For more books on the history of the Cross, go to Is the Cross a Pagan Symbol? 70 PDF Books on DVDROM
The popular idea of Christianity is that it is wholly distinct from the religious systems of the pagan world, which preceded or were its contemporaries. That its rites, dogmas, and observances were instituted by its founders, and without a special divine inspiration it could not have sprung into existence. Yet the researches of modern criticism incontrovertibly prove that so far is this from the truth, that it is the direct reverse. There is not a fast or festival, procession or sacrament, social custom or religious symbol, that did not come bodily from the previous paganism. Of all the great religions, Christianity is most purely phallic, as is distinctly shown by comparing its doctrines and symbols with more ancient faiths. By phallic is meant the wor-
ship of the generative principle, which is probably the most ancient of all religions, and which by its universal acceptance by primitive man has given its precepts and symbols to all others, even those of the most civilized peoples.
Procreation, the most mysterious phenomenon of nature, early attracted attention, and by analogy primitive man sought to solve the problem of creation. As offspring came from the union of male and female, so all things sprang from the union of male and female gods, types of the active and passive in nature. Hence the reverence for these principles or gods, and for the sexual parts (the Phallus, male, and the Yoni, female) as their types. These were carved or drawn true to nature and became symbols of the male and female principles, and their union the expression of creative energy. The devout worshipper bowed before their sculptured representations. The uncultured instincts of primitive man saw nothing impure in the act of generation, but considered it as one of the divine processes of creation, as sowing of the seed, and the command to increase and multiply became a sacred ordinance, and the act itself a sacrament to the Creator.
As Mrs. Child well remarks (Prog. R Ideas, vol. i, p. 15): " Were they impure thus to regard it? Or, are we impure that we do not so regard it ? . . . . Let us not smile at their mode of tracing the Infinite and Incomprehensible Cause through all the mysteries of nature, lest by so doing we cast the shadow of our own grossness on their patriarchal simplicity." The ideas of indecency are the result of an advanced civilization when the rites imposed by the simplicity of the childhood of the race, became perverted by licentiousness.
In the dim and undefined pre-historic age, out of which the distinct forms of Phoenician, Assyrian and Egyptian civilizations emerge, phallic worship appears to have been universal. Criticism confirms Bryant's statement that II or El was at the head of the Babylonian Pantheon, and that the Hebrew Elohim, Phoenician Illus, Cronus and primitive Saturn were names of the same god, represented by a pillar carved in the form of a phallus. The name Baal Shalisha (Kings iv, 42) gives an equivalent idea, translated "my lord of Trinty," or, "the triple male genitals" Set or Seth, equivalent to Saturn, means "the erect," and Kivan said by Amos to have been worshipped by the Hebrews, signifies, "god of the pillar," and Baal Tamar means "god of the phallus." (Symbol
Worship, p. 60)
The supreme god of the Assyrians was Bel, "the Procreator." The union with his wife, the goddess Mylitta was the origin of all created things Virgil expresses the Greek and Roman idea when he makes the conjugal act between Jupiter and Juno the cause of the productions of the earth. As at present in India, the phallus, as an emblem of the Creator, is found in all the temples, and is carried in religious processions, the Romans, when they held the festival in honor of Venus, a procession of women carried the phallus and presented it to the goddess.
As the male principle, under whatever special or local name, was symbolized by an upright pillar, more or less carved to represent the phallus, so the female principle was represented by a conical one as symbolical of the "mother goddess." This was said to express the form of the swelling abdomen. At the temple of AmMon, in Libya, this symbol was borne in a boat or ark. At Delphi, the navel-stone of white marble was kept in a sacred sanctuary (Strabo ix, 420) The goddess Astarte was represented at Carthage in like manner, as well as on Cyprian coins. The famous Caaba, of Mecca, is a rounded stone having like significance.
As Christianity is founded on this ancient faith, it is interesting to learn the ideas of these primitive peoples. It was natural for them to believe that the testes each had special functions, one giving male the other female off-spring, an idea science has lately unsuccessfully endeavored to demonstrate. According to the analysis of Rawlinson, this "conception gave origin to the Trinity." The Assyrian triad of Ashur, Anu, Hea, (the membrane virile with its twin testes) were united with the goddess Bellis forming the perfect creator. Ashur means the "upright," while the left testes was Anu, and the right, Hea,— the three forming the sacred Trinity, the three in olie, the great "I Am." The pictured or sculptured representation of this organ, the phallus, was received as the emblem of life, of the creative energy, ages before the Christian era. The devout follower of Isis suspended the phallus from her necklace, as the Christian suspends the cross to-day. When the pyramids were fresh from the hands of their architects and the temples of the Nile were in their pristine glory, around the heads of the "Queen of Heaven," and the "Virgin Mother"
and the infant Horsu the aureole was painted expressive of their creative functions.
The phallus, by the necessities of rapid delineation, or perhaps of taste, which dictated the symbol instead of the exact representation, became contracted to a simple perpendicular mark, with a horizontal one across its top, and in later times was used as the letter Tau of the Phoenitic alphabet. This sign (T) was received as a symbol of the male Creator at least 3,000 years ago, and in India is still retained.
The female principle, represented at first true to nature, became symbolized by a cypher, which united with sun-worship gave origin to the aureole, and to express also the three-fold receptivity of the male triad, was expressed by a triangle which in later ages became the letter Delta.
Again, the cypher was placed above the cross symbolizing the perfect and complete god-head, the "three in one," the union of the male and the female, whereby all created things were evolved. This is its most common form, although it is met with, the parts drawn true to the organs they symbolize. The sanctuaries of Indian temples still furnish the cross formed of intersecting phalli, to the horror of Christian missionaries worshiping in blissful ignorance the same emblem of creative power.
It was the assembled Bishops at Nicea, in the third century, who determined that the cross should be the emblem of the Christian faith. In their hands it was given new meaning. While it taught that in sin all men die, on the other hand it signified that all through Christ received life.
Thus Christianity stole the cross, the central symbol of its worship, from the pagan world! The devout maiden may blush to hear that the diamond cross she wears on her breast is only a disguised phallus, and indicates almost the same ideas of the more truthful symbol worn by Egyptian ladies four thousand years ago. If the cross was thus boldly usurped, other objects of worship were alike transferred. The "Virgin Mother" is the goddess Isis, as her immaculate infant is the child Horus. The very name Madonna is an exact translation of the Sanskrit Isi. The lotus has become the lily, the charming sistrum has been replaced by the hideous clanging bell, the high cap and hooked staff of the Egyptian God has become the Bishop's miter and crosier, the celibate monks and nuns
(the latter a purely Egyptian word) dedicated to the phallic worship, have been transferred to the "virgin and Son," the erect oval, type of the female principle, or the yoni, became the aureole, or rather the aureole itself was transferred with head of Isis, mother of Horus, now renamed the mother of Christ. (See Gnostics and their Remains, King; p. 71). Even the sacred vessels of the pagan mysteries became those of the holy communion. The emblem of the fish held sacred by Buddhists, Egyptians, Babylonians, and Assyrians, and prescribed as diet on certain days and ceremonies, because such diet was supposed to be favorable to reproduction, was not overlooked. And as the pagan ate fish on Friday, a day consecrated to Venus, for reasons quite apparent to one receiving the phallic religion, Christianity accepted the day and the diet. The legend of the Apostles being fishermen, and of the loaves aDd fishes, has an undoubted phallic significance.
When the village steeple, of a beautiful summer evening, is seen arising above the green shade, indicative of the Christian worship, we pronounce it an inspiring object and would not have it removed from the landscape. Yet our thoughts revert to its origin, and if we ask history why churches have steeples and what they signify, the answer returned is not conducive to our reverence.
The column, the tower, the minaret, the obelisk, all have one significance. The requirements of architecture covers the original meaning. The aspiring steeple is a type of the phallus, and connected with the "House of God" has a purely phallic meaning — "the Creator," the "Great I Am." If the steeple is crowned with a dome, it refers to the Yoni, the navel-stone type of the Mother Goddes, of Ammon, of Delphi, of the shrines of Isis. When the dome, as often happens, is surmounted by the cross, there is completed the symbol of the phallic religion.
The "Communion," under the shadow of the phallic steeple, is a mutilated copy of the pagan rites, wherein communion with the gods meant sexual intercourse with women maintained in the temple for that object, as is proven by the fact that any mutilation unfitted the individual for the " Congregation of the Lord" (See Deut. xxiii, 1), and that thirty-two thousand Midianitish virgins were preserved for this purpose. The Hebrew words for "sanctuary," "consecrated," and "Sodomite," are essentially the same, indicating amatory passions. (See the Masculine Cross. ) The communion wafer should retain its original form of the phallus and yoni, as it still does in some places in France on Easter day. (See Remains of the worship of Priapus).
Christianity is a translation of paganism. It added no new idea, belief, fast, or ceremony.
Was not Jesus crucified ? The tale is doubtful. Christna, Prometheus, Buddha and other Deities were incarnated ages before his time. Singular to note, the cross is never depicted as an instrument of torture, and the story of Christna is identically that of Christ, except in names and dates. Paul hesitated not to "lie for the Lord's sake," and taught that cursed
doctrine to his followers. Who can unravel the mystery? Is it worth unraveling? Except as a page in the history of belief it is worthless.
Christianity, founded on phallic conceptions, is, true to its origin, a religion of feeling, of emotion. Its basis is the passions. To them it makes its strongest appeal and without them it is nothing. Its watch cry "God is love" has a pertinency. Is it strange, then, that in seasons of "Revival," under the phallic cross and steeple, that the emotions overmaster the intellect, and
that the orgies of Babylon are repeated? Is it to be thought strange that the priests to this religion, although held in check as they are by the civilization of our times, are, in proportion
to their number, the most licentious class? or that the strength of the churches is in the female members, held under the magnetic control of " Ministers of the Cross ?"
It is not with a scoffing spirit I have studied this interesting subject, which exhibits more, perhaps, than any other the vital affiliations of religious systems however diverse, and reveals
the foundation of them all. Because Christianity is held to be the only true system, of divine origin, and infallible, it becomes necessary to show its human origin and relations to the so-called pagan systems. Superstition lurks in this stronghold, ready to clutch the throat of civilization; and to dislodge this foe of mankind and throw the light of truth through its dark dens
where dogmas are made plethoric by faith, is a necessity of the time. The church, the steeple, the cross, nourish the superstition on which they are founded.
This superstition is early impressed on the plastic minds of children, preparing them for the reception of the seeds sown by wily priests and laymen from the pulpit and in the Sunday school. It is the duty of Liberalists to free their children from the bondage of creeds and false-beliefs, and how can they better accomplish this than by presenting them historic facts on which popular religion rests ?
Do you fear anarchy? There may be for a time confusion of ideas. The Copernican system of astronomy overthrew that of the entire ancient world, and broke in pieces the "crystalline spheres" of the great Ptolemy, yet astronomy did not die. Without the errors which preceded him, Copernicus would never have arrived at the truth. They prepared the way.
So of religious systems, the ideas and dogmas however false, have been stepping-stones to new and broader views — approximating nearer and nearer to the truth. The Triune God may be proven only a myth arising out of a false and childish physiological notion; Hell may be shown to have no existence; the sufferings of God on the Cross be discarded, and the book in which the relations of God to man are said to be contained be referred to human origin, — and when all is done the world be the better.
The past needed sects and the battle of conflicting creeds ; the present has no use for them. They are dead bodies, once pregnant with vitality, now festering in decay. Something else is
required. It is positive knowledge, scientific accuracy of thought and demonstration. Blind belief finds its last hold with the ignorant.
There will be conflict and chauge assuredly. Sixty thousand ministers in the United States will be relieved of the arduous task of "saving souls" never lost, and allowed to follow more
profitable pursuits. The $200,000,000, the yearly cost of maintaining the churches in this country, can be turned to better use. The hosts who go through a vale of tears in search of a "foun-
tain filled with blood," will be emancipated, and dare to think, and even seek rational enjoyment in this life.
The conflict of the ages has been the conflict between the received religion and the tendency of civilization. The Saviors of the world, one and all, have suffered martyrdom at the bloody
hands of religion.
Is there any evidence that the present received religion of Christianity is absolute truth, and all the world will ever require? On the contrary, does it not exhibit marks of decay? Is it not, even now, a sapless trunk, on whose leafless, moss-grown branches, theological owls echo the mournful monody of salvation to man never lost? Is it not even now directly in the path of advancement and intellectual activity? The great lights of the world are aloof from the churches. Knowledge has been and is the bane of religion. Religion has ostracized Gallileo, Bruno, Darwin, Huxley, Tyndall, Mill, Paine, Jefferson, Shakepeare, Dickens, leaders of a countless host in the front of mental and moral achievement.
Is it said that if the religion of the Past has been largely composed of {Superstition, that of the Present is free from this repulsive element? Ah, what assurance have we that a century hence
will not regard the creeds and formula? of the churches, as we regard the childishness of the Puritans, or the corruption of Eomanism ? Are we not certain that beliefs now cherished as cardinal will then be considered of little worth, or intrinsically harmful?
We are fallible, and have not arrived at the infallible, in the realm of the intellect or of the morals.
If it be known that mankind move onward with the absolute certainty of planetary bodies around their central orbs; that there is no retrogression, and as yesterday's thoughts are replaced by to-day's, as to-day's will yield to tomorrow's, it is our duty not to stand in the way of this tidal flow in the sea of humanity.
~ The Cross and the Steeple by Hudson Tuttle
For more books on the history of the Cross, go to Is the Cross a Pagan Symbol? 70 PDF Books on DVDROM
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