Forlong - Rivers of Life

Serpent and Phallic Worship.
Arks and Jewish “Groves,” whilst by the large-headed snakes on each side of the god,
I suspect we are to underntand a double entendre, always so common in Hindooism.
As Passion, Heat, Fire, Air, and Water are held to irritate into action the energies of
animal and vegetable life, so the serpent was anciently made to figure universally as
this irritator or irritant; and, says Kercher, to represent in Egypt these, Element
themselves. Thus the Earth or Soil because animated by the igneous power of Oph
was shown by a two-horned snake lying prostrate; Water is shown as an undulat-
ing snake; Air, an erect hissing snake; Zeuta or Toth, being Fire, was shown by the
Asp standing on his tail with a globe on his head, as we see in many Egyptian figures,
of which more hereafter. Toth was also Passion, as “Aurei Simplicis Ignis”—the reptile
bisecting the circle, as in Theta, and this was the bisector’s sign, (Toth’s), the symbol
of life and death, which Eusebius called the “character Mundi;” it was “the vis ignea
emblem and allotted particularly to Cneph, the Agatho-demon, and Egyptian Demiurge.”
(Deane. p. 129).
Thus we must remember always that we see in Pytho the “Heated Air” (Holy
Spirit) though often also the unholy, and so we find him far more diligently worshipped
and loved by women than men, and feted geneally on separate days, so that the
sexes may think the faith out by themselves. At the Benares Serpent Festival, the
first day is thronged by women, and the second
by men; and on a floor adjoining the god’s well,
is Maha Deva’s symbol in stone, with a Serpent
as Passion crawling over it. The idea and
form are common, and such as we meet with
daily in and about most villages: This Fig. 42, is
a Maha Deva which I sketched one morning in a
perfectly new Sivaik temple adjoining a large
missionary establishment which had been teaching
and preaching on the spot for one or more
generations. Here we see the Snake as supporter
of the world—Creator and Creatrix, but
especially of the Argha or Yoni, within which
play several other Serpents as wreathing tongues
of fire. All this may seem coarse to us in these
days of education and refinement, but ancient
peoples knew not of any such fancies—what was
natural was considered presentable—nor were the
Fig. 42.—A LINGA-IN-YONI.
promptings of nature to be always hidden. In this mankind were also too like monkeys,
and even inferior to some animals, inasmuch as the wisest amongst them often hide sexual
matters from the broad light of day, and from the gaze of their fellows: Many exhibit
shame and modesty when discvoered, yet I am sorry to say there are races in the East, if
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