The God-Idea of the Ancients; Or, Sex in Religion — John Shaqi
The God-Idea of the Ancients; Or, Sex in ReligionGamble, Eliza Burt
Religion
The God-Idea of the Ancients; Or, Sex in Religion
Gamble, Eliza Burt
Religion; Sex -- Religious aspects; Women and religion
The difficulty of the ancients in establishing a First Cause seems to
have been exactly the same as is ours at the present time. When we say
there must have been a God who created all things, the question at once
arises, Who created God? According to their theories, nothing could be
brought forth without the interaction of two creative principles, female
and male; yet everything, even these principles, must proceed from an
indivisible energy--an energy which, as the idea of the sex functions
became more and more clearly defined, could not be contemplated except
in its dual aspect. So soon, therefore, as the Great First Cause was
separated into its elements, a still higher power was immediately
stationed above it as its Creator. This Creator was designated as
female. It was the Mother idea Even gods could not be produced without a
mother.
In referring to the doctrines contained in the Geeta, one of the sacred
writings of the Hindoos, Faber observes:
"In the single character of Brahm, all the three offices of Brahma,
Vishnu, and Siva are united. He is at once the Creator, the Preserver,
and the Destroyer. He is the primeval Hermaphrodite, or the Great Father
and the Great Mother blended together in one person."
The fact that a trinity in unity, representing the female and male
energies symbolized by the organs of generation, formerly constituted
the Deity throughout Asia is acknowledged by all those who have examined
either the literature or monumental records of oriental countries. The
Rev. Mr. Maurice bears testimony to the character of Eastern religious
ideas in the following language:
"Whoever will read the Geeta with attention, will perceive in that small
tract the outlines of all the various systems of theology in Asia. The
curious and ancient doctrine of the Creator being both male and female,
mentioned on a preceding page, to be designated in Indian temples by
a very indecent exhibition of the masculine and feminine organs of
generation in union, occurs in the following passage: 'I am the Father
and Mother of this world; I plant myself upon my own nature and
create again and again this assemblage of beings; I am generation
and dissolution, the place where all things are deposited, and the
inexhaustible seed of all Nature. I am the beginning, the middle, and
the end of all things.' "(42)
42) Maurice, Indian Antiquities, vol. iv., p. 705.
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