163
God, man's first, fear - - 4
God, Mother of - 23
God names as peoples' names - 241
God names, derivation and de-
velopment - 153—157, 240, 241
God of the Hebrew Bible - - 210
God, Spirit of, female - - - 25
God, singular and plural: - 15, 160
God within us, and Good within us - 344
Godlets in Christian Creed - -158
Gods all have Phallic basis - - 100
Gods all had female counterparts -275
Gods are their own fathers - *136
Gods created every day by Ptah
Totumen - - - - 112
God's day is Sun's day in all nations 104
Gods, different kinds in Bible - 12
Gods, dwelling place, trees - - 17
Gods of Hebrews, plural - 159-161
Gods made by man in his own
image (Budge) - - - 22
Gods have wives and offspring - 22
Gods, Mother of - - - 23
Gods, pagan, as Christian Saints- 330
Gods suckled by their wives 136-163
God's Truth, fixed by majority of
votes .... 341
Goddess, none in Hebrew Heaven 165
Goddesses of Love - - - 163
Goddess with Lingam, China and
Japan .... 103
Gold of that land was good - - 176
Golden calf, leaping naked, Bosh-
eth .... 224
Golden Rule - - - 99, 3 50
Goldziher ... 196, 291
Goldziher, Mythology amongst
the Hebrew 6
Goldziher on Cain's posterity.
Sun Myths ... 291
Good food, good clothes, good
houses, watchword of religion
of man .... 354
Gopis, Siva's mistresses - - 35
Gospels are not history - - 315
Gospels written by men who had
never been in Palestine - 317
Gotama's beautiful teaching, basis
of that of Jesus - - 269-271
Gould, Rev. S. Baring, on Bible
teaches popery ... 272
Graham—Galichu Tree - - 17
Grave clothes priests - - 249
Grave stones, Phallic signs on - 29
Great Pan is dead (pantheon no
longer betiteved in) - - 346
INDEX
373
Page
Great sacrifice, sexual act - -46
Greece, Name Phallus originated
there .... 104
Greek and Roman Phallic feasts - 116
Greek Minor Gods - 107
Greek Phallism very refined - 107
Greek Phallic Feasts no, in, 116
Greeks copied nude human body - no
Greeks' fairy stories, Pantheism - 340
Green Tree, Phalli, under every
27, 216, 425, 436, 463
Grimm, Jacob - - - - 9
Grossness covered by meaningless
words - - - - 20
Grove, Ashera, or Shameful thing
66, 87
" Grove " had 400 priests under
Jezebel - - - 224
Grove mistranslated - - 223
Groves '‘Shameful" - - 223
Grove worshippers were Sodomites 224
“ Habitation of God " Queen of
Heaven - - - - 162
Hadrian ploughed site of Temple - 147
Haeckel - - - - n
Hall, Dr., on Jewish children 186-187
Hamilton, Sir William, letter to
Sir Joseph Banks on Phallism
at Isernia in Italy - - 94
Hand, euphemism for Phallus - 41
Hangings for the Phallus woven in
the Temple - 229
Hardy's Phallic Pillar, Christ-in-
hand - - - 56, 252
Harlot, semi-religious in India - 32
"Harmonising" Ecclesiastes - 149
Hasmanean wars - - - 146
Head-dress of Bridegroom in
Festivals - - - - 114
Healthy life from cradle to grave 355
Heart, a broken and a contrite - 267
Hearts (burning) on Phallic altar 86
Heaven...........................14
Heaven full of Saints, Godlets *158
Heavenly host - - - 16
Hebrew and Babylonian Creations 193
Hebrew Bible, basis of Christianity 8
Hebrews borrowed Phoenician
Alphabet - 141
Hebrew captives deported to Rome
and built Coliseum and
Pyramid of Caius Sextus - 147
Hebrew Captivities in Assyria,
Egypt, Pathros, Cush, Elam,
Shinar, Hamath and the
Islands of the Sea (Greece) - 147
Hebrew Creation from arid soil - 174
Hebrew Creation derived from
Babylon - 192
Hebrew Nabis’ debasement of
woman strange, as Egyptians
and Babylonians placed her
very high - 295
Hebrews, insanitary, expelled
from Egypt ... 308
Page
Hebrew God, Character of - - 310
Hebrew God Al, Ale, Allah, a ram - 154
Hebrew Gods, plural 158, 160, 254
Hebrew Gods same as those of
surrounding nations - *151
Hebrew God, Tsur - - 252
Hebrew God, Eduth - 251, 254
Hebrew ignorance mistook Baby-
lonian Astronomy for en-
chantments - - 197-198
Hebrew God, Shechina - 246, 254
Hebrew ignorance of Zodiacal
signs, made their folk lore
inaccurate ... 364
Hebrew Grove - - - 66
Hebrew language, nebulous - 141
Hebrew miracle play - 244, 250
Hebrew narrative profoundly al-
tered .... 197
Hebrew originals sent to Bruchium 148
Hebrew people loved Queen of
Heaven ... 165, 186
Hebrew people loved bisexual
worship with Kadesha and
Doves, Nabis condemn this - 225
Hebrew pottery, poor - - 120
Hebrew pride and exaggeration,
Colenso, Sayce - 205, 208, 235
Hebrew Nabis* religion, right hand
cult......................220
Hebrew Script unknown in Pales-
tine ----- 141
Hebrew scriptures burnt by Antio-
chus 168 b.c. - - - 147
Hebrew self-esteem - - - 235
Hebrew Sun Myth enacted 244,
250, 280, 294
Hebrew Tabernacle - - 244, 250
Hebrew writings, early - 141, 142
Hebrew year, lunar - - - 247
Hebrews, an insignificant Clan - 216
Hebrews banished by Titus 70-71
A.D. - - - - 147
Hebrews' expulsion from Egypt - 208
Hebrews had no God of Know-
ledge - - - 183
Hebrews hated knowledge - 183
Hebrews* hatred of feminine made
Tiamat (female) into Tehom
(male) - - - 192
Hebrews ignorant of Astronomy
260-261
Hebrews mutilated Babylonian
Sun Myths ... 260
Hebrews inhabited Palestine, Pala-
Stan, Land of the Phallus - 225
Hebrews liable to diseases peculiar
to want of cleanliness (botch,
syphilis, scab, itch) - - 231
Hebrews* Phallic feast - - 225
Hebrews Phallicafiy mutilated - 217
Hebrews, Polytheistic - 158-160
Hebrews' prophets despised women
(no Goddess in Hebrew Hea-
ven) - - 165, 192, 193
374
INDEX
Page
Hebrews* refusal to admit female
to share in creation - - 193
Hebrews rendered impotent by
disease - - - - 231
Hebrews too ignorant to under-
stand Astronomy - - 120
Hebrews turned feminine words
masculine - - 192, 193, 326
Hebrew Gods, Eduth, Shekina,
Tsur, or Yahweh the same - 254
Hebrews worshipped a company
of gods ... 157-160
Heimdal, nine virgins - - 122
Heduth, see Eduth
Hell.............................14
Hell dismissed with costs - 9
Hell in hot countries, hot; in cold
countries, cold, example - 128
Helmholtz, Vortex Atoms - - 335
Henderson, Wm., on Hindu Reli-
gion - 129
Hera.............................48
Hercules - - 23, 163, 324
Hercules - - - - - no
Hercules, derivation of name - 163
Herman Sul Column - - 93
Hermaphrodite (man-woman) 23-24
Hermes - - - - 84
Hermes Aphrodite - - - 23
Hermes is Logos - - -135
Hermes is Phallus - - 24
Hermes and Jesus - - 135
Hero of Alexandria - - - 119
Herodotus on Sacrifice or Vir-
ginity - - - 184, 226
Herodotus on Queen of Heaven - 332
Herodotus, Tonsure represented
Phallic mutilation of Bacchus
(Sun's loss of power in
Winter) - - - - 256
Herschel, Sir John - - 340
Herzog - - - - - 143
Hesus the Mighty in Europe.
Made Roman's task easy - 317
Heva..............................163
Hexapla lost - 200
Hexapla, Origen's - 200
Hibbert lecturer says Eucharist
was debasing licentiousness
and sanctified lust - - 316
Hibbert Lecturer, Sun Worship - 130
Hieroglyphics, uncertainty of trans-
lation .... 276
High Priest, death and resurrec-
rection of - - - 248-250
High Hill, Phallic Worship 186, 229,
242, 243
Higher Criticism - - 156-152
Higher criticism, Sayce - 7
Highly poetic faith, fit for the
Millennium, killed by Paul and
Jerome - - - - 347
Hilkiah, Torah of Yahweh - 144
Hillel, High Priest, was Baby-
lonian - - * - 145
Page
Hindu creation - 208
Hindu rites and ceremonies - - 117
Hindu altar - - - - 31
Hindu religion, Astronomic -129
Hindu sects - - - - 34
Hislop, Two, Babylons 6, 145, 177,
185, 228, 275, 295, 321, 327
Hogmanay, Babylon and Scot-
land ...........................121
Hole in the Sky, Sho'r ha Shamim 274
Jesus and Angels up and down- 274
Holi Festival (Oman) - - 37
Hollwell's Dictionary - - 325
Holy Number, Forty - - 265
Holy Forty, common to all nations 265
Holy Ghost, chief of trinity, as
blasphemy not forgiven - 325
Holy Ghost, feminine 23, 48, 161,
I7L 318. 326
Holy Ghost is Virgin Mary - 255
Holy Ghost is Woman - - 275
Holy Ghost, Ruach—Spirit or
breath - 163
Holy Kiss, Eucharist - - 316
Holy Week at Rome, Saturn 109, 333
Holy women - - - - 32
Horace, “ Death " is the end - 143
Horeb—Sinai story, Carpenter - 157
Horse Collar - 43*49
Horse shoe in Church floors - 43
Horse Shoe is Yoni (Phallic) - 43
Horus - - - - no
Horus, Lock of, on Cross - 306
Hours, days, years, all same in
poetic language - - - 196
Hours named after Gods - - 104
Houses of the Sun - - - ig
Hue Abbe in Tibet (Cross, Mitre
and all Christian symbols) 327
Huldah—The Weasel Sorceress - 145
Hundreds of Phallic gems - 86
Huxley..........................335
Hymns, Jesus, Mary, Joseph,
New Trinity - - 170, 320
“I”
la Jove variations - - - X56
Iah in Hebrew names means Jah-
weh or Jehovah, an early form
285-287
Iah in Babylonian Names, com-
mon .......................156
Identical incidents in lives of
Christ and Christna - 280-283
Idolomania - - - - 88
Ignorance and Sloth of Clergy
owing to Faith doctrine 337-338
Ignorance of Hebrews - - 198
Ignorance of people as to nature
of altars - - - - 30
I.H.S. Dionysius Insignia, several
meanings, Isis, Hours, Seb,
In Hoc Signo, Sothic Cycle - 294
Ilgen, Carl - - - - 152
INDEX
375
Page
Illegitimacy in Home, 3160 out of
4373 births illegitimate - 337
Illegitimacy lower in India than in
Bible-fearing Scotland - 46
Illegitimate children of Church
Prelates in 1560 - - 338
Immaculate Conception - 294, 307
Immaculate conception entails the
son being his own father, and
he is suckled by his wife -136
Immaculate indicated by barred
systrum or ladder - - 70
Immortality, Gods deny it to man
(Eden story) - - - 182
Immoral questions to young girls,
Licentious poems by Proper-
tius, Tibullus and Juvenal - 327
Immortality symbolised by organs
of reproduction - - - 15
Impatient for knowledge, man - 2
Impatience for knowledge gives
chance to Church - - 20
Impatience of people is Priest's
opportunity - - - 20
In the beginning - - 160, 161
Incessant Change in Hebrew
Scriptures - - - - 150
Incidents identical in lives of
Christ and Christua - 280-283
India has still every phase of re-
ligious development - - 32
India, Phallism in - - 32
Indian Account of “Fall” 188-189
Indian Astronomy - 260
Indian Creation ... 203
Indians' ignorance as to nature of
altars - - - - 30
Indian Morality high, Oman - 42
Indra - - - - - no
Ingersol, Col. - - - - 210
Infants unbaptised burn in Hell
fire for ever - - - 328
Inman - - - - - 24
Inman, Dr., on Salvation and
Saviours - 302
Inquisition due to Paul's Faith
*klea ----- 199
Introspective Communion (Yogis) 34
” Insulse Rule” Milton's - 41,234
Io ----- 48
Iona ----- 324
Ionian Sea, ” Great Pan is dead” 346
Ireland, Evil eye - - - 96
Ireland like Greek coins or Nismes
sculptures - - - - qC
Ireland. Lingam-Yoni worship - 96
Ireland, Nude figures at Church
door - - - - 97
Irenaeus invented stories of re-
surrections - - - 313
Irmin Sul Column (God's Rock) 93
Isaac and Abimelech & - - 239
Isaiah - 120, 125, 198, 147, 150
Isernia, Sir W. Hamilton's letter
about Phallism - - - 94
Page
Ish, man, Ishri, Ish Surya, Ish-
wara -
Israelites, see Hebrews, Jews
Israelites' Gods, Eduth, Shekina,
Tsur or Yahweh, are the
same -
I star............................
Istar of no special sex
Ishhwara's Creation -
Italy, Isernia Phallism
Ithyphallic - - - 41
Ithyphallic Gods, Min, Horus,
Amen Ra, Osiris - - 81
IV same as IO, double-sex
IV is IU with pittar, Jupiter IS5-156
Ivy leaf—Phallic - - - 24
Ixion - - - - no
Izdubar...........................no
- 69
254
48
325
203
95
79
I*
J"
Jah, see Iah - 253
Jahweh Nissi, Rod of God - - 253
Jakin, and Boaz - - - 256
Jealousy laws, Phallic - - 232
Jealously of Gods, of man attain-
ing knowledge - - - 179
Jealousy of Gods, of man attain-
ing Eternal Life - - 179
‘ ehovah and the Phallus rivals 222
Jehovah, Jah or Iah - - 155
Jehovah, Character of - - 210
j eremiah, a Nabi or mad Mullah • 263
Jeremiah put in the stocks - - 263
Jerome, ten forms of Old Testa-
ment - - - - 199
-
Jerome condemned change, yet h
Flood and Solstice - - - 196
Flood, contradictory Accounts of 12
Flood, Hebrew and Babylonian
Accounts compared - - 204
In 1876, great wave came in 200
miles and drowned 215,000
men. Similar castastrophe in
Cuneiform, about 2000 b.c.
Such floods form foundation
for Flood stories , - - 204
Floods in Babylonia, river and
sea ... 204-5
Floods, Hindu - - 204-5
Floods, Chinese - - 204-5
Floods, Parsee - - 204-5
Floods, Zend A vesta - 204-5
Floods, Greeks - 204-5
Floods, Kelts ... 204-5
Floods, Scandinavians - 204-5
Floods, Mexicans - - 204-5
Floods, Hebrews, two accounts - 195
Flood impossible, no water to
raise ocean more than 10
inches - - - -9 5
Flooding altars with water - 51
Floralia - - - - 92
Folk lore, founded on Sun Myths no
Forbidden fruit - - 173-180
Foreign gods imposed on Hebrews 228
Foreign gods imposed on Saxons
228-352
Foreign words used for Phallic
terms as Native words
sound indecent 26, 89, 140
Foreign Priests teach the Hebrews
14$, 228
Foreskins as price of wife (David) 236
Forlong 99, 101,105, 128, 147* *49» 256
Forlong, Rivers of Life, Diet.
Relg. 6, 24, 25, 42, 58, 62,
84, 88. 139, 149
Fornicalia - - - - 92
Forty, Holy Number - 196, 265
Frazer, J. G., Golden Bough 7, 220
372
INDEX
Page
Free Church Creed, Scotland - s 82
Freia, the free one ... 234
Frey...........................no
Friday changed from joy to mourn-
ing .............................292
Friday, joyful under venus, but sad
under Jesus -
Friday, Woman* s day, turned into
Death day
292
- 292
- 48
Fruit of every tree allowed, no for-
bidden fruit at first - - 173
Fruit forbidden - - 173-176
“ Fruitful and multiply" chief
command - - - 243
Fruitful and Multiply Command-
ment - 172
Future Life, no mention in Old
Testament (Sayce) - - 143
G”
Galilee, Galil, circle, chirchle, or
Church - - - - 336
Gates of Gaza - 264
Gautama Buddha tonsured - 256
Gay Ribbons on Phallic emblems
44, 57. 58. 229
Gaza, gates of ... 264
Geddes,Alexander, Bible Critic - 152
Geduth, see Eduth -
Gemini, The Twins - - 118, 126
Genesis 2nd, many verses Baby-
lonian - 141
Genesis, Gosmogony Babylonian 145
Genesis, early chapter Song of
Solomon and Ezekiel equally
Phallic, not fit to be read 240
Genesis, Geddes's criticism- - 152
Generative act in Eden - - 23
Genitals, cause of all evil, Attis - 184
German language retains old
Phallic words 82, 234, 235
Germanic, Phallic Column - 92
Ghi, melted butter, for anointing 90
Ghost, Bishop Casting out - 14
Ghost, Holy 162, 163, 164, 275, 322
Guides to reading Bible - - 13
Ginsburg, Dr, (Masorah) - - 144
Glover on early biographies of
J%esus ... - 274
Glover on Tree worship - - 17
Glover on Lares ana Penates
anointing - 89-90
God cannot be separated
from Phenomena around us,
“ Don't know " is only pos-
sible position. ... 335
God cannot create without female 24
God, Character of 210
God identical with man - - 22
God in Bible, mistranslation 12,
158, 160
0 God-in-man" "should be
" Good-in-man" - - 344
Page
“ God's spell" tike Witch's spell
(Gospel) - - - - 139
God, Lord, tree, stump, post, pil-
lar, and Phallus are the same 154
God male and female (double
sexed) - - - - 172
God, Male and female - - 23
God, male, a mere Satelite.
Female, supreme - 102, 163
God, man's first, fear - - 4
God, Mother of - 23
God names as peoples' names - 241
God names, derivation and de-
velopment - 153—157, 240, 241
God of the Hebrew Bible - - 210
God, Spirit of, female - - - 25
God, singular and plural: - 15, 160
God within us, and Good within us - 344
Godlets in Christian Creed - -158
Gods all have Phallic basis - - 100
Gods all had female counterparts -275
Gods are their own fathers - *136
Gods created every day by Ptah
Totumen - - - - 112
God's day is Sun's day in all nations 104
Gods, different kinds in Bible - 12
Gods, dwelling place, trees - - 17
Gods of Hebrews, plural - 159-161
Gods made by man in his own
image (Budge) - - - 22
Gods have wives and offspring - 22
Gods, Mother of - - - 23
Gods, pagan, as Christian Saints- 330
Gods suckled by their wives 136-163
God's Truth, fixed by majority of
votes .... 341
Goddess, none in Hebrew Heaven 165
Goddesses of Love - - - 163
Goddess with Lingam, China and
Japan .... 103
Gold of that land was good - - 176
Golden calf, leaping naked, Bosh-
eth .... 224
Golden Rule - - - 99, 3 50
Goldziher ... 196, 291
Goldziher, Mythology amongst
the Hebrew 6
Goldziher on Cain's posterity.
Sun Myths ... 291
Good food, good clothes, good
houses, watchword of religion
of man .... 354
Gopis, Siva's mistresses - - 35
Gospels are not history - - 315
Gospels written by men who had
never been in Palestine - 317
Gotama's beautiful teaching, basis
of that of Jesus - - 269-271
Gould, Rev. S. Baring, on Bible
teaches popery ... 272
Graham—Galichu Tree - - 17
Grave clothes priests - - 249
Grave stones, Phallic signs on - 29
Great Pan is dead (pantheon no
longer betiteved in) - - 346
INDEX
373
Page
Great sacrifice, sexual act - -46
Greece, Name Phallus originated
there .... 104
Greek and Roman Phallic feasts - 116
Greek Minor Gods - 107
Greek Phallism very refined - 107
Greek Phallic Feasts no, in, 116
Greeks copied nude human body - no
Greeks' fairy stories, Pantheism - 340
Green Tree, Phalli, under every
27, 216, 425, 436, 463
Grimm, Jacob - - - - 9
Grossness covered by meaningless
words - - - - 20
Grove, Ashera, or Shameful thing
66, 87
" Grove " had 400 priests under
Jezebel - - - 224
Grove mistranslated - - 223
Groves '‘Shameful" - - 223
Grove worshippers were Sodomites 224
“ Habitation of God " Queen of
Heaven - - - - 162
Hadrian ploughed site of Temple - 147
Haeckel - - - - n
Hall, Dr., on Jewish children 186-187
Hamilton, Sir William, letter to
Sir Joseph Banks on Phallism
at Isernia in Italy - - 94
Hand, euphemism for Phallus - 41
Hangings for the Phallus woven in
the Temple - 229
Hardy's Phallic Pillar, Christ-in-
hand - - - 56, 252
Harlot, semi-religious in India - 32
"Harmonising" Ecclesiastes - 149
Hasmanean wars - - - 146
Head-dress of Bridegroom in
Festivals - - - - 114
Healthy life from cradle to grave 355
Heart, a broken and a contrite - 267
Hearts (burning) on Phallic altar 86
Heaven...........................14
Heaven full of Saints, Godlets *158
Heavenly host - - - 16
Hebrew and Babylonian Creations 193
Hebrew Bible, basis of Christianity 8
Hebrews borrowed Phoenician
Alphabet - 141
Hebrew captives deported to Rome
and built Coliseum and
Pyramid of Caius Sextus - 147
Hebrew Captivities in Assyria,
Egypt, Pathros, Cush, Elam,
Shinar, Hamath and the
Islands of the Sea (Greece) - 147
Hebrew Creation from arid soil - 174
Hebrew Creation derived from
Babylon - 192
Hebrew Nabis’ debasement of
woman strange, as Egyptians
and Babylonians placed her
very high - 295
Hebrews, insanitary, expelled
from Egypt ... 308
Page
Hebrew God, Character of - - 310
Hebrew God Al, Ale, Allah, a ram - 154
Hebrew Gods, plural 158, 160, 254
Hebrew Gods same as those of
surrounding nations - *151
Hebrew God, Tsur - - 252
Hebrew God, Eduth - 251, 254
Hebrew ignorance mistook Baby-
lonian Astronomy for en-
chantments - - 197-198
Hebrew God, Shechina - 246, 254
Hebrew ignorance of Zodiacal
signs, made their folk lore
inaccurate ... 364
Hebrew Grove - - - 66
Hebrew language, nebulous - 141
Hebrew miracle play - 244, 250
Hebrew narrative profoundly al-
tered .... 197
Hebrew originals sent to Bruchium 148
Hebrew people loved Queen of
Heaven ... 165, 186
Hebrew people loved bisexual
worship with Kadesha and
Doves, Nabis condemn this - 225
Hebrew pottery, poor - - 120
Hebrew pride and exaggeration,
Colenso, Sayce - 205, 208, 235
Hebrew Nabis* religion, right hand
cult......................220
Hebrew Script unknown in Pales-
tine ----- 141
Hebrew scriptures burnt by Antio-
chus 168 b.c. - - - 147
Hebrew self-esteem - - - 235
Hebrew Sun Myth enacted 244,
250, 280, 294
Hebrew Tabernacle - - 244, 250
Hebrew writings, early - 141, 142
Hebrew year, lunar - - - 247
Hebrews, an insignificant Clan - 216
Hebrews banished by Titus 70-71
A.D. - - - - 147
Hebrews' expulsion from Egypt - 208
Hebrews had no God of Know-
ledge - - - 183
Hebrews hated knowledge - 183
Hebrews* hatred of feminine made
Tiamat (female) into Tehom
(male) - - - 192
Hebrews ignorant of Astronomy
260-261
Hebrews mutilated Babylonian
Sun Myths ... 260
Hebrews inhabited Palestine, Pala-
Stan, Land of the Phallus - 225
Hebrews liable to diseases peculiar
to want of cleanliness (botch,
syphilis, scab, itch) - - 231
Hebrews* Phallic feast - - 225
Hebrews Phallicafiy mutilated - 217
Hebrews, Polytheistic - 158-160
Hebrews' prophets despised women
(no Goddess in Hebrew Hea-
ven) - - 165, 192, 193
374
INDEX
Page
Hebrews* refusal to admit female
to share in creation - - 193
Hebrews rendered impotent by
disease - - - - 231
Hebrews too ignorant to under-
stand Astronomy - - 120
Hebrews turned feminine words
masculine - - 192, 193, 326
Hebrew Gods, Eduth, Shekina,
Tsur, or Yahweh the same - 254
Hebrews worshipped a company
of gods ... 157-160
Heimdal, nine virgins - - 122
Heduth, see Eduth
Hell.............................14
Hell dismissed with costs - 9
Hell in hot countries, hot; in cold
countries, cold, example - 128
Helmholtz, Vortex Atoms - - 335
Henderson, Wm., on Hindu Reli-
gion - 129
Hera.............................48
Hercules - - 23, 163, 324
Hercules - - - - - no
Hercules, derivation of name - 163
Herman Sul Column - - 93
Hermaphrodite (man-woman) 23-24
Hermes - - - - 84
Hermes Aphrodite - - - 23
Hermes is Logos - - -135
Hermes is Phallus - - 24
Hermes and Jesus - - 135
Hero of Alexandria - - - 119
Herodotus on Sacrifice or Vir-
ginity - - - 184, 226
Herodotus on Queen of Heaven - 332
Herodotus, Tonsure represented
Phallic mutilation of Bacchus
(Sun's loss of power in
Winter) - - - - 256
Herschel, Sir John - - 340
Herzog - - - - - 143
Hesus the Mighty in Europe.
Made Roman's task easy - 317
Heva..............................163
Hexapla lost - 200
Hexapla, Origen's - 200
Hibbert lecturer says Eucharist
was debasing licentiousness
and sanctified lust - - 316
Hibbert Lecturer, Sun Worship - 130
Hieroglyphics, uncertainty of trans-
lation .... 276
High Priest, death and resurrec-
rection of - - - 248-250
High Hill, Phallic Worship 186, 229,
242, 243
Higher Criticism - - 156-152
Higher criticism, Sayce - 7
Highly poetic faith, fit for the
Millennium, killed by Paul and
Jerome - - - - 347
Hilkiah, Torah of Yahweh - 144
Hillel, High Priest, was Baby-
lonian - - * - 145
Page
Hindu creation - 208
Hindu rites and ceremonies - - 117
Hindu altar - - - - 31
Hindu religion, Astronomic -129
Hindu sects - - - - 34
Hislop, Two, Babylons 6, 145, 177,
185, 228, 275, 295, 321, 327
Hogmanay, Babylon and Scot-
land ...........................121
Hole in the Sky, Sho'r ha Shamim 274
Jesus and Angels up and down- 274
Holi Festival (Oman) - - 37
Hollwell's Dictionary - - 325
Holy Number, Forty - - 265
Holy Forty, common to all nations 265
Holy Ghost, chief of trinity, as
blasphemy not forgiven - 325
Holy Ghost, feminine 23, 48, 161,
I7L 318. 326
Holy Ghost is Virgin Mary - 255
Holy Ghost is Woman - - 275
Holy Ghost, Ruach—Spirit or
breath - 163
Holy Kiss, Eucharist - - 316
Holy Week at Rome, Saturn 109, 333
Holy women - - - - 32
Horace, “ Death " is the end - 143
Horeb—Sinai story, Carpenter - 157
Horse Collar - 43*49
Horse shoe in Church floors - 43
Horse Shoe is Yoni (Phallic) - 43
Horus - - - - no
Horus, Lock of, on Cross - 306
Hours, days, years, all same in
poetic language - - - 196
Hours named after Gods - - 104
Houses of the Sun - - - ig
Hue Abbe in Tibet (Cross, Mitre
and all Christian symbols) 327
Huldah—The Weasel Sorceress - 145
Hundreds of Phallic gems - 86
Huxley..........................335
Hymns, Jesus, Mary, Joseph,
New Trinity - - 170, 320
“I”
la Jove variations - - - X56
Iah in Hebrew names means Jah-
weh or Jehovah, an early form
285-287
Iah in Babylonian Names, com-
mon .......................156
Identical incidents in lives of
Christ and Christna - 280-283
Idolomania - - - - 88
Ignorance and Sloth of Clergy
owing to Faith doctrine 337-338
Ignorance of Hebrews - - 198
Ignorance of people as to nature
of altars - - - - 30
I.H.S. Dionysius Insignia, several
meanings, Isis, Hours, Seb,
In Hoc Signo, Sothic Cycle - 294
Ilgen, Carl - - - - 152
INDEX
375
Page
Illegitimacy in Home, 3160 out of
4373 births illegitimate - 337
Illegitimacy lower in India than in
Bible-fearing Scotland - 46
Illegitimate children of Church
Prelates in 1560 - - 338
Immaculate Conception - 294, 307
Immaculate conception entails the
son being his own father, and
he is suckled by his wife -136
Immaculate indicated by barred
systrum or ladder - - 70
Immortality, Gods deny it to man
(Eden story) - - - 182
Immoral questions to young girls,
Licentious poems by Proper-
tius, Tibullus and Juvenal - 327
Immortality symbolised by organs
of reproduction - - - 15
Impatient for knowledge, man - 2
Impatience for knowledge gives
chance to Church - - 20
Impatience of people is Priest's
opportunity - - - 20
In the beginning - - 160, 161
Incessant Change in Hebrew
Scriptures - - - - 150
Incidents identical in lives of
Christ and Christua - 280-283
India has still every phase of re-
ligious development - - 32
India, Phallism in - - 32
Indian Account of “Fall” 188-189
Indian Astronomy - 260
Indian Creation ... 203
Indians' ignorance as to nature of
altars - - - - 30
Indian Morality high, Oman - 42
Indra - - - - - no
Ingersol, Col. - - - - 210
Infants unbaptised burn in Hell
fire for ever - - - 328
Inman - - - - - 24
Inman, Dr., on Salvation and
Saviours - 302
Inquisition due to Paul's Faith
*klea ----- 199
Introspective Communion (Yogis) 34
” Insulse Rule” Milton's - 41,234
Io ----- 48
Iona ----- 324
Ionian Sea, ” Great Pan is dead” 346
Ireland, Evil eye - - - 96
Ireland like Greek coins or Nismes
sculptures - - - - qC
Ireland. Lingam-Yoni worship - 96
Ireland, Nude figures at Church
door - - - - 97
Irenaeus invented stories of re-
surrections - - - 313
Irmin Sul Column (God's Rock) 93
Isaac and Abimelech & - - 239
Isaiah - 120, 125, 198, 147, 150
Isernia, Sir W. Hamilton's letter
about Phallism - - - 94
Page
Ish, man, Ishri, Ish Surya, Ish-
wara -
Israelites, see Hebrews, Jews
Israelites' Gods, Eduth, Shekina,
Tsur or Yahweh, are the
same -
I star............................
Istar of no special sex
Ishhwara's Creation -
Italy, Isernia Phallism
Ithyphallic - - - 41
Ithyphallic Gods, Min, Horus,
Amen Ra, Osiris - - 81
IV same as IO, double-sex
IV is IU with pittar, Jupiter IS5-156
Ivy leaf—Phallic - - - 24
Ixion - - - - no
Izdubar...........................no
- 69
254
48
325
203
95
79
I*
J"
-
Jah, see Iah - 253
Jahweh Nissi, Rod of God - - 253
Jakin, and Boaz - - - 256
Jealousy laws, Phallic - - 232
Jealously of Gods, of man attain-
ing knowledge - - - 179
Jealousy of Gods, of man attain-
ing Eternal Life - - 179
‘ ehovah and the Phallus rivals 222
Jehovah, Jah or Iah - - 155
Jehovah, Character of - - 210
j eremiah, a Nabi or mad Mullah • 263
Jeremiah put in the stocks - - 263
Jerome, ten forms of Old Testa-
ment - - - - 199
e
changed text more than
others - I99-200
Jerome's fatal iron rule most evil
world has seen - - - 199
Jerome, father of Ecclesiastical
science - - - - 201
Jerome on Baal-peor - - 255
Jerome's rule caused ” Wintry
Negation, Sterility and
death” (in religion) - - 200
Jerome says Baal-poer was Pria-
pus.....................229
Jerusalem a museum of Religions 261
High places for religious pro-
stitution
Images
Groves on every Hill and under
every green tree
Burned incense
Molten images, Calves
Host of heaven
Baal
Sons and daughters through fire
Sun worship
Kadeshah
Observed times
Used enchantments.
m
INDEX
Pag*
Familiar spirits
Sorcery
Wizards
Tophet
Asher Peor - * 261,262,263
Jerusalem conquered by Tiglath
Pileser Nebuchadnezzar, Shi-
shak, Syrians, Philistines,
Senachenb, Necho - - 146
Jerusalem destroyed - 146
erusalem far from sea, forgot to
create fishes ... 176
Jerusalem, over thirty sackings
and pillagings and destruc-
tion of sacred records - - 146
Jerusalem population deported - 147
Tersualem, Siege of Titus - - 147
Jerasalem, Temple often destroyed
146-147
Jesus a Common name - - 302
JesusaNabi, Nazarite or Nazarene
263, 279
Jesus, a priest after the order of
Melchizedek - 294
Jesus a Sun Myth variant
in, 114, 314
Jesus and Christna parallels 281-284
Jesus and John, Sun’s Attributes 266
Jesus and Mercury both Logos—
Phallic - - - - 135
Jesus and Perseus - - * 136
esus and Peter, denial same as
Prometheus and Oceanu9,
500 years before Jesus - - 302
Jesus ana Sons of Jove - - 13 5
Jesu9 and the Sun, Comparative
table - - - - 314
Jesus as pisces Fish miracles
280-283, 291
^ esus absorbed Jahweh - 313-314
" esus and Serapis - - - 214
] esus as Bridegroom 39, 114, 123
Jesus became a " pretender ” to
Jewish Kingdom. Promised
gifts of land and houses like
all pretenders to a throne - 271
Jesus beginning to be called God,
300 a.d. - - - - 149
Jesus' Birthday changed from
September to December - 115
Jesus* Birthday date totally un-
known - - - - 115
Jesus born in a Cave, Dawn - 299
esus born in October (Jewish
New Year). Romans changed
birthday to the birthday of
the invincible sun " Natalis
Invicta Solis" as all Pagan
Gods (Sun Gods) were bom
on that day 25th December
115. 329
Jesus crucified on Cross of Heavens 1x2
esus entirely a Myth, Drews
« 334 & 5*I-
Jesus, follower of Siddartha - 271
- 299
**5
114
- *73
Page
Jesus, his Mother knew nothing of
his miraculous birth, (No
Immaculate Conception) * 298
Jesus his own father - - 136
esus, human basis, brothers and
sisters - - . - 277
iesus is Mess jah, son of Jehovah - 279
esus in tomb 40 hours - 196, 313
esus, Mary, Joseph, Trinity, - 170
esus, life, dates, taxing - * ~ ~
Jesus* life had to conform to Sun
Myth, otherwise would not
be accepted -
Jesus* life one year only
Jesus looked for immediate King-
dom - - - -
Jesus, Mary, Joseph, New Trinity 326
esus Myth in three stages:
(1) Prophet martyred or expelled
(2) Mirophily incrusts his mem-
ory with miracles
(3) Story made basis of a creed 277
Jesus, Sun at Equinox (Astrono-
mical parallels) - - 284, 314
Jesus nothing more than man
Jesus Myth -
Jesus, no contemporary men-
tions him -
Jesus, ordinary man to Cerinth-
ians Docetes, Marcionites, and
early sects - - 278, 299
Jesus' pale wraith clothed with
shreds of Asiatic Sun Myths
Jesus same as Sons of Jove -
Jesus, Son of Joseph, real man
Jesus as Logos Phallic
Jesus suckled by his wife -
esus, varieties of spelling -
esus, Jezua, Joshua, Jason
ethro, not Jahweh, taught Moses 146
ews Austere, Christians lax - 203
ews' children stronger than Gen-
tiles, Dr. Hall - - 186-187
Jews condemn woman for “ Fall "
(but fruit not denied to her)
180, 184
Jewish customs, gods, etc., see
Hebrews
Jews* despisal of women 165, 170,
177, 274, 292, 318, 325
Jews dispersed after Jesus made a
break in their religious ideas -
Tews followed common cults
Jew's self-esteem -
Jews* idea polytheistic 140, 157,
158-160
Jews* God, Eduth, Shekinah, Tsur
or Yahweh - 254
Jews’ phallic feast - - ’ - 225
Jewish religion, right hand cult - 220
Jewish Scriptures, originals sent to
Bruchium Library, Alexandria 148
Jewish this “ world-liness" good
effect - - - - 186
Jezebel, 400 Grove priests - - 224
*35
335
- 277
33<S
*35
278
*35
*3<S
302
302
274
28
235
INDEX
377
JHVH and Asher (phallus) the
same, JHVH. Phallic - 155
Job is a fragment of a Sun Myth.
Seven sons. Seven summer
months. Slain by cold blasts
of winter, next year sons all
round Job again - - 265
, ob Redeemer, mistranslation - 276
, ob. Sun Myth - - 196, 265
] ob's God. El Shadai, phallic - 153
’ ohn is Oannes, Babylonian - 328
] onah in Whale's belly 40 hours,
3 days and 3 nights - - 355
Jonah like Jesus 40 hours Solstice
(led to Holy number 40)
196-265
Jonah sun myth, death and re-
birth of the Sun, Greek coins 265
Jonah is Iona, dove, rendered
masculine - - - - 324
Jones, Sir Wm„ on Sun Worship - 128
osephus mentions ten men named
Jesus - - - 302
Josephus sent Hebrew Bible to
Rome - - - 147
Joshua's stone Phallus hears
(witness testimony, Testis
Phallus) - - - 254, 255
^ osiah, Sun worship - - - u8
’ osiah's Phallic oath - - 261
[osiah's Temple, Sun worship - 261
] osiah, Torah of Yah-weh - - 145
[osiah, Host of Heaven - - 261
[ ove, Sons of, partial list - - 136
[ ulius Caesar reforms the Calendar 124
[ uno - - - - - 48
[ uno, Argonian- - - - 89
’ uno generates Soul - - 169, 324
" uno imparts soul - - - 163
[ upiter, Iu Pittar - no, 113, 155
[ upiter had a human origin - 277
Jupiter, "Mother*' of the Gods- 325
[ ust, or Justice, Egypt 79, 140
[ ustice, Libra, scales, phallus,
balance. Phallus in Egypt 255
Justin Martyr - 135, 208, 330, 337
Juvehal ----- 327
" ‘K "
Kadesh, Sodomite or consecrated
man........................225
Kadeshah, Harlot or Consecrated
woman (so. nuns and harlots
were identical) - - - 225
Kaiser, derived from Kisares - 240
Kaiser’s soldiers stacking arms
round and against altar 183, 240
Kalisch, Dr. (Babel story) - 205
Kalisch, Worship of Astarte,
Beltis (mylady)Tannais, Ishtar,
Mylitta, Anaitis, Ashera and
Ashteroth
Virginity of Maidens as an
offering .... 225
Page
Karma - « - - - 34
Kali - - - - 35* 43
Keen or Yang or Phallus in
China - 99
Kelvin, Faith above Science - 114
Kempfen on Kwan Yon - - 102
Kennard, H. Martyn - - 307
Kephalos - - - - - no
Keys of the Creeds (Phallism) - 42
Khuen-Aten or Akhnaton - - 290
Kia-Zi, Kaisar, Kisares, Caesar,
etc.......................240
King James'translators dishonest 159
King Edward VII papyrus - - 79
King L. W. Gnostics 33, 67, 115,
170, 345
Kingdom, Not the Kingdom of
God but that of man will be
great theme and care of the
race. Bishop Carpenter - 341
Kirk or Church, derived from Circle 131
Kitto’s Biblical Cyclopaedia - 70
Knight, Payne, Priapus 24, 26,
50, 85, 87, 88, 90. 93, 96-98, etc.
Knop or bud is the phallus - - 332
Know, means sexual intercourse - 53
Knowledge and sex instinct - 53
Knowledge and Puberty - - 52
Knowledge, short cut to - 1, 2
Krishna - - - - 116, 129
Krishna and Christ - 280, 283
Krishna, wives and mistresses,
Vishnu - - 35, 42, 189
Kubele, see Cybele
Khu-en-Aten or Akhnaton 117, 127
Kunda Well, Female emblem - 43
Kunti, Wife of Sun - - - 43
Kunti, Kunthos, Cythus—Yoni - 43
Kurios - 107, 157
Kwan Yon, 33,333 images of - 103
Kwan Yon, ail symbols 101, 103
Kwan Yon, Queen of Heaven,
China and Japan - - 101
Kwang or Yoni in China - - lot
"L"
L and R represented by one sign - 138
Labour, Curse of 175, 178
Ladder - - - - - 70
Lajard Culte de Venus - - 67
Lakshmi......................84
Lamarck......................11
Lamb aries, obliterated or slain
by the Sun - - 248, 284
Lamb on Cross till 692 a.d.. Sun
in Aries. Man on Cross after
692 - - - - 304. 305
Lamb, burnt offering - - 284
Lamb or Ram - 127
Lamb, Worship of - 284, 305
Lamma of Tibet, Soldiers destroy
Bible - 147
Lamps and Candles are Pagan
relics of Sun worship - - 258
378
INDEX
Page
Lanzoni - - - 73, 77
Lao Tsze and Confucius - - 347
Lao Tsze, Idealist Tolstoyan, Con-
fucius, Practical, sane, vig-
orous - - - 347-348
Lao Tsze, Path, Truth, Light, and
First cause ... 347
Lares and Penates merely stones
(Phalli and Omphs) - - 89
Lares of Romans - - - 216
Larissa - - - - - 89
Larissa from Lars, Laz, Luz, the
wanton one, loose one - - 216
Larissa, Lares and Issa, Bisexual 156
Larissa means vessel of fecundity 216
Laristan, Louristan, Louri - - 216
Larousse, Phallus, and Yahweh
rivals .... 222
Latin day names still legal in
Britain - - - - 105
Laws communicated personally by
God.......................8
Leaf, triform, as Phallic signature 103
Leaping and playing, Phallic 236, 238
Left hand and right hand sects
36, 47-49
Lenticular openings indicate the
Womb - - - - 60
Lesbos medal, Knight - 87-88
Leslie, Col. Forbes, Horse shoe in
Church -
Letters, equivalence of - 27,
Licentious gaiety at Phallic festi-
vals - - 90, 91
Liber..........................
Liberty -----
Liberalia - - - - 92,
Libidinous songs, Holi Festival -
Libra..........................
Libra, Ballance, Scales, male
organ -
Libra, the scales, is Phallic 79,
Life in Ancient Egypt
Life of Jesus interwoven with Fish
miracles (Pisces) 291 et seq,
Life, succession of, suggests eternal
life........................3
Life Eternal, associated with re-
production *
Life, symbols of
Life, Worship of Tree of Life at
Babylon
Light and darkness -
Light is joy or good -
Light of Britannia
Linen, Clean Eucharist
Lingah—Persian Gulf
Lingam in Goddesses* hands
and Japan
Lingam line inclosing God
Lingam, Male organ -
Lingam or Phallus, Siva
Lingam, Symbols of - 26-27, 48-49
Lingam, Tree stump apd serpent - 17
Lingam-Yoni - 86-88
43
52
140
140
140
39
140
255
140
81
3
3
66
- 171
2
- 93
- 3l<5
- 216
China
* 103
- 66
23-26
34
Page
Lingam-Yoni Altar • 30, 52
Lingam-Yoni altar with Bull - 52
Lingam-Yoni altar with Serpent 53
Lingam-Yoni as Crux Ansata 75-76
Lingam-Yoni in Egypt - - 75
Lingam-Yoni, Sun and Serpent
112-1x3
Lingam-Yoni Worship in Ire-
land - - - - 96
Living Stones 131. 252, 253, 254, 255
Lockyer, Sir J. Norman 130, 133
Logos - - - 135,259
Loisy - - - - *145
Lord, God, Tree stump, post,
pillar, Ram, and Phallus,
were the same «- - - 154
Lord, mistranslation - - - 12
Lord’s supper always existed as
Eucharist - - - - 16
Loss of Good Endeavour, Ruskin 341
Lotus means all fertility - - 55
Lotus, universal Phallic symbol - 55
Lotus bud, Male - 18, 55, 49
Lotus bud on Hebrew Candlestick 332
Lotus flower, female - 18, 55
Lotus seed vessel and bud is womb
and Phallus - - - 49
Louri, a place devoted to Phallism 216
Louri, Phallic - - - - 69
Louristan, Laristan - - - 69
Love has no place in Bible - - 326
Luck is seeing nude female 43, 87, 123
Lecky, woman, door of Hell - x86
Lupercalia - - - *93
Luz - - - - - 215
LXX, Septuagint Bible - - 148
Lyall - - - - - 10
"M”
Ma of Kappokia had 6,000 Eunuch
Priests ... - 184
Maccabi wars - 146
McClatchey in China, Phallic name
of God ... 99-100
Madonna del sacco - - - 69
Maffei, Phallic cult - - - 85
Magistrates issued Phallic medals
86-87
Magistrates erect Phallic emblems
in Ireland - - - - 96
Magistrates solemnly erected
Phallic emblems in Europe in
Middle Ages - - - 94
Maha Deva, Lingam-Yoni Altar - 30
Mahommet - - - - 10
Male organ, Lingam - - - 23
Male represented by Fleur de Lys,
Ivy leaf - - - - 24
Male, reproductive organ, symbols
of...........................26
Mallock, W. H. - - - 20
Man always mortal - - 182
Man always suffers from God's
mistakes - v - * 180-181
INDEX
379
Page
Man did not lose eternal life - 182
Man gives Gods wives and offspring 22
Man impatient for knowledge 1-2
Man is God's equal in knowledge
after eating fruit (low concep-
tion of a God) - 179
Man nailed to cross, not adopted
till 9th Century a.d., adopted
very slowly - - 304-305
Man placed adoring Cross 692
a.d., before that a lamb - 304
Man, Perfect Phallic - - 256
Man, symbols of - - - 70
Man on Cross, Pagan - 305
Man the Maker (Gods masculine) 318
Man thinks, therefore his God
thinks - - - - 22
Man worshipping Female Symbols 67
Man's dual mind 1
Manasseh, sun Worship - -261
Manetho ----- 148
Marcion ----- 200
Marduck, Mcrodach - - - 192
Marduck slays Tihamat - - 192
Marinetti, Signor, Hatred of
women - - - 187
Marriage in India, Oman - - 46
Mars, Phallic, of Campus Martis - 60
Martyrs, Fictitious, “ Bene Mer-
enti" changed to M Beato
Martyro" - - - - 330
Martyr, Justin - 135, 208, 330, 337
Mary.........................48
Mary and Eve - 163
Mary is Queen of Heaven - - 137
Mary Magdalene, Goddess of
Love....................167
Mary Magdalene is Venus with
deadly Love Symbol Skull - 234
Mary as dawn, Mother of the Sun-
god .........................hi
Mary, Mother of Jesus, and Mary
Magdalene his wife, or love - 296
?uia Multum Amavit - - 296
ammuz and Ishtar - - 296
May, Venus' month, unlucky - 292
Masculine Trinity, unnatural - 319
Masoretic division of Bible text - 173
Maspero, Excommunication - 276
Mass of people cling to super-
stitions - - - - 33
Materialists and Idealists arrive at
the same conclusions - 334-335
Matriarchy - - - - 48
Maurice's Indian Antiquities 117, 294
May pole is Asher or Phallus - 229
Maya is Holy Ghost - - 48
Maya, Mother of Sun, Dawn - 111
Maya or Maia - - - - 48
Meaningless words used as dis-
guise of Phallism - - - 12
Melchizedek is the year, or 'one
round of the Sun - 114, 260,
Mellita means Mediatrix, like
Mary - 170
Page
Mellytta worshipped in Germany,
Britain, and all over Europe
and Asia—Holy Ghost - - 323
Membrum Feminum, Symbols of - 26
Memorial ----- 228
Men rise again with their bodies
impossible, no carbon to go
round - 340
If bodies accumulated earth
would reach beyond the Sun
(Herschel) - 340
Mens' names derived from God
names - 241
Mercury - - - 84, no
Merit in belief without proof - 2
Merodach - - - - -no
Mess, Application of - 285-286
Mess means son of, out of, in the
middle of and the early ideo -
gram was a woman being
delivered of a child - - 285
Messiah is Mess, son of, and Iah,
Jehovah, Son of an effete
tribal god, replaced by Christ,
the anointed one - 285, 287
Messiahs, List of 307, 310
Messiahs, modern, Greece - - 286
Messianic believers in Jesus' time 272
Messianic period, rise of - 346
Messianic promise, Gen. 3. 15. too
gross for translation - *239
Metallic Phalli, of Romans - - 93
Metempsychosis - - 34-35
Mexican Sun Worship - - 130
Miamonides - - - - 144
Mical rebukes David - -236
Midianite women—children for
Yahweh's use - - - 213
Midianite Women, Phallic plague - 230
Midianite Women, Slaughter of - 213
Migration of symbols - - 9
Milton, no woman in his Heaven - 274
Milton's Insulse rule 41, 203, 253
Min, David dances before min or
ark......................238
Min, Statues in enormous num-
bers - - - - 81, 238
Min was the Grove, Asher, or Baal
of Jerusalem - 239
Maiden Goddesses and zeus - 85
Minerva - - - - "85
Minor Gods of Greece - - 85
Minoan Great Mother - - 169
Minos - - - - - no
Minucius Felix, crucifix - - 304
Miracles asserted after death
of Heroes - - - - 10
Miracle Play of Hebrews - 244, 250
Miraculous authority required
for Religion - - 4, 14
Miraculous Conception - 294, 307
Miraculous used in religion - - 2
Miraculous necessary to religion - 280
Miriam - - - - *48
Mirodox ----- 6
380
INDEX
Page
-
Mirolatry, against knowledge - 1x9
Mirologue - - - 5, 14
Mirologue necessary to religion - 280
Mirology............................5
Mirophily, 5, 7, 19, 21, 279
Mirophily in Christianity (Pan-
theism) - - - - 339
Mirophilic craving 6
Mirophilic sentiment in man - 55
Mistranslations in Bible - 159-160
Mistranslation of Bible - - 12
Mistranslation to hide phallic
words 41, 161, 230, 23x, 251
Mithras 84, no-111
Mithras slaying the Bull - - 126
Mithras, the Mediator, Sun God - 130
Mitologia Egezia - - - 74
Mixture of religions in Jerusalem - 261
Modern Sacrifice of Children - 300
Modern superstitions - -13
Modern superstitions same as
savage - - - -13
Modern Tendencies - - - 334
Mohammadan Religious Symbol
feminine - - - -259
Monks and Nuns wearing Phallic
Ankh - 256-257
Monstrance, female symbol 259, 323
Monthly prognosticators - - 198
Moon changes, first called man's
attention - - - - 123
Moon Chaste - - - - 87
Moon's cusp, or ark, feminine 67, 123
Moon, Measurer of time - - 123
Moon -Month, Week, Quarter
Moon - - - 124
Moon through glass - - 13. 87
Moon-time had hold on com-
mercial dates - - - 124
Moore's Hindu Pantheon - - 129
Morality inherent in man, Saleeby,
Conybeare - 343
Mordecai, Marduk, Sun Myth - 196
Morgan, Owen - - - - 93
Morning is joy or light - - 2
Mosaic authorship - - - 142
Moses at an Inn, Circumcision - 218
Moses not mentioned till 1000
years after death - - 142
Mother and wife of Gods 48, 111, 164
Mother God supreme. Male, a
mere satellite - 102, 163, 169
Mother of God - - - - 22
Mother of God, other names - 170
Mother of God, Queen of Heaven - 170
Mother of God, worshipped by
Persians, Syrians, and aU
Kings of Europe and Asia
169. 323
Mother of Gods, worshipped in
Europe and Asia with pro-
found veneration - - 323
Mothers of God or Sun - - xti
Maya *
Mylitta
Page
Myrrha
Myrrina
Maria
Mary
Mervyn
Morven
Miriam
Mothers must not be wage earners 354
Mother held in honour and inno -
cent.........................357
Mother, sister -spouse, relation -
ship - - - - 136, 192
Motherhood - - - - 356
Muliebre Pudendum, Symbols of 26
Muller, Max, on Sun worship - 129
Multiply, chief command to Heb -
raws - 243
Mundane egg with serpent of
passion - - - - 6l
Mus6e secrete, Nismes - - 94
Multilation by devotees - - 184
Myllitta...........................48
Myllitta, Castration of devotees - 184
Mystery in Church of England - 2
Mysteries of generation, Oman - 35
Mystics, Ascetics, and Saints of
India 35,46
Myths of Babylon, Greece, and
Rome - - - - 19
Myths loved by simple folks - 5
" N "
Nabis, Hebrew - - 140, 222, 225
Nabis condemn Baal-peor wor-
ship ----- 239
Nabis dare not attack idolatry of
Solomon's wives - - 237
Nabis, detestation of woman - 165
Nabis in opposition - - • 263
Nabis, excitable Mullahs, so ex-
citable that overseers had to
be appointed - 263
Nabis favour Eduth worship - 224
Nabis or Hebrew prophets - - 38
Nabis or Naziris (Scoldings) - 263
Nabis punished, put in Stocks - 263
Nabis* Religion, Right hand Cult- 220
Ezekiel. Jeremiah, etc., were
Nabis, John the Baptist also,
lucrative profession - - 263
Naked girls worshipped (see Sakta)
43. 226
Nakedness - - - 17
Names, people's derived from
Gods' .... 241
Nana fertilised by Pomegranate - 248
Naphthali, Jacob ben. Old Testa-
ment ----- 144
Natalis Invicta Solis (birthday of
Unconquered Sun) - - ill
Nations, all. Monotheistic - * 159
Nations all Phallic - - -28
National life must be organised on
sure scientific lines - - 354
INDEX
381
Page
Mature of race who evolved the
Bible - - - -215
Natural phenomena influenced
religion - - - - 16
Nave, Navis, ship - 162, 238, 259
Navel of world - 103
Naville, Cuneiform alone used in
Palestine, no trace of Hebrew 141
Naville. Gods created every day - 112
NeboorNabi, Herald of Marduck;
Nabis, Heralds of Yahweh - 263
Necromancy 7
Nebulous text of Old Testament 144
Nehemiah - 202
New Christian Trinity. Father,
Mother and Babe - - 320
New Moon, Caesar, Julius, fixed
new year at nearest new
moon, hence wrong - - 124
New Moon, Diana seen naked, good
luck, hence must not be seen
through glass (veiled) - - 87
New Moon, wishing a wish - - 87
New Testament, Astronomical 288-291
New Testament - 270
New Testament caused by Sun
entering Pisces - - - 291
New Testament change of Sign
of Zodiac - 290
New Testament curious mixture 271
New Testament change of outlook,
cause of - - - 273
New Testament Criticism - 270-287
New Testament Fish worship, Sun
in Pisces - - 287 et seq.
New Testament, Ichthus or
Ikthus worship - 287
New Testament instead of names
with Iah, Baal, Bosheth, we
have John, James, Twelve
Apostles, etc., or later Latin
names, Nicodemus, Lazarus,
etc.........................287
New Testament “ Messiah" is
rendered “ Christ" to cut the
connection with Iah (Jehovah) 287
New ^Testament, no “ Iah" in
names .... 287
New Testament not history. A
mere frame on which to hang
a new dogma - - -315
New Testament, total change of
language and names - - 287
New Testament, unreal, quite un -
like Old Testament which is
virile, boastful, savage - - 315
New Testament, Yahweh dis-
appears - 287
New Tlftng, none in Religion,
King - - - 33* 170
New Year, Egyptian, at midsum -
mer.....................132
New Year fixed falsely by making
it nearest New Moon, Julius
Caesar - 124
- 321
»75
3*1
- 114
re
- 114
128
84
150
- 124
321
275
97
249
122
249
13
94
Page
New Year travelled all round year 124
Newman, Cardinal, 11 Mother of
fair love " -
Newman, Cardinal, Virgin Mary
as Holy Ghost -
Newman glorifies Mary
Newton, Sir Isaac, Christian Fes-
tivals, Astronomic
Newton, Sir Isaac, Faith above
Science
Newton, Sir Isaac, Christian Solar
festivals - - - 114,
Newton, Twin Serpents
Newton's speculation on Bible -
New Year erroneously fixed by
Julius Caesar
Nice Council of Melchites, said
three persons in trinity.
Father, Mary and Son
Nicene Conference, Virgin Mary -
Nicholas, Saint -
Nimrod or Ninus -
Nine Virgins, Heimdal
Ninus, Nimrod -
Niobe -
Nismes, Mus6e Secrete
Nismes shameless Phallic decora-
tions built by authorities.
Magistrates and Governors
No beginning can be found 160-161
No Gods without Phallic basis - 100
No new thing in Religion, King 33, 170
“ No work," day, Sabbath 106-109
Noah's Ark - 167, 239
Noble pillar, Phallus - - 81
Norse Gods, Solar - - - 130
Northern races found beneficence
of Sun - - - - 110
Nude bathing in India - - 44
Nudity Holy - - 45, 46
Nude virgins and sacred serpents - 89
Nude, worship of, in Europe
Nudity begets no shame. Shame
comes with clothing
Nudity natural to hot countries -
Nudity of female, good luck 87,
Nudity unnatural to cold countries 235
Nudity worshipped in Greece as in
Britain - - - - 87
Number 12 - - - - 114
Number Forty, Holy - - 265
Nuns - - - - -32
Nuns and Harlots identical - - 225
Nut and Seb - - - - 73
94
44
320
235
123
<« Q »»
O, Female symbol - - - 23
Oak tree, Phallic - - - 17
Oaks of Dodona, Pliny - - 17
Oath, Phallic - 139-140, 228, 252
Objects worshipped, diversity of 1
Obscure symbolism of Priests - 24
Obscene words in Bible to be
changed • - - - 41
382
INDEX
Page
Oedipus - - - * iio
Oil, Phallic, Isernia - - * 94
Oiling Unction, Pagan practice
(Chrinoi, Christos, oiled) - 258
Old customs die hard - 327
Old Gods dead, Phallism was left
behind with the dead Gods 346
Old school looked backwards - 11
Old Sun, Bacchus - - - no
Old Testament, adding and taking
away from - - *158
Old Testament, contradiction
throughout - - - 157
Old Testament entirely Phallic - 25
Old Testament, Masoretic version 143
Old Testament (O.T.), Nebulous
text - 144
Old Testament texts, list of
Origen's - 208
Old Testament - - - - 130
Old Testament, History of 138-152
Old Testament, Analysis of 152-214
Old Testament, Phallism in 215-259
Old Testament, Sun Worship in
260-269
Old Testament, earliest copy at
St. Petersburg, dated 916
a.d. - - - 144, 151
Old Testament, other copy for
revised version 1034 a.d. - 144
Old Testament, tracing descent,
discussion - 145
Old Testament, of slow growth
through barbarous ages - 150
Old Testament Cosmogony, Baby -
Ionian - 145
Old Testament written on shreds
of leather - - - 146, 148
Old Testament, badly tanned
hides ----- 147
Old Testament often destroyed
145-147
Old Testament, Origen a great
“ harmoniser ” - * 149
Old Testament, wilful mistrans-
lation - - - - 151
Old Testament, lost to sight till
916 a.d. - 151
Old Testament, arrived through
Mohammedan sources - - 151
Old Testament, 400 years amongst
Moors - - - - 151
Old Testament, classification of
Writers - 157-158
Ol or Oliun, most high in Old Tes -
tament - - - - 154
Om, Dayanand makes sign of - 45
Om, Mother of Gods - - 45
Om, Word of Sanctity - - 45
Om, original of Womb; Woman is
Womb-man - - - 23
Om, Sadhu makes sign of - - 46
Om,—Omph, female - 23
Oman, 33, 34. 35. 3$, 37-40, 44,
46, 114, 116, 268, 30X, etc.
Oman, Doctor J. Campbell, Books 33
Omphale, Om and Phallus double
sexed - - - - 23
Omphale, Ophelim - - - 231
Omphallism - - - - 35
Ooma or Uma, Mother or Womb,
or Yoni - - - - 23
Oort, Dr. .... 252
Orb of Power - 82, 255, 332
Ophelim - 230-231
Organs of Reproduction used as
symbol of life - - - 16
Orientation (compass direction) 130-133
Orientation of Churches - 131-133
Orientation imposible in Cities - 133
Orientation of Isis to Sirius or
Sothis - - - - 132
Orientation to Stars - - - 132
Orientation, Westminster Cathe-
dral ........................133
Origen castrated for the Kingdom
of Heaven's sake - - 185
Origen tampers with the tampered
149, 158
Origen, Tetrapla, Hexapla - - 200
Origen's Texts, list of - 200
Origins.........................160
Osiris 2, 19-20, 72, 81, 85, 160
Osiris and Typhon - - - 126
Osiris, basis of Egyptian legends 72
Osiris, Ithyphallic - - - 81
Osiris and Eduth or Testimony - 246
Osiris, women weeping for 297-298
Outlook in New Testament, cause
of change of 271-272
Over lord of the Earth, Kaiser - 240
Ovid..............................301
.I p..
Paeonians of Thrace, Sun worship 117
Pagan Gods canonised by Roman
Catholic Church - - 329-332
St. Dionysius
St. Eleuther
St. Rustic
St. Bacchus
St. Tammuz
St. Delphin
St. Josophat
St. Barlaam
St. Espedito * - 329, 332
Pagan Gods are now Christian
Saints or Godlets (St. Bacchus,
St. Denys, etc.) - 329
Pagans put Mother of Gods first,
Christians debase woman, and
recognise no Mother of God
169. 323
Pagan religions contain all Chris-
tian ideas (no new religion) - 327
Pagans took nothing from Chris-
tianity, Christianity took
everything from Paganism*
Augustine, Justin Martyr ana
Tertullian - 328, 330
INDEX
383
Page
Pagan trinity, Father, Mother and
Son, obliterated by Hebrews,
but re-established - - 169
Paine, T. - - - - » 210
Pala (phallus) - - - - 26
Pala, symbols of - 26, 30, 103
Paladium (Phallus God) - - 26
Palaki - - - - 32, 216
Palaki, Temple girls, from Pala
32, 216
Palakistan, Baluchistan (Louri) - 216
Palatine Hill - - - - 217
Palenque, Phallic symbols - - 217
Palermo, Phallic processions - 95
Pales, God of flocks, double sexed 217
Palestine, Palastan, Pala Phallus,
Land of the Phallus - *215
Palestine used only Babylonian
Cuneiform writing - - 141
Palestina same as Philistine - 216
Palikoi - - - - -217
Palladium of German liberty,
Hermanu Sul - - - 93
Pallas Athene, Thenen, serpent - 52
Pallium ----- 257
Pallor and Pavor - 4
Palm Tree means Man - - 61
Palm Tree, Phallic - - - 17
Pan anointing Phallus - -51
Pan " Great Pan is dead " old
creeds getting discredited - 346
Pantheism in Christianity - 336, 337
Paphos—Paphia - - -88
Paradise—Garden—Summer - 15
Paradise or garden - - - 111
Paradise on earth if energies pro-
perly directed - 242
Paschal or Passover lamb—Jesus
the same—Crucifixion is Pass -
over......................304
Pascha ----- 284
Passover - - - - 15
Passover, passing over, Cross-
over, Cros dfication—Cr uci -
fixion - 265
Passover derived from Babylon,
nothing to do with Egypt
(Egpytian story apooryphal)
284, 304
Paul," by faith alone M started the
Dark Ages - - - 199
Paul knew nothing of Jesus
(Drews) - - - - 337
Paul's Faith doctrine, what it leads
to, lowest depths of Infamy 329
Paul's ** faith ” led to orgy of
mirophily - - 202-203
Paul's promises of an immediate
KinfUom - 273
Paul's Sophistry, Faith as evi-
dence 2, 329
Paul and Jerome lead to Inquisi -
-tion - 199
Paul's unknown God *1 - - 2
Pausanius * • - - 128
Page
Pavor and Pallor - - - 4
Penates and Lares - - 89-90
Peni, Peni-Baal, Peni-el - - 42
Peoples' names derived from God
names - 241
Peor Apis—Priapus - 89, 229, 289
Peor - 88, 230, 232, 254, 289
Perfect Creative God required a
woman - - - - 24
Perfect Phallic Man - - - 256
Period of Sun Gods - - - no
Perpetual interdict against re -
building Temple by Hadrian 147
Perowne, Doctor, Phallic Messianic
promise - 239
Perseus - - - - - no
Persian occupation of Palestine - 147
Persian Sun Worship - - 130
Perso-Babylonian Religion - - 201
Peru-Cuzco Sun worship - - 117
Peru, Prescot's - - - - 117
Peruvian Sun worship - - 117
Petrie, Flinders - - - 196
Petreus of Prometheus is the Peter
of Jesus - 302
Phalli erected at every strret cor -
ner and under every green
tree - -- 140, 221, 235, 242
Phalli in every street, Palestine
and Dahomey - 235
Phalli of various materials - - 29
Phalli found in lowest strata - 29
Phalli forty feet below Troy - 29
Phalli on grave stones, Scotland - 29
Phalli upon every hill, and under
every green tree, list of texts 242
Phallic altar - - - - 221
Phallic Columns - 56, 57, 58
Phallic conceptions in Biblp
texts - - - - - 12
Phallic cult in earliest, still widely
practised - - - -15
Phallic cult, direct and personal 15
Phallic dance before Ark (Relic
or banner) - - - - 236
Phallic dances, David, Mical - 236
Phallic diseases, Syphilis, with
love.........................217
Phallic emblems everywhere pub-
lic in Europe after Romans - 93
Phallic emblems publicly ex -
posed in Ireland on Churches 94
Phallic exhibition is called Leap-
ing and Dancing - - 236
Phallic Feast of the Jews or
Hebrews - 225
Phallic feasts, Roman and Greece 92
(Bacchanalia, Floralia, Forni -
calia, Hilaria, Liberalia,
Lupercalia, Maternalia, Vul-
canalia) - - - - 92
Phallic gods are creators and yet
destroyers - - - - 35
Phallic Hermes of Greece becomes
Philosophical Logos - * 346
394
INDEX
Page
Phallic land right round coast
• from India to Egypt - - ax6
Phallic medals were public acts
of the State - - 86-87
Phallic Oath - 139, 140, 228, 253
Phallic oath still exists in Arabia 228
Phallic oil. Isernia - - '94
Phallic phrases often repeated - 242
Phallic pillar, Blackmoor 56, 252
Phallic pillars (Blackmoor Eng*
lish List, Wales, Scotland,
Ireland, Fiji, Karnak, Mon-
golia, Tartary, India, etc.)
$7. 58, 59
Phallic pillar of Dorsetshire,
-
Druidical - - - - 93
Phallic practices in India, Works
on 36-37
Phallic processions in Italy and
India - - - - 41
Phallic signs - - 155
IA and IV double sexed - - 155
Phallic terms, sporting, leaping
and playing - - ' 239
Phallic signatures plough, leaf,
cross - 103
Phallic sculpture, Bordeau, Tou-
louse, in Churches - - 97
Phallic symbol, earliest - - 29
Phallic symbols and cross - - 217
Phallic symbols were originally
realistic nude sculptures - 26
Phallic symbols in general - -255
Phallic symbol of serpent trans-
ferred to Sun - - 81, H2
Phallic view of Eden held by
Clement and Jerome, and in
modern times by Dr. Donald -
son ----- 239
Phallic words, native and for-
eign ...............................89
Phallic worship, popular - - 16
Phallic worshippers: India, Bur-
mah, Indo -China, Tibet,
China, Japan, 400,000,000 - 33
Phallic worshippers 700,000,000
of whom 250,000,000 are
British subjects - - - 28
Phallic worshippers and Christians
compared - - 28-29
Phallism, a living cult practised by
millions - - - - 47
Phallism at Isernia - - - 94
Phallism conventionalised - - 32
Phallism disguised in Bible - - 103
Phallism expressed more clearly in
Europe than in Babylon,
India or Egypt - - - 94
Phallism in the old Testament - 215
Phallism in Assyria, Babylonia
and Accadia - - * 65
Phallism in China - - - 99
Phallism in Egypt - - - 72
Phallism in Europe - - - 93
Phallism in Greece - - - 83
Twin serpents, Cuduceus, ori-
gin of - - - - 84
Pine Cone with ribbons - - 86
Pine cone offering - - - 86
Phalli in Basket offering - -86
Phallism in Ireland - - - 96
Phallism in India - * - 32
Phallism in Japan - 101
Phallism in Rome - - - 89
Phallism most violent expression
at Nismes - - - - 94
Phallism necessary to explain
Christianity - - - 25
Phallism, originally Realistic - 26
Phallism preferred by Hebrews to
Yahweh worship - 266-267
Phallism the greatest modern cult,
inculcated and explained by
modern Brahmins - - 33
Phallism Universal - 28, 29, 30
Phallism unknown to British
public - - - - 25
Phallus and Cross - - - 88
Phallus and Pyx - 258
Phallus and Yahweh or Jah rivals
222, 254
Phallus, Eduth, Shechina, and
Yahweh the same - - 254
Phallus, euphemisms for (Foot,
Thigh, Heel, Hand) - 41, 239
Phallus, cause of evil - 184, 187
Phallus from Pala - - - 26
Phallus in Isaiah - - - 41
Phallus in Job - 153-154
Phallus on grave stones, rocks,
etc...........................15
Phallus or testis becomes testi-
mony, covenant and mem-
orial ----- 228
Phallus, Rod, Pillar or upright
emblem - - - -15
Phallus, symbol of Justice - *79
Phallus conventionalised in writ-
ing ...........................79
Phallus, synonyms for - - 239
Phallus, Symbols of - - - 26
Phatallah - - - - - 156
Pharoah, the great Hall or the
“Court" - 125
Philistines also lived in Palestine 215
Philistine same word from the
Greek, from Phyllis (love)
and Stan (land) - - - 2x5
Phobos - - ... 4
Phoebus...........................110
Phoenicians, Veneration of Sun - 115
Pillars, Phallic - - 56, 57, 58
Pillars of Hercules - 264
Pillar is masculine emblem - 24
Pindar - - - - 268
Pine cone and bag, male and
female - - - *68
Pinches, Mr., British Museum,
Iah..........................156
INDEX
385
Page
Pisces. New Testament written to
bring in* New Zodiac sign
Sun in Pisces 126, 280. 287,
284, 290
Pisces or Fishes run through
whole life of Jesus - 291-292
Plague sent for sin with Poor,
feminine. Woman cause of
evil. Peor=woman - - 230
Playing and Dancing - 236, 239
Plato, senses bring health like a
breeze - - - - 357
Playing and Leaping, Phallic - 239
Pliny on Tree worship. Palm tree,
Phallic - - - - 17
Plough as a Phallic sign 46, 103
Plough, signature of Kings 46, 103
Plunket, The honorable E. M.,
Zodiacs, etc. - - 130, 133
Plutach - - - 85, 225, 346
Plutarch on Jews' Phallic feast - 225
Poems, Philosophical - 7
Pockocke - - - - - 156
Poetry of love, none in Bible - 326
Pole of fertility, Rod of God,
Jahveh Nissi, Phallus - 253
Polytheism of Hebrews - 157-160
Polygamy taught in Old Testa-
ment ----- 236
Polytheistic Christianity - - 158
Pomegranate, Empress of Austria 255
Pomegranates, Fertility, Fruitful
Womb ... - 248
Pomegranate, girl metamorphosed
by love, by Bacchus - 248-255
Pompeii, Phallic symbols on
Walls - - - - 67
Pope phallically examined 217, 218
Popular beliefs in all religions - 7
Potts, Dr., Eugenics - - "355
Power accumulated by Pen-
ances - 301
Powerful and wicked require
slaughter of innocent children
for their happiness. Modern
example. Devil chasers 299-300
Pragmatic sanction - - 2, 342
Prakriti - - - - 48, 188
Prayers apostrophise the Amen of
Egypt - - 2
Prayer can alter sequence of
events - - - 1
Precession of the Equinoxes
19, 288, 290
Prescott’s Peru - - - 117
Priapus 23, 26, 27, 88-89* 229, 289
Priapus and Peor Apis 88-89, 229, 289
Preistly document of Old Testa-
ment' - - - 157, 202
Priests before Kings 7
Priests* Concubines - - , 337-338
Priests double sexed like creative
God........................24
Priest's guesses eagerly accepted
1-2, 20, 158
Page
Priests’ ideas, writing about Crea -
tion - - I7*-I73. 339
Priest's " Stole" makes him
double sexed - - - 24
Priests use obscure symbolism 24-2$
Primitive culture, Tyler - 6
Pointed and Unpointed Hebrew - 144
Proclus - - - - 168, 324
Proclus—J uno imports genera-
tion of soul - - 324, 325
Pragmatism is immoral, renders
every belief true, however
foolish - - - - 2
Prayers heard by stones - 252. 255
Prometheus - - - - no
Pronunciation of Letters, English 27
Proof of divinity of Bible, false 10
Prophecy after the event - 13, 194
Prophet not without honour - 298
Prophet’s scolding betrays what
people worshipped - - 141
Prophets' scoldings. Mullahs or
Yogis, Nabis or Naziris - 263
Prophets' scoldings - 13, 19, 141
Protests against belief in ancient
Pagan fables, Rev. Hensley
Henson, Bishop Colenso,
Rev., J. E. Carpenter - - 327
Prostitutes necessary in Rome to
prevent seduction of Senators'
Wives and Daughters (Pope
Paul V.) - - - 337
Prostitutes sacred - - - 88
Prostitution a virtue in time of
Jesus, Mary Magdalent re-
spected - - - - 316
Prostitution in Egypt, slaves for 82
Protestant and Catholic Churches 9
Protestants have no female in
God-head, because of Eden
story.....................326
Protestant’9 Heaven has no
Queen - - - - 137
Protestant is rationalist, follows
reason - 8-9
Protestant religion cold - - 137
Protestant religion has a com-
panionless God - - * r37
Provision for the Babies. We must
start with the Baby - '357
Psalms, Zion is Zodiac, Lord God
is Sun - 264
Ptah Totumen creates Gods every
day.......................ZI2
Ptolemies collected originals of
religions - 148
Ptolemies devoted to Libraries and
Museums - . - *48
Ptolemy Soter, Son of God, the
Saviour - 148
Pulpit, Phallic derivation - - 60
Purpose of Gods turned aside by
prayers t
Pylades and Orestis, Phallic oath - 286
BB
386
INDEX
Pag*
Pyramid of Caius Sextus in Rome,
built by Jewish slaves - 273
Pyx, male symbol - - 56, 258
Queen of Heaven, Ark, Arch, Arc,
Box, Boat, Church, Nave,
Altar - - 162
Queen of Heaven created life by
brooding on the Waters - 169
Queen of Heaven is Holy Ghost - 170
Queen of Heaven is Mother of God 170
Queen of Heaven, Ruach 162-163
Queen of Heaven, Spirit necessary
to creation - - - 24
Queen of Heaven, Symbols of
26, 48, 162, 247
Queen of Heaven, Universal
Womb - 324
Bueen of Heaven, Venus, Fish - 292
ueen of Heaven worshipped by
Hebrews - - 165
Queens of Heaven, Goddesses of
love ----- 163
Queens of Heaven worshipped
with profound veneration - 323
Queen's husband, Ark-el, Ark-god,
Arkels, Herkels, Heracles,
Hercules - 163
Quetsalcoatl - - - - no
“R"
R and L represented by one sign 138
Ra - - - no, 285, 287
Rabbi’s " Insulse ’* rule to tone
down Phallic words 41, 103, 253
Race culture or Race suicide - 356
Races from Steppes of Asia in-
fluenced religion - - - no
Rajendralala Mitra, Ama or Uma 48
Rahab in Creation - - 190-193
Ram or Lamb - - - - 127
Rams’ skins on Tabernacle - -24 7
Rebekah..........................239
Rebus onlkthus, Jesus Kristos, of
God the Son and Saviour - 293
Red one. Adam, Phallus - - 54
Red Ridinghood - 266
Redeemer. "Iknow that my Re-
deemer liveth" is false trans-
lation - 276
Redeemer Myth - - 333-334
Redeemers - - * 115, 3x0
Refreshing Lingam with shower of
water - - - - 51
Reichs Apfel - - - 82, 332
Religion - 3~4. 22
Religion built on Symbolism - 169
Religion, definition of 5
Religion, enforcement of - 21-22
Religion impelled by. fear - 4
Religion. In religion there is no
new thing - - - 33
Pag*
Religion, Message of God to man.
Miraculous religions, Indian
and Christian - - 280, 284
Religion, no new thing in - - 33
Religion, none without miracles - 280
Religion, not communistic rules - 3
Religion on two planes, lower plane
crass, but permanent - - 33
Religion requires Miraculous auth -
ority - 4-6
Religion without Mirodox, Con-
fucius - 348-349
Religions all combined under
Akbar 9
Religions are conservative - - 21
Religions based on the miracu-
lous - 2-14
Religions built on reproductive
idea - - - - - 22
Religions demand antiquity - 21
Religions, Eastern, are broad 9-10
Religions, earliest beginnings un-
known - - - 15
Religions, essential parts of - - 14
Religions have common codes of
morality 7
Religions, Phallic or Solar - - 21
Religiosity 5
Religious prostitution rampant
at time of Jesus, yet not men -
tioned in New Testament.
Edited - - - - 315
Religious capitals, low morality 337
Religious Symbols, earliest are
Phallic - - - 15
Renouf—Le Page, Egyptian Sun
Worship - - - - 130
Research is rational inquiry 1-2
Resurrection of Jesus 265-266.
_ 3*3-314
Resurrection of body in Prayer
Book impossible—No carbon
—Carbon has been used over
and over again for generation
of bodies - - - - 340
Resurrection of Sun, forgiveness
of sins - - - - 15
Resurrection unknown in Old
Testament - 143
Revelation Miraculous - 1, 4
Revivals cause erotic passions 87-88
Revulsion from Religion of Terror 270
Rewards and Punishments - 7
Rewards for saying Jesus, Mary,
Joseph. - 320
Rhea ----- 163
Rib is Mother of World - - 177
Ribbons, gay, on Phallic etqbjems
44-45. *.rf-58. 229
Right and Left hand sects 36,
47-48
Ring and Dagger - - - 55
Rings are Yonis - - 49, 66
INDEX
387
Page
Raising from the dead Lazarus,
Jairus* Daughter. Also on
death of Jesus. Greatest
miracle, yet never noticed by
historians - - 311 -312
Rivers of Babylon - - - 175
Rivers of Life, Forlong - - 7
R.K.H..........................162
Rock of Salvation - - - 252
Rock which begat thee, Phallus
56. 88, 241. 252
Rod of God, Jahveh Nissi, Phallus 253
Rome immoral - 337
Rome, Phallism in - - 89
Roman and Greek Phallic feasts ~ 92
Roman Catholic Church, absorbed
all feasts and Godlets of
Pagans - - - 257, 330
Roman Catholic Church canonises
Pagan Gods
St. Dionysius
St. Eleuther
St. Rustic
St. Bacchus
St. Tammuz
St. Delphin
St. Josophat
St. Barlaam
St. Espedito * - 3*29-331
Roman Catholic Sun worship - 117
Roman Maiden's Chastity - - 89
Roman Phallic emblems in Rivers 93
Roman Phallic emblems in Ruins 93
Roman Phallic feasts - - 92
Roman sacred day, Sunday - 105
Romans adopted all Pagan god -
lets, feasts and practices * 269
Romans brought Phallism to West
Europe - - - - 93
Romans brought God's message
to man .... 269
Romans changed Holy day from
Saturday to Sunday - -105
Romans governed Europe through
religion when arms failed - 269
Romans imposed Christianity on
Europe - - 269, 317
Romans, Sex influence - - 188
Romulus - - - - no, 126
Romulus and Remus - - 126
Rosalie, Saint, in Palermo - *95
Roscoe on the Pope - - - 2x8
Royal Society of Arts, Phallism - 221
Ruach - - - - - 48
Ruach and Tihamat - - -192
Ruach creating - - 164, 167
Ruach, Spirit of God - - 163
Ruach^ Spouse, Dove, Love of
Goc^Kiun (Queen) Virgo, Isis,
Istan, Altrix Nostra, Eros,
Ceres, Mamosa, and all-
fruitful Palaki - - - 167
Rubens' Ancient of days - *134
Ruber Porrectus, Forlong - -41
Rulers identified with Gods - 7
Page
Rulers called “ Hall,” “Court"
or “ Gate " 125
Ruskin on Faith - 34*
“ S "
Sabbato, Sabbota or Sabbath, de -
minating Europe day: names
io6, 109, 121
Sacerdotal systems often brutal - *9
Sacred books all destroyed - -147
Sacred books, shreds and patches 13
Sacred prostitutes - - - 88
Sacred prostitutes in the House of
the Lord - - - - 229
Sacred serpent, and Nude virgins 89
Sacrifice, great, Sexual Act - - 32
Sacrifice means sexual act - - 81
Sacrifices - - - - 14
Sadhus - - - - - 45
Sadu makes yoni sign, or Om, 46
St. Peter's doors—sexual sculp-
tures - - - - - 20
St. George is “Gee urge" or
Earth Creator - - - 19
Saints or Godlets, ten thousand - 158
Saints or Godlets are manifestations
of single god - - - i$9
Saints created by Roman Church
330-332
Saint John Midsummer, Sun's
prime. Churches oriented to
North East where he rises on
Midsummer's day - - 131
Saint Ninian as Bel - 249
Saivas (sect), Lingam worshippers 34
Sakta sub-sects - - - 36
Saktas, Yoni worshippers - - 34
Sakti - - - - - 50
Sakti worship, Forlong 42, 88, 123
Sakti worship is Yoni worsliip - 43
Sakti worship, Oman - - - 36
Sakya Muni - - - - 116
Saleeby, Doctor, on Morality 323, 344
Salvation Army - - - 14
Samaritan Bible - - - 144
Same Church customs common
to all lands - - - 327
Same symbols for good and evil - 1-7
Samsara - - - - ’34
Samson - - - - - 196
Samson is Hercules, Suu God - 264
Sanyasi, Sanyasin - - ’45
Sanyasin...........................45
Sar, Zur, or Tsur - - - 88
Sarx “ the flesh" - - - 136
Saturnalia - - - - 87
Saturn's day, churning the ocean 109
Saturn's day, Holy day when life
was brought forth - - 109
Saturn's day was original Holy
day 109, 333
Saturn's death still celebrated like
that of Jesus in Rome on
Thursday - 109, 333
368
indpc
Saturn Worship; at Rome - 333, 334
Saviours are Bridegrooms - *114
Saviours' idea—Sun - - - 15
Saviour idea wide-spread thousands
of years before Jesus - - 299
Saviour of the World. Phallic, in
Greece - - - - 84
Saviours.........................115
Saviours born in poverty - - 309
-
Saviours born on a journey - - 308
Saviours, Doctor Inman on - 302
Saviours, List of - - 307, 310
Saviours of Mankind very num-
erous, Sun Gods - 301-302
Saviours, their own fathers and
suckled by wives 136, 163
Saxons' day names, Babylonian,
at first - - - -105
Saxons substituted Native Gods 105
Sayce - - - 7. *34. 198
Sayce, no future life in Old Testa -
ment - 143
Sayce's Criticisms of Old Testa-
ment • - - - 141
Saycc's Higher Criticism - - 156
Schliemann, Phalli below Troy - 29
Science advances too slowly for
impatience of the people
1-2, 20
Science and Religion conflict,
Draper and White - - 181
Science cannot claim miraculous
origin .... 6
Science is the ** Art of being
kind" 14 So many Gods so
many Creeds" - 355
Science of Religion—Max Muller 129
Scientific position - - - 335
Scoldings of Prophets, active force
of religion - - 13, 19
Scotch despisal of women - - 275
Scotland austere, yet illegitimacy
high...........................46
Scotland, Babylonian symbolism
in 121-122, 249
Scotland, Church of, Creed 341-342
Scotland divided between Sabbath
(Babylonia) and Lord's Day
(Catholic) for name of Holy
Day ----- 106
Scotland, Phallic Pillars in - - 57
Scorpion destroying Fertility - 126
Scythians or Skuthians destroy
Babylon, plunder Egypt - 194
Search the Scriptures - - 13
Seb and Nut - 72-73
Second Advent - 279
Secret sin leading to curse of
child-birth and labour - - 22
Sects, Hindu - - - - 34
Sects, Right and Left handed 36, 68
Selene, or the Moon chaste, Diana
(Seen naked lucky but veiled
by glass no luck) * * 87
Self-esteem of Hebrews - - 235
Self mutilation of devotees 185-186
Sellons' Abbe Dubois, India, Phal -
0 «c ...........................37
Semiramis - - - 70, 163
Septuagint - 148
Septuagint in 230 a.d. A re-
cension of recensions - 4 149
Sequence of events in universe - 1
Serapean Library, forty-two thou -
sand MSS. - - - 148
Serapean Library, Ptolemy - 148
Serapis - - - no, 126, 214
Serpent as passion - 52, 61, 86
Serpent and disease - 230 et seq.
Serpent curse futile - - - 177
Serpent in Eden, the Phallus 22,
177. 239
Serpent in Lingam-Yoni Altar - 52
Serpent is love and life - - 17
Serpent, passion, sexual fire 17-18
Serpent replaced by Skull - - 234
Serpent, Sun, and Lingam Yoni - 112
Serpent, symbol, horror and fear- 230
Serpent, symbol of Wisdom - 52-53
Serpent symbol refers to disease - 230
Serpent symbol transferred from
Phallus to Sun - - - 112
Serpent worship in Ireland - 96
Serpent worship, Phallic - - 17
Seth, Adam's first born - 189, 288
Seventy elders sent with Hebrew
MSS. - * - - 148
Seventy-two translators, Septua-
gint ........................148
Sex difference between Hebrew
and Babylonian Creation
stories - 192-195
Sex in Religion—Mrs. Gamble - 32
Sex inherent in matter - - 188
Sex influence - - - - 188
Sex instinct and crime coupled - 235
Sex worship, Caves of Elephanta 32
Sexes (two) required for Creation
3, 24, 172-173* 2°3
Sexes (both) - - - - 24
Sexual Act is sacrifice - - -88
Sexual Act no crime—natural - 235
Sexual intercourse, cause of all evil
184. 185
Sexual plague - 232
Shame, Shameful tiling - 17, 221
Shame at nakedness - - - 22
Shameful thing, Bosheth - 220-221
Shang -ti as God in China - - 99
Shechinah, or Eduth, or Yahweh
Fig. 117 - - - 246, 254
Shelah -na -Gig in Ireland - - 97
Ship, Nave, Schiff in Church 162,
4*18, *59
Shor -ha -Shamim, Hole in the
Sky ----- 274
Short cut to knowledge 1-2, 20
Shushan—Nehemiah (Neemias) - 202
Siddartha 116, 214, 268, 270, 271
Sikhs - • - 34, 116
INDEX
389
Page
Silence about Phallism in the
Bible - - - - 2 5
Sin in Eden - - - - 22
Sinai-Horeb story. Two writers
not separable - - - 157
Sinai-Horeb stories too well “har-
monised" - - - - 158
Sins visited to the third and
fourth generation, only true
of Syphilis - - - 230
Sister-spouse relationship - 136
Siva, male energy. Phallic 33. 36
Siva right, male. Vishna left.
female - -4 7
Siva-devi - - - 34, 42
Siva's Phallic Bull - - -35
Skin coats in Eden after fall.
“Fair* autumn approach
of winter - - - - 178
Skoptsi, Castration Sect - - 185
Skull instead of Serpent, as Phallic
sign........................234
Skuthians - - - - 194
Sky supported by Phalli, Lantoni 72
Sky, beings in - - - - 1
Slaughter of Innocents, Solar - 284
Slaves for prostitution in Egypt
and Asia - - 82, 227
Slow progress of science - - 20
Smectymnus - - - - 4*
Smith's Diet, of Antiquites- - 85
Smith, George—Discoveries 11, 145
Socialists in too great a hurry,
great things have already been
done by insurance, co -opera -
tion, old age pensions, educa -
tion. We are well on the road
to universal insurance - - 355
Sodomy, a religious rite 224, 242
Solar and Phallic cults linked up
112, ri4
Solar and Phallic faith, Josiah - 260
Solar movements followed law9,
h^nce Sun Gods placed behind
Sun - - - - - 110
Solar Christian festivals - 115, 128
Solar religion embodied in legends 19
Solar worship only occasional 263-264
Solar worship official, Phallic po-
pular - - - -16
Solomon's wives* idolatry - - 237
Solomon's phallic oath - - 228
Solo-phallic cult 15-16, 112, 116
Solomon went after Astoreth - 223
Solstice - - 15. 124-131
Solstice, standing still, or death
196, 265
Solstic'v to Equinox, change of
dajr of death of Sun by
Christians - - - - 3*3
Song of Solomon, Nissi <?r Pole
(banner) - 253
Sons of God - - * 295
Sons of God, List of - - 307-3 n
Sons of Jove, annual Suns 115, 136
Page
Sons of Jove, slain ones. Saviours,
Redeemers - - - 115
Sons of Zoroaster - - - 136
Sorrowful Heart with Babe - - 170
Sorceress, Huldah, discovers word
of God - - - 144-145
Soter Kosmoi, Vatican - 84, 253
Soul (Juno generates) - 169, 324
Soul - - - - 5, 14
Solomon's Wives Idolators- - 237
Soul, life, thought, are products
not producers - 343
Soul, spirit, thought, are due to
energy of oxidising carbon - 343
Soul unknown to Bishop - -338
Spencer, Herbert ... 295
Sphinx, Orientation of - - 134
Spire and Church are Lingam-
Yoni - 258. 259
Spire is Church's Husband
(Nishi) - - - - 259
Spire is the Phallus - - - 259
Spire not always a glorified roof
(Ruskin) - - - - 258
Spirit..............................169
Spirit, broken - 267
Spirits, evil - - - 7, 14
Spirit of God, mistranslation
Ruach - 161 -164
Spirit of God moving on Waters
161, 322
Spirit, Holy, see Holy Ghost
Spiritual religion rejects know -
ledge - - - - 119
Sporting, Leaping, and playing,
Phallic - 230, 239
Spring Sun, always a Bridegroom 114
Star gazers - - - - 198
Star, symbol or Venus or Istar - 223
Stars cause religious feelings - 2
Stars for orientation - - - 16
Steam at Alexandria - - 119
Stein, Sir Marc Aurel - 3
Steppes of Asia, races influenced
Religion of Asia and Europe no
Sterilising criminals - - 355, 356
Stole on Priest makes Bisexual
emblem - - - - 256
Stole, Roman Matron's gown - 256
Stole, woman's garment, makes
priest double sexed - 24, 184
Stones a9 living Gods 241* 254-255
Stone circles or Kirkles, give the
word9. Church and Kirk 82, 131
Stone as Father - - 241, 250
Stone monuments in Ireland - 96
Stone Phallus, Living God - -255
Stones as Christs - - - 252
Stonehenge (orientation) - -131
Stonehenge — Masculine pillar
Femmine altar - - - 131
Stonehenge oriented to Summer
Solstice - • - - 131
Stones hear pravers 252, 254. 255
Strabo on sacrifice of Virginity - 227
990
INDEX
Pag*
Streets, Phalli in all streets at
Jerusalem xao, 221, 234, 242
Streets, Phalli in all streets at
Dahomey - - - - 235
Stupas - - - - -32
Succoth Benoth, made by men of
Babylon - - 145, 225-229
Succoth Benoth, sale of Doves,
Jesus objects - - - 3*5
Succoth Benoth, 24,000 worshippers
died on account of sex worship 230
Succoth Benoth, tents of prostitu -
tion for young women to sac -
rifice their virginity to Melitta
the great Mediator - 225-230
Suffering common to all sons of
Jove......................115
Sun and Moon worship, Josiah,
Manasseh - 260, 261
Sun and Phallic worship combined
112, 130
Sun's attributes personified 115, 391
Sun called the Saviour, Pausanius 128
Sun Cricifixion or Passover 134-13 5
Sun Gods descend to earth to save
mankind - - - *13 7
Sun gods, History of - - - 131
Sun Gods, great period of - - no
Sun Gods, list of - - - no
Sun Gods slain by tooth or Boar of
winter - - - - no
Sun Gods slain by cold of winter - no
Sun a bridegroom, Earth Bride 54^5 5
Sun is Saviour crossified or cru-
cified to save mankind 284, 313
Sun is Saviour, in Northern coun -
tries - - - - - 15
Sun, Life-giver, like Phallus - 112
Sun, Lingam-Yoni and Serpent - 112
Sun lore worked into Hebrew Old
Testament by Ezra and Nehe -
miah from Babylon - 195-196
Sun, Moon and Stars, worship con -
demned - - - - 261
Sun's motion—Early‘astronomers
could not detect re-ascent of
sun before 25 December, so
that is birth day of all Gods
and Saviours, Jesus included
265-266
Sun myth - - - - 113
Sun myths in Bible (weak echoes)
196, 260
Sun myth in general - - - 111
Sun named by its Houses 125-127
Sun passing from one constellation
or house to another - 126-127
Sun, Redeemer - - - 131
Sun shines on Image in Sanctuary
116-117
Sun shining on sexual symbol—
equinox ... 15-16
Sun, source of all fiches and
pleasure - 127
Sun, too holy to name - * 125
Pag*
no, 117
130
no
128
129
- 129
130
130
130
116
260
104
*34
3*
Sun worship - - 104,
Sun worship at St. Paul's, Rome -
Sun worship arose in Northern
Nations -
Sun worship, Sir William Jones -
Sun worship, Max Muller -
Sun Worship, William Henderson 129
Sun Worship, Chinese, Thornton 129
Sun Worship, Hindu, Moore
Sun Worship, Egyptian, Le Page
Renouf -
Sun Worship, Persian
Sun Worship from remote east to
furthest west. Doane -
Sun Worship in India, Oman
Sun Worship in Old Testament -
Sun Worship, second cult 31,
Sun Worship, Universal
Sun worshipped as Life-giver
Sun's daily and yearly birth and
death. Resurrection in Spring
to save the World 15, 127-128
Supernatural - - - - 2
Supernatural belief decaying 21-22
Supernatural origin of religion - 14
Supernatural revelation 8-9
Superstitions, ladder, thirteen,
Niobfc Moon, Friday, touch
wood, increasing as religion
declines - - 13,
Surya -
Surya, the Sun
Susannah and the Elders (lucky to
see nude female)
Swastica or Svastika, good and
bad -
Sword, dagger, spear, are Phallic -
Swearing by the Phallus 140,
Symbolical worship -
Symbolism decays, confronted with
knowledge - - 21-22
Symbolism in Babylonia - - 65
Symbolism, obscure used by
Priests -
Symbols derived from reproduc-
tive organs -
Symbolism says one thing and
means another -
Symmachus -
Symmachus ....
Synonyms for Phallus - 41,
Syphilis rampant - - 230,
Systrum - 49, 64,
Systrum is symbol of Yoni, fer-
tility .....................81
*4
10
129
- 87
165
65
228
1. 7
- 24
: 2 3
169
149
200
239
233
70
i» j h
Tabernacle, account fabuloidf* - 244
Tabernacle never erected - - 244
Tabernacle would not stand - 244
Tabernacle, myth of a Scribe - 244
Tabernacle, Colenso's exposure - 244
Tabernacle, materials impossible to
procure .... 243
INDEX
391
Tabernacle, Encyc. Biblica. - 244
Tabernacle was a womb, Dolphin
skins.......................247
Tabernacle conceived for a miracle
play of death and re-birth
of the Sun, but never really
erected - 248-250
Tabernacles, Feast of (merry) - 248
Tabernacle of God, Mary, Queen
of Heaven - 162
Tabernacle of Life - 323
Tabernacle, Phallic miracle play 244
Tabernacle, Phallic miracle play - 244
Tacitus - - - - 317, 323
Tahmud-insulse rule, tone down
Phallic phrases - - - 41
Tam muz - - - - - no
Tammuz as St. Thomas 330-331
Tammuz Adonis and Jesus were
identical Sun Gods - - 299
Tamper ng with text - ii, 149
Tantras, eight divine mothers 35, 48
Tan trie worship, Bisexual - - 36
Targum in language unknown to
the people - - - 150
Tat, Tet or Dad - - - 73
Tat, Tet or Dad, Evolution of - 73
Tau and Phallus, form of Cross - 67
Taurus, Sun quits Taurus, Mithras
slays Bull - - - - 126
Teachers of all nations incrusted
with identical Sun niyths - 134
Tehom, Hebrews made Tihamat
(feminine) into Tehom (mas-
culine) - - - 192-193
Tehom - - - - *171
Tehom in Creation - - 190, 193
Tell us of Origins - - - 160
Temple at Jerusalem often de-
stroyed - 146-148
Temple destroyed and furniture
sent to Rome
Covenants
Golden Candlestck
Sacred books
Inhabitants enslaved and de-
ported - 273
Temple feminine name, ship, etc.,
needs pillar, spire or tower to
form bisexual combination - 254
Temple girls, Palaki, from Pala - 32
Temple of Life to come - - 323
Temple prostitutes - - - 88
Temples, orientation - - - 16
Temples in Jerusalem, changes - 147
Temptation, Eden - - - 22
Ten Commandments written in
Cuneiform - - - - 141
Terminology of Hebrew Gods very
loose Al. El, II, Ol - -153
Tertullian, Christians adopted all
Pagan festivals, Augustine,
Justin Martyr 135, 299, 329
Terra.............................48
Testudo, Tortoise, bearer of life - 139
Testament, witness, testimony,
covenant, swearing on Phallus
or testes - - - - 139
Testis, testimony or witness,
Phallic - - 139-140, 228
Test, wide-spread significance - 139
Tetrapla, Ongen's ... 200
Texts of Bible mutilated - - 13
Thamte ----- 191
Thebes, Colossi orientation - - 133
Thebes, City of the Cow Hathor - 126
Thenen Serpent—Phalias Athene 52
Theodotian - - - 149, 200
Theophilus (Bishop) Phallic sym-
bols ..........................88
Theory of Evolution - - - 11
Theseus.........................no
Thirteen superstition - - -13
Thirteen unlucky, 12 months live
always; Sun dies or twelve
months and a fraction or
broken one - - - - 114
Of thirteen one must die within
the year as does the Sun - 114
Twelve Apostles, Jesus dies - - 114
Thornton, Hist, of China - - 129
Thou shalt surely die - - -176
Thousand sacred prostitutes,
Eryx and Corinth - - 88
Three days and three nights, 40
hours, Matthew - - - 266
Three in one, intensely Phallic 24,
155. 259
Three in One of prayer book,
Creative phrase, Fleur de Lys,
Broad Arrow, Trident, Trisool
and Leaf of Bacchus 24, 155, 259
Thyrsus - - - - - 85
Tiam ----- igr
Tiamat, Tihamat - - - 191
Tihamat and Ruach - -192
Tibet, destruction of Bibles by
soldiers - - - - 147
Titus Caesar levelled Temple of
Jerusalem - 147
oth—personal history 157,
190, 288
Tohua Bohu - - - 171, 190
Tolstoi...........................185
Tone down gross Phallic ex -
pressions in Bible - - 41
Tongues ----- 203
Tonsure, Phallic - 256
Tonsure is circumcised Phallus - 256
Torah.............................145
Tools required in Eden - - 173
Torquemada - - - - 199
Tortoise worship, Phallic - - 18
Tortoise, phallic symbol, Testudo
139. 230
Tortoise bears the world - - 18
Tortoise head, the Phallus 18,
139. 230
Totemism and Exoyamy, Frazer - 6
-
Tree, man's first Church 16-17, 50
392
INDEX
Page
Tree, meeting place, dwelling place
of God, Pliny, Glover, Gra-
ham - 16-17
Tree, Forlong . - - - 50
Tree, Green, Phallic worship 17,
140, 223, 229, 242
Tree is a Temple, a shrine, Pliny,
Glover, Graham - - - 17
Tree of life, Adam free to eat 17 5-176
Tree of Life - - 17
Tree and Phallus - - 17, 154
Tree worship. Phallic - - - 17
Tree stem, Phallus and Serpent - 61
Tree stump—Lingam 17, 61
Trent Council on Eucharist - - 316
Tribal fear of God identical with
Christian - - - 14
Trident, Phallic Emblem - - 24
Trinity, Joseph, Mary and Babe
318-320
Trident, Trisul, all triple symbols
34- 3*8
Trinity made from Yahwch, re-
markable volte face -
Trinity in Unity, creative phrase
24, 162, 238,
Trinity, none in New Testament
nor in Old Testament -
Trinity, woman disguised as Holy
Ghost
Trinity, Mystery of -
Trinity, Father, Mother and
Son --- - 274-275
Trinity in Unity, intensely Phal -
lie - - - - 24
Trinity, woman disguised as
3*9
259
• 3*4
375
2
Dove
Tripple Cross in Heraldry
Triple emblems, Phallic,
162-
Trinity
221,
I67
251
259
34
54
*83
254
Trisul of India, Phallic
Trisool, Tree of Life -
True Cross -
Tsur, Zur or Sar 88, 241, 252,
Tsur, Eduth, Shechina and Yah-
weh, all the same - - 254
Twelve is a solar number (months)
applied to all solar heroes or
Gods....................114
Twins, Romulus and Remus
Typhon and Osiris
Tammut and Nergal
Ormuzd or Ahura Mazda
and Arihman
Python and Apollo
Castor and Pollux - 228-289
Twins, one kills the other, then
founds a city - - 289
Twins—Gemini - 126
Twin God - 126
Two Babylons, Hislop 6, 117.
321, etc.
Two sexes required for Creation
36. 37» *99. 387. 388
Tylor, Primitive Culture, etc. 6, 266
Tyndall, Prof. - 344
Typhon - - - - 110, 163
Tzar, from Tzur, a Rock or
Phallus - 241, 252
Tzur Apis • - - - 259
U"
Uaser, Asar, Osiris - 223
Uma, Alma - - - - 23
Uma, child in her lap - - - 48
Uma or Ooma, Mother or Womb 23
Uma is Mother of God of the Mar -
iolators - - - - 48
Uma, same as all Mothers of God
(List) - - - - 48
Uma is Holy Ghost - - - 48
Uma greater than God, sets him
into action - - - 4S
Uma equal to God-head, Creation
cannot be accomplished with -
out her 47-48
Unbaptised infants burn in Hell
fire for ever, Augustine's
terrible doctrine - - - 328
Unconquered Sun, Birthday, Nata -
lis Invicta Solis J- - - m
Unction, extreme ... 258
Under every green tree 17, 140,
229, 242
Universe, sequence of events - 1
Unseen beings - - - - 1
Upon every high hill and under
every green tree—Phalli 140.
229, 242
Usertesen I dancing before Min
337*338
Use of miraculous is basis of reli -
gion.......................2
u y *»
Various Authors of Old Testament
narratives skilfully inter -
woven - - - *157
Variation of Vowels - - - 27
Vater, J. S., Bible Criticism - 152
Vatican, Soter Kosmoi - '84
Venereal disease, cause of hatred
of women - 230-235
Venereal disease, known in China
2347 b.c. - - - - 23 r
Venice, Bone Cave, early Phallic
symbol - - - - 39
Ventriloquist, Belly-voiced - 12
Venus - - - - “48
Venus, day and month made "un-
lucky” - - - 292
Venus is Benoth as V and ft are
identical and also S and Th - 225
Venus is Holy Ghost (all Queens
of Heaven are Holy Ghost) 322
Venus, female, in evening and male
in morning • • • 325
Venus represents Kteis or YoniJ 24
INDEX
393
Page
m Venus’ shrine now dedicated to
Mary .... 147
Venus, Temple of, in Jerusalem -147
Venus Urania - - - - 163
Vesica Piscis - - - 62, 215
V.N.S. and B.N.T. mean to pro-
create children - - - 225
Virgin is Holy Ghost - - 322
Virginity of maidens as offering to
Astarte or Myllitta—great
licentiousness - - - 225
Virgin - - - >163
Virgin, nude and sacred serpents,
Rome - - - - 89
Virgo intacta systrum or ladder,
anything barred - - - 70
Vine symbol, Jesus the Vine, Bac -
chus, Jove, the same. Sun
Gods...........................293
Virgin Mary, Temple of the Trinity 325
Virgo and Aries in Jewish miracle
play...........................248
Virgin birth - - - 307-308
Virgin carried bodily to Heaven - 257
Virgin of Israel is mother of sun
like Dolphin - 250
Virgin of Israel “ Behold a Virgin
shall conceive" - 250, 276
Virgin Mary, Holy Ghost (Cardi-
nals Wiseman and New -
man) - 275
Virgin, Queen of the air, Holy
Ghost. More holy than
Father or Son. Blasphemy not
forgiven. Mother of all Gods 325
Virgin Mary, Tabernacle of the
Holy Ghost :: - - - 325
Virgin Mary, saw no corruption - 257
Virgo, Sun in Virgo in Autumn - 248
Virgo, Virgin of Israel - - 250
Vishnuvasor Vishnavas - - 34
Vishnu - - - - - no
Vishnu, Female energy (Phallic)
33-35
Vishnu personifies Yoni - 33, 35
Vishnu represented by Krishna
and his wives and mistresses 35
Voice in Ionian Sea. Great Pan
is dead .... 346
Vowels* variation of - - - 27
Vulcanalia - - - 92
“ W "
Wake. Stanisland, Christianity,
Phallic - - - 25, 257
Walking naked in India - - 44
Ward, Re*. W., Phallism in India, 36
Ward on vaishnavas - - 36
Wasted lives of Clergy, Ruskin
340, 341
Waters of Babylon * - 163
Waters, Brooding on - 168
Waters dividing - - - 371
Page
Water on World insufficient for
flood * 195
Waste of good endeavour in
teaching, Mirophilic religions
(Ruskin) - - - 340, 341
Wales, Phallic pillars in - - 57
Water refreshing Lingam, hood -
ing Altars - - - - 51
Wax models of Phalli, Isernia - 94
Week day names - - - 10$
Week is quarter of Moon - - 123
Wedding in India, gross songs
sung by women - - - 46
Westrotrs Phallicism - 24
Wette, De, Bible Criticism * - 152
Why Birthday of Jesus was
changed from Equmox to Sols -
tice - - hi, 115, 329
Wilbeforce, Bishop, exorcising
Ghosts - - - - 14
Wife and Mother of Gods 261-165
Wilcox, Ella Wheeler, quoted - 35*5
W'ilkins, Rev. W. G. - - - 36
Wilson, Doctor, wise words lor
women - - - 356-357
Wilson on Hindu sects - - 36
Window with dove hatching out
life, Auxerre—Didron 164, 322
Winged Globe or Solar disc - - 116
Wintry negation, Sterility and
Death - - - -202
Williams, Sir Monier - - 36
Winter and Summer—Hell and
Paradise - - - -15
Wisdom, Serpent, symbol of 52-53
Wise as serpents - - - 5 2
Wiseman, Cardinal, Virgin Mary
is Holy Ghost - - -275
Wishing a wish on seeing New Moon 87
Witches - - - - 7, 12
Witness and phallus, same 139, 140
Wives lent and exchanged in Old
Testament - 236
Woman and Svastika - - 164
Woman cause of all sin - - 164
Womb, symbols of, 18, 23, 26, 48,
51. 60, 63, 70
Woman, debasement of, 163, 169,
177, 186, 375, 326
Woman door of Hell, Lecky - 186
Woman as goods - 327
Women, hatred of, Marinetti - 187
Woman with cup, Babylonian and
Roman - - * -7 r
Woman, Temple of Life to come - 323
Woman in Trinity, astounding
blasphemy (Scotch opinion,
Hislop) - 275
Woman in Godhead - - - 24
Woman, none in Milton's Heaven - 275
Woman out of Rib, Rib is Mother
of World - 274
Woman obliterated in Old Testa -
ment, re-established in New
Testament - - - 169-170
394
INDEX
Page
Woman, Peor or Ark, blamed for
disease - - 165, 230-234
Woman, or Womb, symbols of 18,
23, 26, 48, 51, 60, 63, 70
Woman with bowl, Irish Church,
Greek, etc. - - "63
Woman in God -head - - - 24
Woman, Womb -man. Womb de -
rived from Om (Saxons added
W.).......................23
Women unclean. Job - - 165
Women-children. Kept for
Yahweh - - - - 213
Women sang outrageously gross
songs - - - - 46
Women tearing their hair - - 297
Wood, touch, to ward off evil - 13
Worship of diverse objects - - i
Worship of Host of Heaven often
mentioned - - - - 261
Worship of the Lamb - 304
Worship of the Nude in Europe - 44
Worship of Nude Woman (Tantrie) 42
Worship of Priapus 24, 28, 50
Word made flesh - - - 155
Word made flesh, sarx, Bosheth,
shameful thing of Old Testa-
ment - - - - 314
Word derivation - - 240, 241
Work, curse of - - -175
"Y"
Page
Yahweh, Jehovah, Adonai - - 155
Yahweh is masculinity in its most
stormy and malignant form - 319
Yahweh Godhead, no Woman pos -
sible in - - - - 319
Yahweh as Siva - - - 213
Yahweh has wife and son *27$
Yahweh Yirea like Siva, Fury and
Lust.........................2x4
Yahweh Yirea 4
Yashar, Bashar, or Bosheth - 223
Year, New, erroneously fixed by
Julius Caesar - - - 125
Year, New, celebration - - 121
Years, days, and hours all same - 196
Yima creates with ring and dagger 55
Yima's Garden, Eden - - 55
Yin-yang, Lingam-Yoni, China
99“ioo
Yogi 11 i..........................42
Yokel grinning through Horse
Collar - - - '43
Yoni, female reproductive organ 23
Yoni is the Horse Shoe - - 43
Yoni. Iona, Jona, Juno, D'Iun6,
dove - - - - - 27
Yoni personified by girl in Sakti 42
Yoni personified by Vishnu - 33:
Yoni, symbols of - - 26, 49
Yoni worship, widespread, Britain 43
Yoni worship, Sakti - 36, 42
Young age pensions - - '356
Ya Ava - - * 156, 173
Yahweh, Anglice Jehovah 154, 156
Yahweh and Phallus were rivals,
900 years - - - 222, 254 !
Yahweh as Butcher and Furrier - 179
Yahweh, shechina and Eduth the
same.....................254
Yahweh expunged from New Tes-
tament appears dimly as Kur- ;
ios, Theos, Logos, or Sarx, in
New Testament - 313-314
Yahweh A16im - - - - 157
Yahweh's forgetfulness: "There j
was not a man to till the j
ground ... - 175 j
Yahweh, Character of - - 210
Yahweh's first prophecy fails - 176
Yahweh or Iah, variations - -156
Yahweh as Iah, in Hebrew names
156, 286-287
Yahweh introduced death to Eden 179
Yahweh jealous of knowledge - 180
“ Z"
85,
- 172,
Zakia Pir, worship of -
Zeu pittar -
Zeug, Covenant and Phallus
Zeus -
Zenith at Elam, Babylonia
Zimmern -
Zipporah or Sephora
Zodiacs
Zodiac
Zodiac, Chinese
Zodiac, Modern
Zodiacs and Religion
Zodiacal signs, guide details of sun
worship, but Hebrews were
ignorant of Zodiacal details,
hence their stories were mud -
died..........................264
44
no
140
136
119
191
218
122
288
118
118
122-123
Zoroaster, suffering sons, like
Jove - - - . - 136
Zur, Tsur or Sur - 88, 241, 252