Forlong - Rivers of Life

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Rivers of Life, or Faiths of Man in all Lands.
All the goddesses loved that which was sacred to the “superior” gods, thus
Cybele loved the pine, and Diana the poplar; all goddess also at times are, or
assume to be water, for this has divers significations which I dare not fully enter upon.
Neither Al, El, Al-shaddai, Yahve, or Jove could create without this. Occasionally
Atmosphere seems to fill the place of Salacia, as in the case of Juno (IOna or IO), but
usually “The Thunderer” acts by rain and storms, as the Jupiter Pluvius of Greece,
and as did Indra, the first of Vedic gods, long ere Jove was heard of.
In Skandinavia the Hazel tree represents Tor, the Vulcan of the North, who
creates or fashions with his hammer, and hazel nuts still represent lovers, and are
thrown to Vulcan or Ool-Kan in pairs, at Scottish festivals. Bohemians say that
“wherever hazel abounds there will illegitimate children abound,” and Scotland
certainly excells in both. Hazel groves were favourite spots with our forefathers for
their temples, and hazel rods were diviners of mysteries, and still work miraculous
cures, it is said, but only in school-rooms. In Bavaria the baton of office must be of
hazel. Should a snake breathe upon a hazel rod, the rod at once turns into a stone of
blueish colour, which, if then thrown into water, will cure any animal of snake bite—a
true priestly allegory, when wc remember that water is the feminine energy and Siva,
the bluish snake god, the Neel Kanta. The Bohemians tell us that Herodias’ daughter
who sought to please Herod, in the ancient story, hovers between heaven and earth till
all the world sleeps, and then descends upon oak and hazels till cock-crow, when she
disappears; also that “wherever there are nutsm there are wasps, and the women are
fruitful;” so that Herodias and these trees evidently meant in Bohemia, more than
mere matters arboreal. Bohemians could not have looked upon this story from the
same point of view as Jews and Englishmen.
Much very emotional poetry is everywhere mixed up with such innocent-looking
things as “our modest crimson-tipped daisy,” “forget-me-nots,” the homely flax, the
ferns which were of old plucked at a certain season for their seeds, the sweet “lily of
the valley,” which represents the Virgin Mother, her by whose aid we can ascend, says
the Roman Catholic, to “a heaven of bliss,” for is not its flower called “the ladder of
heaven.” Curiously, all Maries have had the lily or fertile iris as their symbol, whether it
is that called the Lotus, Nelumbium, our garden Lilium Candidum, or the Gallic Fleurdelis,
of moot masculine section. The Rose, ever a lady and our national favourite,
where others have preferred a male symbol, has thousands of tales of love and passion
told regarding it, which I cannot here dwell upon, or I should have to wade through
the mythologies of every nation on earth. The most precious gift from the Pope is a
golden rose, and. it is only given to Sovereigns. Dante calls “The Virgin Queen of
Heaven the Rose, or word divine, which in her became incarnated.” It is a favourite.
emblem of nations. Persians hold annually a great feast in ita honour; their sacred.
writings say that when Abram was cast into a fire by his persecutors, God made the
flames a bed of roses for him. Cupid bestowed a rose on the god of Silence and secret
counsellings were marked by suspended roses.