Forlong - Rivers of Life

Tree Worship.
the lotus contain a seed vessel shaped like an inverted cone or bell which are very holy
symbols with all peoples, and representative male and female. This inverted bell is
punctuated on the top with little cavities or cells, in which the seeds grow as in a matrix,
fed by the parent plant till they arrive at such a site as to break open “the ark-boat of
life.” They then emerge and float away, taking root wherever they find ground, and
throwing down long tentacles or tendrills in quest of it. This idea is expressed by Brahma
in his address to the angels as given in the Linga-poorān, beginning: “When I sprang
into existence, I beheld the mighty Narāyana reposing on the abyss of waters;” which
reminds us of the Jewish Elohim-god who it is said generated all things by “brooding
o’er the deep.” Of their Jhavh, also, it is said, “He sitteth on the flood,” and is
“enthroned on the. deluge” (ps. xxix. 10).
The drawings and holy books of China and Japan are full of such groups of the
sacred. plant—the Nelumbium Speciosum, as I here give, although it has been
usual there to call it “the Holy Bean of Egypt and Japan.” This group is the same
plant as the single stem shown in figure No. 10. I wish my readers to thoroughly
know the Lotus, and to endeavour to understand its symbolism, for regarding it
much will occur in this work, and does occur in all ancient faiths.
Among plants denoting fertility, we must not overlook the “Tappuach,” or Apple
of Proverbs and Canticles, which is now commonly held to be the Citron, an elongated
fruit, which, with the Palm tree, is borne in procession by all Jews at “the Feast of
Tabernacles,” or their harvest festival—fitting symbols indeed, of Phallic lore..
In connection with Jacob and his idol-worohipping wife Rachel whose “idols”
by the bye were “Lingams” according to the original, we have a very curious story
in Gen. xxx. regarding Mandrakes or Dudai (“baskets,” or fertilizing love “apples”),
which Kitto and others tell us are the fruit of a plant called the Atropa Mandragora, 1
of which I give here a. drawing. Its root, we
are told, is generally forked, and closely resembles
the lower part of a man; its fruit
is about the size of an apple, very ruddy, of
an agreeable odour, and is still often eaten, as
exhilerating to the spirits and provocative to
venery. 2 Any plant or animal whose colour or
appearances, and sometimes even whose hair resembled
that of any pa.rt of the human body, was
in olden times considered to be useful in affections
of those parts, like the Orchis Mascula,
which resembles the scrotum or dudai and
THE ATROPA MANDRAGORA—Fig 14.
is probably the basket we see the priest always
presenting in Phallic temples. Fig. 15 is a drawing of the Orchis Mascula idea,
1 [Now Mandragora officianarum.]
2 Kitto and Smith’s Bible Dictionary.
51