Forlong - Rivers of Life

Serpent and Phallic Worship.
Judith’s coronation in 856 A.C., and the ampulla was after the pattern of the one used
in anointing Clovis, the first Christian King of France, regarding which Dr Middleton
writes (Mis. Works, i. 361, quoted by Moore): “This vial is said to have been
brought trom heaven by a dove (IOna?) for the baptismal unction of Clovis, . . . and
dropped into the hands of Saint Remigius, then Bishop of Rheims, about the end of
the fifth century, where it has ever since been preserved. Its descent is said to
be confirmed by this miracle, viz., that as soon as the coronation is over, the oil in the
vial begins to waste and vanish, but is constantly renewed of itself for the service of
eaeh coronation.” Mark that this oil-vase or ampulla is, like the Eduth and the first holy
stones, and all holy books and Palladiums, received direct from Jove, and, like Apollo,
this oil or holy water is also “ever young” and never failing; it is fecnndative
energy. In regard to “the palls and whipping on and off of mantles,” which The
Times indignantly relates, we see the remnant of a very old faith. As Moore says,
“the Pallium was an old and most mystical thing, an essential part of a Bishop, sent
or given by the Pope with much ceremony and cost, both at episcopal consecration
and translation. The Bishops could not wear the same Pallium at two Sees, and it
was buried with him.” The monk’s cowl was his pall, and Asyrian kings were Pals
or Ashers, but regarding this more will appear further on; for Ps, not to say Pals,
are suspicious subjects, and these strange customs were not idly instituted.
Whilst sending this to press, I observed in the London Athenæum of 12th Sept.
1874 some notes on the labours of the Palestine Ordinance Surveyors, which speak of
the old faiths of Syria and Moab, regarding which I wish here to make a few remarks.
Nob is called, in the Old Testament, the city of the priests, and is constantly
mentioned in connection with Ramoth (Er-Ram), Anatoth, Gibeon, or El-Jib.
Isaiah says the Asyrian army will rest at Nob, and “shake his hand against the
mount of the daughter of Zion” (x. 32), showing the popular idea that the rounded
mound of Zion was an Omphi, whilst the holy “Nob or Neb,” a lofty white peak, was
only holy as a Lingam. It was “a great altar to see to” (Jos. xxii. 10), that is a
lofty “Ed” (verse 34), or “a witness, testis or testimony,” that is, Eduth: it was a
“stone” or “great stone,” specifically stated not to be an altar for burnt offerings or
sacrifices. No doubt an Ed was Neb El, or the God of the conical hill, but the Hebrew
might by bn mean merely “a high place,” such as the “high places of Gibeon,”
where Solomon sacrificed in a tabernacle—“still,” say the Palestine Ordinance Surveyors,
“existing there,” which is not in the least wonderful, as the date at which
tribes with arks have here worshipped, is by no means so very ancient. These faiths
only perished nationally on the rise of Islamism, and the symbolisms and customs of
Solo-Phallic Worship, have no more departed from Western Asia than these have from
Eastern. The explorers say that the Ed on the Peak or Neb (this is the Danish; in
Saxon and Dutch, Nebbe) is still an immense monument of fine masonry. The Arabs
call the mountain ’Ayd, which is the Hebrew Ed. Can it be related to our Ed-uth?
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