Forlong - Rivers of Life

202
Rivers of Life, or Faiths of Man in all Lands.
and the offending Bethshemites (I Sam. vi.) but been undoubtedly visited with death,
as in the case of Uzzah (2 Sam. vi.)
We have the same Arkite ideas in the cradles of all gods. Moses, in his basket
floating on the waters (Salacia) is such an idea, and so
is this lovely Aphroditc in her shell, with Love or
Cupid—the only privileged individual—peering into
it. This is the ancient and original, though disowned,
Maria de Navicella, in the holy naus, and a very feminine
and salacious idea it is which has been repeated
again and again in all the religions of man. In Christianity
we generally have it as a male idea, as in Fig. 82,
Fig 81—APHRODITE.
where Horus lies in a cradle (emblem of the Yoni) and
is called the “Hostie Sainte,” or Jesus the Sun of Right-
eousness. Notice that he springs from the Cross or Tree of Life, and holds, to his breast,
another cross on a solar disc, as does Minerva the Gorgon figure of the Child or Passion,
which denotes eternity or continuity, and as the Chinese
Queen of Heaven holds the Lingam (see fig. 38, p. 116),
which is too gross, however, for Europe, though the
meaning is the same in both cases, and equally clear to
the initiated. If the Chinese Maya or Mary, rests
upon a veritable tempestuous sea of passion, so does
Horus’ Cross, and Minerva’s Gorgon—fit name for our
oft-disordered minds and breasts, the seat of those
natural emotions, which the mind or soul has such
trouble in controlling. The Virgin mother seems here
at no pains to restrain hers; for see, she presents to the
rising Horus or Phallic Cross-in-Yoni, just as we daily
see Indian maids and mothers do, her whole heart—Ain
or Ait, that burning seat of heat and love in the estima-
Fig 82—CHRIST IN CRADLE.
tion of all faiths and peoples; and mark that she has
carefully entwined around it the thorny irritator, ac-
knowledging in it a symbol of divinity, and rejoicing in the bleeding heart as
symbol of her love-God, who pierces and thrills her with varied emotions: in all
nations, but especially in Southern Europe and India, have women treasured such
symbols and devices as thorns, hearts, fascinæ, &c. In India, the Ankoos, or goad and
guider of the elephant, is one of many favourites: it is a spear-headed shaft, with a
crook or crozier springing from the base of the spear. Gen. Cunningham, in his
Archeological Survey Report of India for 1873-74, tells us that “the Ankoos is the
favourite ornament” 1 on the elaborate sculptures of even the Boodhist ladies, at the
1 See Proc. As. Soc. Beng. May 1874. Bharahut is nine miles S.E. of Satna Railway Station.