Forlong - Rivers of Life

224
Rivers of Life, or Faiths of Man in all Lands.
any extent in support of my arguments. I may, however, here give a few specimens
as samples of the faith of the isles and coasts of the Mediterranean, such as numismatists
will at once recognise.
In coin No. I. we have clearly the worship of the Yoni, whose guardian is shown
above as the mystic IAO. At the base we
observe that the flower has budded, and a
rampagious lion guards the way. No. II. is
the so-called “Medusa’s head,” a symbol
of disordered Passion, her hair entwined
with snakes. No. III. is a Phallus or Janus,
as very often formed from two or three
manly heads. No. IV. is the whole Arbil—
the “Trinity in unity,” and fruit the result.
No V. is the same in another form; for here
the Palm-tree is man, and the Concha
Fig 95—COINS OF GREECE AND ASIA MINOR.
WORSHIP OF FERTILITY—ALL ORGANS EXHIBITED.
Veneris, woman, standing on either side of
the mundane egg, around which is coiled
the serpent as Passion. No VI. is a very curious old coin; we require to have read a
great deal regarding mystic hands, corn-sheaves, flaming torches, &c., &c., before
we can fully appreciate it. It also represents all organs, and signifies The Bread-Giver.
The testes are here seen precisely as in many old stones, of which we see some in Plates
IV., VI., and VII.; mark especially that of Kerloaz,
Plate IX., 11, for the same races who produced
this stone, give us, say Montfauçon and the Rev. Mr.
Maurice in his Indian Antiquities, this Gaulic
Serpent Goddess—my Fig. 96.
We could scarcly anywhere get a figure which
gives us more completely the idea of the serpent and
woman than this: I have not seen it surpassed by
any Asiatic drawing or sculpture. It reminds us of
the severe symbolism of the Hindoo sacred thread:
the serpents embrace the thighs, cross at the parts
and kiss the bosoms. The picture is made a little
more decent than the Rev. Mr. Maurice gives it in
the prominent frontispiece to his fifth volume. I
Fig 96—GAULIC SERPENT GODDESS.
cannot get any information as to the age and exact
locale of this Serpent-Goddess, but no doubt Gauls
constructed it long before the days of Clovis, and worshipped it more or less for
several centuries after the time of Charlemagne; for we shall see by-and-bye, that
even in spite of the long domination of Christianity, and the considerable enlightenment
of the people of Europe and her isles, which, until very lately, proved highly