Forlong - Rivers of Life

Serpent and Phallic Worship.
the gods, erect Phalli and use shameful language” (Epist. ad. Aneb.), to which the
Christian Iamblicbus in 336 replies, “became Phalli and crosses are signs of a productive
energy, and provocative to a continuation of the world” 1 (De Mysteriis I. ii). It
was the good emperor JuIian who prohibited all indecencies. In his note, p. 2,
“Idolomania” says: “In this opinion Iamblichus is sustained in coins of Egina and other
places, on which the phallus is represented within a quadrangular Tetrakt of
Pythagoras; from the intersecting point or centre of which proceeds another beam, at
an angle of 45° in the manner of a ladder; this well explains the meaning of a ladder,”
such as that my readers will observe on the Amergau Maypole, page 84, and in feminine
form at p. 206. Fig. 86.
Ladders appear to have been used in connection both with ancient stauri and crosses,
and were possibly for the first part of the ascent of such Phalli, although I suspect the
words “ascent of the Phallus,” which we so often hear of, had also another meaning,
as Passion or something rampant. “Phallobates” is used by Lucian (Dea Syr. 29) to
express the action of Cruci ascendere, possibly merely “to go up or upon a phallus” as
priests had to ascend Phalli. At Hieropolis one had to go up and remain for seven days on
the top of a phallus, and there pray for the welfare of Syria. The “raised up priests”
(could the Gospel writer have alluded to this, or merely prayer, in saying that Christ must
be raised up) were called Engutheoi or “men near to God.” Simeon Stylites whom the
Roman Church has canonised, was such a “Simeon on the pillar,” and he appeared on
the Kalendar of Arras, 826. Many attempts were made up to the 12th century to restore
this pillar-worship, and the indignant author of “Idolomania” from whom I quote, says
that our High-Church people are still trying “to restore Phallo-proskunesis, or the adoration
of the cross and its correlative rites” (p. 26). Architecture early adopted
pillars with men, lions, elephants, bulls, eagles, &c., on their summits: either alone and
upright, or crouching and supporting roofs, entablatures, &c.; these might signify the
same thing; viz., passion or fertility, as the support of the house or universe of God,
and of this world and all that pertains thereto. Such pillars divide and support the
houses also of the Sun in the ancient Zodiacs, and can be seen on many old sculpturings
and on coins. “Idolomania” says: “On a silver tri-drachm of the Isle of Lesbos in
M. D’Ennery’s cabinet . . . . is a man embracing a woman, and on the reverse the
phallus or cross in relief within the tetrakt or square of Pythagoras,” which shows us
clearly what “holy ceremony” or “sacrifice,” these symbols signified. The unity of the
sexes is symbolised in Hindooism by two equilateral triangles, which are said to represent
the ineffable and self-existent one, the Swayambhoova from whom emanate all
the gods and goddesses of earth, past, present, and to come.
It was from seeing the prevalence of this cruciform phallic-worship, that the emperor
Theodosius, between 378 and 395, issued a decree prohibiting the sign of the cross
being sculptured or painted on the pavements of churches. Tertullian the African had,
1 Idolomania, or The Legalised Cross not the Instrument of Crucifixion, by “Investigator Abhorrens,” is a
very useful tract, which I recommend my readers to peruse. [Reading De Myst. and the “Letter to Anebo” as
a whole, it is clear that neither writer is talking about Christianity: both Porphyry and Iamblichos were
concerned with purifying classical pagan polytheism through the Platonic philosophy; Iamblichos further
seeks to philosophically justify Theurgic ritual. — T.S.]
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