Another type of emblem was the stone pillar, remains of which still
exist in the British Isles. These pillars or so called crosses generally
consist of a shaft of granite with a carved head. In the West of England
crosses are very common, standing in the market and receiving the name
of “The Cross.”
These stone pillars were first erected in honour of the Phallic deity,
and on the introduction of Christianity were not destroyed, but
consecrated to the new faith, doubtless to honour the prejudices of the
people. These monolisks abound in the Highlands, they are stones set up
on end, some twenty-four or thirty feet high, others higher or lower and
this sometimes where no such stones are to be quarried.
We learn that the Bacchus of the Thebans was a pillar. The Assyrian Nebo
was represented by a plain pillar, consecrated by anointing with oil.
Arnobius gives an account of this practice, as also does Theophrastus,
who speaks of it as a custom for a superstitious man, when he passed by
these anointed stones in the streets to take out a phial of oil and pour
it upon them and having fallen on his knees to make his adorations, and
so depart.
In various parts of the Bible the Pillar is referred to as of a sacred
character, as in Isaiah xix. 19, 20, “In that day shall there be an
altar to Jehovah in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a _pillar_ at
the border thereof to Jehovah, and it should be for a sign and a witness
to the Lord.”
The Orphic Temples were doubtless emblems of the same principle of the
mystic faiths of the ancients, the same as the Round Towers of Ireland,
a history of which was collected by O’Brien, who describes the Towers as
“Temples constructed by the early Indian colonists of the country in
honour of the _Fructifying_ principle of nature, emanating as was
supposed from the Sun, or the deity of desire instrumental in that
principle of universal generativeness diffused throughout all nature.”
According to the same author these towers were very ancient, and of
Phœnician origin, as similar towers have been found in Phœnicia. “The
Irish themselves,” says O’Brien, “designated them ‘Bail-toir,’ that is
the tower of Baal. Baal was the name of the Phallic deity, and the
priest who attended them ‘Aoi Bail-toir’ or superintendent of Baal
tower.” This Baal was worshipped wherever the Phœnicians went, and was
represented by a pillar or stone or similar objects. The stone that
Jacob set up, and anointed as a rallying place for worship, became
afterwards an object of worship to the Phœnicians.
The earliest navigators of the world were the Phœnicians, they founded
colonies and extended their commerce first to the isles of the
Mediterranean, from thence to Spain, and then to the British Isles.
Historians have accorded to them the settlements of the most remote
localities. They formed settlements in Cyprus, and Atticum, according to
Josephus, was the principal settlement of the Tyrians upon this island.
Strabo’s testimony is, that the Phœnicians, even before Homer, had
possessed themselves of the best part of Spain.
Where the Phœnicians settled, there they introduced their religion, and
it is in these countries we find the remains of ancient stone and pillar
worship.