Forlong - Rivers of Life

Serpent and Phallic Worship.
Siva was Light and the Sun, and his representative colour is blue. Pallas-
Minerva loved the celestial azure blue and the blue of the olive, which was her special
gift; her eyes were azure, and her hair the solar rays, just as the beard of manhood
is held to represent the rays of the more powerful Sun. Pallas is Wisdom, repre-
senting outwardly that inward life of the mind which made her “mothar of the Arts”
and of all that thoughtfulness and watchfulness which characterise the mother;
and hence sbe is ealled Sophia. The goddess Pallas, says Pindar, writing early in the
fifth century B.C., “sitteth at the right hand of the Father, and receives his commands
to be carried to the other gods. She is greater than angels,” and has the same place
in heaven as Apollo, and even a higher lineage.
“ No mother bare this goddess, but the head of Sovereign Jove;
. . . . . .
The nod of Pallas is the stamp of Fate.” 1
Aristides says of her, “She is venerable in the sight of her father, and made partaker
of all, things with him. She is the power of Jove,” the virtue of the Sun, the shining
ether which surrounds the Earth, and is cleft by the Sun, and hence called Pallas,
from llp, that which separates or divides. This idea is carried into the working of
the mind, and hence the separater of mental processes is called the knowing or wise
one. Thus the translaters of the LXX. call “the wonderful” (by whom many understand
Christ) in Isa. ix. 6, the alp (Pala); hence we have ΑΘΗΝΗ, wisdom, which
may come from the Hebrew hta, athe, darting-fire, or light. It is also sometimes
connected with }nt, Thenen, a serpent, dragon, &c., because light was supposed to dart
like a serpent; and therefore neither Athena nor Pallas are almost ever seen without a
serpent, and the reptile is as invariably around her Egis, as it is in or around the
Argha or Yoni. Orpheus calls her 'AiolÒmorfij D£kaomaor, or multiform dragoness or
serpent—
“ Jove’s cuirass blazes on her ample breast, . . .
And o’er her shoulders hangs his horrid shield;
Dire, black, tremendous! round the margin roll’d—
A fringe of serpents hissing guards the gold;” 2
which is an exact description of serpents in the Argha or Yoni of India of present and
all past days, as many of my illustrations will show. We must not forget the signincance
of Egises or shields, which I have already stated are, with rudders and ancilia,
peculiarly feminine emblems; see page 131 and 185 ante.
It is very important to observe the root Ar. It may read Am, Ad Al and El, or
simply A, when, however, it signifies the male; though masculines and feminines are
difficult points to decide, in the embryo state of man and. his faiths. But Ar or Al also
stand in combination with other words for a city, which is a massing of people round their
chief Deity, be this the Akro, Argos, Aran, Teba, or Theba of the ancients, or the
Sophia of the West; the Peter or Petros of the East Christian Church, or the Maha-
1 “Kallimakus’ Pallas,” Dodd’s Trans., p. 144.
2 Ibid: p. 124.
319