After the decline of Nature-worship, and when through the constantly
increasing power gained by the ruder elements in human society a
knowledge of the scientific principles underlying ancient religion had
been partially lost or forgotten, it became necessary for philosophers
to conceal the original conception of the Deity and to clothe their
sacred writings in allegory. Hence it is observed that every ancient
form of religion has a cabala containing its secret doctrines--doctrines
the inner meaning of which was known only to the few. In order that
these truths might be preserved, they were inscribed on the leaves of
trees in characters or symbols understood only by the initiated. The
allegories beneath which these higher truths were concealed were handed
down as traditions to succeeding generations--traditions in which
history, astrology, and mythology are strangely combined.
After long periods, through war, conquest, and the various changes
incidental to shifting environment, these traditions were in the main
forgotten. Fragments of them, however, were from time to time gathered
together, and, intermingled with later doctrines, were used by the
priests as a means of increased self-aggrandizement and power.
It is now thought that the Iliad (Rhapsodies) of Homer is only a number
of "detached songs" which perhaps for centuries were delivered orally,
and that they contain the secret doctrines of the priests. Porphyry
says that "we ought not to doubt that Homer has secretly represented
the images of divine things under the concealment of fable." It has been
said of Plato that he banished the poems of Homer from his imaginary
republic for the reason that the people might not be able to distinguish
what is from what is not allegorical. Hippolytus informs us that the
Simonists declared that in Helen resided the principle of intelligence;
"and thus, when all the powers were for claiming her for themselves,
sedition and war arose, during which this chief power was manifested to
nations." These songs which were gathered together by Pisistratus and
revised by Aristotle for the use of Alexander, have generally been
regarded merely as a bit of history recounting a severe and protracted
struggle between the Greeks and Trojans.
Within the earliest historical accounts which we have of the Egyptians,
we observe that their ceremonies and symbols have already become
multitudinous, the true meaning of the latter being concealed. The
masses of the people, who had grown too sensualized and ignorant to
receive the higher divine "mysteries," and too gross to be entrusted
with their true significance, had become idolaters.
Not only the Egyptian and Chaldean priests, but Moses and the Jewish
doctors were well versed in religious symbolism. The fact is observed,
also, that as late as medieval Christianity, the fathers in the Church,
the Christian painters, sculptors, and architects, still employed signs
and symbols to set forth their religious doctrines. Even at the present
time, many of the emblems representing certain ideas connected with
the creative principles, and which were part and parcel of the pagan
worship, are still in use. The masses of the people, however, are
without a knowledge of their origin or early significance.
Everywhere, throughout the early historic nations, were worshipped
symbols of the attributes or functions of the dual or triune God. Each
symbol represented a distinctive female or male quality. Animals, trees,
the sea, plants, the moon, and the heavens were, at a certain stage of
religious development, symbolized as parts of the Deity and worshipped
as possessing certain female or male characteristics or attributes.
It is plain that, with the decline of female power, and the consequent
stimulation of the animal instincts in man, the pure creative principles
involved in Nature-worship gradually became unsuited to the sensualized
capacities and tastes of the masses; but in addition to this were other
reasons why the female principle in the Deity should be concealed. Women
were already deposed from their former exalted position as heads of
families and as leaders of consanguine communities. All their rightful
prerogatives had been usurped. The highest development in Nature had
become the slave of man's appetites, and motherhood, which had hitherto
been accepted as the most exalted function either in heaven or on the
earth, trailed in the dust.
Under these conditions it is not perhaps singular that the capacity
to bring forth, and the qualities and attributes of women which are
correlated with it, namely, sympathy--a desire for the welfare of others
outside of self, or altruism,--should no longer have been worshipped as
divine, or that in their place should have been substituted the leading
characters developed in man. From the facts at hand it is plain that
at a certain stage of human growth physical might and male reproductive
energy, or virility, became the recognized God. With passion as the
highest ideal of a Creator, the female element appeared only in a
sensualized form and simply as an appendage to the god which was
dependent upon her ministrations. Under the above conditions it is not
in the least remarkable that by the priests it should have been deemed
necessary to conceal from women the facts bound up in their nature.
Woman's importance as a creative agency and as a prime and most
essential factor in the universe must be concealed. "Isis must be
veiled."
Through the appropriation of the titles of the original dual God by
reigning monarchs, is perceived at least one of the processes by which
the great universal female Deity of the ancients has been transformed
into a male god. We are assured that the "redundant nomenclature of the
deities of Babylon renders an interpretation of them impossible.
Each divinity has many distinct names, by which he is indifferently
designated." It is observed that each Deity has as many as forty or
fifty titles, each of which represents a certain attribute.
Since the invention of the cuneiform alphabet, by which pictures have
been reduced to phonetic signs, the attempt has been made to arrange or
classify these gods according to their proper order in the Pantheon, but
thus far much obscurity and doubt seem to pervade their history.
In Assyrian, Babylonian, and Egyptian mythologies are observed much
confusion and no small degree of mystery surrounding the positions
occupied by certain gods. "Children not unfrequently change positions
with parents," but more frequently, we are told, "women change places
with men," or, more properly speaking, the titles, attributes, and
qualities ascribed to the Great Universal female God are now transferred
to the reigning monarch. Thus not unfrequently a deity is observed which
is composed of a male triad, the central figure of which is the king or
military chieftain, and to which is usually appended a straggling fourth
member, a female, who, shorn of her power, and with a doubtful and
mysterious title, appears as wife or mistress to his greatness, while
upon her is reflected, through him, a slight hint of that dignity and
honor which was originally recognized as belonging exclusively to the
recognized Deity.
The Goddess Vishnu, from whose navel as she slept on the bottom of the
sea sprang all creation, after her transformation into a male God, is
supplemented by a wife--Lacksmir. Lacksmir means wisdom; but she has
become only an appendage to her "lord," upon whom is reflected all her
former glory.
So greedy did rulers become for the splendid titles belonging to the
female divinities that we are told that "the name of the Great Goddess
Astarte not unfrequently appears as that of a man."
Although man had usurped the titles of the female God and had denied
her recognition as an active creative agency, still, as nothing could
be created without her, she was permitted, as we have seen, to remain
as wife or mistress to the reigning monarch, in whom had come to reside
infinite wisdom and power. Her symbol was an ark, chest, boat, box, or
cave. This woman, although dignified by the title "Mother of the Gods,"
and even by that of "Queen of Heaven," is utterly without power.
Not only is it plain that the titles and attributes of female gods have
been appropriated by males, but it is also true that the more ancient
deities, which are now known to have been female, have by later
investigators been represented as male.
The interpretations which have hitherto been put upon the Babylonian
and Assyrian deities by many of those who have attempted to unravel the
mysteries of an earlier stage of religious worship, is doubtless due to
the fact that since the so-called historic period began, the qualities
which have been considered godlike have all been masculine; it has
therefore never occurred to the minds of these writers that the ancients
may have entertained quite different notions from their own regarding
the attributes of a Deity; hence, whenever the sex of a god has appeared
doubtful, especially if it be in the least degree powerful or
important, it has at once been denominated as masculine, and this, too,
notwithstanding the fact that such rendering has oftentimes involved
inconsistencies, contradictions, and absurdities which it is impossible
to reconcile either with established facts or with common sense.
Unless the symbols representing religious belief and worship are viewed
in the light of later developed facts in mythology, archaeology, and
philology, there occur many seeming absurdities and numberless facts
which it is found difficult to reconcile with each other; especially
is this true in regard to some of the symbols used to express the
distinctive female and male qualities. The serpent, for instance,
although a male symbol, in certain ages of the world's history appears
as a beautiful woman.
This is accounted for by the fact that a woman and a serpent once stood
for the god-idea. Together they constituted an indivisible entity--the
creating power in the universe. They therefore became interchangeable
terms. The woman when appearing alone represented both, as did also the
serpent.
"In most ancient languages, probably all, the name for the serpent
signifies Life, and the roots of these words generally also signify the
male and female organs, and sometimes these conjoined. In low French the
words for Phallus and life have the same sound, though, as is sometimes
the case, the spelling and gender differ"; but this fact is thought to
be of no material importance, as "Jove, Jehova, sun, and moon have all
been male and female by turn."
No doubt many of the inconsistencies hitherto observed in the religion
of the ancients will disappear so soon as we obtain a clearer knowledge
of their chronology; and events which now seem contradictory will be
satisfactorily explained when placed in their proper order with regard
to date. Religion, like everything else, is constantly shifting its
position to accommodate itself to the changed mental conditions of
its adherents; hence, ideas which at any given time in the past were
perfectly suited to a people, would, in the course of five hundred or
one thousand years, have become changed or greatly modified.
During a certain stage in human history "all great women and mythical
ladies were serpents"; but when monumentally or pictorially represented,
they appeared "with the head of a woman, while the body was that of a
reptile." This figure represented Wisdom and Passion, or the spiritual
and material planes of human existence. The mythical woman whom Hercules
met in Scythia, and who was doubtless the original eponymous leader
of the Scythian people, had the head of a woman and the body of a
serpent.(73) Even the Mexicans declare that "he, the serpent, is the
sun, Tonakatl-Koatl, who ever accompanies their first woman." Their
primitive mother, they said, was Kihua-Kohuatl, which signifies a
serpent. In referring to this Mexican tradition, Forlong remarks: "So
that the serpent here was represented as both Adam and Adama; and their
Eden, as in Jewish story, was a garden of love and pleasure."(74)
73) Herodotus, book iv., 9.
74) Rivers of Life, vol. i., p. 143.
The traditions extant among all peoples seem to connect the introduction
of the serpent into religious symbolism, with a time in the history of
mankind when they first began to recognize the fact, that through the
abuse of the reproductive functions, evil, or human wretchedness, had
gained the ascendency over the higher forces. The Deity represented by a
woman and a serpent involved the idea not alone of good, but of good and
evil combined. Together they prefigured not only Wisdom and generative
power, but evil as well. Mythologically they represented the cold of
winter and the heat of the sun's rays, both of which were necessary
reproduction. From this conception sprang the Ormuzd and Ahryman of the
Persians, the story of Adam, Eve, and the serpent in Genesis, and the
legend of Kihua-Kohuatl and Tonakatl-Koatl in Mexico.
"The serpent remained in the memory and affections of most early people
as wisdom, life, goodness, and the source of knowledge and science,
under various names such as Toth, Hermes, Themis, the Kneph or Sophia of
Egyptians and Gnostics, and Set, Shet, or Shem of the Jews."(75)
75) Forlong, Rivers of Life, etc., vol. i., p. 143.
The Serpent Goddess, although embracing evil as well as good, was still
the "Giver of Life" and the "Teacher of Mankind." These were the titles
which in later ages began to be coveted by monarchs, and then it
was that the attributes belonging to this Deity began to appear in
connection with royalty.
There is no ancient divinity about which there seems to be connected
so much mystery as the Assyrian Hea. When referring to the "great
obscurity" which surrounds this God we are assured that there is at
present "no means of determining the precise meaning of the cuneiform
Hea, which is Babylonian rather than Assyrian," but that it is doubtless
connected with the Arabic Hya, which is said to mean "life," or the
female principle in creation. This Deity is the God of "glory" and
of "giving," titles which during the earlier ages of human existence
belonged to the Queen of Heaven, the Celestial Mother.
The representation of the god Amun or Amun-ra, which superseded the
triune Deity, Kneph, Sate, and Anouk at Thebes, and from which in
Assyria doubtless proceeded the trinity, Amun, Bel-Nimrod, and Hea, is
supposed to be identical with the Greek Zeus, which means the sun. This
God is represented by a female figure seated on a throne. It is crowned
with two long feathers, and in the right hand is observed the cross,
the emblem of life. Manetho, the celebrated Egyptian historian, declares
that the name of this God signifies "concealed."
There can be little doubt that the titles of the ancient Deity--the
Destroyer or Regenerator, or, in other words, those of the God of life
which embraced the idea of the moving force throughout Nature, were, in
course of time, appropriated by the rulers of the people. It is stated
that the name of a certain Egyptian God appears first in connection with
royalty, that "his name was substituted for some earlier divinity whose
hieroglyphics were chiselled out of the monuments to make place for
his."
According to the testimony of Rawlinson, the God Hea is represented
by the great serpent, which occupies a conspicuous position among
the symbols of the gods on the black stones recording Babylonian
benefactions. Now these flat black stones are themselves said to
symbolize the female element in the Deity, in contradistinction to the
obelisks, which prefigure the male, while the serpent, for reasons which
have already been explained, appeared for ages in connection with the
figure of a woman. In later inscriptions "king" is everywhere attached
to the name of the God Hea, which fact shows that the titles ascribed
to her were those particularly coveted by royalty. Hence we are not
surprised to find that in an inscription of Sardanapalus, in the British
Museum, there "occurs a remarkable phrase in which the king takes the
titles of Hea."
Among the Assyrian inscriptions appear Bel-Nimrod, Hea, and Nin or
Bar. In view of the facts which have come to light regarding Hea, it is
altogether probable that the triad Bel-Nimrod, Hea, and Nin represent
the trinity as figured by the father, mother, and child. That Nin
was the son or the child of Bel-Nimrod "is constantly asserted in the
inscriptions." He appears also as the son of Hea, yet the fact that
Hea should be represented as a woman, or as the mother of Nin, and the
central figure in the trinity, seems not to have been observed by those
who thus far have been engaged in deciphering these inscriptions. By
representing Hea as male, Nin is made to appear as the offspring of
two fathers while he is left absolutely motherless. To obviate this
difficulty an ingenious attempt has been made to account for his
existence by substituting his own wife as the author of his being.
Although in the numerous accounts which I had read of Hea, in my search
for information concerning her, she had always been designated as male,
still I was satisfied from the descriptions given that originally this
Deity was female. Therefore upon receiving a copy of Forlong's Rivers
of Life and Faiths of Man in All Lands, I was not surprised to find the
following:
"Hoa or Hea, the Hu of our Keltic ancestors, whose symbol was the shield
and the serpent, was worshipped near rivers and lakes, and if possible
on the sea-shore, where were offered to her such emblems as a golden
vessel, boat, coffer, or fish, and she was then named Belat Ili (the
mistress of the Gods)."(76)
76) Vol. ii., p. 94.
She was the Goddess of Water. Of this Forlong says: "Water, perhaps more
than fire, has always been used as a purifier... . Christians have but
imitated the ancients, in the use of Lustral water--now-a-days called
Holy Water, and into which salt should be freely put."
According to Francis Vasques, the Cibola tribes of New Mexico pay no
adoration to anything but water, believing it to be the chief support
of all life. The Hindoo faith and the Greek Christian Church prescribe
"adorations, sacrifices, and other water rites, and hence we find all
orthodox clergy and devotees have much to do with rivers, seas, and
wells, especially at certain annual solar periods."
The extent to which these ancient rites are still practiced as part and
parcel of modern religious observances is not realized by those who have
given no special attention to the subject. As spring advances, all ranks
of Russians from the Czar to the humblest peasant proceed with their
clergy to the Neva, where with solemn pomp the ice is broken and the
water, which is held to be of virgin purity, is sprinkled upon the heads
of Czar, nobles, and other dignitaries. The following is an account
given of the worship of Hea not many years ago in the public press:
"An Imperial and Arch-episcopal procession was formed, consisting of,
first, the High Priest of the empire in all his most gorgeous robes, the
two masters of ceremonies walking backwards (probably because not of a
holy enough order), long double files of white-and gold-robed bearers
of sacred flambeaux or candles, for Fire must enter into every ceremony,
whether it is the male or female energy which is being worshipped.
Following these Religieux came all the sacred relics and fetishes of the
Church, as Maya's holy cup for water, all holy books, crosses, banners,
with sacred emblems in their order, and finally the Czar, humbly, and,
like all his people, on foot, followed by courtly throngs. These all
proceeded to a handsome pavilion or kiosk, erected close to the edge
of the water, when the Metropolitan of the Church reverently made an
incision in the ice, and took out a little water in a sacred golden cup
bearing strange devices. The firing of guns accompanied these solemn
acts in all their stages, and wherever the grave procession moved, it
always did so with measured tread, chanting sacred verses to the old,
old Deity of our race, and surrounded with all the pomp of war; whilst
at intervals, peals of Christian bells and the booming of near and
distant guns added to the solemnity of this water pageant. After the
filling of the golden cup, which, of course, represents the earth and
its fulness, and, at this season, the now expected increase, the High
Priest placed a golden crucifix on the virgin water and blessed its
return from wintry death, invoking the precious fluid to vernal life and
productiveness, when lo! a holy child suddenly appears upon the scene,
reminding us that this is everywhere the outcome of the 'wafers of life'
in all animal as well as vegetable production. Boodha in the garden of
Loobim through which flowed a holy stream, and Christ by the brook at
Bethlehem, nay, the first pair in the garden of the four rivers, are
all the same idea--fertility and creation. The high Russian Pontiff
now slowly and solemnly stooped, and taking up some of the holy water,
proceeded to sprinkle the vernal child--Jesus, whispered these crowds,
but the ancients said Horus. The sacred fluid was then sprinkled on
the clergy, the Czar, and all dignitaries, and finally on the sacred
emblems, banners, guns, etc. Men and women, aye, wise as well as
foolish, of every rank, now crowded forward, and on bended knee besought
their Patriarch to sprinkle and to bless them. Finally, the great Czar
put the cup to his lips, humbly and reverently, and then filled it to
overflowing with a wealth of golden pieces, for it is the still living
representative in the nineteenth century A.C. of 'the golden boat' of
Hea of the nineteenth century B.C."(77)
77) Forlong, Rivers of Life, vol. ii., p. 95.
The symbol of Neith or Muth, Athene or Minerva, the great universal
female principle of the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans, was the shield
and serpent. In Celtic Druids I find that Nath, the Egyptian Neith, the
"goddess of wisdom and science whose symbol was the shield and serpent,
was worshipped among the ancient Irish." The male God associated with
her was Naith, and according to Higgins represented "the opposite of
Neith."
In Rivers of Life is observed a reference to the Assyrian Goddess Hea by
Lucian. In a note Forlong says that no doubt Hea is the same as Haiya
or Haya. In other words she represents the universal hermaphrodite--the
creative principle throughout Nature, which was originally worshipped as
female. The actual signification of the word Haya is "life." In ancient
Arabia it was applied to a group of kinsmen.
The Rev. Mr. Davis is of the opinion that Noe or Noah was the same as
Deon and that both were Hu or Hea the mighty, whose chariot was drawn by
solar rays. This God was in fact the same as Zeus, Bacchus, and all the
rest of the sun and water Deities. It has been observed that, according
to the ancient cosmogonies, within water was contained the life
principle, and as a woman presided over it, or was the only being or
entity present, she must have been the self-existent Creator. From this
woman sprang all creation. According to the account in Genesis, the
Spirit of God moved on the face of the deep and creation began.
By all nations water has been employed as a symbol of regeneration,
and as it contained the beginning of things it was female. The Hindoos
regard it as sacred, and in one of their most solemn prayers it is thus
invoked: Waters, mothers of worlds, purify us!(78)
78) Quoted by Inman from Colbrook, vol. i., p. 85.
Doubtless it was from these ancient speculations regarding the
beginnings of things that Thales, the Milesian philosopher, received his
doctrine that water is the original principle. The ancient Egyptians
and the Jewish people to this day have the custom of pouring out all the
water contained in any vessel in a house where a death has taken place,
because of the idea that as the living being comes from water, so does
it make its exit through water. Hence "to drink or to use in any way a
fluid which contains the life of human beings would be a foul offense."
The fact is noted by Inman that in all Assyrian mythology the water
God Hea is associated with life and with a serpent. Although Rawlinson
declares that Hea is Babylonian rather than Assyrian, may she not, in
view of the facts concerning her, be not only Babylonian, but Egyptian,
Indian, Phrygian, Mexican, and all the rest?
It would seem that in this Deity, who is figured in connection with a
shield and serpent, as is Minerva, and who is worshipped near water--an
emblem which is sacred to her,--and whose titles correspond exactly
to those of Neith or Cybele, might be traced the remnants of a once
universal worship--a worship in which the female energy constituted the
Creator.
Although it is declared that "great obscurity surrounds the God Hea," no
one, I think, whose mind is free from prejudice, and who understands the
significance of the early god-idea, and the true meaning of the symbols
used in later ages to express it, can study the myths connected with
this Deity without at once recognizing her identity with the great
female God of Nature who was once worshipped by every people on the
globe, but whose worship had become sensualized to satisfy the corrupted
taste of a more depraved age--an age in which passion constituted the
highest idea of a God.
Although the serpent Deity was originally portrayed with the head of a
woman and the body of a serpent or fish, after the change of sex in the
god-idea which has been noted in the foregoing pages had been completed,
it is observed that this figure is represented by the head of a man
and the body of a serpent. Hea, the great goddess to whom water, the
original principle, is sacred, and who is suspiciously connected with
Noah, the life-principle which appears at the close of a cycle, has
changed her sex. This god is now the "Ruler of the Seas," "Master of the
Life-Boat" (the ark), and "Lord of the Earth." The earth is his and
the fulness thereof. He is the "Life Giver," the "Lord of Hosts," who
subsequently becomes the maker of heaven and earth.
Minerva, who had been the first emanation from the Deity and the
daughter of the Great Mother of the Gods, now has a father but no
mother. Jove, who in course of time came to be represented as a male
Creator, brought her forth from his head. Later, woman is produced from
the side of man. The male principle, symbolized by a serpent, has become
"the one only and true God." It is Passion--the "Healer of Nations"--the
great "I Am."
No unprejudiced individual who carefully follows the results of later
investigation, and who attempts to unravel the mysteries surrounding the
ancient gods and the significance of the symbols of worship belonging
to the earliest historic times, will fail to note the attempt which has
been made in later ages to conceal the fact that the Deity worshipped in
very ancient times was female. Neither will he fail to observe the modus
operandi by which the attributes and prerogatives of this Deity have
been shifted upon males--usually deified monarchs. After priestcraft
and its counterpart, monarchial rule, had robbed the people of all their
natural rights, kings assumed not alone the governing functions, but
arrogated to themselves the symbols, titles, and attributes of the
dual Deity. The reigning monarch became not only the temporal ruler
and priest, but was actually God himself, the female principle being
concealed under convenient symbols.