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FAR back in the twilight of the pictured history of the past, the cross is found on the borders of the river Nile. A horizontal piece of wood fastened to an upright beam indicated the hight of the water in flood. This formed a cross, the Nileometer. If the stream failed to rise a certain hight in its proper season, no crops and no bread was the result. From famine on the one hand to plenty on the other, the cross came to be worshiped as a symbol of life and regeneration, or feared. as an image. of decay and death. This is one, so called, origin of the Cross.
The cross was a symbol of life and regeneration in India long before this usage on the Nile, and for another reason. The most learned antiquarians agree in holding it unquestionable that Egypt was colonized from India, and crosses migrated with the inhabitants. "Proofs in adequate confirmation of this point
are found," says the learned Dr. G. L. Ditson, "in waifs brought to light in ancient lore. Waif originally signified goods a thief, when pursued, threw away to avoid detection. Many of the facts to be brought forth in our inquiry were doubtless intentionally scattered and put out of sight to prevent apprehension of the proper subject to which they belong."
The cross bespeaks evolution in religion. It is the product of time, and the relic of the revered past. It begins with one thing and ends with another.
In seeking for the origin of the cross it becomes necessary to direct attention in some degree to the forms of faith among mankind with whom the cross is found. Retrogressive inquiry enables the religio-philosophical student to follow the subject back, if not to its source, to the proximate neighborhood of its source. Like every item of ecclesiastical ornament, and every badge of devotion, the cross is the embodiment of a symbol. That symbol represents a fact, or facts, of both structure and office. The facts were generation and regeneration. Long before the mind matures the generative structure matures. The cerebellum attains its natural size at three years of age, the cerebrum at seven years, if we accept the measurements as announced by Sir William Hamilton. Throughout the realm of animal life there is no physical impulse so overbearing as the generative, unless we except that for food. Food gives satisfaction. Rest to tired nature gives pleasure. To the power of reproduction is appended the acme of physical bliss. How natural, then, that this last-named impulse should, early in human development, take the lead, give direction and consequence to religious fancies, and lead its votaries captive to a willing bondage,--as it did in India, Egypt, among the
[paragraph continues] Buddhists, Babylonians, Phœnicians, Assyrians, and ancient Hebrews.
The ancients personified the elements, air, water, fire, the earth, the sea, the celestial orbs; in imagination gave superintending Deities to some and deified others. The Sexual ability of man and Nature was also personified, and likewise supplied with a governing Deity, which was elevated to the niche of the Supreme. Once enthroned as the ruling God over all, dissent therefrom was impious. A king might be obeyed, but God must be worshiped. A monarch could compel obedience to the state, but the ministers of God lured the devotee to the shrines of Isis and Venus on the one hand, and to Bacchus and Priapus or Baal-Peor on the other, by appealing to the most animating and sensuous force of our physical nature. The name of this God bore different appellatives in different languages, among which we find Al, El, Il, Ilos, On, Bel, Jao, Jah, Jak, Josh, Brahma, Eloihim, Jupiter, and Jehovah. Being God of the genital power, he became the reputed sire of numerous children, and numberless children were born under his auspicious rule. The names of his dutiful descendants were composite in signification, and in many, ways characterized the honored Deity. Hence, derived therefrom, we meet with the El God in Michael, Raguel, Raphael, Gabrael, Joel, Phaniel, Uriel, Sarakiel, Bethel, Chapel, Eli, Elijah.
Al, El, Il, are used interchangeably, one for the other; likewise Jah, Ju, Jao, Yho, Iah, Iao, Iu. On expresses the idea of the male Creator. Am, Om, Um, or Umma, represent the female Deity. From Am we have Amelia and Emma. On is an integrant of many names, as Abdon, Onan, Aijalon, Ashcalon, Ezbon. From Ra, Re, or Ri, arise Rebekah, Regem, Rehoboam, and Reba,
which signifies "sexual congress." The cognomens in which Jah enters are almost unlimited, as in Isaiah, Hezekiah, Zedekiah, Padiah, Maniah, Jehu.
The attributes of this presiding Deity were characteristic of his office. Her was strong, powerful, erect, high, firm, bright, upright, happy, large, splendid, noble, mighty, hard, able. Corresponding to the same idea, he was often, indeed nearly always, associated in pictured relics with animals which denoted the above qualities. These were the bull, elephant, ass, goat, ram, and lion, which were typical of strength and salacious vigor. When a large and strong man appeared, he at once resembled the prevalent idea of God, and was most naturally called the man of God, or the God-man; also large, strong animals were noted as the bulls of God, the rams of God.
The meaning of a large number of Bible names verifies this view. From Dr. Inman's Vocabulary of Bible Names I set out to copy those the signification of which related to "divine," sexual, generative, or creative power; such as Alah, "the strong one"; Ariel, "the strong Jah is El"; Amasai, "Jah is firm"; Asher "the male" or "the upright organ"; Elijah, "El is Jah"; Eliab, "the strong father"; Elisha, "El is upright"; Ara, "the strong one," "the hero"; Aram, "high," or, "to be uncovered"; Baalshalisha, "my Lord the trinity," or, "my God is three"; Ben-zohett, "son of firmness"; Camon, "the erect On"; Cainan, "he stands upright"; but after copying over one hundred names with their meaning--some of which related to feminine qualities--I found I had advanced only to the letter E of the alphabet, and gave up the undertaking for these limited pages.
We must look at this curious subject as we find it. Quaint though most of it is, we hope to treat it with all
the decorum of philosophic inquiry, and in the chaste language of scientific precision.
That the cross, or crucifix, has a sexual origin we determine by a similar rule of research as that by which comparative anatomists determine the place and habits of an animal by a single tooth. The cross is a metaphoric tooth which belongs to an antique religious body physical, and that essentially human. A study of some of the earliest forms of faith will lift the vail and explain the mystery.
India, China, and Egypt have furnished the world with a genus of religion. Time and culture have divided and modified it into many species and countless varieties. However much the imagination was allowed to play upon it, the animus of that religion was sexuality--worship of the generative principle of man and nature, male and female. The cross became the emblem of the male feature, under the term of the triad--three in one. The female was the unit; and, joined to the male triad, constituted a sacred four. Rites and adoration were sometimes paid to the male, sometimes to the female, or to the two in one.
From motives of improved modesty, or the less commendatory motive to gain prestige through the power of superstition, much truth bearing directly upon our subject has been suppressed by an interested hierarchy. Stripped of euphemisms, we find "the Chaldees believed in a Celestial Virgin, who had purity of body, loveliness of form, and tenderness of person; and to whom the erring sinner could appeal with more chance of success than to a stern father. She was portrayed with a child in her arms. Her full womb was thought to be teeming with blessings,
and everything which could remind a votary of a lovely woman was adopted into her worship."
The worship of the woman by man naturally led to developments which our comparatively sensitive natures shun, as being opposed to all religious feeling. But among a people whose language was without the gloss of modern politeness, whose priests both spoke and wrote without the least disguise, and whose God, through his prophets and lawgivers, promised abundance of offspring and an increase in flocks and herds, as one of the greatest blessings he had to bestow, we can readily believe that what we call "obscenities" might be regarded as sacred homage or divine emblems. What were these emblems? When plainness of speech is restored to its original office, and the meaning of words is defined or traced to their primitives, names of natural objects give us this wonderful answer, and tell us the homely story of these emblems.
THE Phallus and Linga, or Lingham, Stood for the image of the male organ; and the Yoni, or Unit, for the female organ.
PRIVY member (membrum virile) signifies, "he breaks through, or passes into." This word survives in German pfahl, and pole in English. Phallus is supposed to be of Phœnician origin, the Greek word pallo, or phallo, "to brandish preparatory to throwing a missile," is so near in assonance and meaning to phallus that one is quite likely to be parent of the other. In Sanskrit it can be traced to phal, "to burst," "to produce,"
[paragraph continues] "to be fruitful;" then, again, phal is "a plowshare," and is also the name of Siva and Mahadeva, who are Hindu Deities. Phallus, then, was the ancient emblem of creation: a Divinity who was companion to Bacchus. Figure 1 is a copy of a statuette of this Hindu Devi. The figure holds a phallus, or lingham, in the left hand, formed after an imaginary lotus bud. The coarsely carved unit of the feminine figure completes ale dogma of masculine and feminine powers combined in one. The son of Reuben, Phallu (Gen. xlvi, 9), signifies "a distinguished one," "he splits, divides," "he is round and plump," all of which point to a religion of sensual love.
Phallic emblems abounded at Heliopolis in Syria, and many other places,
 Fig. 1. |
complete genitals which have been cut off--many hundreds in all, I should think." This shows, first, how largely virility was interwoven with religion; second, how completely English Egyptologists have suppressed a portion of the facts in the histories which they have given to the world; third, it tells us of the antiquity of the practice, which still obtains among the negroes of North Africa, of mutilating entirely every male captive and slain enemy. See 2 Kings xx, 18; Isa. xxxix, 7. This vindictive usage was practiced by Saul and David, as may be seen in 1 Sam. xviii, 25, 27, when the king demands a hundred foreskins.
David, more heartless than Saul, doubled the quantity and brought two hundred of the vulgar trophies. Also Isaiah (xxxix, 7) intimidates the people, and says, "Thy sons that shall issue from the . . . shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon." The Apache Indians of California and Arizona delight in perpetrating the same barbarous mutilations upon captives and the slain.
Dr. Ginsingburg, in "Kitto's Cyclopædia," says: "Another primitive custom which obtained in the patriarchal age was, that the one who took the oath put his hand under the thigh of the adjurer (Gen. xxiv, 2, and xlvii, 29). This practice evidently arose from the fact that the genital member, which is meant by the euphemic expression, thigh, was regarded as the most sacred part of the body, being the symbol of union in the tenderest relation of matrimonial life, and the seat whence all issue proceeds, and the perpetuity so much coveted by the ancients. Compare Gen. xlvi, 26; Exod, i, 5; Judg. viii, 30. Hence the creative organ became the symbol of the Creator and the object of worship among all nations of antiquity. It is for this reason that God claimed it as a sign of the
covenant between himself and his chosen people in the rite of circumcision. Nothing therefore could render the oath more solemn in those days than touching the symbol of creation, the sign of the covenant, and the source of that issue who may at any future period avenge the breaking a compact made with their progenitor." From this we learn that Abraham, himself a Chaldee, had reverence for the phallus as an emblem of the Creator. We also learn the rite of circumcision touches phallic or lingasic worship. From Herodotus we are informed the Syrians learned circumcision from the Egyptians, as did the Hebrews. Says Dr. Inman: "I do not know any thing which illustrates the difference between ancient and modern times more than the frequency with which circumcision is spoken of in the sacred books, and the carefulness with which the subject is avoided now. To speak of any man as being worthy or contemptible, as men and women did among the Jews, according to the condition of an organ never named, and very rarely alluded to, in a mixed company of males and females among ourselves, shows us that persons holding such ideas must have thought far more of these matters, and spoken of them more freely, than we have been taught to do. Abundance of offspring is the absorbing promise to the faithful; a promise liable to fail except the parts destined to that purpose were in an appropriate condition."
We can compass some idea of the esteem in which people in former times cherished the male or phallic emblems of creative power when we note the sway that power exercised over them. If these organs were lost or disabled, the unfortunate one was unfitted to meet in the congregation of the Lord, and disqualified to minister in
the holy temples. Excessive was the punishment inflicted upon the person who should have the temerity to injure the sacred structure. If a woman were guilty of inflicting such injury, her hand should be cut off without pity (Deut. xxv, 12). It was an unpardonable offense, a sin not to be forgiven, for it was a calamity that bumbled their God and made him of no esteem. When his ability failed, respect for him failed. Such a man was "an abomination."
With a people enslaved to such groveling tenets, it was an easy and natural step from the actual to the symbolical; from the crude, and, perhaps, to some, offensive, to the improved, the pictured, the adorned, the less offensive; from the plain and self-evident, to the mixed, disguised and mystified; from the unclothed privy member to the letter T, or the cross; for these became the phallic analogues. The linga is the symbol of the male organ and Creator in Hindostan. It is always represented standing in the yoni, as in Figs. 4 and 23. Obelisks, pillars of any shape, stumps, trees denuded of boughs, upright stones, are some of the means by which the male element was symbolized. Siva is represented as a stone standing alone.
To know exactly who is who, and what is what, it will be necessary to explain the Triad, or Trinity, its origin and its changes or metamorphoses: then the tria juncta in uno--the three in one--can be recognized in the cross more readily than most people see the "three persons in one God." The triad generally belongs to the male, although the female Divinities were sometimes of triple constitution. If we turn to the analysis of the subject according to Rawason, we find that the first and
most sacred trinity--three persons and one God---consisted of Asshur, or Asher, or Ashur, whose several names were Il, Ilos, and Ra; Anu and Hed, or Hoa. Beltis was the Goddess associated with him. These four, that is, Asher, Anu, Hea, and Beltis, made up Arba, or Arba-il, the four great Gods, the quadrilateral, the perfect Creator. Asher was the phallus, or the linga, the membrum virile--the privy member; the cognomen Anu was given to the right testis, while that of Hea designated the left testis. When Asher was canonized a Deity, it was but right and natural his ever-attendent appendages should be deified with him. The idea thus broached receives confirmation when we examine the opinions which obtained in ancient times respecting the power of the right side of the body compared with the titles given to Ann. It was believed that the right testicle produced masculine seed, and that when males were begotten they were developed in the right side of the womb. Benjamin signifies "son of my right side;" thus the name of a member of a family attests the reigning notion. The name Benoni, given to the same individual by his mother, may mean, literally, either "son of Anu," or "son of my On." The male, or active, principle was typified by the idea of "solidity," and "firmness"; and the female, or passive, principle by "water," "fluidity," or "softness." It is then, a priori, probable that Anu was the name of the testis on the right side. To inspect the perfect man, or a correctly designed statue of Apollo Belvidere, will detect the fact that the right "egg" hangs on a higher level than the left, for which there is an anatomical reason. The metaphors we sometimes hear, such as "king of the lower world," "the original chief," "father of the Gods," "the old Anu," relate to these parts, and are
of phallic import. "King of the lower world" cannot refer to the "infernal regions" of modern orthodoxy, since that mythical Hades had not then come into existence,
How about the gland on the left side, the third divinity of the triad? Rawlinson states, as best he could determine, this was named Hea or Hoa, and he considers this Deity corresponds to Neptune. Neptune was the presiding Deity of the great deep, "Ruler of the Abyss," and "King of Rivers." He also regulates aqueducts, and waters generally. There is a correspondence between this Deity and Bacchus.
As Darwin and his coadjutors teach, mankind, in common with all animal life, originally sprung from the sea, so physiology teaches that each individual bas origin in a pond of water. The fruit of man is both solid and fluid. It was natural to imagine that the two male appendages had a distinct duty: that one formed the infant, the other the water in which it lived; that one generated the male and the other the female offspring; 1 and the inference was then drawn that water must be feminine, the emblem of the passive powers of creation. The use of water would then become the emblem of it new birth--"born of water;" and it would represent the phenomenon which occurs when the being first emerges into day. The night, which favors connubial intercourse, and the dark interior of the womb, in which for many months, the new creature is gradually formed, are represented by the "darkness brooding." It was night when the world was formed out of chaos; likewise it was thought
to be obscure when the mingling of the male and female fluids started a new being into existence. Favoring food fed the tiny speck for months, and its emerging as male or female into the world of men was the prototype of the emergence of animal life from the bosom of earth, or the womb of time, into actual existence.
Having dwelt on stem and branches of the god Asher, it is proper to give his definition as a personality and function; in other words, as a God. Asher (Gen. xxx, 13), "to be straight," "upright," "fortunate," "happy," "happiness," i. e., unus cui membrum erectum est vel fascinum ipsum--the erect virile member charmed with the act of its proper function. Says Dr, Inman: "While attending hospital practice in London, I heard a poor Irishman apostrophize his diseased organ as 'You father of thousands'; and in the same sense Asher is the father of the Gods. I find that a corresponding part of the female (pudenda) is currently called "the mother of all saints." Asher was the supreme God of the Assyrians, the Vedic God Mahadeva, the emblem of the human male structure and creative energy. This idea of the Creator is still to be seen in India, Egypt, Judea, the East, Phœnicia, the Mediterranean, Europe, Denmark, depicted on stone relics.
This much for Asher seemed necessary to explain the origin of the Trinity. So we find the male privy member and the adjacent twin testes made the Triad, and constructed into the pictured formula thus:
A
S
H
E
R
ANU HEA
With this glossary we can now understand the hidden meaning of Psa. cxxvii, 3, "Children are an heritage of the Lord, and the fruit of the womb is his reward." Exactly! Anu is Assyrian. There is a God in Babylon by the name of Anu. Asher is only another name for Al, On, Ra, Il, El, Hos, Helos, Bel, Baal, Allah, Elohim. These are also sometimes given to the run as the representative of the Creator and the phallic emblem. Asher, Anu, and Hea, three persons and one God, or, as modern theologians have been led to speak of the Trinity, "the more three because one, and the more one because three." One, by himself, is of no value, but "all work together for good."
IN all ages and all localities of the world, people conferred names which imply some one or more characteristics of person, feature, faith, place, or event. Among defectively educated people, and those of rough manners, we find "Long John," "Broad Bottom," "Squinting Dick"; and names for helpless children, "Makepeace," "Faithful," "Freelove" and "Praise God Barebones." In this matter the people of antiquity appear to have set the example. The Greeks had "Theodore," "the gift of God"; "Theophilus," "the friend of God." The analysis of the following vocabulary of Bible names throws a flood of light on the subject in hand. It unvails an interesting question, the nudity of which, for the most part, has been clothed with the vesture of words.
Ahumai (I Chron. iv, 2), "ach is mi," or "semen"; Baal-Shalisha (2 Kings iv, 42), "my Lord the trinity," "my Lord is three," "the triple male genitals."
Amorite, "speaking, flowing"; "erecting, or swelling up."
Ankura, "a sprout, or intumescence," "an erection."
Aram, "high," "to swell up," "to be uncovered or naked."
Aras, "to erect," "to build," "a nuptial bed."
Asahel, "to create," "to beget," "El-created."
Baal-Peor (Num. xxv, 3), "the maiden's hymen opener," "my Lord the opener."
Baal-Perazim, "Baal of the fissure."
Baal-Tamar, "Baal the palm tree," "my Lord who is or causes to be erect."
Benoni, "son of Anu," or "son of my On," "son of my God."
Ben-zoheth, "son of firmness," "to set up," "an erection," "a cippus."
Beren, "the womb," "the round belly," "the female organs."
Boladan, "my Lord of pleasure and delight."
Buli, "the vulva," "the belly,"
Cainan, "he stands upright," "Hermes."
Camon, "the erect On."
Chesil, "the loins or flanks." Loins is an euphemism for the male genitals.
Cyrus, "the bended bow," "the abdomen of a pregnant woman."
Dimon, "river, place"; "the semen, or viscous discharge of On."
Dodai, "loving, amatory."
Ehud, "conjugation, union"; "strong," "powerful," "the one."
Eliasaph, "El the fascinator."
Elisha, "El is," "the erect El."
Elkana, "El the erect One," "the tall reed," "El burning with desire."
Elkoshi, "El the hard One."
En-am, "the eye or fountain of the mother."
En-an, "the eye of On, or Anu."
Epaphroditus, "Love was my parent," "given by Venus."
Epher, "a calf," "a faun," "to join," "be strong."
Esau, "to make, to press, to dig, to build up, to squeeze immodestly," "the hairy El."
Eshek (1 Chron. viii, 39), "he presses, squeezes, penetrates into."
Eshton, "the power of woman."
Ether, "fullness," a God in the second Assyrian triad, his colleagues being the Sun and Moon. His name may be read as Eva, Iva, Air, Aer, Aur, Er, Ar, also Vul.
Ethnan, "a harlot's fee," "begotton by harlotry."
Eve, Chavah, havah, or hauah, "to breathe," "to blow," "eagerness," "lust"; "a cleft, fissure, or gap really, a fissure." (Concha).
Evi, "desire."
Ezem, "to fit firmly to one another," "hard."
Gaal, "the proud or erect Al."
Galah, "To be," or "to be naked," as in gala days.
Gath, "A wine press," also "a slit, pit, hole, well," or the euphemism for the vulva.
Gaza, "strong," "the trunk of a tree," "a phallic emblem."
Gilboa, "the sun is Baal."
Gilgal, "a wheel," a "circle, "the sun's heap of stones," "a phallus"; see Fig. 2.
 Fig. 2. |
Giloh, "the revealer," "to be or make naked," "to uncover," "to disclose."
Ginath, "the virgins," "the goddesses."
Ginnethon, "the power of the virgins."
Gomorrah, "a fissure, a cleft."
Habakkuk, "embrace of love."
Hai, Assyrian ai, "female power of the Sun."
Hamor, "the swelling up one," or "the red one," to be dark red," "sudden in rising," also "an ass"--which is notorious for salacity. "My beloved is white and ruddy" (Sol. Songs, v, 10).
Hashupa, "uncovering," "nakedness."
Hephzibah, "pure delight," "my delight in her."
Jaaz, "he is hard, firm, stiff," "he rules," "decides."
Jabal, "he rejoices," "he flows out," "he is strong."
Jabok, "running, or flowing forth."
Jabash, "a stout, fat one."
Jachin, "he strengthens," "to be hot with desire," "to have intercourse." Boaz has the same phallic meaning.
Jahdo, "he unites."
Jahaz, "Jah shines," "to be fair," "to be proud," "he is firm."
Jahdial, "El makes glad."
Jair, "enlightens," "shines," "blooms," "flows." Jair is united with Eros (erotic desire).
Jakim, "he set up," "standing erect," "raising seed to."
Japho, "beauty," "widely extending," "seduce," persuade."
Jehoaddan, "Jah is lovely," "Yeho is the provider of sexual pleasure."
Jepthel-el, "El is a begetter."
Jeroham, "a beloved or favored One."
Jesher, "he is upright."
Jesimel, "El creates."
Jeziah, "He is son of Jah."
Jonathan, "the gift of Jao" (a God).
Jhoharaph, "Jah is juicy, vigorous, strong or proud."
Joshar, "he is straight," "upright."
Jurah, "he boils up," "to glow, to burn," "to pour out largely."
Kishon, "the firm or hard On."
Maon ,"pudenda of On."
Tamar, the palm, an euphemism for the male organ.
It "ill be observed, a few of the above name,; refer to the Sun Deity, and solar worship. In some, the solar and phallic tenets are combined in the same, name, and depicted in the same figure. Such an illustration will be found in Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, under the name Agnus Dei. The figure--lamb, rain, or goat--is in the impossible attitude of holding a cross with the foot--sometimes a crosier, or shepherd's crook, either of which
are phallic emblems. The head of the animal is surrounded by a circle, or with rays, which are always typical of the Sun God. For the Hebrew text of the above names the reader is referred to "Inman's Ancient Faiths."
THE triad is parent to the idea of Trinity. It is met with in the most distant countries, and is traced to Phoenicia, Egypt, on the west, and Japan on the east, of our hemisphere, and to India. Constituting, as the triad and yoni did, the ever-dominant thought, and actuated by the narrow realm of an absorbing self-personality, they formed the basis and spirit of religious observance. They were referred to openly and broadly, or more generally and in later times by a mark, a metaphor, a motion, or a sign. For this sign the letter T became typical, and still later the figure of the cross became that sign. "It is most remarkable," says Payne Knight, that "the letter T and the cross, symbols of symbols, are made to represent the male procreative powers, which are emblems of generation and regeneration."
Reverse the position of the triple deities Asher, Anu, Hea and we have the figure of the, ancient "tau" ✝ Of the Christians, Greeks, and ancient, Hebrews--not of the modern Hebrews. It is one of the oldest conventional forms of the cross. It is also met with in Gallic, Oscan, Arcadian, Etruscan, original Egyptian, Phœnician, Ethiopic and Pelasgian. The Ethiopic form of the "tau" is this ✝ the exact prototype and image of the cross; or, rather, to state the fact in order of merit and position in time, the cross is made in the exact image of the Ethopic "tau." The fig-leaf, having three lobes to it, became a symbol of the triad. As the male genital organs were
held in early times to exemplify the actual male creative power, various natural objects were seized upon to express the theistic idea, and at the same time point to those parts of the human form. Hence, a similitude was recognized in a pillar, a heap of stones, a tree between two rocks, a club between two pine cones, a trident, a thyrsus tied round with two ribbons With the two ends pendant, a thumb and two fingers, the caduceus. Again, the conspicuous part of the sacred triad Asher is symbolized by a single stone placed upright--as in Gilgal in "Vocabulary," Fig. 2--the stump of a tree, a block, a tower, spire, minaret, pole, pine, poplar, or palm tree. While eggs, apples, or citrons, plums, grapes, and the like, represented the remaining two portions; altogether called phallic emblems. Fig. 3
 Fig. 3. |
We must not omit to mention other phallic emblems, such as the bull, the ram, the goat, the serpent, the torch, fire, a knobbed stick, the crozier: and still further personified, as Bacchus, Priapus, Dionysius, Hercules, Hermes, Mahadeva, Siva, Osiris, Jupiter, Molech, Baal, Asher, and others.
If Ezekiel is to be credited, the triad T, as Asher, Anu, and Hea, was made of gold and silver, and was in his day not symbolically used, but actually employed; for he bluntly says "whoredom was committed with the images of men," or, as the marginal note has it, images of "a male" (Ezek. xvi, 17). It was with this god-mark--a cross
in the form of the letter T--that Ezekiel was directed to stamp the foreheads of the men of Judea who feared the Lord (Ezek. ix, 4). In China, Tau is Nature's absolute unity.
Thus we find the cross is the Ethiopic and ancient Hebrew "tau" ✝. The T is the triad, the triad is Asher, Ann, and Hea--the male genitals deified--the genitals are pudenda, pudenda means shame or immodest, and so we arrive at the unavoidable conclusion that the cross is of sexual origin and purely masculine. It is the sign of a man-God.
This is not all of the cross. In ancient days it had a natural counterpart little suspected by moderns. This essential opposite was denominated the Yoni.
16:1 Somewhat recent information on this point teaches that sex is governed by the health and maturity of the ovum. Female offspring will follow when conception occurs at the earliest period of the maturing ovum, and mile offspring at the concluding period of heat.