Forlong - Rivers of Life

Serpent and Phallic Worship.
most partiality. Education and wide reading will in time clear us from our idols, which
nothing else will ever do; therefore let us strive for educations, varied, wide, and deep.
The names Kar-Nak and Lemae-Nak, it is thought, point to the Karn-Snake, and
the Maen or Stone-Snake, Hak or Ak being always a Snake or the Sun. In Morbi-
han are, it is said, the ruins of an ophite temple on the Ile aux Moines, or Isle of
Monks (probably Druids, for no Christians would live near such a Pagan object) of
which a lunar or campanulate area remains. The stone-avenues “terminated in an
oblong tumulus of considerable dimensions, one end of which being opened exposed
to view a very beautiful Kist-vaen. There was an obelisk at the head of the
tumulus, and its name is Pen-ab or head of the Sacred Snake.” 1 Colonel Forbes
Leslie is more than borne out by this reverend writer in what he seems to hold as to
the long-continued solo-phallic-worship of Armorika, by which, of course, I include
Serpent-Worship. Mr. Deane, after twice going over all these ruins in company with
a veteran French explorer, thus writes at page 434 of his moot interesting volume
on Serpent-Worship. “In Bretony . . . if we judge from some of the present
superstitions of the peasantry, they were never thoroughly converted . . . in the
vicinity of Karnak, which may be called the ‘Trakontis of Europe:’ the oracle of
BELUS is to be found in the parish of BELS: the Serpent, the universal emblem of
consecration, decorates the exterior of some of the oldest churches,” as is common over
southern Europe and western Asia. The sacred Mount of Fire, near the avenues of
the Dracontium, is a consecrated spot: the ancient dance of BA-AL, descriptive of the
Ophite hierogram, is annually exhibited at the Carnival of Erdeven : while the
peasant still turns his face in prayer to the Kibla of the Ophites—the Serpent’s head
at Kerzerho—which bears accordingly the expressive name of “the place of rhe Stones
of prayer.” The tail of the Serpent is shown as ending at Kerlescant, so that Ker is
here evidently a sacred root.
Torques or Lunettes, or horse-shoes of pure gold have been found in great
numbers in Bretony; “upwards of £1000 worth in 1832,” or perhaps we should read,
“up to 1832.” The significance of the shrine has evidently, as in all cases, to
do with the topography, and here, indeed, is a very remarkable land and water configuration;
and these ancient untutored peoples were keen observers of natural forms.
The very curious shape. of the land-locked bay, with its overlapping circular arms and
promontories, suggests forms of the human frame well known to medical men: from
the outside it lies quite concealed. The central mound overlooking the whole bay is
about 200 feet high, and some writers, although not versed in phallic lore, have suggested
that it is “the great mundane egg of creation, hatched, it was said, by the
divine Serpent,” whose coils embrace it in the wavy avenues of monoliths forming the
very holy symbols given on page 228, Fig. 99, VI.-2, 3, &c. This seems probable, for the
serpent is constantly seen twisted not only round the “egg”—Ceres, but the Lingam;
1 “Serpent Worship,” by the Rev. J. Bathurst Deane.
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