Forlong - Rivers of Life
Forlong - Rivers of Life Forlong - Rivers of Life
228 Rivers of Life, or Faiths of Man in all Lands. about 200 A.C. complained that the devil customarily made a sign on the foreheads of the worshippers of the Persian god Mithra, who was at this time one of the deities of the Romans. He accused Christians of adoring the cross, and before him Justin Martyr said that Christians made the sign of the Greek Khi, X or c (that which may be seen on the large Phalli in the British Museum mentioned at page 207) on all occasions and upon all sorts of things, to denote the first power of God (Apol. II. i). In those days the Khi was written like the Algebraic plus +, as we see it on the Sigeian stone of 500 B.C. given to us by the Rev. Dr Bosworth; and it was this Kiasmos that is seen common to all lands and from the most ancient days, as in the symbol for Venus situated below her circle, but also in that of all other planets and many constellations. I give here in Fig. 99 the planetary symbols, and many of the sacred sectarian and other hieroglyphs to which ancient men have attached much significance. Several of the emblems have been already dwelt upon, and the others I will hereafter refer to. Fig 99.—PLANETARY AND SECTARIAN SYMBOLS. The term cross was never applied to the Cross of Christ, till about the 2d century or days of Justin Martyr, 110 A.C., who however always used the term Stauros. It is believed that owing to some early French version of the gospels using Croix, and hence Crucifix, for Stauros, our English translators used Crux as applicable to anything in the shape of the Greek c, + or X—Kiasm; but a very ancient meaning of crux, common I believe before the Christian era was sorrow, grief, repentance, and the Romans never understood by Crux a straight line or a beam with a transverse upon it. Suidas tells us that the Stauros was a straight piece of wood fixed in the ground, and signifies stability and strength, tenns always applicable to Maha-Deva. The Roman Furca was like a Y or Upsilon U, which is the Druidic phallic-tree, and this is what Scaliger thinks Christ was crucified upon, as Jews never used crosses for punishments. Had this however been the case, the gospel-writers would, it is thought, have called such dikranon or phourke, and not Stauros. But is matter little; both are highly
Serpent and Phallic Worship. phallic, more especially with a dead man hung thereon, for this was then a true sacrifice to Maha-Deva. A stauros was used for fastening down men, who were to he flayed or disembowelled, whilst the Crux up to 65 A.C., was only known as an instrument of torture to thrust through the body of one on the stauros. (Idol., Note p. 5). The pious and much shocked writer of “Idolomania” justly adds on this subject of Phallic faiths and emblems, that “he who would avert the destruction of purity in morals and holiness in religion, must not be prudish in language” (p. 13); but still he gives us some good matter, though behind a shield. If the Greeks had many hundreds of years B.C. “their Hermetes and Termini” to mark their fields and boundaries, roads and sacred places; so, he says had Asia, which claimed the dying saviour of Man on a cross, such “a religious symbol thousands of years it is probably before the crucifixion on Calvary.” The Egyptian “emblems of life,” or phalli, used to be very abundant in the British Museum; they had once evidently been used as religious ornaments, and were in the form of a cross or four phalli meeting in a centre, which centre, if a circle, was variously called “the wheel of life,” the sun, &c. Constantine, to please the Christians, abolished staurosis or stake-punishment, and Theodosius prohibited the carving of the symbol where it would be exposed to profanation (Hume, H. E. App., I. 8); which shows us all knew that Christ was put upon the genuine and simple symbol, and not on the Crux which is the Phallus complex. The question has this interest, that it proves Christians have no claim to the very phallic symbol which some have sought to monopolise as altogether their own. The sculptures of ancient Bamian—that door between lofty cliffs whence our high “Asian Fathers” are believed to have passed down into Asyria, Iran, Egypt, and Greece —have a huge erect man and woman on their vertical faces, whilst on their summit and adjoining eminences we see single Lingam-pillars and upright stones, as in the case of the upright Amon, Jupiter-Stator, Apollo, or Siva. All ancient processions carried somewhat indifferently a male figure, or some solar sign, and in almost all the rites of old faiths we see the serpent or Pythic Apollo. We have seen him in my Plate IV. 10, winding round the Skandinavian “Yule,” Seul, Sun-log or lingam—prominent at Christmas, a time which much requires the enlivening God, and who is accordingly then hailed with such epithets as Invictus Sol; whilst the 25th of December is called “Natalis Invicti Solis,” for the serpent then lashes him into vigor, as Vishnoo's Hansa roused the wearied Brahma. The Irish took early and more kindly than the British to serpents and crosses, but they at once and for many centuries continued to entwine the serpent-god around the cross. On and about all ancient Irish crosses, relics, and sculptures the serpent is most conspicuous, which is curious when we are assured that there is not, or was not till lately, a serpent on the island. Had the people under these circumstances been only looking about for a serpentine form, one would imagine that, like some French districts, they would have symbolised the eel; and their not doing so assures us that their ophiolatry was a distinct faith brought from abroad. It is also evident that the horror 229
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Serpent and Phallic Worship.<br />
phallic, more especially with a dead man hung thereon, for this was then a true sacrifice<br />
to Maha-Deva. A stauros was used for fastening down men, who were to he flayed or<br />
disembowelled, whilst the Crux up to 65 A.C., was only known as an instrument <strong>of</strong><br />
torture to thrust through the body <strong>of</strong> one on the stauros. (Idol., Note p. 5).<br />
The pious and much shocked writer <strong>of</strong> “Idolomania” justly adds on this subject <strong>of</strong><br />
Phallic faiths and emblems, that “he who would avert the destruction <strong>of</strong> purity in<br />
morals and holiness in religion, must not be prudish in language” (p. 13); but still he<br />
gives us some good matter, though behind a shield. If the Greeks had many hundreds <strong>of</strong><br />
years B.C. “their Hermetes and Termini” to mark their fields and boundaries, roads and<br />
sacred places; so, he says had Asia, which claimed the dying saviour <strong>of</strong> Man on a cross, such<br />
“a religious symbol thousands <strong>of</strong> years it is probably before the crucifixion on Calvary.”<br />
The Egyptian “emblems <strong>of</strong> life,” or phalli, used to be very abundant in the<br />
British Museum; they had once evidently been used as religious ornaments, and were in<br />
the form <strong>of</strong> a cross or four phalli meeting in a centre, which centre, if a circle, was variously<br />
called “the wheel <strong>of</strong> life,” the sun, &c. Constantine, to please the Christians,<br />
abolished staurosis or stake-punishment, and Theodosius prohibited the carving <strong>of</strong><br />
the symbol where it would be exposed to pr<strong>of</strong>anation (Hume, H. E. App., I. 8); which<br />
shows us all knew that Christ was put upon the genuine and simple symbol, and not<br />
on the Crux which is the Phallus complex. The question has this interest, that it proves<br />
Christians have no claim to the very phallic symbol which some have sought to<br />
monopolise as altogether their own.<br />
The sculptures <strong>of</strong> ancient Bamian—that door between l<strong>of</strong>ty cliffs whence our high<br />
“Asian Fathers” are believed to have passed down into Asyria, Iran, Egypt, and Greece<br />
—have a huge erect man and woman on their vertical faces, whilst on their summit<br />
and adjoining eminences we see single Lingam-pillars and upright stones, as in the case<br />
<strong>of</strong> the upright Amon, Jupiter-Stator, Apollo, or Siva. All ancient processions carried<br />
somewhat indifferently a male figure, or some solar sign, and in almost all the rites <strong>of</strong><br />
old faiths we see the serpent or Pythic Apollo. We have seen him in my Plate IV. 10,<br />
winding round the Skandinavian “Yule,” Seul, Sun-log or lingam—prominent at<br />
Christmas, a time which much requires the enlivening God, and who is accordingly<br />
then hailed with such epithets as Invictus Sol; whilst the 25th <strong>of</strong> December is called<br />
“Natalis Invicti Solis,” for the serpent then lashes him into vigor, as Vishnoo's Hansa<br />
roused the wearied Brahma.<br />
The Irish took early and more kindly than the British to serpents and crosses, but<br />
they at once and for many centuries continued to entwine the serpent-god around the<br />
cross. On and about all ancient Irish crosses, relics, and sculptures the serpent is most<br />
conspicuous, which is curious when we are assured that there is not, or was not till lately,<br />
a serpent on the island. Had the people under these circumstances been only looking<br />
about for a serpentine form, one would imagine that, like some French districts,<br />
they would have symbolised the eel; and their not doing so assures us that their<br />
ophiolatry was a distinct faith brought from abroad. It is also evident that the horror<br />
229