Forlong - Rivers of Life

330
Rivers of Life, or Faiths of Man in all Lands.
and revelries were all connected with sexual matters, or the worship of the Fertile
Energies of nature. The mirror was Egyptian, and Mylita’s special sign, and when “the
mixed multitude—Jews, Egyptians, and Hybrids—fled from Pharoah” 1 they brought
out with them all the insignia and memories of that great people’s cult. Mirror have
been found in abundance, especially about Theban temples, and are commonly like the
one p. 216 ante, namely, with a round handle of wood, stone, or metal, on which is carved
a female figure, a flower, column or rod, ornamented with the head of an Athor, the
bird of love. They vary, but this female with a phallic head-ornament, is the most
usual. The whole is significant of Mayā—Illusion, for the reason already given.
It was a later and far more advanced faith which took the Jews to the tops of
their houses to worship the hosts of heaven, 2 that is Venus and her starry hosts,
though they then also served Milkom, as it was an advance on Persian or Armenian
faiths which led Zoroastrians, about 600 B.C., to seck to purify all things by fire, and
manifest a hatred to every sort of image, beast or symbol, save Holy Fire. The leading
Jews and Syrians then began to learn from this eastern source, that image-worship
must be distasteful to the great Creating mind, and hence we see that from about this
sixth century, preachers here and there raised their voices as the ripples of that great
Indian wave—which the Kapila philosophy first set in motion, and Boodha carried into
practice—passed into their midst. The leading disciples of Zoroaster had long before
that—say at least 2,500 years ago—taught in many parts around Asia Minor, one
personal God, a personal Devil or Dual Deity, and a Resurrection and Immortality, and
had written regarding a lovely “Paradise, and a beautiful fenced-in garden” of Ahuramazda’s,
as well as of that Hell and Devil which the European grasp so persistently
retains. On this, however, I must not dwell here, as it will all become more clear when
we enter on the history of those great men, who, like Zarathustra, 3 Boodha, Laotse,
Confucius, Christ, and Mahomed, have left the mighty impress of their names on
countless millions of our race. It is not in a day that the faith of any people can be
effaced; it endures ages and has a continued and ever-renewed energy. A great leader
may initiate a bold reform, and occasionally the old stream may seem obliterated
for a time, but mankind in the mass present at the best a dead heavy load—a vis
inertiæ, which, though rolled aside, invariably swings at last partially back into the old
groove, or forms a new one with the old and new materials.
Leaping or “walking through the fire” so frequently mentioned in Jewish writings
in connection with Molek, is still quite common in the less civilized parts of India,
being usually done in fulfilment of a vow for blessings desired, or believed to have been
conferred by the deity upon the Nazarite or Vower. I have known of it being gone
through for recovery from a severe illness, and for snccess in an expedition or project
which the Nazarite had much at heart. Some say fire should be trod because Drupadi,
1 2
Eben Ezra and Smith’s Dic.
Zeph. i. 5.
3
A Solar title of Zoroaster, signifiying the golden-haired one.