Ancient Pagan and Modern Christian Symbolism Part 3

The Supreme Spirit in the act of creation became two-fold; the RIGHT SIDE WAS MALE, THE LEFT WAS PRAKRITI, SHE IS OF ONE FORM WITH BRAMAH.

She is Maya, eternal and imperishable, such as the Spirit, such is the inherent energy. (The Sacti) as the Faculty burning is inherent in pure.

(Bramah Vaivartta Puranu, Professor Wilson.)

[Ill.u.s.tration: 073]

ARDANARI-ISWARA.

From an original drawing by Chrisna Swami, Punoit.

PLATE VII.

Is a copy of an original drawing made by a learned Hindoo pundit for Wm.

Simpson, Esq., of London, whilst he was in India studying its mythology.

It represents Brahma supreme, who in the act of creation made himself double, i.e. male and female. In the original the central part of the figure is occupied by the triad and the unit, but far too grossly shown for reproduction here. They are replaced by the _crux ansata_. The reader will notice the triad and the serpent in the male hand, whilst in the female is to be seen a germinating seed, indicative of the relative duties of father and mother. The whole stands upon a lotus, the symbol of androgyneity. The technical word for this incarnation is "Arddha Nari."

PLATE VIII.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Plate III. 075]

Is Devi, the same as Parvati, or Bhavani. It is copied from Moor's _Pantheon_, plate x.x.x. The G.o.ddess represents the feminine element in the universe. Her forehead is marked by one of the symbols of the four creators, the triad, and the unit. Her dress is covered with symbolic spots, and one foot peculiarly placed is marked by a circle having a dot in the interior. The two bear the same signification as the Egyptian eye. I am not able to define the symbolic import of the articles held in the lower hands. Moor considers that they represent scrolls of paper, but this I doubt. The raised hands bear the unopened lotus flower, and the G.o.ddess sits upon another.

PLATE IX.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Plate IX. 078]

Consists of six figures, copied from Maurice's _Indian Antiquities_, vol. vi., p. 278, and two from Bryant's _Mythology_, vol. ii., third edition, pp. 203 and 409. All are symbolic of the idea of the male triad: a central figure, erect, and rising above the other two. In one an altar and fire indicate, mystically, the linga; in another, the same is pourtrayed as a man, as Madaheva always is; in another, there is a tree stump and serpent, to indicate the same idea. The two appendages of the linga are variously described; in two instances as serpents, in other two as tree And _concha_, and snake and sh.e.l.l. The two last seem to embody the idea that the right "egg" of the male germinates boys, whilst the left produces girls; a theory common amongst ancient physiologists. The figure of the tree encircled by the serpent, and supported by two stones resembling "tolmen," is very significant. The whole of these figures seem to point unmistakably to the origin of the very common belief that the male Creator is triune. In a.s.syrian theology the central figure is Bel, Baal, or Asher; the one on the right Ann, that on the left Hea. See _Ancient Faiths_, second edition, Vol. i., pp.

88-85. *

There are some authors who have treated of tree and serpent worship, and of its prevalence in ancient times, without having, so far as I can see, any idea of that which the two things typify. The tree of knowledge, the tree of life, the serpent that tempted Eve, and still tempts man by his subtlety, are so many figures of speech which the wise understand, but which to the vulgar are simply trees and snakes. In a fine old bas-relief over the door of the Cathedral at Berne, we see an ancient representation of the last judgment. An angel is dividing the sheep from the goats, and devils are drawing men and women to perdition, by fixing hooks or pincers on the portions of the body whence their sins sprang.

One fat priest, nude as oar risen bodies mast be, is being savagely pulled to h.e.l.l by the part symbolised by tree and serpent, whilst she whom he has adored and vainly sought to disgrace, is rising to take her place amongst the blest. It is not those of the s.e.x of Eve alone that are inveigled to destruction by the serpent.

* For those who have not an opportunity of consulting the work referred to, I may observe that the a.s.syrian G.o.dhead consisted of four persons, three being male and one female.

The princ.i.p.al G.o.d was Asher, the upright one, the equivalent of the Hindoo Mahadeva, the great holy one, and of the more modern Priapus. He was a.s.sociated with Anu, lord of solids and of the lower world, equivalent to the "testis," or egg on the right side. Hea was lord of waters, and represented the left "stone." The three formed the trinity or triad. The female was named Ishtar or Astarte, and was equivalent to the female organ, the yoni or v.u.l.v.a--the [Greek] of the Greeks. The male G.o.d in Egypt was Osiris, the female Isis, and these names are frequently used as being euphemistic, and preferable to the names which are in vulgar use to describe the male and female parts.

PLATE X.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Plate X. 081]

Contains pagan symbols of the trinity or linga, with or without the unity or yoni.

Fig. 1 represents a symbol frequently met with in ancient architecture, etc. It represents the male and female elements, the pillar and the half moon.

Fig. 2 represents the mystic letters said to have been placed on the portal of the oracle of Delphi. By some it is proposed to read the two letters as signifying "he or she is;" by others the letters are taken to be symbolic of the triad and the unit. If they be, the pillar is a very unusual form for the yoni. An ingenious friend of mine regards the upright portion as a "slit," but I cannot wholly agree with him, for in Fig. 1 the pillar cannot be looked upon as an aperture.

Fig. 3 is a Hindoo sectarial mark, copied from Moor's _Hindu Pantheon_, and is one out of many indicating the union of the male and female.

Fig. 4 is emblematic of the virgin and child. It identifies the two with the crescent. It is singular that some designers should unite the moon with the solar symbol, and others with the virgin. We believe that the first indicate ideas like that a.s.sociated with Baalim, and Ashtaroth in the plural, the second that of Astarte or Venus in the singular. Or, as we may otherwise express it, the married and the immaculate virgin.

Fig. 5 is copied from Sharpe's _Egyptian Mythology_, p. 15. It represents one of the Egyptian trinities, and is highly symbolic, not only indicating the triad, here Osiris, Isis, and Nepthys, but its union with the female element. The central G.o.d Osiris is himself triune, as he bears the horns symbolic of the G.o.ddess Athor and the feathers of the G.o.d Ra.

Fig. 6 is a Hindoo sectarial mark, from Moor's _Hindu Pantheon_. The lozenge indicates the yoni. For this a.s.sertion we not only have evidence in Babylonian gems, copied by Lajard, but in Indian and Etruscan designs. We find, for example, in vol. v., plate xlv., of _Antiquites Etrusques_, etc., par. F. A. David (Paris, 1785), a draped female, wearing on her breast a half moon and mural crown, holding her hands over the middle spot of the body, so as to form a "lozenge" with the forefingers and thumbs. The triad in this figure is very distinct; and we may add that a trinity expressed by three b.a.l.l.s or three circles is to be met with in the remotest times and in most distant countries.

Figs. 7, 8, 9 and 10 are copied from Cabrera's account of an ancient city discovered near Palenque, in Guatemala, Spanish America (London, 1822). Although they appear to have a s.e.xual design, yet I doubt whether the similarity is not accidental. After a close examination of the plates given by Cabrera, I am inclined to think that nothing of the ling-yoni element prevailed in the mind of the ancient American sculptors. All the males are carefully draped in appropriate girdles, although in some a grotesque or other ornament, such as a human or b.e.s.t.i.a.l head, a flower, etc., is attached to the ap.r.o.n or "fall" of the girdle, resembling the sporran of the Highlander and the codpiece of mediaeval knights and others. I may, however, mention some very remarkable sculptures copied; one is a tree, whose trunk is surrounded by a serpent, and whose fruit is shaped like the _vesica piscis_; in another is seen a youth wholly unclothed, save by a cap and gaiters, who kneels before a similar tree, being threatened before and behind by some fierce animal. This figure is peculiar, differing from all the rest in having an European rather than an American head and face. Indeed, the features, etc., remind me of the late Mr. Cobden, and the cap is such as yachting sailors usually wear. There is also another remarkable group, consisting apparently of a man and woman standing before a cross, proportioned like the conventional one in use amongst Christians.

Everything indicates American ideas, and there are ornaments or designs wholly unlike any that I have seen elsewhere. The man appears to offer to the cross a grotesque human figure, with a head not much unlike Punch, with a turned-up nose, and a short pipe shaped like a fig in his mouth. The body is well formed, but the arms and thighs are rounded off like "flippers" or "fins." Besting at the top of the cross is a bird, like a game c.o.c.k, ornamented by a necklace. The male in this and the other sculptures is beardless, and that women are depicted, can only be guessed at by the inferior size of some of the figures. It would be unprofitable to carry the description farther.

Figs. 11, 12 are from vol. i., plates xix. and xxiii. of a remarkably interesting work, _Recherches sur l' origine, l' esprit, et les progres des Arts de la Grece_, said to be written by D'Harcanville, published at London, 1785. The first represents a serpent, coiled so as to symbolise the male triad, and the crescent, the emblem of the yoni.

Fig. 12 accompanies the bull on certain coins, and symbolises the s.e.xual elements, _le baton et l'anneau_. They were used, as the horse-shoe is now, as a charm against bad luck, or vicious demons or fairies.

Fig. 13 is, like figure 5, from Sharpe's _Egyptian Mythology_, p. 14, and is said to represent Isis, Nepthys, and Osiris; it is one of the many Mizraite triads. The Christian trinity is of Egyptian origin, and is as surely a pagan doctrine as the belief in heaven and h.e.l.l, the existence of a devil, of archangels, angels, spirits and saints, martyrs and virgins, intercessors in heaven, G.o.ds and demiG.o.ds, and other forms of faith which deface the greater part of modern religions.

Figure 14 is a symbol frequently seen in Greek churches, but appears to be of pre-Christian origin.* The cross we have elsewhere described as being a compound male emblem, whilst the crescent symbolises the female element in creation.

Figure 15 is from D'Harcanville, _Op. Cit_., vol. i., plate xxiii. It resembles Figure 11, _supra_, and enables us by the introduction of the sun and moon to verify the deduction drawn from the arrangement of the serpent's coils. If the snake's body, instead of being curved above the 8 like tail, were straight, it would simply indicate the linga and the sun; the bend in its neck, however, indicates the yoni and the moon.

Figure 16 is copied from plate xvi., fig. 2, of _Recueil de Pierres Antiques Graves_, folio, by J. M. Raponi (Rome, 1786). The gem represents a sacrifice to Priapus, indicated by the rock, pillar, figure, and branches given in our plate. A nude male sacrifices a goat; a draped female holds a kid ready for immolation; a second man, nude, plays the double pipe, and a second woman, draped, bears a vessel on her head, probably containing wine for a libation.

Figure 17 is from vol. i. _Recherches_, etc., plate xxii. In this medal the triad is formed by a man and two coiled serpents on the one side of the medal, whilst on the reverse are seen a tree, surrounded by a snake, situated between two rounded stones, with a dog and a conch sh.e.l.l below.

See _supra_, Plate ix., Fig. 6.

PLATE XI.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Plate XI. 087]

With two exceptions, Figs. 4 and 9,--exhibits Christian emblems of the trinity or linga, and the unity or yoni, alone or combined; the whole being copied from Pugin's _Glossary of Ecclesiastical Ornament_ (London, 1869).

Fig. 1 is copied from Pugin, plate xvii., and indicates a doable anion of the trinity with the unity, here represented as a ring, _Vanneau_.

* There is an able essay on this subject in No. 267 of the Edinburgh Review--which almost exhausts the subject--but is too long for quotation here.

Figs. 2, 8, are from Pagin, plate xiv. In figare 2, the two covered b.a.l.l.s at the base of each limb of the cross are extremely significant, and if the artist had not mystified the free end, the most obtuse worshipper must have recognised the symbol. We may add here that in the two forms of the Maltese cross, the position of the lingam is reversed, and the egg-shaped bodies, with their cover, are at the free end of each limb, whilst the natural end of the organ is left unchanged. See figs.

85 and 86. This form of cross is Etruscan. Fig. 8 is essentially the same as the preceding, and both may be compared with Fig. 4. The b.a.l.l.s in this cross are uncovered, and the free end of each limb of the cross is but slightly modified.

Fig. 4 is copied in a conventional form from plate x.x.xv., fig. 4, of _Two Essays on the Worship of Priapus_ (London, 1865). It is thus described (page 147): "The object was found at St. Agati di Goti, near Naples.......It is a _crux ansata_ formed by four phalli, with a circle of female organs round the centre; and appears by the look to have been intended for suspension. As this cross is of gold, it had no doubt been made for some personage of rank, possibly an ecclesiastic." We see here very distinctly the design of the egg- and sistrum- shaped bodies. When we have such an unmistakable bi-s.e.xual cross before our eyes, it is impossible to ignore the signification of Figs. 2 and 8, and Plate xii., Figs. 4 and 7.

Figs. 5, 6 are from Pugin, plates xiv. and xv., and represent the trinity with the unity, the triune G.o.d and the virgin united in one.

Fig. 7 represents the central lozenge and one limb of a cross, figured plate xiv. of Pugin. In this instance the Maltese cross is united with the symbol of the virgin, being essentially the same as Fig. 9, _infra_.

It is a modified form of the _crux ansata_.

Fig. 8 is a compound trinity, being the finial of each limb of an ornamental cross. Pugin, plate xv.