The most common forms of the feminine symbol were those made in representation of the mons Veneris. The mountain of Venus was represented by mounds, columns and pyramids. Mounds and hills were considered holy. The graves of Egyptian kings were erected in form of huge pyramids in honor of the feminine creative deity. The yoni worshippers of the Old Testament had the temples of their feminine deity on high hills. The obelisk, pillar, column, altar, mount and cave, all have their origin in the pristine symbolism of yonic worship.
Even the present belief in the lucky horseshoe is connected with the ancient emblems of the female genitals, the yoni. In Ireland the yoni seem to have been the symbol of sex-worship most in use. Even in the arches over the doorways of Christian churches a female figure, with the person fully exposed, was so placed that the external organs of generation at once caught the eye. In olden times, the people were in the habit of making charcoal drawings of the female genitals over the doors of their houses to ward off ill luck. Now, the horseshoe has a great resemblance with the form of the vulva. Hence the drawings over the doors resembled a horseshoe. From this symbol originates the horseshoe’s alleged power to ward off evil and to bring luck. Father Dubois found that the lingam which the devout Hindus attach either to their hair or arms or is suspended from the neck is a small amulet representing the organs of both sexes in activity. Even the symbol of the cross has been identified with the earliest records of sex-worship. The cruciform symbol on the Assyrian relics and in the temples of Vishnu typifies the sacredness of Love’s physical expression.
Thus with the ancients the passion of sex and the fervor of religion were closely interwoven. Accordingly every ancient temple had within its confines a number of consecrated women whose office it was to submit to the embraces of any man upon the payment of a specified sum. The money was used for religious purposes. To the mind of the Ancients no more appropriate nor holy means could be devised for raising money for the maintenance of the temple than a sanctified indulgence in the divine act. It was the most sacred and sublime of all human functions. Hence the temple-courtesan was held in high honor and was considered as sacred as the priest. The Old Testament calls the temple-courtesan “Hakdeshoh,” the consecrated, the holy; and it was not in the least degrading to associate with her, in the early history of the Hebrews, as the story of Juda and Tamar shows. Later on, Amos (ii, 7) complains that the Hebrew maidens received the embraces of men at every altar. Hosea (iv, 14) distinguishes between the common prostitute and the temple-courtesan.
The lapse of Israel into the former sex-worship, at the time of these prophets, caused a reaction against any sex-manifestations. This reaction is especially noticeable among the faithful adherents of the religion of Jehovah in the latter days of the second temple. The pious men sought the greatest virtue in chastity and celibacy and looked with contempt upon sexuality. In the beginning only individual persons took to celibacy, as did Elijah and Elisha. Later on these celibates became more numerous and formed different orders, of which the order of the Essaeans was the most important, because Christianity took its origin within the folds of this order.
In accordance with its origin, Christianity never looked with favor upon sexuality of any kind. The immaculate virgin is the ideal. Even holy matrimony was only tolerated. “It is good for a man not to touch a woman,” writes Paul to the Corinthians (Cap. vii). Christianity, therefore, always surrounded with a halo those who vowed chastity. To overcome the passion of sex was always praised as the highest virtue, and asceticism was held in high veneration. Justinus says that total sexual abstinence is a high virtue, and that sexual activity is unnecessary to life. Hieronymus claims that God and the Church requested singleness and only permitted marriage. Christianity entirely overlooked the tremendous strain upon the physical, mental and moral forces such an unnatural life must carry with it. For though complete abstinence is possible and feasible during the period of adolescence, men and women, when mature in years, suffer under such enforced abstinence, and although the final act, or the culmination of the sex-attraction, may be suppressed by the will, yet its emotions are irresistible. The neurotic nun who imagines herself being embraced by a saint thinks that she has subjugated the instinct of sex, but in reality her emotions have a sexual origin.
Actions caused by great sexual excitement may be found in the life of many a saint. Augustinus, in his confessions, says: “My heart was burning, boiling and foaming with unchastity; it was poured out, it overflowed, it went up in licentiousness.”
Origines found sexual abstinence too difficult and castrated himself. For that reason he never was canonized. For the spirit should kill the flesh. Parkman’s report about Marie de l’Incarnation is highly interesting in this respect. She heard, while in a trance, a miraculous voice, Christ promising to become her spouse. Months and years passed, when again the voice sounded in her ear, this time with the assurance that the promise was fulfilled, that she was indeed his bride. Now ensued phenomena which are not infrequent among female devotees, when unmarried or married unhappily. In her excited imagination, the divine spouse became a living presence, and her language to him, as recorded by herself, is of intense passion. Her prayer is, “O! my Love! when shall I embrace you? Have you no pity on the torments which I suffer? Alas, alas, my Love, my Beauty, my Life! Instead of healing my pain you take pleasure in it. Come, let me embrace you and die in your sacred arms.”
A curious instance of perversion in religio-sexual feeling, bordering on zoöerastia, is the case of St. Veronica. According to Friedrich she was so enamored of the divine lion, symbolizing St. Mark, that she took a lion whelp to her bed, fondled it, kissed it “et præbebat ei mammas.”
Thus the preaching of the Church on the subjugation of the flesh was no great success even among the saints. If the ascetics are not frigid they remain subject to the emotions of sex. Mankind at large is surely ruled by the dictates of the sex-urge, in our day no less than at the time of sex-worship. Especially do all feminine thoughts, aspirations and pursuits aim, though sometimes unconsciously, at love, in spite of our false modesty, prudery and conspiracy of silence about the fundamental facts of reproduction.
One glance at the fashions in dress will bear out this contention. The question of dress surely rules the thoughts and actions of a majority of our modern women. Now what is the meaning of dress? Grosse in his “Anfänge der Kunst” shows that the desire for clothes was originally an irradiation of the sex instinct. The man adopted dress for the purpose of decoration, the woman for the purpose of attraction through covering. The first coverings of the private parts served as an ornament of the same and to render the parts covered more conspicuous. For where nudity generally prevails, the practice of covering certain parts of the body excites curiosity and solicits the observation of the other sex. Mortimer reports that in Australia girls cast off their aprons after marriage, being no longer anxious to engage the notice of men.