The God-Idea of the Ancients; Or, Sex in Religion

by Eliza Burt Gamble

The Zoroastrians, who led the way in the great intellectual and religious awakening which took place during the intervening years from 700 B.C. to 400 B.C., sought to purify all things by fire and water, the two principles which had come to be regarded as the original elements, from which, or by which, all things are produced.

Prior to this time, in Persia, and long afterwards by various other nations, baptism, a rite performed at puberty, was connected only with the sexual obligations of the person receiving it, but in the age which we are considering it became especially a cleansing or regenerating process, and was the means by which the pious devotee became initiated into the mysteries of holy living, or by which she or he was "born again."

As in their religious procedure every act was performed in connection with symbols, so in the matter of baptism they were not satisfied with the inner consciousness of regeneration, but must go through with certain processes which typified the new life upon which they had entered. According to Wilford, the outward symbolization of the "new birth" in the East is manifested in the following manner:

"For the purpose of regeneration it is directed to make an image of pure gold of the female power of nature, either in the shape of a woman or of a cow. In this statue, the person to be regenerated is inclosed, and dragged out through the natural channel. As a statue of pure gold and of proper dimensions would be too expensive, it is sufficient to make an image of the sacred Yoni, through which the person to be regenerated is to pass."

Thus at the time Nicodemus is said to have queried concerning the mysteries of the new birth, it is observed that the outward forms of regeneration had long been in use among the pagans. In passing themselves through these apertures, the applicant for regeneration was supposed to represent the condition of one "issuing from the womb to a new scope of life."

According to the testimony of various writers upon this subject, there are still extant, not alone in oriental countries, but in Ireland and Scotland as well, numerous excavations or apertures in the rocks which by an early race were used for the same purpose. Through the misconception, bigotry, and ignorance of the Roman Catholic missionaries in Ireland, these openings were designated as the "Devil's Yonies." Although these emblems typified the original conception of one of their most sacred beliefs, namely, the "new birth," still they were "heathen abominations" with which the devotees of the new (?) faith must not become defiled.

The people who executed these imperishable designs, and who have left in the British Isles innumerable evidences of their religious beliefs, are supposed by some writers to belong to a colony which, having been expelled from Persia on account of their peculiar religious beliefs, settled in the "White Island," the "Island of the Blessed." This subject will, however, be referred to later in this work.

When we closely examine the facts connected with the evolution of religion, there can be little doubt that the Persians laid the foundation for that great moral and intellectual awakening which a century or two later is represented by Confucious, Gotama Buddha, and Pythagoras. From the Persians, doubtless Jew and Gentile alike received the little leaven of spirituality which in later ages crept into their gross conception of a Deity.

By the Persians, the Hindoos, and other nations of the East, it was believed that the end of each cycle of six hundred years, at which time a new sun or savior was to come, would mark a new era of religious development. At the close of each of these cycles it was devoutly expected that the "golden age" of the past would be restored, and that mankind would again be freed from the ills which had overtaken them. As many of these cycles had passed, numerous deliverers, saviors, or solar incarnations had appeared in India, Gotama Buddha having been the ninth. In the East, about six or seven hundred years before the birth of Christ, not only one savior or prophet but three or four of them appeared.

Concerning the leader of the reform in Persia there seem to be many conflicting accounts. The learned Faber concludes that there were two Zarathustras or Zoroasters, the former being identical with Menu, the law giver and triplicated deity of India, and who by various writers is recognized as the Noah of the Hebrews. According to Pliny, the former lived thousands of years before Christ. Several writers concur in placing him five thousand years before the siege of Troy. According to Sir Wm. Jones, the latter Zoroaster lived in the time of Darius Hystaspes. It is now claimed that in the Dabistan, one of the sacred books of Persia, thirteen Zoroasters appear. The name of the last great leader, together with a few of his doctrines, and various scattered fragments in the Gathas, are all that remain on record of a man whose personality stands connected with the earliest attempt to reform a degraded and sensualized religion.