It is believed that Abraham introduced fire-worship among the
Jews from Ur in Mesopotamia, a land in which lights are still
venerated, and fire altars are worshipped as containing the
Deity.
The real essence of fire which was identical with the
life-principle was holy. The "Lord" of the Israelites was in the
fire which descended on Mt. Sinai, Exodus xix., 18. "The bush
burned with fire and the bush was not consumed," Exodus iii., 2.
Whether the signification of "bush" is the same as "grove," I
know not, but Josephus assures us that the bush was holy before
the flame appeared in it. Because of its sacred character, it
became the receptacle for the burning "Lord" of the Jews. The
ark, the religious emblem which Moses bore aloft, was simply a
fire altar on which the fire must continually burn. The fact will
doubtless be observed that although the ark and the bush (female
emblems) were invested with a certain degree of sanctity, they
were nevertheless only receptacles for the substance within
them.
At the same time that the Jews kept sacred or holy fires
continually burning on their altars, they carried about a serpent
on a pole representing it to be the "healer of nations." They
also kept a phallic emblem in a box, chest, or ark which they
worshipped as the "God of Hosts," the "Life Giver," etc. It has
been observed that although the Jews frequently lost their ark,
they were never without their serpent-pole. At a certain stage in
the religious development of mankind all the temples in Africa
and Western Asia were dedicated to Vulcan the fire god or the
"Lord of Fire," to whom all furnaces were sacred. The principal
festivals in honor of this Deity took place in the spring, at the
Easter season, and on the 23d of August, when it is said that the
licentiousness practiced in the temples compared with those of
the "Harvest Homes" of Europe when the sun was in Libra and the
harvest had been garnered in. Vulcan was the "God of fornication"
or of passion.
These excesses, which remained unchecked down to the fourth
century before Christ, are said to have somewhat abated after the
rise of the Stoic philosophy.
Various philosophers of early historic times as well as many
of the early fathers in the Christian church believed that God
was a corporeal substance which in some way is manifested through
fire.
In Egypt, during the early ages of Christianity, "a great
dispute took place among the monks on the question, whether God
is corporeal." Tertullian declared that "God is fire"; Origen,
that "he is a subtle fire"; and various others that "he is
body."
There is little doubt that in early historic ages the
Persians, who had undertaken to purify their religion, were the
strongest and purest sect of this cult; they were in fact the
genuine worshippers of the pure creative principles which they
believed resided in fire.
We have observed that force or spirit was originally regarded
as a part of Nature, or in other words that it was a
manifestation of, or an outflowing from matter, but so soon as it
began to be considered as something apart from Nature, there at
once arose a desire for some corporeal object to represent this
unseen and occult principle.
During many of the ages of fire-worship, holy fire, although a
material substance, seems to have been too subtle to clearly
represent the god-idea, hence everywhere the worship of the
serpent is found to be interwoven with it. In fact, so closely
are serpent, fire, pillar, and other phallic faiths intermingled
that it is impossible to separate them.
The Persians are by some writers said to have been the
earliest fire-worshippers: by others the truth of this statement
is denied, while many claim, and indeed the Maji themselves
declared, that they never worshipped fire at all in any other
manner than as an emblem of the divine principle which they
believed resided within it. It is probable, however, from the
evidence at hand, that they, like all the other nations of the
globe, prior to the reformation led by Zarathustra and his
daughter, had lost or nearly forgotten the profound ideas
connected with the worship of Nature.
Passion, symbolized by fire, is declared by various writers to
have been the first idol, but later research has proved the
falsity of this assumption. It is true that at an early age of
human experience the creative processes were worshipped, but such
worship involved scientific and, I might say, spiritualized
conceptions of the operations of Nature which in time were
altogether lost sight of. Gross phallicism is clearly the result
of degeneration, and of a lapse into sensuality and
superstition.
I think no one can study the facts connected with fire and
light as the Deity in the various countries in which this worship
prevailed, without perceiving the change it gradually underwent
during later ages, and the grossness of the ideas which became
connected with it as compared with an earlier age when mankind
"had no temples, but worshipped in the open air, on the tops of
mountains."
In another portion of this work we have observed that in the
rites connected with the worship of Cybele (Light or Wisdom),
although phallic symbols were in use, the ceremonies were
absolutely pure, and that throughout all the earlier ages her
worship remained free from the abominations which characterized
the worship of later times.
At what time in the history of the human race the organs of
generation first began to appear as emblems of the Deity is not
known. Within the earliest cave temples, those hewn from the
solid rock, sculptured representations of these objects are still
to be observed. Although until a comparatively recent period
their true significance has been unknown, there is little doubt
at the present time that they were originally used as symbols of
fertility, or as emblems typifying the processes of Nature, and
that at some remote period of the world's history they were
worshipped as the Creator, or, at least, as representations of
the creative agencies in the universe.
Concerning the origin and character of the people who executed
them there is scarcely a trace in written history. Through the
unravelling of extinct tongues, however, the monumental records
of the ancient nations of the globe have been deciphered, and the
system of religious symbolism in use among them is now
understood.
A small volume by various writers, printed in London some
years ago, entitled A Comparative View of the Ancient Monuments
of India, says:
"Those who have penetrated into the abstruseness of
Indian mythology, find that in these temples was practiced a
worship similar to that practiced by all the several nations of
the world, in their earliest as well as their most enlightened
periods. It was paid to the Phallus by the Asiatics, to Priapus
by the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans, to Baal-Peor by the
Canaanites and idolatrous Jews. The figure is seen on the fascia
which runs round the circus of Nismes, and over the portal of the
Cathedral of Toulouse, and several churches of
Bordeaux."
Of the Lingham and Yoni and their universal acceptance as
religious emblems, Barlow remarks that it was a "worship which
would appear to have made the tour of the globe and to have left
traces of its existence where we might least expect to find it."
In referring to the "sculptured indecencies" connected with
religious rites, which, being wrought in imperishable stone, have
been preserved in India and other parts of the East, Forlong says
that when occurring in the temples or other sacred places they
are at the present time evidently very puzzling to the pious
Indians, and in their attempts to explain them they say they are
placed there "in fulfilment of vows," or that they have been
wrought there "as punishments for sins of a sexual nature,
committed by those who executed or paid for them." It is,
however, the opinion of Forlong that they are simply connected
with an older and purer worship--a worship which involved the
union of the sex principles as the foundation of their
god-idea.
Regarding the cause for the "indecent" sculptures of the
Orissa temples, the same writer quotes the following from Baboo
Ragendralala Mitra, in his work on the Antiquities of Orissa.
"A vitiated taste aided by general prevalence of immorality
might at first sight appear to be the most likely one; but I can
not believe that libidiousness, however depraved, would ever
think of selecting fanes dedicated to the worship of God, as the
most appropriate for its manifestations; for it is worthy of
remark that they occur almost exclusively on temples and their
attached porches, and never on enclosing walls, gateways, and
other non-religious structures. Our ideas of propriety, according
to Voltaire, lead us to suppose that a ceremony (like the worship
of Priapus) which appears to us infamous, could only be invented
by licentiousness; but it is impossible to believe that depravity
of manners would ever have led among any people to the
establishment of religious ceremonies. It is probable, on the
contrary, that this custom was first introduced in times of
simplicity--that the first thought was to honor the Deity in the
symbol of life which it has given us; such a ceremony may have
excited licentiousness among youths, and have appeared ridiculous
to men of education in more refined, more corrupt, and more
enlightened times, but it never had its origin in such feelings.
. . . It is out of the question therefore to suppose that a
general prevalence of vice would of itself, without the authority
of priests and scriptures, suffice to lead to the defilement of
holy temples."[101]
[101] Rivers of Life, vol. i., p. 275.
Originally the Ionians, as their name indicates, were Yoni
worshippers, i. e., they belonged to the sect which was driven
out of India because of their stubborn refusal to worship the
male energy as the Creator. During the later ages of their
history, at a time when their religion had degenerated into a
licensed system of vice and corruption, and after their temples
had become brothels in which, in the name of religion, were
practiced the most debasing ceremonies, the Greeks became ashamed
of their ancient worship, and, like the Jews, ashamed also of
their name.
It is believed that the Greeks received from Egypt, or the
East, their first theological conceptions of God and religion.
These ideas
"were veiled in symbols, significant of a primitive
monotheism; these, at a later period, being translated into
symbolical or allegorical language, were by the poets transformed
into epic or narrative myths, in which the original subject
symbolized was almost effaced, whilst the allegorical expressions
were received generally in a literal sense. Hence, to the many,
the meaning of the ancient doctrine was lost, and was
communicated only to the few, under the strictest secrecy in the
mysteries of Eleusis and Samothrace. Thus there was a popular
theology to suit the people, and a rational theology reserved for
the educated, the symbolical language in both being the same, but
the meaning of it being taken differently. In course of time, as
knowledge makes its way among the people, and religious
enlightenment with it, much of what had been received literally
will relapse into its original figurative or symbolical meaning.
Reason will resume her supremacy, and stereotyped dogmas will
fall like pagan idols before advancing truth."[102]
[102] Barlow, Essays on Symbolism, p. 121.
Although, during the later ages of the human career, the
higher truths taught by an earlier race were lost, still a slight
hint of the beauty and purity of the more ancient worship may be
traced through most of the ages of the history of religion. Even
among the profligate Greeks, the mysteries of Eleusis, celebrated
in the temple of Ceres, were always respected. Care should be
taken, however, not to confound these remnants of pure Nature-
worship with that of the courtesan Venus, whose adoration, during
the degenerate days of Greece, represented only the lowest and
most corrupt conception of the female energy.
Down to a late date in the annals of Athens there was
celebrated a religious festival called Thesmophoria. The name of
this festival is derived from one of the cognomens of Ceres--the
goddess "who first gave laws and made life orderly." Ceres was
the divinity adored by the Amazons, and is essentially the same
as the Egyptian Isis. She represents universal female Nature. The
Thesmophorian rites, which are believed by most writers to have
been introduced into Greece directly from Thrace, were performed
by "virgins distinguished for probity in life, who carried about
in procession sacred books upon their heads."
Inman, in his Ancient Faiths, quotes an oracle of Apollo, from
Spencer, to the effect that "Rhea the Mother of the Blessed, and
the Queen of the Gods, loved assemblages of women." As this
festival is in honor of Female Nature, the various female
attributes are adored as deities, Demeter being the first named
by the worshippers. After a long season of fasting, and "after
solemn reflection on the mysteries of life, women splendidly
attired in white garments assemble and scatter flowers in honor
of the Great Mother."
The food partaken of by the devotees at these festivals was
cakes, very similar in shape to those which were offered to the
Queen of Heaven by the women of Judah in the days of Jeremiah, an
offering which it will be remembered so displeased that prophet
that a curse was pronounced upon the entire people.
As the strictest secrecy prevailed among the initiated
respecting these rites, the exact nature of the symbols employed
at the Thesmophorian festivals is not known; it is believed,
however, that it was the female emblem of generation, and that
this festival was held in honor of that event which from the
earliest times had been prophesied by those who believed in the
superior importance of the female, namely, that unaided by the
male power, a woman would bring forth, and that this
manifestation of female sufficiency would forever settle the
question of the ascendancy of the female principle. Through a
return of the ancient ideas of purity and peace, mankind would be
redeemed from the wretchedness and misery which had been the
result of the decline of female power. The dual idea entertained
in the Thesmophorian worship is observed in the fact that
although Ceres, the Great Mother, was the principal Deity
honored, Proserpine, the child, was also comprehended, and with
its Mother worshipped as part of the Creator. Thus we observe
that down to a late date in the history of Grecian mythology the
idea of a Holy Mother with her child had not altogether
disappeared as a representation of the god-idea.
To prove the worthiness of the ideas connected with the
Eleusinian mysteries it is stated that "there is not an instance
on record that the honor of initiation was ever obtained by a
very bad man."
In Rome these mysteries took another name and were called "the
rites of Bona Dea," which was but another name for Ceres. As
evidence of their purity we have the following:
"All the distinguished Roman authors speak of these
rites and in terms of profound respect. Horace denounces the
wretch who should attempt to reveal the secrets of these rites;
Virgil mentions these mysteries with great respect; and Cicero
alludes to them with a greater reverence than either of the poets
we have named. Both the Greeks and the Romans punished any insult
offered to these mysteries with the most persevering
vindictiveness. Alcibiades was charged with insulting these
religious rites, and although the proof of his offense was quite
doubtful, yet he suffered for it for years in exile and misery,
and it must be allowed that he was the most popular man of his
age."[103]
[103] Chambers's Edinburgh Journal.
In Greece, the celebration of the Eleusinian mysteries was in
the hands of the Emolpidae, one of the oldest and most respected
families of antiquity. At Carthage, there were celebrated the
Phiditia, religious solemnities similar to those already
described in Greece. During the two or three days upon which
these festivals were celebrated, public feasts were prepared at
which the youth were instructed by their elders in the state
concerning the principles which were to govern their conduct in
after life; truth, inward purity, and virtue being set forth as
essentials to true manhood. In later times, after these festivals
had found their way to Rome, they gradually succumbed to the
immorality which prevailed, and at last, when their former
exalted significance had been forgotten, they were finally sunk
into "the licentiousness of enjoyment, and the innocence of mirth
was superseded by the uproar of riot and vice! Such were the
Saturnalia."
From the facts connected with the mysteries of Eleusis and the
Thesmophorian rites, it is evident that in its earlier stages
Nature-worship was absolutely free from the impurities which came
to be associated with it in later times. As the organs of
generation had not originally been wholly disgraced and outraged,
it is not unlikely that when the so-called "sculptured
indecencies" appeared on the walls of the temples they were
regarded as no more an offense against propriety and decency than
was the reappearance of the cross, the emblem of life, in later
times, among orthodox Christians.
Neither is it probable, in an age in which nothing that is
natural was considered indecent, and before the reproductive
energies had become degraded, that these symbols were any more
suggestive of impurity than are the Easter offerings upon our
church altars at the present time. Whatever may now be the
significance of these offerings to those who present them, sure
it is that they once, together with other devices connected with
Nature-worship, were simply emblems of fertility--symbols of a
risen and fructifying sun which by its gladdening rays re-creates
and makes all things new again.
If we carefully study the religion of past ages we will
discover something more than a hint of an age when the generative
functions were regarded as a sacred expression of creative power,
and when the reproductive organs had not through over-stimulation
and abuse been tabooed as objects altogether impure and unholy,
and as things too disgraceful to be mentioned above a whisper.
Indeed there is much evidence going to show that in an earlier
age of the world's history the degradation of mankind, through
the abuse of the creative functions, had not been accomplished,
and the ills of life resulting from such abuse were unknown.
We may reasonably believe that those instincts in the female
which are correlated with maternal affection and which were
acquired by her as a protection to the germ, or, in other words,
those characters which Nature has developed in the female to
insure the safety and well-being of offspring, and which in a
purer and more natural stage of human existence acted as cheeks
upon the energies of the male, were not easily or quickly
subdued; but when through subjection to the animal nature of man
these instincts or characters had been denied their natural
expression, and woman had become simply the instrument of man's
pleasure, the comparatively pure worship of the organs of
generation as symbols of creative power began to give place to
the deification of these members simply as emblems of desire, or
as instruments for the stimulation of passion.
We are assured that on the banks of the Ganges, the very
cradle of religion, are still to be found various remnants of the
most ancient form of Nature-worship--that there are still to be
observed "certain high places sacred to more primitive ideas than
those represented by Vedic gods."
Here devout worshippers believe that the androgynous God of
fertility, or Nature, still manifests itself to the faithful.
Close beside these more ancient shrines are others representing a
somewhat later development of religious faith--shrines, by means
of which are indicated some of the processes involved in the
earlier growth of the god-idea. Not far removed from these are to
be found, also, numerous temples or places of worship belonging
to a still later faith--a faith in which are revealed the
"awakening and stimulation of every sensuous feeling, and which
has drowned in infamy every noble impulse developed in human
nature."
Of the depravity of the Jews and the immorality practiced in
their religious rites, Forlong says:
"No one can study their history, liberated from the
blindness which our Christian up-bringing and associations cast
over us, without seeing that the Jews were probably the grossest
worshippers among all those Ophi--Phallo--Solar devotees who then
covered every land and sea, from the sources of the Nile and
Euphrates to all over the Mediterranean coasts and isles. These
impure faiths seem to have been very strictly maintained by Jews
up to Hezekiah's days, and by none more so than by dissolute
Solomon and his cruel, lascivious bandit-father, the brazen-faced
adulterer and murderer, who broke his freely volunteered oath,
and sacrificed six innocent sons of his king to his
Javah."
Of Solomon he says that he devoted his energies and some
little wealth "to rearing phallic and Solophallic shrines over
all the high places around him, and especially in front of
Jerusalem, and on and around the Mount of Olives." On each side
of the entrance to his celebrated temple, under the great phallic
spire which formed the portico, were two handsome columns over
fifty feet high, by the side of which were the sun God Belus and
his chariots.
In a description of this temple it is represented as being one
hundred and twenty feet long and forty feet broad, while the
porch, a phallic emblem, "was a huge tower, forty feet long,
twenty feet broad, and two hundred and forty feet high." We are
assured by Forlong that Solomon's temple was like hundreds
observed in the East, except that its walls were a little higher
than those usually seen, and the phallic spire out of proportion
to the size of the structure. "The Jewish porch is but the
obelisk which the Egyptian placed beside his temple; the Boodhist
pillars which stood all around their Dagobas; the pillars of
Hercules, which stood near the Phoenician temple; and the spire
which stands beside the Christian Church."[104]
[104] Forlong, Rivers of Life, vol. i., p. 219.
The rites and ceremonies observed in the worship of Baal-Peor
are not of a character to be described in these pages: it is
perhaps sufficient to state that by them the fact is clearly
established that profligacy, regulated and controlled by the
priestly order as part and parcel of religion, was not confined
to the Gentiles; but, on the contrary, that the religious
observances of the Jews prior to the Babylonian captivity were
even more gross than were those of the Assyrians or the
Hindoos.
These impure faiths arose at a time when man as the sole
creator of offspring became god, when the natural instincts of
woman were subdued, and when passion as the highest expression of
the divine force came to be worshipped as the most important
attribute of humanity.
The extent to which these faiths have influenced later
religious belief and observances is scarcely realized by those
who have not given special attention to this subject.
It has been stated that in the time of Solon, law-giver of
Athens, there were twenty temples in the various cities of Greece
dedicated to Venus the courtesan, within which were practiced, in
the name of religion, the most infamous rites and the most
shameless self-abandonment; and that throughout Europe, down to a
late period in the history of the race, religious festivals were
celebrated at certain seasons of the year, at which the
ceremonies performed in honor of the god of fornication were of
the grossest nature, and at which the Bacchanalian orgies were
only equalled by those practiced in the religious temples of
Babylon.
It is impossible longer to conceal the fact that passion,
symbolized by a serpent, an upright stone, and by the male and
female organs of generation, the male appearing as the "giver of
life," the female as a necessary appendage to it, constituted the
god-idea of mankind for at least four thousand years; and,
instead of being confined to the earlier ages of that period, we
shall presently see that phallic worship had not disappeared,
under Christianity, as late and even later than the sixteenth
century.
Such has been the result of the ascendancy gained by the
grosser elements in human nature: the highest idea of the
Infinite passion symbolized by the organs of generation, while
the principal rites connected with its worship are scenes of
debauchery and self-abasement.
At the present time it is by no means difficult to trace the
growth of the god-idea. First, as we have seen, a system of pure
Nature-worship appeared under the symbol of a Mother and child.
In process of time this particular form of worship was supplanted
by a religion under which the male principle is seen to be in the
ascendancy over the female. Later a more complicated system of
Nature-worship is observed in which the underlying principles are
concealed, or are understood only by the initiated. Lastly, these
philosophical and recondite principles are forgotten and the
symbols themselves receive the adoration which once belonged to
the Creator. The change which the ideas concerning womanhood
underwent from the time when the natural feminine characters and
qualities were worshipped as God, to the days of Solon the
Grecian law-giver, when women had become merely tools or slaves
for the use and pleasure of men, is forcibly shown by a
comparison of the character ascribed to the female deities at the
two epochs mentioned. Athene who in an earlier age had
represented Wisdom had in the age of Solon degenerated into a
patroness of heroes; but even as a Goddess of war her patronage
was as nought compared with that of the courtesan Venus, at whose
shrine "every man in Greece worshipped."
The extent to which women, in the name of religion, have been
degraded, and the part which in the past they have been compelled
to assume in the worship of passion may not at the present time
be disguised, as facts concerning this subject are well
authenticated. In a former work,[105] attention has been directed
to the religious rites of Babylon, the city in which it will be
remembered the Tower of Belus was situated. Here women of all
conditions and ranks were obliged, once in their life, to
prostitute themselves in the temple for hire to any stranger who
might demand such service, which revenue was appropriated by the
priests to be applied to sacred uses. This act it will be
remembered was a religious obligation imposed by religious
teachers and enforced by priestly rule. It was a sacrifice to the
god of passion. A similar custom prevailed in Cyprus.
[105] See Evolution of Woman, p. 228.
Most of the temples of the later Hindoos had bands of
consecrated women called the "Women of the Idol." These victims
of the priests were selected in their infancy by Brahmins for the
beauty of their persons, and were trained to every elegant
accomplishment that could render them attractive and which would
insure success in the profession which they exercised at once for
the pleasure and profit of the priesthood. They were never
allowed to desert the temple; and the offspring of their
promiscuous embraces were, if males, consecrated to the service
of the Deity in the ceremonies of this worship, and, if females,
educated in the profession of their mothers.[106]
[106] Maurice, Indian Antiquities, vol. i.
That prostitution was a religious observance, which was
practiced in Eastern temples, cannot in the face of accessible
facts be doubted. Regarding this subject, Inman says:
"To us it is inconceivable, that the indulgence of
passion could be associated with religion, but so it was. The
words expressive of 'sanctuary,' 'consecrated,' and 'sodomites'
are in the Hebrew essentially the same. It is amongst the Hindoos
of to-day as it was in the Greece and Italy of classic times; and
we find that 'holy woman' is a title given to those who devote
their bodies to be used for hire, which goes to the service of
the temple."
The extent to which ages of corruption have vitiated the purer
instincts of human nature, and the degree to which centuries of
sensuality and superstition have degraded the nature of man, may
be noticed at the present time in the admissions which are
frequently made by male writers regarding the change which during
the history of the race has taken place in the god-idea. None of
the attributes of women, not even that holy instinct--maternal
love, can by many of them be contemplated apart from the ideas of
grossness which have attended the sex-functions during the ages
since women first became enslaved. As an illustration of this we
have the following from an eminent philologist of recent times, a
writer whose able efforts in unravelling religious myths bear
testimony to his mental strength and literary ability.
"The Chaldees believed in a celestial virgin who had purity of
body, loveliness of person, and tenderness of affection, and she
was one to whom the erring sinner could appeal with more chance
of success than to a stern father. She was portrayed as a mother
with a child in her arms, and every attribute ascribed to her
showing that she was supposed to be as fond as any earthly female
ever was."[107]
[107] Inman, Ancient Faiths, vol. i., p. 59.
After thus describing the early Chaldean Deity, who, although
a pure and spotless virgin, was nevertheless worshipped as a
mother, or as the embodiment of the altruistic principles
developed in mankind, this writer goes on to say: "The worship of
the woman by man naturally led to developments which
ourCOMPARATIVELY SENSITIVE NATURES [the italics are mine]
shun as being opposed to all religious feeling," which sentiment
clearly reveals the inability of this writer to estimate
womanhood, or even motherhood, apart from the sensualized ideas
which during the ages in which passion has been the recognized
god have gathered about it.
The purity of life and the high stage of civilization reached
by an ancient people, and the fact that these conditions were
reached under pure Nature-worship, or when the natural attributes
of the female were regarded as the highest expression of the
divine in the human, prove that it was neither the appreciation
nor the deification of womanhood which "led to developments which
sensitive natures shun as being opposed to all religious
feeling," but, on the contrary, that it was the lack of such
appreciation which stimulated the lower nature of man and
encouraged every form of sensuality and superstition. In other
words, it was the subjection of the natural female instincts and
the deification of brute passion during the later ages of human
history which have degraded religion and corrupted human
nature.
Although at the present time it is quite impossible for
scholars to veil the fact that the god-idea was originally
worshipped as female, still, most modern writers who deal with
this subject seem unable to understand the state of human society
which must have existed when the instincts, qualities, and
characters peculiar to the female constitution were worshipped as
divine. So corrupt has human nature become through
over-stimulation and indulgence of the lower propensities, that
it seems impossible for those who have thus far dealt with this
subject to perceive in the earlier conceptions of a Deity any
higher idea than that conveyed to their minds at the present time
by the sexual attributes and physical functions of
females--namely, their capacity to bring forth, coupled with the
power to gratify the animal instincts of males, functions which
women share with the lower orders of life.
The fact that by an ancient race woman was regarded as the
head or crown of creation, that she was the first emanation from
the Deity, or, more properly speaking, that she represented
Perceptive Wisdom, seems at the present time not to be
comprehended, or at least not acknowledged. The more recently
developed idea, that she was designed as an appendage to man, and
created specially for his use and pleasure,--a conception which
is the direct result of the supremacy of the lower instincts over
the higher faculties,--has for ages been taught as a religious
doctrine which to doubt involves the rankest heresy.
The androgynous Venus of the earlier ages, a deity which
although female was figured with a beard to denote that within
her were embraced the masculine powers, embodied a conception of
universal womanhood and the Deity widely different from that
entertained in the later ages of Greece, at a time when Venus the
courtesan represented all the powers and capacities of woman
considered worthy of deification.
To such an extent, in later ages, have all our ideas of the
Infinite become masculinized that in extant history little except
occasional hints is to be found of the fact that during
numberless ages of human existence the Supreme Creator was
worshipped as female.
One has only to study the Greek character to anticipate the
manner in which any subject pertaining to women would be treated
by that arrogant and conceited race; and, as until recently most
of our information concerning the past has come through Greek
sources, the distorted and one-sided view taken of human events,
and the contempt with which the feminine half of society has been
regarded, are in no wise surprising. We must bear in mind the
fact, however, that the Greeks were but the degenerate
descendants of the highly civilized peoples whom they were
pleased to term "barbarians," and that they knew less of the
origin and character of the gods which they worshipped, and which
they had borrowed from other countries, than is known of them at
the present time.
About 600 years B.C., we may believe that mankind had sunk to
the lowest depth of human degradation, since which time humanity
has been slowly retracting its course; not, however, with any
degree of continuity or regularity, nor without lapses, during
which for hundreds of years the current seemed to roll backward.
Indeed when we review the history of the intervening ages, and
note the extent to which passion, prejudice, and superstition
have been in the ascendancy over reason and judgment, we may
truly say: "The fathers have eaten sour grapes and the children's
teeth have been set on edge."