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 associated 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 god Osiris is himself triune, as
he bears the horns symbolic of the goddess Athor and the feathers of the
god Ra.
Fig. 6 is a Hindoo sectarial mark, from Moor's Hindu Pantheon. The
lozenge indicates the yoni. For this assertion 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 balls 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 sexual 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
bestial head, a flower, etc., is attached to the apron 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 cock, 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 sexual
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 hell, the existence
of a devil, of archangels, angels, spirits and saints, martyrs and
virgins, intercessors in heaven, gods and demigods, 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 shell below.
See supra, Plate ix., Fig. 6.