Phallic Worship / A description of the mysteries of the sex worship of the ancients, with the history of the masculine cross. An account of primitive symbolism, Hebrew phallicism, bacchic festivals, sexual rites, and the mysteries of the ancient faiths.

by Hargrave Jennings

THE POLE

The Pole was an emblem of the Phallus, and with the serpent upon it, was a representative of its divine wisdom and symbol of life. The serpent upon the tree is the same in character, both are representative of the tree of life. The story of Moses will well illustrate this, when he erected in the wilderness this effigy, which stood as a sign of hope and life, as the cross is used by the Catholics of the present day; the cross then, as now, being simply an emblem of the Creator, used as a token of resurrection or regeneration. Æsculapius, as the restorer of health, has a rod or Phallus with a serpent entwined.

The Rev. M. Morris has shown that the raising of the May-pole is of Phallic origin, the remains of a custom of India or Egypt, and is typical of the fructifying powers of spring.

The May festival was carried on with great licentiousness by the Romans, and was celebrated by nearly all peoples as the month consecrated to Love. The May-day in England was the scene of riotous enjoyment, very nearly approaching to the Roman Floralia. No wonder the Puritans looked upon the May-pole as a relic of Paganism, and in their writings may be gleaned much of the licentious character of the festival.

Philip Stubbes, a Puritan writer in the reign of Elizabeth, thus describes a May-day in England: “Every parishe, towne, and village assemble themselves together, bothe men, women, and children, olde and younge even indifferently; and either goyng all together, or devidyng themselves into companies, they go some to the woods and groves, some to one place, some to another, where thei spend all the night in pleasant pastymes; and in the mornyng they returne, bryngyng with them birch bowes and branches of trees, to deck their assemblies withall.... But their cheerest jewell thei bryng from thence is their Maie pole, whiche thei bryng home with great veneration, as thus: thei have twentie or fortie yoke of oxen, every oxe havyng a sweet nosegaie of flowers placed on the tippe of his hornes, and these oxen drawe home this Maie pole (this stinckyng idoll rather), which is covered all over with flowers and hearbes, bound rounde aboute with strynges from the top to the bottome, and sometyme painted with variable colours, with two or three hundred men, women, and children, followyng it with great devotion. And thus beyng reared up, with handekerchiefes and flagges streamyng on the top, thei strawe the grounde aboute, binde greene boughes aboute it, sett up sommer haules, bowers, and arbours hard by it. And then fall thei to banquet and feast, to leape and daunce aboute it, as the heathen people did at the dedication of their idols, whereof this is a perfect patterne, or rather the thyng itself.”

The ceremony was almost identical with the Roman festival, where the Phallus was introduced with garlands. Both were attended with the same licentiousness, for Stubbes gives a further account of the depravity attending the festivities.