The God-Idea of the Ancients Part 24

143) History of the Christian Religion, p. 405.

144) Ibid., p. 23.

Although the utmost care has been exercised to conceal the fact that women equally with men, performed the offices connected with the early church, yet by those who have paid attention to the true history of this movement, there can be no doubt about the matter. Notwithstanding the early tendencies of the "new religion" toward the recognition of women, and toward the restoration of the female principle in the Deity, the policy to be pursued by the church was soon apparent, for Paul, the real founder of the system calling itself Christian, and a man imbued with Asiatic prejudices concerning women, arrogantly declared that "man is the head of woman as Christ is the head of the Church." Women were commanded to be under obedience. Neither was the man created for the woman, but the woman for the man; thus was re-established and emphasized the absurd doctrine of the Lingaites, that the male is an independent ent.i.ty, that he is spirit and superior to the female which is matter.

After this indication of the policy to be pursued under the new regime, it would scarcely be expected that theefforts put forth by the various sects among the Gnostics toreinstate the female element either on the earth or in heavenwould be successful, and as might be antic.i.p.ated from the factsalready adduced, as early as the year 325, at the council of Nice, a male trinity was formally established, and soon thereafter, the Collylidians, a sect which rigorously persisted in the adoration of the female principle, were condemned. At the council of Laodicea, A.D. 365, the 11th canon forbade the ordination of women for the ministry and the 44th canon prohibited them from entering the altar.

The devotees of female worship, although for a time silenced, were evidently not convinced, and to force their understanding into conformity with the newly established order, the Nestorians, in the year 430 A. D., reopened the old dispute, and formally denied to Mary the t.i.tle of Mother of G.o.d. Their efforts, however, were of little avail, for in the year 451, at the council of Ephesus, the third general council, the decision of the Nestorians was reversed and the Virgin Mother reinstated. Upon this subject Barlow remarks: "Well might those who made this symbolical doctrine what it now is, at length desire to do tardy justice to the female element, by promoting the mother to the place once occupied by the Egyptian Neith, and crowning her Queen of Heaven."(145) The fact will doubtless be observed, however, that by the Romish Church the idea of the G.o.d-mother differs widely from the Queen of Heaven--the original G.o.d of the ancients. Mary the Mother of Jesus is not a Creator, but simply a mediator between her Son and His earthly devotees--a doctrine only a trifle less masculine in texture than that of an Almighty Father and his victimized son. The worship of Mary was adopted by the so-called Christians in response to a craving in the human heart for a recognition of those characters developed in mankind which may be said to contain the germ of the divine. The masculine G.o.d of the Jews was feared not loved, and his son had already been invested with his attributes. He was all powerful, hence a mediator, a mother, was necessary to intercede in behalf of fallen man, and this, too, notwithstanding the fact that woman had become the "cause of evil in the world."

145) Essays on Symbolism, p. 134.

The Great G.o.ddess of the ancients, Perceptive Wisdom, the Deity of giving, she who represented the purely altruistic characters developed in mankind, and whose worship involved a scientific knowledge of the processes of Nature, when engrafted upon the so-called Christian system, although indicating an important step toward the recognition of the genuine creative principles, was not understood. Although her effigies were brought from the East and made to do duty as representations of Mary, the Mother of Christ, a knowledge of her true significance lay hurled beneath ages of sensuality and selfishness.

By those who have made it their business to investigate this subject, it is observed that there is scarcely an old church in Italy in which there is not to be found a remnant of a black virgin and child. In very many instances these black virgins have been replaced by white ones, the older figures having been retired to some secluded niche in the church where they are held especially sacred by the ignorant devotees who know absolutely nothing of their original significance. We are a.s.sured that many of these images have been painted over, ostensibly in imitation of bronze, but the whites of the eyes, the teeth, and colored lips reveal the fact that they are really not intended to represent bronze, but figures of a black virgin G.o.ddess and child whose worship has been imported into Europe from the East. I had been told that one of the oldest of these images extant was to be found in Augsburg; a thorough search, however, in all the churches and cathedrals of that city failed to reveal it, but in the museum at Munich such a figure is to be seen.

It is in a state of decay, one arm of the mother and a portion of the child's figure being worn away. Upon this subject G.o.dfrey Higgins remarks:

"If the author had wished to invent a circ.u.mstance to corroborate the a.s.sertion that the Romish Christ of Europe is the Crishna of India, how could he have desired anything more striking than the fact of the black virgin and child being so common in the Romish countries of Europe?

A black virgin and child among the white Germans, Swiss, French, and Italians!!!"(146)

146) Anacalypsis, book iv., ch. i., p. 175.

We have observed that during an earlier age in the history of religious worship, as the female was supposed to comprehend both the female and male elements in creation, a belief in the possible creative power of the female independently of the male was everywhere entertained, and that after the schismatic faction arose which endeavored to exalt the male, the production of a son by a woman unaided by man, was among the Yonigas to be the sign which would forever settle the question of the superior importance of the female functions in the processes of reproduction, and consequently, also, her claim to the greater importance in the deity.

The sacred books of India show that from a former belief in one or the other of the two creative principles throughout Nature as G.o.d, the people had come to accept both female and male as necessary elements in reproduction, the latter being the more important. In course of time this change seems to have been universal and to have extended to all the countries of the globe.

As the male could not create independently of the female, or, as spirit was dependent on matter for its manifestations, there arose a necessity for a Savior to redeem man from the evil effects arising from his relations with woman who was regarded as matter, and who in course of time became the cause of evil.

Concerning the doctrines which prevailed in the earlier ages of Christianity relative to the ancient dual principle in creation, and regarding the offices which were performed by the two elements, male and female, in the deity, we have the following from Justinus, who is said to have been contemporary with Peter and Paul:

"When Elohim had prepared and created the world as a result from joint pleasure, He wished to ascend up to the elevated parts of heaven, and to see that not anything of what pertained to the creation laboured under deficiency. And He took His Own angels with Him, for His nature was to mount aloft, leaving Edem below; for inasmuch as she was earth, she was not disposed to follow upward her spouse. Elohim, then, coming to the highest part of heaven above and beholding a light superior to that which He himself had created, exclaimed: 'Open me the gates, that entering in I may acknowledge the Lord.'"

As he enters the Good One addresses him in the following manner: "Sit thou on my right hand." Then the soaring male principle says to the Good One "permit me Lord to overturn the world which I have made, for my spirit is bound to men." To which the Good One replies: "No evil canst thou do while thou art with me, for both thou and Edem made the world as a result of conjugal joy. Permit Edem then, to hold possession of the world as long as she wishes; but you remain with me." While the father is drawn away from earth to Heaven, Edem, in the meantime is bringing woes innumerable upon man. Naas, who has received his evil nature from her, and who is a child of the Devil, has debauched Eve, "Henceforward vice and virtue are prevalent among men." The Father seeing these things dispatches Baruch his third angel to Moses, and through him spake to the children of Israel, that they might be converted unto the Good One. But the third angel, Naas, by the soul of which came from Edem upon Moses, as also upon all men, observed the precepts of Baruch, and caused his own peculiar injunctions to be hearkened unto.

Again, after these occurrences Baruch, the angel of the Good One, was sent to the prophets to warn them against the wiles of Edem, but in the same manner Na.s.s, the Devil, enticed them away, they being allured by him to their own destruction. Again Elohim selected Hercules, an uncirc.u.mcised prophet, and sent him to quell the disturbance caused by Naas or Edem and to release the Father from their power.

"These are the twelve conflicts of Hercules which He underwent, in order, from first to last, viz.: Lion, and Hydra, and Boar, and the others successively. For they say that these are the names of them among the Gentiles, and they have been derived, with altered denomination, from the energy of the maternal angels. When he seemed to have vanquished his antagonists, Omphale (now she is Venus) clings to him and entices away Hercules, and divests him of his power, viz.: the commands of Baruch which Elohim issued. And in place of this power Babel, or Venus, envelops him in her own peculiar robe, that is, in the power of Edem, who is the power below; and in this way the prophecy of Hercules remained unfulfilled and his work."

As men were still bound by the power of Edem, or the Devil, in the days of Herod the king, Baruch was again dispatched by Elohim, and coming to Nazareth delivered his message to Jesus, son of Joseph and Mary. Na.s.s, who, as we have seen, was the evil spirit in Edem, wished to entice away Jesus also. He was not, however, disposed to listen but remained faithful to Baruch. Naas, overcome by anger at not being able to seduce him, caused him to be crucified.

"He, leaving the body of Edem on the accursed tree, ascended to the Good One; saying to Edem, 'Woman, thou retainest thy Son,' that is, the natural and the earthly man. But Jesus himself commending his spirit into the hands of the Father, ascended to the Good One. Now the Good One is Priapus, and he it is who antecedently caused the production of everything that exists. On this account he is styled Priapus, because he previously fashioned all things according to his design. For this reason, he says, in every temple is preserved his statue, which is revered by every creature; and there are images of him in the highways carrying over his head ripened fruits, that is, the produce of the creation, of which he is the cause, having in the first instance formed, according to his design, the creation, when as yet it had no existence."(147)

147) Hippolytus, Refutation of All Heresies, book v., p. 188.

Thus the fact is observed not only that in the time of Paul, phallic worship still existed, but by the writings of Justinus and others is shown the manner in which the doctrine that woman is the cause of evil in the world became formulated and adopted as part and parcel of the Christian belief.

Staniland Wake, director of the anthropological society of London, when commenting on the obscene myths upon which the Christian religion rests, remarks:

"The fundamental basis of Christianity is more purely phallic than that of any other religion now existing, and its emotional nature... shows how intimately it was related to the older faiths which had a phallic basis."

After stating that the myth of creation and that of the flood have their exact counterpart in India, the Rev. Mr. Faber remarks that "there is no rite or ceremony directed in the Pentateuch of which there is not an exact copy in the rites of the pagans."

The Christian doctrines as established by Paul, and afterwards formulated into a system by the Romish Church, were adopted by the ignorant mult.i.tude who, being incapable of understanding the higher principles involved, accepted the allegories beneath which were veiled the ancient mysteries literally, and as the highest expression of divine wisdom. Hence the comparatively recent observation that the "new religion was eventually but the gathering in of the superst.i.tions of paganism" is a matter of little surprise to those who have carefully examined the facts connected with the growth of religious faith.

Under the new regime Christ became the New Solar Deity and round him were finally ranged all the myths of Solo-phallic worship which had prevailed under the adoration of Crishna at a time when the higher truths underlying pure Nature-worship had been forgotten.

CHAPTER XV. CHRISTIANITY IN IRELAND.

According to the accounts in the New Testament, the wise men of the East, meaning Persia, had foretold the coming of Christ. The fulfilment of the ancient Persian prophecy as applied to Jesus, together with the reference to the "star" which the Maji saw, and which went before them till it came and stood over where the young child lay, furnishes a striking ill.u.s.tration of the manner in which Eastern legends and ancient sacred writings are interwoven with the doctrines relating to Christianity.

In the sacred books of the East it is prophesied that "after three thousand and one hundred years of the Caligula are elapsed, will appear King Saca to remove wretchedness from the world." We have seen that at the birth of Christ the time had arrived for a new solar incarnation.

Regarding the introduction of Christianity into Ireland it is claimed by certain writers that the Irish did not receive the "new religion" from Greek missionaries; but when at the close of the cycle, a new solar deity, an avatar of Vishnu or Crishna was announced, and when missionaries from the East proclaimed the glad tidings of a risen Savior, the Irish people gladly accepted their teachings, not, however, as a new system, but as the fulfilment to them of the prophecy of the most ancient seers of the East, and as part and parcel of the religion of their forefathers. Therefore when the devotees of the Romish faith, probably about the close of the fifth century of the Christian era, attempted to "convert" Ireland, they found a religion differing from their own only in the fact that it was not subject to Rome, and was free from the many corruptions and superst.i.tions which through the extreme ignorance and misapprehension of its Western adherents had been engrafted upon it.

Concerning the form of religious worship in Great Britain, and the fact that phallic worship prevailed there, Forlong writes: "The generality of our countrymen have no conception of the overruling prevalence of this faith, and the number of its lingham G.o.ds throughout our Islands."

These symbols were always in the form of an obelisk or tower, thereby indicating the worship of the male energy. Although emblems of the female element in the deity were present, they were less p.r.o.nounced and of far less importance than those of the male.

These monuments were erected on knolls, at crossroads and centers of marts or villages, and were placed on platforms which were usually raised from five to seven steps. A few years ago the shires of Gloucester, Wilts, and Somerset still claimed over two hundred of these crosses, though all of them were not at that time in a perfect state of preservation.

It would seem that in Britain and Ireland the seed of the "new"

doctrine, that which involved a recognition of the mother element in the G.o.d-idea, had fallen on more congenial soil, for within three centuries after the birth of Christ, the various original monuments typifying the male principle had all been ornamented with the symbols representing the female in the deity. The ancient religious structures of the Lingaites still continued as recognized faith shrines, changed only by the emblems of the new religion which had been engrafted upon them.

The earliest Greek and Roman missionaries knew full well the significance of these symbols, and we are given to understand that "a few of the more spiritual of the Christian sects made war upon them and all their ephemeral subst.i.tutes, such as Maypoles, holy-trees, real crosses, etc." It is declared also that, as "later" Christians were unacquainted with the significance of these emblems, "they adopted them as their own, employing them as the mystic signs of their own faith."

Although the earliest Greek and Roman missionaries understood the signification of these faith shrines, the complaints against them seem soon to have ceased, and the "fierce wars" waged over them appear to have left little trace of their ravages, except that the female emblems with which these monuments had been supplied by those who had received the new faith direct from the East, were all removed. As the male monuments and symbols were all permitted to remain undisturbed, this fact of itself would seem to indicate that the "pagan abominations"

against which these pious devotees of a "spiritual religion" thundered their denunciations, included only the female emblems.

The fact must be borne in mind that the Western Church, which was rapidly usurping the ecclesiastical authority of Britain and Ireland, had not itself at this time adopted the worship of the Virgin Mary.

A set of iconoclastic monks whom the Christian world is pleased to designate as St. Patrick, and who probably early in the fifth century of our era amused themselves by chiseling from the Irish monuments many of the symbols of the female power, removed also the figures of serpents which had for ages appeared in connection with the emblems of woman, and by this act won the plaudits of an admiring Christian world; chiefly, however, for the skill manifested in "banishing snakes from Ireland."

In addition to this dignified amus.e.m.e.nt, we find that the same person or set of persons ordered to be burned hundreds of volumes of the choicest Irish literature, volumes which contained the annals of the ancient Irish nation, and in which, it is believed, was stored much actual information concerning the remote antiquity of the human race.

The extent to which the worship of the male emblems of generation prevailed in the Christian Church even as late as the 16th century, proves that it was not the particular symbols connected with the worship of fertility upon which the Western Christian missionaries made war, but, on the contrary, that it was the recognition by them of that detested female element against which, even before the erection of the Tower of Babel, there had been almost a constant warfare. The rites of Potin, or Photin, Bishop of Lyons, who was honored in Provence, Languedoc and the Lyonais as St. Fontin, also the rites performed in many of the Christian Churches as late as the 16th century, prove that the devotees of the Christian system were not at this time a whit behind their Pagan predecessors in their zeal for "heathen abominations." The only difference being that the Druids, a people who still retained a faint conception of ancient Nature worship, had not become entirely divested of the purer ideas which in an earlier age of the race had const.i.tuted a creative force.

That the war of the s.e.xes was revived, and that for many centuries much strife was engendered over the exact importance which should be ascribed to the female element in the Deity may not be doubted.

An ancient homily on Trinity Sunday has the following: "At the deth of a manne, three bells should be ronge as his kuyl in worship of the Trinitie, and for a woman, who was the Second Person of the Trinitie two bells should be ronge." Upon this subject Hargrave Jennings remarks: "Here we have the source of the emblematic difficulty among the master masons who constructed the earlier cathedrals, as to the addition, and as to the precise value of the second (or feminine) tower of the Western end or Galilee of the Church."(148)