Forlong - Rivers of Life

Fire Worship.
earliest inhabitants of the former found in full vigour among Kyklopians and Kabiri,
not to say Egyptians, long before the latter existed.
Vulcan, or Ool-Kan—Lord of Fire—was, says Cicero, 1 called by the Egyptians
OBAS or Phthas, which we may spell P’tas or P’tha, the son of Celum, who is usually
put down as the father of all; elsewhere called Ether, by Easterns Rool, and by Hebrews,
Ruach or Rooach. Another Vulcan was called the Son of Nilus. Both are akin to
the Sanskrit Ulka, Firebrand, Meteor, etc. Ool-kan is Divine—that is, Generative Fire,
heat, or lust. Vulcan seems to have had dedicated to him the first temples reared by
man in Europe, Africa, or Western Asia; but every Furnace was also sacred to him.
If a vault, it was a Kiln, Fornax, or K£minoj; and therefore these may be called his Arks.
Fornix is an Arch, Vault, Brothel, and may come from Por-ne, por-nu, a harlot; but as
more in harmony with such words in other languages, I should connect it with Foro, “to
perforate,” or forî, to bear; see note, page 33. It is the root of Fornication, and explains
to us why our Bible translators give us “Tent” and “Belly” in Num. xxv. 8, where
the Hebrew is hbq, Kobah, “Vulva” rather than “Belly.” The Greek for Kobah is
K£minoj; which Herodotus 2 calls the female parts. Kobah, says Fürst, is anything hollow
or arched, like the Al-Kaba of Meka, which, as elsewhere shown, signifies Ark or
Vulva, Cup or Kab, Al-Cova, or Al-cove. The great characteristic of Vulcan was that he
always carried a great hammer, “Fashioner,” or “Former,”—a very Kabalistic article
—sacred to the Tor, Tower, or Phallus, which it covertly symbolised, just as did the
hammer of the Skandinavian Tor, of which specimens are given at page 65. As no
hammer is of use without the anvil this implement is also prominent in most tales
concerning Vulcan. Etruscan deities carried hammers called Ka-bars, and Anvils
known as Orn-bars, which Leslie says symbolised “the Ship,” or Mountain, 3 and
therefore Womb or Woman.
The festivals of Vulcan went by the general name of Fornacalia, but that of the
23d of August, being very special, was called Vulcanalia, and could bear comparison
in its excesses with the old “Harvest Homes” of Europe, when the Sun is in Libra, and the
harvest garnered. Until the rise of the Stoic school the wildest licence waa permitted, and
down to a very few centuries ago was still winked at. On the 23d of August all Rome
used to assemble at the shrines of Vulcan, when one of the ceremonies was to throw fish
—representing woman or ferlility—into his fires. Truly he was the god of fornication,
or that fire which attracted the sexes; and, says the mythological history of Rome, his
rites took place between the two most sacred hills—Pala-tine and Capit-o-line—where
the Sabine women were seized, and the two kings—Romulus and Tatius—afterwards
appeared. Here they reared the temple fitly called Comitium, fire being the conjoiner,
and woman the pacifier, and it was for women that the men fought.
I have laid some stress throughout this work on the topography of sacred towns
1
De. Nat. Deorum, p. 220, et passim. KAN is a familiar kind of name of Krishna, the full
name being Kan-iya.
2
V. 92 (7); see Newton’s Appen. to Dr. Inman’s Symbolism, p. 127. [K£minoj: (from Kaiw, “burn, set on
fire, kindle”), “an oven, furnace, kiln.” (Liddell & Scott intermediate).]
3
Leslie’s Origin of Man, p. 338.
365