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

by Eliza Burt Gamble

In the ecclesiastical processions of the Church of Rome is frequently to be observed the figure of a dragon, in the mouth of which "holy and everlasting fire" is observed to be burning. A boy follows the procession with a lighted taper, so that in case the fire is extinguished it may be relighted. In referring to this subject the Rev. J. B. Deane says:

"The whole ceremony may be considered as a lively representation of an ophite procession as it advanced through the sinuous paralleiths of Karnak. So that no wonder the illiterate races were deceived into thinking that there was no harm in calling themselves Christians, for all their dear old faiths are here—fire, arks, poles, and fire in an ark."

Almost innumerable instances are given by various writers upon this subject, showing that the sun worship of the ancients has been continued to the present time by the so called followers of Christ, in the shrines of the East, with no change even of names to distinguish it from that of the Christian faith. By those who have spent much time in investigating the Holy Land, it is related that nearly all the spots in and about Jerusalem, sacred to Greek and Romish Christians as connected with the life and death of their risen Lord, are equally sacred to the pagans as commemorating the life and death of their Savior—the New Sun. Even Gethsemane is marked by characteristics which prove that it is no less interesting to pagans, or, more properly speaking, to the pagan followers of Christ, than it is to those of the Greek and Romish churches. Here is a holy tree, and not far distant is a cave of Mithras. There is also to be seen a trinity of stones "those of Janus (Chemosh), Petros and Ion, all solar terms and connected with the sitting or sinking down to rest of the Kuros."

Messrs. Maundrell and Sandys, who in 1697 visited all the holy places in and around Jerusalem, state that the entire city, but especially the sites of Moriah, Zion, and suburbs were hotbeds of fire and phallic worship as usually developed still in the East.

The topography of ancient Delphi, on the site of which was built the village of Kastri, and at which place excavations are now being made under the direction of the American School of Archaeology, has ever been a place of peculiar interest to the mystic. Here are to be found all the natural features and objects which gladden the heart and stimulate the imagination of a solo-phallic worshipper. The holy Mt. Parnassus, the fountain of Kastali, the deep cave said to be Pythian, and the remnants of huge sepulchres hewn in the rocks all conspire to make of this spot a perfect abode for the god, or goddess, of fertility. Here, too, is a beautiful lake and near it a sacred fig-tree which has been struck by lightning, or, "touched by holy fire." Of this sacred place Forlong writes:

"Christianity has never neglected this so-called Pagan shrine, nor yet misunderstood it, if we may judge by the saint she has located here, for Mr. Hobhouse found in the rocky chasm dipped in the dews of Castaly, but safe in a rocky niche, a Christian shrine; and close by a hut called the church of St. John; yea verily of Ione, she who had once reigned here supreme; whilst on a green plot a few yards below the basin, in a little grove of olive trees, stood the monastery of Panhagia or Holy Virgin, so that here we still have and beside her sacred form in the cleft, men who have consecrated their manhood to the old Mother and Queen of Heaven, just as if she of Syria had never been heard of.

"Doubtless they knew little of what civilized Europe calls Christianity, for I have spent many days conversing with such men, and seen little difference between them and those similarly placed in the far East—fervid Christians though Greeks and Syrians are."

Perhaps nothing shows the extent to which the religion of the pagans has been retained by Christianity more than does the worship of the serpent. It has been said that this reptile enters into every mythology extant. Ferguson is authority for the statement that "he is to be found in the wilderness of Sinai, the groves of Epidaurus, and in Samothracian huts." He constitutes a prominent factor in the religious worship of India, Assyria, Palestine, and Egypt, and, notwithstanding the fact that he is not a native of Ireland, in an earlier age representations of him appear in profusion among the symbols of that country. It has been said that there is scarcely an Egyptian sculpture known in which this reptile does not figure. The serpent whenever it appears as a religious emblem always typifies desire—creative energy—which, proceeding from the sun, is manifested in man and in animals. Whether it be a veritable snake in a box, a serpent connected with the figure of a woman, or as a carved representation on monuments or stones, or as chains or wreaths on columns, bas-reliefs or friezes, the signification is the same.

The sacred character of this reptile among the Gnostics is shown by the accounts given of their religious rites and ceremonies. By many of these sects this holy creature was kept in a box, ark, or chest, and when the eucharistic service was to be performed, he was enticed forth from his resting-place by a bit of bread. So soon as his holiness had wound himself about the offering, the sacrifice was complete and the service was concluded by "singing a hymn to Almighty God, and praying for acceptance in and through the serpent."

In later ages when the attempt was made to abolish serpent worship from the Christian church, it was declared by the leaders in the movement that Ophiolatry had been imported from Persia—that it had been brought in by ignorant devotees who were too weak to renounce their former faith.(140)