We have now traced the worship of sex, as recorded by the monuments of
antiquity, through its various phases. In its simplest form, the generative
organs are worshipped without disguise; the sexual act also forms a part of
religious ceremonies. Later, a rude symbolism develops. As the race becomes
more advanced, this becomes more elaborate, until finally a considerable
degree of ingenuity and skill are evidenced. The worship of sex is not only
expressed in religious usages, but comes to dominate early art as well; it
is also expressed in mythology, and so we find the same symbolical and
allegorical expressions in early literature. In fact, the deepest thoughts
of primitive races, as expressed in their religion, eventually dominate most
of the customs and usages of every day life.
We may appropriately ask, why did primitive people deify the sexual organs?
This question may be answered when we understand the religious ceremonies of
primitive tribes. The earliest objects worshipped were those which were of
known benefit to man. The Aborigines of Australia have very elaborate
ceremonies which superficially seem meaningless but when understood have a
very definite meaning. This aim is to ensure some certain product of the
earth. If it is a Yam[5] ceremony, an elaborate procedure is carried out
which is supposed to make yams grow. There is a secret ceremonial object
which is a symbol of the yam and which bears to it more or less resemblance.
Other ceremonies are carried out for similar purposes. The meaning of all
these semi-religious performances, as clearly shown by Spencer Baldwin, is
to ensure the benfits which nature gives. This, in brief, explains nature
worship, and were it our object at present, it would be most interesting to
show the peculiar resemblance of these ceremonies to those carried on in sex
worship.
[5] A kind of sweet potato.
As the early races advanced in knowledge, they came to know that the
perpetuation of the race depended upon generative attributes. For this
reason human generative attributes were deified and appropriate ceremonies
were held, just as in the case of nature worship. These are not "lewd
practices," as they are not infrequently called. It is indeed regrettable
that the subject of sex worship has been disregarded by many historians, as
thereby erroneous impressions are given. The facts of nature worship have
always been much better understood and its importance has been realized;
those of sex worship have been less carefully recorded.
The literature and philosophy which we are accustomed to associate with
Greek thought are of a later date. Once such abstract reasoning is possible,
sex worship is no longer seriously entertained. The symbolism remains, but
is, associated now, not so much with religion as with art. Likewise in
India, the early Buddhism, which was sex worship, has changed to the present
day Buddhistic Philosophy, the symbols alone remaining.
From all this we are inclined to believe that in sex worship we are dealing
with important motives in the development of the race. We make no presence
of having exhausted the subject in this communication. The decadence of this
religion, as observed in the early Christian period, and in fact well
through the middle ages, forms a very interesting history. It is not our
purpose, however, to deal with it at present. Likewise, it should be
understood that the motives which we have been discussing are not
necessarily the earliest manifested in racial development; we have a record
of a time in the history of man when the worship of sex had not yet made its
appearance but this period also is not a part of our present topic.
The influence of early racial motives upon present day civilization is a
topic of great interest. Its importance is, in fact, the main object of
studies of this kind. However, we wish our account to be mainly an
historical one, and so will not at present make reference to a number of
applications which arise. We have also refrained from making use of the
modern writings on matters of sex, as we thereby avoid criticism to the
effect that our findings have been drawn from biased sources. We feel that
while the reader may disagree in certain details as here set forth, the
universal appearance of sex worship at a certain stage of racial development
is scarcely to be denied. The writers whom we have cited are all of a former
generation, and they were searching for origins in religion, not in sexual
life; inadvertently they found the latter, in fact could not avoid it, and
so their conclusions are all the more valuable to us.