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The God Idea of the Ancients or Sex in Religion

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It is recorded that St. Bridget planted a monastery for women at
Kildare and entrusted to its inmates the keeping of the sacred
fire, and that in later times the Asiatic missionaries founded
there a female monkish order. After the establishment of Western
Christianity, however, no woman was permitted to enter into the
monasteries, and we are assured that this ridiculous affectation
of purity was extended even to the grave. During the earlier
ages of Christianity, in many portions of Ireland there were
cemeteries for men and women distinct from each other. "It had
been a breach of chastity for monks and nuns to be interred
within the same enclosure. They should fly from temptations
which they could not resist."

Although volumes have been written to prove that Christianity was
carried to Britain by Paul, and although the energies of scores
of Romish writers have been employed in attempting to prove that
Ireland was in heathen darkness prior to its conversion by the
priests of the Romish Church, yet these efforts so vigorously put
forward seem only to strengthen the evidence going to show that
the Christianity of the British Isles antedates that of either
Paul or Rome.

According to Scripture, Claudia, the wife of the Senator Pudens
of Britain, was a Christian,[151] as was also Graecina, the wife
of Plautus, who was governor of Britain in the first century.
The latter, it is related, was accused before the Roman senate of
"practicing some foreign superstition." Although Lingard, in his
History and Antiquities of the Anglo-Saxon Church, has endeavored
to annul the force of the evidence which places two Christian
women from Britain in Rome during the first century of our era,
he is nevertheless constrained to use the following language: "We
are, indeed, told that history has preserved the names of two
British females, Claudia and Pomponia Graecina, both of them
Christians, and both living in the first century of our
era."[152]

[151] 2 Timothy, iv., 21.

[152] Vol. i., p. 1.



According to the Romanists, between the years 177-181 of the
Christian era, a British king named Lucius sent a messenger to
the authorities at Rome, with a request that he with his people
be admitted into the bosom of the "Holy Catholic Church." By
those not prejudiced in favor of the Romish hierarchy, this bit
of amusing "evidence" shows the anxiety manifested lest the facts
concerning the religious history of the British Isles become
known. Regarding this embassy of King Lucius there is an extant
version which is far more in accordance with reason and with the
known facts concerning this people.

When we remember the advanced stage of civilization which existed
in Ireland prior to the Christian era, and when we bear in mind
the fact that, as in the case of Abarras mentioned by various
Greek writers, the people of the British Isles were wont to send
emissaries abroad for the sole purpose of gathering information
relative to foreign laws, customs, usages, manners, and modes of
instruction, we are not surprised to learn that the message to
Rome sent by Lucius, instead of containing a request for
admission to a foreign church, embodied an enquiry into the
fundamental principles underlying Roman jurisprudence; and
especially does this appear reasonable when we remember that the
remodeling of the Roman code on principles of equity and justice
had for several centuries employed the energies of the best minds
in Rome.

Concerning the planting of Christianity in Ireland, we have the
following from Ledwich:

"Thus Bishop Lawrence in Bede tells us Pope Gregory sent him and
Austin to preach the Gospel in Britain, as if it never before had
been heard, whereas the latter met seven British Bishops who
nobly opposed him. In like manner Pope Adrian commissioned Henry
II. to enlarge the bounds of the church, and plant the faith in
Ireland, when it had already been evangelized for eight hundred
years. The faith to be planted was blind submission to Rome and
the annual payment of Peter's pence."[153]

[153] Antiquities of Ireland, p. 78.


Of the exact time at which Romish and Greek missionaries first
went to Ireland we are not informed, but there is ample evidence
going to prove that a regular hierarchy had been established in
that island before the beginning of the fifth century, and that
this religion which had been brought in through the efforts of
missionaries from the East was, by the legendary writers of the
later Christian Church, ascribed to Romish monks.

The Jealousy of the Romish priests, and the means employed by
them to usurp the ecclesiastical authority of the Irish people,
is shown in the history of their councils. The 5th canon of the
Council of Ceale-hythe requires

"that none of Irish extraction be permitted to usurp to himself
the sacred ministry in any one's diocese, nor let it be allowed
such an one to touch anything which belongs to those of the holy
order. . . .; neither must he administer the eucharist to the
people because we are not certain how or by whom he was
ordained."

After quoting the above Ledwich queries thus: If St. Patrick had
been a missionary of the Romish Church, would the Anglo-Saxon
clergy have abjured the spiritual children of that see? In the
year 670 Theodoret, Archbishop of Canterbury, decreed that they
who were consecrated by Irish or British Bishops should be
confirmed anew by Catholic ones.[154]

[154] Ledwich, Antiquities of Ireland, p. 81.


It is observed that as early as the fourth century A.D. there
were three hundred bishops in Ireland, and to account for so
large a number, it is declared that ignorant legendary writers
had recourse to the fable of St. Patrick.

The remarkable "conversion" of the Irish to Romish Christianity,
which it is said took place in the latter part of the fourth
century or the beginning of the fifth, is to be explained by the
fact that a number of Romish priests or monks which in later ages
came to be designated as St. Patrick, claimed all the
monasteries, bishops, and priests already there as a result of
the remarkable power and pious zeal of this miracle-working
saint. It is claimed that St. Patrick founded over three
thousand monasteries, consecrated three hundred bishops, and
ordained three thousand priests.

According to Ledwich and other writers, this St. Patrick was not
heard of earlier than the ninth century A.D., and the legend
concerning him "was not accepted until the twelfth century, at
which time his miracles are set forth with great gusto."

Nothing, perhaps, which is recorded of this monk will go farther
toward proving him a myth than the miracles ascribed to his
saintship.

While yet an infant he raised the dead, brought forth fire from
ice, expelled a devil from a heifer, caused a new river to appear
from the earth, and changed water into honey.

"These were but the infant sports of this wonder-working saint.
The miracles recorded in holy writ, even that of creation itself,
are paralleled, and, if possible, surpassed by those of our
spiritual hero."[155]

[155] Ledwich, Antiquities of Ireland.


Concerning St. Patrick, Forlong writes:

"Various Patricks followed from Britain and Armorika, but even
the Catholic priest, J. F. Shearman, writes that he is forced to
give up the idea that there ever was a real St. Patrick. Thus
the name must be accepted only in its Fatherly sense, and with
the fall of the man Patrick all the miraculous and sudden
conversions of the kings, lords, and commons of Ireland must
vanish."[156]

[156] Rivers of Life, vol. ii., p. 417.


The Irish Church bishoprics differed from the Romish in that they
were held by hereditary succession, after the custom of ancient
nations. All bishops were married.

Prior to the introduction of the Christian system in Ireland the
Sabian ceremonial had been succeeded by the Druidical, upon which
had been engrafted that of the Culdees, and notwithstanding the
fact that the Romish Church gradually usurped the ecclesiastical
functions in Ireland, the last named people who for ages had been
regarded as the depositaries of the ancient faith and the ancient
system of laws, were highly respected by the people for their
sanctity and learning. Many of the Greek and Roman writers who
have dealt with this subject agree in ascribing to the Druids a
high degree of scientific knowledge and mechanical skill. The
principles of justice set forth in their judicial system, their
love of learning, and the standard attained in the sciences and
arts, prove the early people of Ireland to have been equal if not
superior to any of the early historic nations.

In referring to the number and magnitude of the monumental
remains in Ireland, and while commenting on the mechanical skill
of the Druids, the Rev. Smedley says:

"I was present at the erection of the Luxor Obelisk in Paris, and
yet I think that I would have felt greater emotion if I had
witnessed the successful performance of the old Celtic engineer
who placed on its three pedestals of stone the enormous rock
which constitutes the Druidical altar here at Castle May."

It is believed that this people understood the art of mining and
that they were acquainted with the use of iron. The following is
an extract from one of Hamilton's letters on the Antrim coast:

"About the year 1770 the miners, in pushing forward an adit
toward the bed of coal, at an unexplored part of the Ballycastle
cliff, unexpectedly broke through the rock into a narrow passage,
so much contracted and choked up with various drippings and
deposits on its sides and bottom, as rendered it impossible for
any of the workmen to force through, that they might examine it
farther. Two lads were, therefore, made to creep in with
candles, for the purpose of exploring this subterranean avenue.
They accordingly pressed forward for a considerable time, with
much labor and difficulty, and at length entered into an
extensive labyrinth branching off into numerous apartments, in
the mazes and windings of which they were completely bewildered
and lost. After various vain attempts to return, their lights
were extinguished, their voices became hoarse, and, becoming
wearied and spiritless, they sat down together, in utter despair
of an escape from this miserable dungeon. In the meanwhile, the
workmen in the adit became alarmed for their safety, fresh hands
were incessantly employed, and, in the course of twenty-four
hours, the passage was so open as to admit the most active among
the miners . . . On examining this subterranean wonder, it was
found to be a complete gallery, which had been driven forward
many hundred yards to the bed of coal: that it branched off into
numerous chambers, where miners had carried on their different
works: that these chambers were dressed in a workmanlike manner:
that pillars were left at proper intervals to support the roof.
In short it was found to be an extensive mine, wrought by people
at least as expert in the business as the present generation.
Some remains of the tools, and even of the baskets used in the
works, were discovered, but in such a decayed state that, on
being touched, they immediately crumbled to pieces. From the
remains which were found, there is reason to believe that the
people who wrought these collieries anciently, were acquainted
with the use of iron, some small pieces of which were found; it
appeared as if some of their instruments had been thinly shod
with that metal."

Through various means the fact has been ascertained that although
in the sixth century the buildings in Ireland were mean and
wholly without artistic merit or skilful design, in an earlier
age they were magnificent. Of the causes which produced the
decay of architecture, the extinction of the arts and sciences,
and the general degradation of the people of this island the
devotees of St. Paul and of the Romish Church are alike silent.

For ages after the subjection of Ireland, in open defiance of the
English, the people continued to dispense justice, and to enforce
the old Brehon laws of the country.

The lack of regard shown for English law in Ireland, even as late
as the sixteenth century, is set forth by Baron Fingles, who
wrote in the time of Henry VIII. He says:

"It is a great abuse and reproach that the laws and statutes made
in this land are not observed nor kept after the making of them
eight days, while diverse Irishmen cloth abuse and keep such laws
and statutes which they make upon hills in this country, firm and
stable, without breaking them for any favor or reward."

By a statute of Parliament enacted at Kilkenny, it was made high
treason to administer or observe these old Brehon laws. The two
enactments especially obnoxious to the English were Gahail Cinne,
and Eiric. The former of these enactments was that which in
opposition to the English law of primogeniture declared that the
estate of a parent should descend in equal proportion to all
members of the family. There was another law, or custom, among
this people, which provided that the chief of the tribe or people
should be elected by general suffrage.

We have something more than a hint of the condition of ancient
Ireland and its people in a description given by the Greeks of
one of its inhabitants. Abarras, who visited Greece about six
hundred years before Christ, and who was called by the Greeks a
Hyperborean, was a priest of the Sun, who went abroad for the
purpose of study and observation, and to renew by his presence
and his gifts the old friendship which had long existed between
the Celts and the Greeks. Strabo remarks concerning Abarras that
he was much admired by the learned men of Greece. Himerius says
of him that he came

"not clad in skins like a Scythian, but with a bow in his hand,
and a quiver on his shoulders and a plaid wrapped about his body,
a gilded belt encircled his loins, and trousers reaching from his
waist downward to the soles of his feet. He was easy in his
address, agreeable in conversation, active in dispatch and secret
in the management of great affairs; quick in judging of present
occurrences, and ready to take his part in any sudden emergency;
provident, withal, in guarding against futurity; diligent in
quest of wisdom, fond of friendship; trusting very little to
fortune; yet having the entire confidence of others, and trusted
with everything for his prudence. He spoke Greek with so much
fluency that you would have thought that he had been bred or
brought up in the Lyceum and had conversed all his life with the
Academy of Athens. He had frequent intercourse with Pythagoras
whom he astonished by the variety and extent of his knowledge."

From the descriptions given of the native country of Abarras by
the Greeks, it is evident that it could have been none other than
Ireland.

Although at this time in their history, Apollo the sun-god was
the Deity worshipped in Greece and in Ireland, still both nations
honored Latona his mother. The same as in the mother country
(Persia, or Phoenicia), the oracles, or sybils of Ireland, had
prophesied a "Savior," and three hundred years before Greek
emissaries visited that country, its people, through the
preaching of Eastern missionaries, had substituted for the
worship of Latona and Apollo that of the new solar
incarnation--the third son of Zarathustra, whose appearance had
been heralded by a star.

The identity of the symbols used by the early people of Ireland
who were sun worshippers, and those employed in that country for
ages after the Romish Church had usurped the ecclesiastical
authority, has been a subject for much comment. After describing
the peculiar form of the early Christian Churches and the
attention paid to the placing of the windows which were to admit
the sun's rays, Smedley says: "It is possible, in an age of
allegory and figures, this combination and variety expressed some
sacred meaning with which we are unacquainted at present."

The similarity observed in the sacred festivals and religious
seasons of the ancient inhabitants of Ireland and those of the
early Christians, the extent to which large stone crosses,
lighted candles, the yule log and the various other symbols
belonging to fertility, or sun worship, were retained by
Christianity, furnish strong evidence of the fact that the latter
system is but part and parcel of the former.



CHAPTER XVI.

STONES OR COLUMNS AS THE DEITY.

"Throughout all the world, the first object of idolatry seems to
have been a plain unwrought stone, placed in the ground as an
emblem of the generative or procreative powers of Nature."[157]

[157] Celtic Druids, ch. vi., p. 209.


In the language of symbolism the upright stone prefigures either
a man, reproductive energy, or a god, all of which at a certain
stage in the human career had come to mean one and the same
thing; namely, the Creator.

In the earlier ages of male worship, upright stones as emblems of
the Deity were plain unwrought shafts, but in process of time
they began to be carved into the form of a man--a man who usually
represented the ruler or chief of the people, and who, as he was
the source of all power and wisdom, was supposed by the ignorant
masses to be an incarnation of the sun. Thus arose the spiritual
power of monarchs, or the "divine right of kings."

Wherever obelisks, columns, pillars, attenuated spires, upright
stones or crosses at the intersection of roads are found, they
always appear as sacred monuments, or as symbols of the Lingham
god.

The Chaldean Tower of which there are extant traditions in Mexico
and in the South Sea Islands; the Round Towers of Ireland; the
remarkable group of stones known as Stonehenge, in England; the
wonderful circle at Abury through which the figure of a huge
serpent was passed; the monuments which throughout the nations of
the East were set up at the intersection of roads in the center
of market- places, and the bowing stones employed as oracles in
various portions of the world, have all the same signification,
and proclaim the peculiar religion of the people who worshipped
them.

Whether as among the Jews in Egypt, a pillar is set up as a
"sign" and a "witness" to the Lord, or whether as with the
Mohammedans these figures appear as minarets with egg shaped
summits, or as among the Irish they stand forth as stately towers
defying time and the elements, or as among the Christians they
appear as the steeple which points towards heaven, the symbol
remains, and the original significance is the same.

The Lord of the Israelites who was wont to manifest himself to
his chosen people in a "pillar of smoke by day" and a "pillar of
fire by night" is said to be none other than a reproductive
emblem, as was also the "Lord" which "reposed in the ark of the
covenant." Monuments set up to symbolize the religion of the
Parsees or fire-worshippers after they had succumbed to the
pressure brought to bear upon them by the adorers of the male
principle were each and all of them, like their great prototype
the tower of Babel, typical of the universal creative power which
was worshipped as male.

Notwithstanding the fact that the male energy had come to be
recognized as the principal factor in reproduction, it is
observed that wherever these monuments or other symbols of
fertility appear, there is always to be found in close connection
with them certain emblems symbolical of the female power; thus
showing that although the people by whom they were erected had
become worshippers of the masculine principle, and although they
had persuaded themselves that it was the more important element
in the deity, they had not become so regardless of the truths of
Nature as to attempt to construct a Creator independently of its
most essential factor.

Protestant Christianity, probably the most intensely masculine of
all religious schemes which have claimed the attention of man,
has not wittingly retained any of the detested female emblems,
yet so deeply has the older symbolism taken root, that even in
the architecture of the modern Protestant church with its
ark-shaped nave and its window toward the rising sun, may be
detected the remnants of that early worship which the devotees of
this more recently developed form of religious faith so piously
ignore.

The large number of upright columns, circles of stone, cromlechs
and cairns still extant in the British Isles, bears testimony to
the peculiar character of the religious worship which once
prevailed in them. Of these shrines perhaps none is more
remarkable than that of Stonehenge, in England. Although during
the numberless ages which have passed since this temple was
erected many of the stones have fallen from their original
places, still by the light of more recently established facts
concerning religious symbolism, it has been possible, even under
its present condition of decay, for scholars to unravel the
hitherto mysterious significance of this remarkable structure.
Stonehenge is composed of four circles of mammoth upright shafts
twenty feet high, the one circle within the other, with immense
stones placed across them like architraves.

In ancient symbolism the circle was the emblem of eternity, or of
the eternal female principle. Mountains were also sacred to the
gods. It has been said that a ring of mountains gave rise to
these circular temples. Faber assures us that a circular stone
temple was called the circle of the world or the circle of the
ark, that it represented at once the inclosure of the Noetic
Ship; the egg from which creation was produced; the earth, and
the zodiacal circle of the universe in which the sun performs its
annual revolutions through the signs. Stonehenge is said to be
the temple of the water god Noah, who, as we have seen, was first
worshipped as half woman and half fish or serpent, but who
finally came to be regarded as a man serpent (or fish) Deity.

On approaching Stonehenge from the Northeast, the first object
which engages the attention is a rude boulder, sixteen feet high,
in a leaning posture. This stone has been named the Friar's
Heel, but until recently its signification has been wholly
unknown.

Regarding the upright shaft which stands sentinel over the
mysterious circles of mammoth stones called Stonehenge, Forlong
says that it is no Friar's Heel, but an emblem of fertility
dedicated to the Friday divinity. It is represented as the
"Genius of Fire," not the genius of ordinary fire, "but of the
super-sensual Divinity, celestial fire."

Regarding these remarkable stones to which the Lingham god is a
mere introduction, Forlong says:

"No one who has studied phallic and solar worship in the East
could make any mistake as to the purport of the shrine at
Stonehenge . . . yet the indelicacy of the whole subject often
so shocks the ordinary reader, that, in spite of facts, he cannot
grant what he thinks shows so much debasement of the religious
mind; facts are facts, however, and it only remains for us to
account for them. Perhaps indeed in these later times an
artificial and lower phase of sensuality has taken the place of
the more natural indulgence of the passions, for procreative
purposes, which principally engrossed the thoughts of early
worshippers."[158]

[158] Rivers of Life, vol. ii., p. 233.


Higgins is of the opinion that Stonehenge is the work of the same
era with the caves of India, the pyramids of Egypt, and the
stupendous monument at Carnac--a structure which, it is claimed,
must have required for its construction an amount of labor equal
to that of the pyramids.

Undoubtedly there has never been a religious shrine which has
excited more curiosity than has Abury, of which, unfortunately,
nothing now remains, although in the early part of the eighteenth
century enough had been preserved to prove the identity of its
signification with other ancient religious monuments both in the
British Isles and in the countries of the East. Perhaps there is
no way by which this shrine can be better understood than by
quoting the exact language of those who have written upon the
subject. Especially is this true concerning the testimony of
those who, after personal investigation, have given to the public
the results of their research.

In the History of Wiltshisre, published by Sir R. Colt Hoare,
Bart., appears the following from Dr. Stukeley:

"The situation of Abury is finely chosen for the purpose it was
destined to, being the more elevated part of a plain, from whence
there is almost an imperceptible descent every way. But as the
religious work in Abury, though great in itself, is but a part of
the whole (the avenues stretching above a mile from it each way),
the situation of the whole design is projected with great
judgment, in a kind of large, separate plain, four or five miles
in diameter. Into this you descend on all sides from higher
ground. The whole Temple of Abury may be considered as a
picture, and it really is so. Therefore the founders wisely
contrived that a spectator have an advantageous prospect of it as
he appeared within view. When I frequented this place, which I
did for some years together, to take an exact account of it,
staying a fortnight at a time, I found out the entire work by
degrees. The second time I was here, an avenue was a new
amusement; the third year another. So that at length I
discovered the mystery of it, properly speaking, which was, that
the whole figure represented a snake transmitted through a
circle. This is an hieroglyphic or symbol of highest note and
antiquity.

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