THE MASCULINE CROSS AND ANCIENT SEX WORSHIP. BY SH A 11 O O O O , NIATYmVK: : ” ASA K. BUTTS & CO., 36 DEY STREET. 1 8 74. Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1873, by ABISIIA S. HUDSON, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. PREFACE. Speaking to an educated woman of tlie ancient mean- ing and remarkable origin of tlie cross, she inquired, “ What, the cross of Christ ?” Her unconsciousness that it had any other relation than that pertaining to the crucifixion of Jesus illustrates a prevailing lack of his- torical knowledge in most people throughout Christen- dom. The hope to bring within the reach of the average man of letters a chapter of mythological lore which has heretofore been confined to the few is one motive for offering these pages to the public. There is no truth but is productive of good. The dynamics of knowledge are impatient of rest and mental inertia. Science and historical criticism are opening many fields long hid in myth and conjecture. It is hoped the line of discussion here adopted will explain some portions of Bible literature which have always stood in the attitude of offensive enigma to cult- ured thought. Improved taste of modern time must question the crudities of former days, and ask the reason why. Natural forces give direction to usage, and type to habits. The same agencies modify and polish them. The hallowed powers of one era become detritus of a later one ; and in still later eons of time those decayed objects reappear as relics, and show, to our surprise, how IV PEEFACE. much that is held to be original in our age is really the unconscious inheritance of a bygone ancestry. They also show early religious ideas were cast in a mold de- noting a childlike apprehension, in conformity with things palpable, and roundly pronounced, with the child’s direct bluntness of expression. Ancient religious literature is conspicuous for the number of Gods held in veneration. We find in Christendom but three, or, at most, four. Explanation of the “ Trinity ” and the natural origin of those four great creative, all-absorbing Gods are here elucidated upon historic and well-nigh scientific bases. As all science demands illustrations addressed to the eye, as well as ar- gument to the mental perception, so, in the treatment of our theo-scientific theme, over twenty-five illustrations are introduced to aid the text. The Phallic and Yonijic remains found in California, are in these pages, for the first time, so far as known to the author, introduced to public attention as ancient religious relics belonging to the prehistoric stone age. Those who have perused Inman’s “ Ancient Faiths,” Higgins’ “ Anacalypsis ” and his “ Celtic Druids,” Payne Knight’s “ Worship of Priapus,” Layard’s “ Nine- veh,” papers of Dr. G. L. Ditson and others relating to kindred subjects, know the authentic sources of much of the information here briefly uttered. Sha Rocoo. Jauuary 1, 1874. THE MASCULINE CROSS AND -A. 1STOIE ISTT SESZ WORSHIP. I. ORIGIN OF THE CROSS. Far back in the twilight of the pictured history of the past, the cross is found on the borders of the river Nile. A horizontal piece of wood fastened to an upright beam indicated the liight of the water in flood. This formed a cross, the Nileometer. If the stream failed to rise a certain liight in its proper season, no crops and no bread was the result. From famine on the one hand to plenty on the other, the cross came to be worshiped as a sym- bol of life and regeneration, or feared as an image of decay and death. This is one, so called, origin of the cross. The cross was a symbol of life and regeneration in India long before this usage on the Nile, and for another reason. The most learned antiquarians agree in holding it unquestionable that Egypt was colo- nized from India, and crosses migrated with the in- habitants. “ Proofs in adequate confirmation of this point 6 ORIGIN OF THE CROSS. are found,” says the learned Dr. G. L. Ditson, “ in waifs brought to light in ancient lore. Waif originally signi- fied goods a thief, when pursued, threw away to avoid detection. Many of the facts to be brought forth in our inquiry were doubtless intentionally scattered and put out of sight to prevent apprehension of the proper sub- ject to which they belong.” The cross bespeaks evolution in religion. It is the product of time, and the relic of the revered past. It begins with one thing and ends with another. In seeking for the origin of the cross it becomes necessary to direct attention in some degree to the forms of faith among mankind with whom the cross is found. Retrogressive inquiry enables the religio-philosophical student to follow the subject back, if not to its source, to the proximate neighborhood of its source. Like every item of ecclesiastical ornament, and every badge of devo- tion, the cross is the embodiment of a symbol. That symbol represents a fact, or facts, of both structure and office. The facts were generation and regeneration. Long before the mind matures the generative structure matures. The cerebellum attains its natural size at three years of age, the cerebrum at seven years, if we accept the measurements as announced by Sir William Hamilton. Throughout the realm of animal life there is no physical impulse so overbearing as the generative, unless we ex- cept that for food. Food gives satisfaction. Rest to tired nature gives pleasure. To the power of reproduction is appended the acme of physical bliss. How natural, then, that this last-named impulse should, early in human de- velopment, take the lead, give direction and consequence to religious fancies, and lead its votaries captive to a willing bondage, as it did in India, Egypt, among the ORIGIN OF THE CROSS. 7 Buddhists, Babylonians, Phoenicians, Assyrians, and an- cient Hebrews. The ancients personified the elements, air, water, fire, the earth, the sea, the celestial orbs; in imagination gave 'superintending Deities to some and deified others. The sexual ability of man and Nature was also personi- fied, and likewise supplied with a governing Deity, which was elevated to the niche of the Supreme. Once en- throned as the ruling God over all, dissent therefrom was impious. A king might be obeyed, but God must be worshiped. A monarch coidd compel obedience to the state, but the ministers of God lured the devotee to the shrines of Isis and Yenus on the one hand, and to Bac- chus and Priapus or Baal-Peor on the other, by appealing to the most animating and sensuous force of our physi- cal nature. The name of this God bore different appella- tives in different languages, among which we find Al, El, II, Ilos, On, Bel, Jao, Jali, Jak, Josh, Brahma, Eloi- him, Jupiter, and Jehovah. Being God of the genital power, he became the reputed sire of numerous children, and numberless children were born under his auspicious rule. The names of his dutiful descendants were com- posite in signification, and in many ways characterized the honored Deity. Hence, derived therefrom, we meet with the El God in Michael, Ragu