Now, when we find that this form of worship was very prevalent among the Israelites,[47:1] that these sacred stones which were "set up," were called (by the heathen), BÆTY-LI,[47:2] (which is not unlike BETH-EL), and that they were anointed with oil,[47:3] I think we have reasons for believing that the story of Jacob's setting up a stone, pouring oil upon it, and calling the place Beth-el, "has evidently an allusion to Phallic worship."[47:4]
The male and female powers of nature were denoted respectively by an upright and an oval emblem, and the conjunction of the two furnished at once the altar and the Ashera, or grove, against which the Hebrew prophets lifted up their voices in earnest protest. In the kingdoms, both of Judah and Israel, the rites connected with these emblems assumed their most corrupting form. Even in the temple itself, stood the Ashera, or the upright emblem, on the circular altar of Baal-Peor, the Priapos of the Jews, thus reproducing the Linga, and Yoni of the Hindu.[47:5] For this symbol, the women wove hangings, as the Athenian maidens embroidered the sacred peplos for the ship presented to Athênê, at the great Dionysiac festival. This Ashera, which, in the authorized English version of the Old Testament is translated "grove," was, in fact, a pole, or stem of a tree. It is reproduced in our modern "Maypole," around which maidens dance, as maidens did of yore.[47:6]
FOOTNOTES:
[42:1] See Chambers's Encyclo., art. "Transmigration."
[42:2] Chambers's Encyclo., art. "Transmigration." Prichard's Mythology, p. 213, and Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 59.
[42:3] Ibid. Ernest de Bunsen says: "The first traces of the doctrine of Transmigration of souls is to be found among the Brahmins and Buddhists." (The Angel Messiah, pp. 63, 64.)
[42:4] Prichard's Mythology, pp. 213, 214.
[43:1] Gross: The Heathen Religion. Also Chambers's Encyclo., art. "Transmigration."
[43:2] Ibid. Mallet's Northern Antiquities, p. 13; and Myths of the British Druids, p. 15.