Bible Studies: Essays on Phallic Worship and Other Curious Rites and Customs — John Shaqi
Bible Studies: Essays on Phallic Worship and Other Curious Rites and CustomsWheeler, J. M. (Joseph Mazzini)
Religion
Bible Studies: Essays on Phallic Worship and Other Curious Rites and Customs
Wheeler, J. M. (Joseph Mazzini)
Bible -- Antiquities; Phallicism; Rites and ceremonies in the Bible
In Hosea, who finds it quite natural that the Lord should tell him "Go
take unto thee a wife of whoredoms," we find the Lord called his _zakar_
(translated memorial, xii. 5). In the same prophet we read that Jahveh
declares thou shalt call me _Ishi_ (my husband); and shalt no more
call me Baali (ii. 16). Again he says to his people "I am your husband"
(Hosea iii. 14); "Thy maker is thine husband; Jahveh Sabaoth is his
name" (Isaiah liv. 5). I was an husband to them, saith Jahveh (Jer.
xxxi. 32. See also Jer. iii. 20 and Ezek. xvi. 32). God even does not
scruple to represent himself in Ezekiel xxiii. as the husband of two
adulterous sisters. Taking to other deities is continually called
whoring and adultery. See Exod. xxxiv. 15, 16; Lev. xx. 5; Num. xxv.
1-3; Deut. xxxi. 16; xxxii. 16-21; Jud. ii. 17; viii. 27; 1 Chron.
v. 25; Ps. lxxiii. 27; cvi. 39; Jer. iii. 1, 2, 6; Ezek. xvi. 15, 17;
xxiii. 3; Hos. i. 2; ii. 4, 5; iv. 13, 15; v. 3, 4; ix. 7. In the
Wisdom of Solomon (xiv. 12), we read: "For the devising of idols was
the beginning of _spiritual_ fornication, and the invention of them the
corruption of life." Here the word "spiritual" is deliberately inserted
to pervert the meaning. Let any one reflect how such coarse expressions
could continually be used unless the writers were used to phallic
worship. Further consider the narrative in Numbers xxxi., where the
Lord takes a maiden tribute out of 32,000 girls, who must all have been
examined. Vestal virgins and nuns are all consecrated like the kadeshim
to the god, and the god is personified by the priest. In this sense
phallicism is the key of all the creeds.
[Illustration: Fig. 7. Fig. 8]
That some remnants of phallicism may be traced even in Christianity,
will be evident to the readers of _Anacalypsis_, by Godfrey Higgins;
_Ancient Faiths Embodied in Ancient Names_, by Dr. Thomas Inman, and
_Ancient Pagan and Modern Christian Symbolism Exposed and Explained_,
by the same author; the valuable _Rivers of Life_, by Major-General
Forlong; a little book on _Idolomania_, by "Investigator Abhorrens";
and another on _The Masculine Cross_, by Sha Rocco (New York, 1874). The
sign of the cross, certainly long pre-Christian in the Egyptian sign for
life, is specially dealt with in the last two works. In fig. 7 we see
the connection of the Egyptian tau with the Hermæ. Of fig. 8 General
Forlong (_Rivers of Life_, vol i., p 65) says: "The Samaritan cross,
which they stamped on their coins, was No. 1, but the Norseman preferred
No. 2 (the circle and four stout arms of equal size and weight), and
called it Tor's hammer. It is somewhat like No. 3, which the Greek
Christians early adopted, though this is more decidedly phallic, and
shows clearly the meaning so much insisted on by some writers as to all
meeting in the centre."
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