Ancient Pagan and Modern Christian Symbolism Part 7

I have of late heard it a.s.serted, by a man of considerable learning, though of a very narrow mind in everything which bears upon religious subjects, that there is no proof that the sun was commonly regarded as a male, or the moon as a female; and he based his strange a.s.sertion solely upon the ground that in German and some other languages the sun was represented by a feminine, and the moon by a masculine noun. The argument is of no value, for [--Greek--] and other Greek and Latin names of the yoni, are masculine nouns, and Virga and Mentula, the Roman words for the Linga, are feminine. In Hindostan, the sun is always represented as a G.o.d; the moon is occasionally a male, and sometimes a female deity.

In ancient Gaulish and Scandinavian figures, the sun was always a male, and the moon a female. Their identification will be seen in Figure 118--as their conjunction is in the one before us--in the position of the individuals, and in the _fleur-de-lys_ and oval symbol.

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Figure 88 may be found in Fabretti's _Corpus Inscriptionum Italicarum_ (Turin, 1867), plate xxv., fig. 808 f. The coins which bear the figures are of bra.s.s, and were found at Volaterrae. In one the double head is a.s.sociated with a dolphin and crescent moon on the reverse, and the letters Velathri, in Etruscan. A similar inscription exists on the one containing the club. The club, formed as in Figure 88, occurs frequently on Etruscan coins. For example, two clubs are joined with four b.a.l.l.s on a Tudertine coin, having on the reverse a hand apparently gauntleted for fighting, and four b.a.l.l.s arranged in a square. On other coins are to be seen a bee, a trident, a spear head, and other tripliform figures, a.s.sociated with three b.a.l.l.s in a triangle; sometimes two, and sometimes one. The double head with two b.a.l.l.s is seen on a Telamonian coin, having on the reverse what appears to be a leg with the foot turned upwards. In a coin of Populonia the club is a.s.sociated with a spear and two b.a.l.l.s, whilst on the reverse is a single head. I must notice, too, that on other coins a hammer and pincers, or tongs, appear, as if the idea was to show that a maker, fabricator, or heavy hitter was intended to be symbolised. What that was is further indicated by other coins, on which a head appears thrusting out the tongue. At Cortona two statuettes of silver have been found, representing a double-faced individual. A lion's head for a cap, a collar, and buskins are the sole articles of dress worn. One face appears to be feminine, and the other masculine, but neither is bearded. The pectorals and the general form indicate the male, but the usual marks of s.e.x are absent. On these have been found Etruscan inscriptions (1) v. cvinti arntias CULPIANSI ALP AN TURCE; (2) V. CVINTE ARNTIAS SELANSE TEZ alpan TUBCE. Which may be rendered (1) "V. Quintus of Aruntia, to Culpian pleasing, a gift"; (2) "V. Quintus of Aruntia to Vulcan pleasing gave a gift," evidently showing that they were ex voto offerings.

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Col. Forbes Leslie's Early Races of Scotland. In plate 49 it is a.s.sociated with a serpent, apparently the cobra. The design is spoken of as "the spectacle ornament," and it is very commonly a.s.sociated with another figure closely resembling the letter Z. It is very natural for the inquirer to a.s.sociate the twin circles with the sun and earth, or the sun common amongst the sculptured stones in Scotland. Four varieties may be seen in plate 48 of sun and moon. On one Scottish monument the circles represent wheels, and they probably indicate the solar chariot.

As yet I have only been able to meet with the Z and "spectacle ornament"

once out of Scotland; it is figured on apparently a Gnostic gem (_The Gnostics and their Remains_, by C. W. King, London, 1864, plate ii., fig. 5). In that we see in a serpent cartouche two Z figures, each having the down stroke crossed by a horizontal line, both ends terminating in a circle; besides them is a six-rayed star, each ray terminating in a circle, precisely resembling the star in Plate in., Fig. 8, supra. I can offer no satisfactory explanation of the emblem.

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Figures 85, 86, represent a Yorks.h.i.+re and an Indian stone circle. The first is copied from _Descriptions of Cairns, Cromlechs, Kistvaens, and other Celtic, Druidical, or Scythian Monuments in the Dekkan_, by Col.

Meadows Taylor, _Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy_, vol. xxiv.

The mound exists at Twizell, Yorks.h.i.+re, and the centre of the circle indicates an ancient tomb, very similar to those found by Taylor in the Dekkan; this contained only one single urn, but many of the Indian ones contained, besides the skeleton of the great man buried therein, skeletons of other individuals who had been slaughtered over his tomb, and buried above the kistvaen containing his bones; in one instance two bodies and three heads were found in the princ.i.p.al grave, and twenty other skeletons above and beside it. A perusal of this very interesting paper will well repay the study bestowed upon it. Figure 86 is copied from Forbes Leslie's book mentioned above, plate 59. It represents a modern stone circle in the Dekkan, of very recent construction. The dots upon the stones represent dabs of red paint, which again represent blood. The circles are similar to some which have been found in Palestine, and give evidence of the presence of the same religious ideas existing in ancient England and Hindostan, as well as in modern India.

The name of the G.o.d wors.h.i.+pped in these recent shrines is Vetal, or Betal. It is worth mentioning, in pa.s.sing, that there is a celebrated monolith in Scotland called the Newton Stone, on which are inscribed, evidently with a graving tool, an inscription in the Ogham, and another in some ancient Aryan character (see Moore's Ancient Pillar Stones of Scotland).

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Figure 87 indicates the solar wheel, emblem of the chariot of Apollo.

This sign is a very common one upon ancient coins; sometimes the rays or spokes are four, at others they are more numerous. Occasionally the tire of the wheel is absent, and amongst the Etruscans the nave is omitted.

The solar cross is very common in Ireland, and amongst the Romanists generally as a head dress for male saints.

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Figure 88 is copied from Hyslop, who gives it on the authority of Col.

Hamilton Smith, who copied it from the original collection made by the artists of the French Inst.i.tute of Cairo. It is said to represent Osiris, but this is doubtful. There is much that is intensely mystical about the figure. The whip, or flagellum, placed over the tail, and the head pa.s.sing through the yoni, the circular spots with their central dot, the horns with solar disc, and two curiously shaped feathers (?), the calf reclining upon a plinth, wherein a division into three is conspicuous, all have a meaning in reference to the mystic four.

I have long had a doubt respecting the symbolic meaning of the scourge.

Some inquirers have a.s.serted that it is simply an emblem of power or superiority, inasmuch as he who can castigate must be in a higher position than the one who is punished. But of this view I can find no proof. On the other hand, any one who is familiar with the effect upon the male produced by flagellation, and who notices that the representations of Osiris and the scourge show evidence that the deity is in the same condition as one who has been subjected to the rod, will be disposed to believe that the flagellum is an indication or symbol of the G.o.d who gives to man the power to reproduce his like, or who can restore the faculty after it has faded. It is not for a moment to be supposed that a deity who was to be wors.h.i.+pped would be depicted as a task-master, whose hands are more familiar with punishment than blessing.

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Figure 89 is taken from Lajard's _Culte de Venus_, plate i., fig. 14, and is an enlarged impression of a gem. A similar figure is to be found in Payne Knight's work _On the Wors.h.i.+p of Priapus_. In both instances the female is fringed with male emblems. In the one before us a fish, apparently a dolphin, is borne in one hand. In the other the woman is bearded. These are representations of Ashtaroth--the androgyne deity in which the female predominates.

Fig. 90 represents an ancient Italian form of the Indian Ling Yoni. It is copied from a part of the Frontispiece of Faber's _Dissertation on the Cabiri_, where it is stated that the plate is a copy of a picture of a nymphoeum found when excavating a foundation for the Barbarini Palace at Rome. It deserves notice, because the round mound of masonry surmounted by the short pillars is precisely similar to similar erections found in Hindostan on the East and America on the West, as well as in varions parts of Europe. The oval in the pediment and the solitary pillar have the same meaning as the Caaba and hole--the upright stone and pit revered at Mecca long before Mahomet's time--the tree serves to identify the pillar, and _vice versa_. Apertures were common in ancient sepulchral monuments, alike in Hindostan and England; one perforated stone is preserved as a relic in the precincts of an old church in modern Rome. The aperture is blackish with the grease of many hands, which have been put therein whilst their owners took a sacred oath. We have already remarked how ancient Abraham and a modern Arab have sworn by the Linga; it is therefore by no means remarkable that some of a different form of faith should swear by the Yoni.

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Figure 91 is stated by Higgins, Anacalypm, p. 217, to be a mark on the breast of an Egyptian mummy in the Museum of University College, London. It is essentially the same symbol as the _crux ansata_, and is emblematic of the male triad and the female unit.

Figure 92 is simply introduced to show that the papal tiara has not about it anything particularly Christian, a similar head-dress having been worn by G.o.ds or angels in ancient a.s.syria, where it appeared crowned by an emblem of "the trinity." We may mention, in pa.s.sing, that as the Romanists adopted the mitre and the tiara from "the cursed brood of Ham," so they adopted the episcopalian crook from the augurs of Etruria, and the artistic form with which they clothe their angels from the painters and um-makers of Magna Gracia and Central Italy.

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Figure 98 is the Mithraic lion. It may be seen in Hyde's _Religion of the Ancient Persians_, second edition, plate i. It may also be seen in vol. ii., plates 10 and 11, of Maffei's _Gemme Antiche Figurate_ (Rome, 1707). In plate 10 the Mithraic lion has seven stars above it, around which are placed respectively, words written in Greek, Etruscan and Phoenician characters, ZEDCH. TELKAN. TELKON. TELKON. QIDEKH. UNEULK.

LNKELLP., apparently showing that the emblem was adopted by the Gnostics. It would be unprofitable to dwell upon the meaning of these letters. After puzzling over them, I fancy that "Bad spirits, pity us,"

"Just one, I call on thee," may be made out by considering the words to be very bad Greek, and the letters to be much transposed.

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Figure 94 is copied by Higgins, _Anacalypsis_, on the authority of Dubois, who states, vol. iii., p. 88, that it was found on a stone in a church in France, where it had been kept religiously for six hundred years. Dubois regards it as wholly astrological, and as having no reference to the story told in Genesis. It is unprofitable to speculate on the draped figures as representatives of Adam and Eve. We have introduced it to show how such tales are intermingled with Sabeanism.

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Figure 95 is a copy of a gem figured by Layard (_Nineveh and Babylon_, p. 156), and represents Harpocrates seated on a lotus, adoring the mundane representative of the mother of creation. I have not yet met with any ancient gem or sculpture which seems to identify the yoni so completely with various G.o.ddesses.

Compare this with Figure 138, _infra_, wherein the Figure 95. emblem is even more strikingly identified with woman, and with the virgin Mary.

Those who are familiar with the rude designs too often chalked on h.o.a.rdings, will see that learned ancients and boorish moderns represent certain ideas in precisely similar fas.h.i.+on, and will understand the mystic meaning of O ---- I have elsewhere called attention to the idea that a sight of the yoni is a source of health, and a charm against evil spirits; however grotesque the idea may be, it has existed in all ages, and in civilised and savage nations alike. A rude image of a woman who shamelessly exhibits herself has been found over the doors of churches in Ireland, and at Servatos, in Spain, where she is standing on one side of the doorway, and an equally conspicuous man on the other. The same has been found in Mexico, Peru, and in North America. Nor must we forget how Baubo cured the intense grief of Ceres by exposing herself in a strange fas.h.i.+on to the distressed G.o.ddess. Arn.o.bius, _Op. Cit_., pp.

249, 250.

As I have already noticed modern notions on the influence produced by the exhibition of the yoni on those who are suffering, the legend referred to may be shortly described. The G.o.ddess, in the story, was miserable in consequence of her daughter, Proserpine, having been stolen away by Pluto. In her agony, s.n.a.t.c.hing two Etna-lighted torches, she wanders round the earth in search of the lost one, and in due course visits Eleusis. Baubo receives her hospitably; but nothing that the hostess does induces the guest to depose her grief for a moment. In despair the mortal bethinks her of a scheme, shaves off what is called in Isaiah "the hair of the feet" and then exposes herself to the G.o.ddess. Ceres fixes her eyes upon the denuded spot, is pleased with the strange form of consolation, consents to take food and is restored to comfort.

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Figure 96 is copied from plate 22, fig. 8, of Lajard's _Culte de Venus_.

He states that it is an impression of a cornelian cylinder, in the collection of the late Sir William Ouseley, and is supposed to represent Oannes, or Bel and two fish G.o.ds, the authors of fecundity. It is thought that Dagon of the Philistines resembled the two figures supporting the central one.

Figure 97 is a side view of plate 1. The idol represents a female.

Dagon, the fish G.o.d, male above, piscine below, was one of the many symbols of an androgyne creator. In the first of the Avatars of Vishnu, he is represented as emerging from the mouth of a fish, and being a fish himself; the legend being that he was to be the saviour of the world in a deluge which was to follow. See Moor's _Hindu Pantheon_, and Coleman's _Mythology of the Hindus_.

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Figure 98 is a fancy sketch of the _fleur-de-lys_, the lily of A France.

It symbolises the male triad, whilst the ring around it represents the female. The identification of this emblem of the trinity with the tripliform Mahadeva, and of the ring with his sacti, may be seen in the next figure.

Figure 99, which we have already given on page 46, is one of great value to the inquirer into the signification of certain symbols. It has been reintroduced here to show the identification of the eye, fish, or oval shape, with the yoni, and of the _fleur-de-lys_ with the lingam, which is recognised by the respective positions of the emblems in front of particular parts of the mystic animals, who both, on their part, adore the symbolic palm tree, with its pistil and stamens. The rayed branches of the upper part of the tree, and the nearness to it of the crescent moon, seem to indicate that the palm was a solar as well as a s.e.xual emblem.

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The great similarity of the palm tree to the ancient round towers in Ireland and elsewhere will naturally strike the observer. He will perhaps remember also that on certain occasions dancing, feasting, and debauchery were practised about a round tower in Wicklow, such as were practised round the English may-pole, the modern subst.i.tute of the mystic palm tree. We have now humanised our practice, but we have not purified our land of all its veiled symbols.

In some parts, where probably the palm tree does not flourish, the pine takes its place as an emblem. It was sacred to the mother of the G.o.ds, whose names, Rhoea, Ceres, Cybele, are paraphrastic of the yoni. We learn from Araobius, _Op. Cit._, p. 239, that on fixed days that tree was introduced into the sanctuary of that august personage, being decorated by fleeces and violets. It does not require any recondite knowledge to understand the signification of the entrance of the pine into the temple of the divine mother, nor what the tree when buried in the midst of a fleece depicts. Those who have heard of the origin of the Spanish Royal Order of the Golden Fleece know that the word is an enphemism for the _lanugo_ of the Romans. Parsley round a carrot root is a modern symbol, and the violet is as good an emblem of the lingam as the modern pistol.

It has long been known that the ancient custom of erecting a may-pole, surrounding it with wreaths of flowers, and then dancing round it in wild orgy, was a relic of the ancient custom of reverencing the symbol of creation, invigorated by the returning spring time, without whose powers the flocks and herds would fail to increase. It will not fail to attract the notice of my readers, that a pine cone is constantly being offered to the sacred "grove" by the priests of a.s.syria.

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Figures 100, 101, represent the Buddhist cross and one of its arms.

The first shows the union of four phalli. The single one being a conventional form of a well-known organ. This form of cross does not essentially differ from the Maltese cross. In the latter, Asher stands perpendicularly to Anu and Hea; in the former it is at right angles to them. "The pistol" is a well-known name amongst our soldiery, and four such joined together by the muzzle would form the Buddhist cross.

Compare Figure 37, _ante_.

Figures 102, 108, 104, indicate the union of the four creators, the trinity and the unity. Not having at hand any copy of an ancient key, I have used a modern one; but this makes no essential difference in the symbol.

Figures 105, 106, are copied from Lajard, _Sur le Culte de Venus_, plate ii. They represent ornaments held in the hands of a great female figure, sculptured in bas relief on a rock at Yazili Kaia, near to Boghaz Keni, in Anatolia, and described by M. C. Texier in 1834. The G.o.ddess is crowned with a tower, to indicate virginity; in her right hand she holds a staff, shown in Figure 106; in the other, that given in Figure 105, she stands upon a lioness, and is attended by an antelope. Figure 105 is a complicated emblem of the four.