Ancient Pagan and Modern Christian Symbolism: With an Essay on Baal Worship, on the Assyrian Sacred "Grove," and Other Allied SymbolsInman, Thomas
Religion
Ancient Pagan and Modern Christian Symbolism: With an Essay on Baal Worship, on the Assyrian Sacred "Grove," and Other Allied Symbols
Inman, Thomas
Christian art and symbolism; Symbolism
Figures 72, 73, represent an ancient Christian bishop, and a modern
nun wearing the emblem of the female sex. In the former, said (in Old
England Pictorially Illustrated, by Knight) to be a drawing of St.
Augustine, the amount of symbolism is great. The "nimbus" and the
tonsure are solar emblems; the pallium, the feminine sign, is studded
with phallic crosses; its lower end is the ancient T the mark of the
masculine triad; the right hand has the forefinger extended, like the
Assyrian priests whilst doing homage to the grove, and within it is the
fruit, tappuach, which is said to have tempted Eve. When a male dons the
pallium in worship, he becomes the representative of the trinity in the
unity, the arba, or mystic four. See Ancient Faiths, second edition,
Vol. n., pp. 915-918.
I take this opportunity to quote here a pregnant page of King's Gnostics
and their Remains, (Bell & Daldy, London, 1864). To this period belongs
a beautiful sard in my collection representing Serapis,... whilst
before him stands Isis, holding in one hand the sistrum, in the other a
wheatsheaf, with the legend... 'Immaculate is our lady Isis,' the very
terms applied afterwards to that personage who succeeded to her form
(the 'Black Virgins,' so highly reverenced in certain French Cathedrals
during the middle ages, proved, when examined critically, basalt figures
of Isis), her symbols, rites, and ceremonies.... Her devotees carried
into the new priesthood the former badges of their profession, the
obligation to celibacy, the tonsure, and the surplice, omitting,
unfortunately, the frequent ablutions prescribed by the ancient creed.
The sacred image still moves in procession as when Juvenal laughed at
it, vi. 530.
Escorted by the tonsured surpliced train. Her proper title, Domina, the
exact translation of Sanscrit Isi, survives with slight change in the
modern Madonna, Mater Domina.
By a singular permutation the flower borne by each, the lotus--ancient
emblem of the sun and fecundity--now re-named the lily, is interpreted
as significant of the opposing quality. The tinkling sistrum... is
replaced by... the bell, taken from Buddhist usages.... The erect oval
symbol of the Female Principle of Nature became the Vesica Piscis, and
the Crux Ansata, testifying the union of the male and female in the most
obvious manner, is transformed into the orb surmounted by the cross, as
an ensign of royalty. Pp. 71, 72.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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