Forlong - Rivers of Life

Serpent and Phallic Worship.
Terra; for classic story says that the `Roi¦, Rhoia, or pomegranate was the express
emblem of the Earth under her different appellations of Demeter, Kubele, Ceres,
Rhea, &c.” (Clas. Manual 203, Iliad ix. 585,); but Rhea is Ops, and “Ops, Opis,
Opus and Opici were all terms related to,” if not actually meaning the sacred serpent
(Bryant v. 308). The Agathodemon which Egypt shows us as crowned with a Lotus,
just as Siva stands at Som-nát, crowned with Luna the crescent moon. Now this
Agatho-demon was, says the same learned investigator, “called Noe;” but Deukalion,
that is Deva Kali, “was called Opus, by which is meant Deucalion Serpens,” 1 so that
here we see the whole signification is either mother Eve as the Yoni, the Serpent, or
we see an androgyne god, embracing Kala and Kali, or Noe and Terra; but this subject
has unduly enticed us away from Solomon’s shrine.
The Phallic columns were, it is written, profusely bedecked with “pomegranates
and lilies” or lotuses, and other emblems, and hung about with wreaths of chains
which always denote serpents. Thus we are not surprised to learn that these columns
were called, that on the right JAKIN or “he that shall establish,” and that on the left
BOAZ, or “in it is strength.” Such poles and hangings with similar ornation abound
beside most Eastern shrines, and the Venetian merchants, following their Asiatic culture,
placed somewhat similar columns on and around their beautiful St. Mark.
A glance through the illustrations of even these volumes will, I think, convince
my readers that the architects of Solomon, and the artisans of Tyre only did but
follow, although no doubt at a great distance, the cult and architecture of the richer
and superior shrines of the nations about them. We must however bear in mind here
that we have not a single historical record, on papyrus, leather, or tablet, of either
Solomon or his temple; none of the great travellers of antiquity say a syllable regarding,
either, and Herodotus who specially travelled over all these countries on purpose
to study the cult of the peoples, never gives us a hint even as to the existence of Jews,
their religion or temples. From Lucian and others we know that Syrian temples, and
notably, that to the great Dea Syria, had two huge Phallic columm in the vestibule, so
that Jakin and Boaz in Solomon’s shrine were
strictly in keeping. The constant recurrence of
two stones, whenever stones are required, marks a
strange but consistent idiosyncrasy of all Phallicworshipping
races.
Beside these pillars in Solomon’s portico,
there were also placed here the sun god Belus,
and his chariots, and with him, at the entrance,
the symbolic “Great Sea,” that holy symbol
of Samoodra, which all nations worship from the shores of Japan and Bombay
to the banks of the Neva; and those on Samoodra’s shores, in propriâ personâ.
1 Homer, (Liddell and Scott) uses Drakon and Ophis indifferently; see further, Inman’s Symbolism, xxxviii.
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Fig 91—SOLOMON’S MOLTEN SEA—MAYA OR
FERTILITY