Forlong - Rivers of Life

Fire Worship.
knew nothing of this law, and Zipporah, his wife, considered it unkind and cruel, and
only submitted to it with resentment, because of the inquisitorial Jahveh who had been
going about seeking to kill him, and had at last discovered him “in the Inn!” 1
Truly our commentators here remark, “this passage is obscure;” it is, however, as
written, and being inspired, we may neither question nor distort the language, but take
it for what it is worth.
The ancient Irish adopted the old Kaldian term for sacred, Fire, Ur, Hyr, 2 or
Hur; also Adur, whence Adair, that tree of Jove and virile fire, the Oak, but without
the divine affix A, for the Oak is Dair or Daur, Welsh Dar, Armorikan Dero, and Greek
Drus. The sacred Oak was OM, which seems to be a pre-Sanskrit AUM, the most
sacred term for the Creator, and but a variant of the Egyptian name for the sun.
It is also clearly related to the sacrtd tree Haum Magorum, which fed the Persian holy
fire. Notice also that the old Zoroastrian Fire-temple was called “Aphrinagham 3 or
house of prayer and praise,” and that in Ireland Afrithgnam signifies “to bless.” “The
Chapel, Mass-house, or House of Prayer, is known to this day in Ireland by no other
name than Ti-Afrian, i.e. the house of benediction.” 4 The whole order of Irish
priests used to be called Mogh or Magh, a term constantly compounded with Irish
names, as in Ard-Magh, &c., where Magh is translated a “Plain,” but held to come
from the same root as Mag-nus; the Magi therefore etymologically are merely “the great
ones.” Both Dr. Hyde and General Vallency connect the Irish priests with the “Rab-
Mag, or Magorum Præfectus.” 5 In Ireland the “Ignis Sacerdos,” or priest who presided
over fire ceremonies, was called Hyr-bad, Urbad,or Ur-baidh, though the whole order
was known as Magh. Probably Ut-yr, Ur-thur, or Arthur comes from this source.
In Persia there was a sect who only worshipped on mountains; while another
held all their religious meetings and would only perform rites in or by the side of a
Tor or Pillar. No doubt these are our present “Right and Left-hand” sects—the
Solars and Lunars of India, and the “gold and silver-handed ones” of Zoroastrianism;
for Zardosht was “he of the golden hand, or the Airgiod-lamh.” His opponent was
Magh-nuadhat, to whom the colony of Kaldian Magi gave a silver hand. As early
worshippers of Hur, or Luna, these Kaldians preferred her silver disk (by whose light
they pursued their great piscatorial avocations) to the fiery golden rays of the God of
day, which drove them to seek shelter in woods and huts. An English antiquary of
the last century—Mr. Beaufort—says that Fire-worship, with other Druidic superstitions,
held its own in Ireland “for several centuries after the establishment of Christianity,
the sacred or eternal fire being only abolished about the twelfth century.”
In the old Irish name for towers, Tur-Aghan, I conclude that we see the Eastern
term for fire, Agan; but, like our own churches, these were for divers purposes, being
the abodes of Sorcerers, Aubs, or Moghs—dealers in witchcraft and serpents, such as the
1 Exod. iv. 24.
4 Vallency.
2
Gen. Vallency’s R. T.
5
Hyde IV. p. 202, and elsewhere.
3 Dr. Hyde, quoted by Vallency.
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