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Edmond Rostand - "Cyrano de Bergerac"

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The God Idea of the Ancients or Sex in Religion

E >> Eliza Burt Gamble >> The God Idea of the Ancients or Sex in Religion




A little observation and reflection will show us that during this
change in the ideas relative to a creative principle, or God,
descent and the rights of succession which had hitherto been
reckoned through the mother were changed from the female to the
male line, the father having in the meantime become the only
recognized parent. In the Eumenides of Aeschylus, the plea of
Orestes in extenuation of his crime is that he is not of kin to
his mother. Euripides, also, puts into the mouth of Apollo the
same physiological notion, that she who bears the child is only
its nurse. The Hindoo Code of Menu, which, however, since its
earliest conception, has undergone numberless mutilations to suit
the purposes of the priests, declares that "the mother is but the
field which brings forth the plant according to whatsoever seed
is sown."

Although, through the accumulation of property in masses and the
capture of women for wives, men had succeeded in gaining the
ascendancy, and although the doctrine had been propounded that
the father is the only parent, thereby reversing the established
manner of reckoning descent, still, as we shall hereafter
observe, thousands of years were required to eliminate the female
element from the god-idea.

We must not lose sight of the fact that human society was first
organized and held together by means of the gens, at the head of
which was a woman. The several members of this organization were
but parts of one body cemented together by the pure principle of
maternity, the chief duty of these members being to defend and
protect each other if needs be with their life blood. The fact
has been observed, in an earlier work, that only through the gens
was the organization of society possible. Without it mankind
could have accomplished nothing toward its own advancement.

Thus, throughout the earlier ages of human existence, at a time
when mankind lived nearer to Nature and before individual wealth
and the stimulation of evil passions had engendered superstition,
selfishness, and distrust, the maternal element constituted not
only the binding and preserving principle in human society, but,
together with the power to bring forth, constituted also the
god-idea, which idea, as has already been observed, at a certain
stage in the history of the race was portrayed by a female figure
with a child in her arms.

From all sources of information at hand are to be derived
evidences of the fact that the earliest religion of which we have
any account was pure Nature-worship, that whatever at any given
time might have been the object adored, whether it were the
earth, a tree, water, or the sun, it was simply as an emblem of
the great energizing agency in Nature. The moving or forming
force in the universe constituted the god-idea. The figure of a
mother with her child signified not only the power to bring
forth, but Perceptive Wisdom, or Light, as well.

As through a study of Comparative Ethnology, or through an
investigation into the customs, traditions, and mythoses of
extant races in the various stages of development, have been
discovered the beginnings of the religious idea and the mental
qualities which among primitive races prompted worship, so, also,
through extinct tongues and the symbolism used in religious rites
and ceremonies, many of the processes have been unearthed whereby
the original and beautiful conceptions of the Deity, and the
worship inspired by the operations of Nature, and especially the
creative functions in human beings gradually became obscured by
the grossest ideas and the vilest practices. The symbols which
appear in connection with early religious rites and ceremonies,
and under which are veiled the conceptions of a still earlier and
purer age, when compared with subsequently developed notions
relative to the same objects, indicate plainly the change which
has been wrought in the original ideas relative to the creative
functions, and furnish an index to the direction which human
development, or growth, has taken.

As the human race constructs its own gods, and as by the
conceptions involved in the deities worshipped at any given time
in the history of mankind we are able to form a correct estimate
of the character, temperament, and aspirations of the
worshippers, so the history of the gods of the race, as revealed
to us through the means of symbols, monumental records, and the
investigation of extinct tongues, proves that from a stage of
Nature worship and a pure and rational conception of the creative
forces in the universe, mankind, in course of time, degenerated
into mere devotees of sensual pleasure. With the corruption of
human nature and the decline of mental power which followed the
supremacy of the animal instincts, the earlier abstract idea of
God was gradually lost sight of, and man himself in the form of a
potentate or ruler, together with the various emblems of
virility, came to be worshipped as the Creator. From adorers of
an abstract creative principle, mankind had lapsed into
worshippers of the symbols under which this principle had been
veiled.

Although at certain stages in the history of the human race the
evils, which as a result of the supremacy of the ruder elements
developed in mankind had befallen the race were lamented and
bewailed, they could not be suppressed. Man had become a lost
and ruined creature. The golden age had passed away.



CHAPTER II.

TREE, PLANT, AND FRUIT WORSHIP.

When mankind first began to perceive the fact of an all-pervading
agency throughout Nature, by or through which everything is
produced, and when they began to speculate on the origin of life
and the final cause and destiny of things, it is not in the least
remarkable that various objects and elements, such as fire, air,
water, trees, etc., should in their turn have been venerated as
in some special manner embodying the divine essence. Neither is
it surprising although this universal agency was regarded as one,
or as a dual entity, they should have recognized its manifold
expressions or manifestations.

To primitive man, the visible sources whence proceeded his daily
sustenance doubtless constituted the first objects of his regard
and adoration. Hence, in addition to the homage paid to the
earth, in due course of time would be added the worship of trees,
upon which the early race was directly dependent for food. At a
time when the art of agriculture had not been attained, all such
trees as yielded their fruit for the support of the human race,
and which afforded to mankind pleasant beverages or cooling
shade, would come to be regarded as embodying the universal
beneficent principle--the great creating and preserving agency of
Nature, and therefore as proper objects of veneration.

According to the Phoenician theogony, "the first gods which were
worshipped by oblations and sacrifices were the fruits of the
earth, on which they and their descendants lived as their
forefathers had done."

Although, after the art of agriculture had been developed,
mankind was gradually relieved from its past dependence on the
tree as a means of support, it nevertheless continued to be
regarded with veneration as an emblem of creative power or of
productive energy.

Among the traditions and monuments of nearly every country of the
globe are to be found traces of a sacred tree--a Tree of Life.
In various countries there appear two traditional trees, the one
typical of the continuation of physical life, the other
representing spiritual life, or the life of the soul. After the
age of pure Nature-worship had passed, however, and serpent,
fire, and phallic faiths had been introduced, the original
signification of the tree, like that of all other religious
emblems, became considerably changed. Through its energies, or
life-giving properties, existence had long been maintained, and
for this reason, as has already been observed, it became an
object of veneration; but, after the reproductive power in man
had risen to the dignity of a supreme God, the tree, to the
masses of the people, became a symbol of the physical,
life-giving energy in mortals and in animals. In other words, it
became a phallic emblem representing the continuation of
existence, or the power to reproduce or continue life on the
earth. As a religious symbol it became the traditional Tree of
Life.

The tree, like nearly every other object in nature, was and still
is, in various parts of the world, either female or male, and all
ideas connected with it are sacred and closely interwoven with
sex.

The extent to which trees have been venerated in past ages seems
to be little understood, and there are doubtless few persons, at
the present time, who would willingly believe that all along the
religious stream, from its source to its latest developed
branches, are to be observed traces of this ancient worship,
which, in its earliest stages, was simply a recognition of
Nature's bounties.

Barlow, in his work on Symbolism, says that "the most generally
received symbol of life is a tree--as also the most appropriate."

Again the same writer observes: "Besides the monumental evidence
thus furnished of a sacred tree, or Tree of Life, there is an
historical and traditional evidence of the same thing, found in
the early literature of various nations, in the customs, and
popular usages."[6] As tree- and sun-worship, or the adoration of
Nature's processes, finally became interwoven with phallic
faiths, its history can be understood only after these later
developments in the religious stream have been examined, or after
the true significance of the serpent as a religious emblem, and
the various ideas connected with the traditional Tree of Life,
have been exposed.

[6] Essays on Symbolism, p. 84.


The palm, the pine, the oak, the banian, or bo, and many other
species of trees, have, at different times, and by various
nations, been invested with divine honors; but, in oriental
countries, by far the most sacred among them is the Ficus
Religiosa, or the holy bo tree of India. Something of the true
significance of the traditional Tree of Life may be observed in
the ideas connected with the worship of this emblem. The fig,
when planted with the palm, as it frequently is in the East, near
temples and holy shrines, is regarded as a peculiarly sacred
object. When entwining the palm, which is male, it is always
female; from their embrace Kalpia, or passion, is developed.
This union causes the continuation of existence and the
"revolutions of time." The whole constitutes the Tree of Life.

In Ceylon, there stands at the present time a tree which we are
told is still worshipped by every follower of Buddha. It is a
sacred bo, or Ficus Religiosa, which stands adjacent to an
ancient holy shrine known as the Brazen Monastery, now in ruins.
Of this tree Forlong remarks:

"Though now amidst ruins and wild forests, and although having
stood thus in solitary desolation for some 1500 years, yet there
it still grows, and is worshipped and deeply revered by more
millions of our race than any other god, prophet, or idol, which
the world has ever seen."[7]

[7] Rivers of Life, vol. i., p. 35.


This tree is sacred to Sakyu Mooni, is 2200 years old, and is
said to be a slip from a tree planted by Bood Gaya, one of the
three former Buddhas who, like Sakyu Mooni, visited Ceylon.
Under the parent of this tree the great prophet reposed after he
had attained perfect rest, or after he had overcome the flesh and
become Buddha. It was under a bo tree that Mai, Queen of Heaven,
brought him forth, and, in fact, very many of the most important
incidents of his life are closely connected with this sacred
emblem.

In an allusion to the bo tree of Ceylon, a slip of which is said
to have been carried from India to that island by a certain
priestess in the year 307 B.C., Forlong observes:

"This wonderful idol has furnished shoots to half Asia, and every
shoot is trained as much as possible like the parent, and like
it, also, enclosed and tended. Men watch and listen for signs
and sounds from this holy tree just as the priests of Dodona did
beneath their rustling oaks, and, as many people, even of these
somewhat sceptical days, still do, beneath the pulpits of their
pope, priest, or other oracle."[8]

[8] Rivers of Life, vol. i., p, 36.


The sacred Ficus is worshipped in India and in many of the
Polynesian islands.

Regarding the palm, Inman assures us that it is emblematical of
the active male energy, or the continuation of existence.[9]

[9] Ancient Faiths Embodied in Ancient Names, vol. ii., p. 448.


Within the legends underlying the Jewish religion, it will be
remembered that the tree appears mysteriously connected with the
beginning of life and is interwoven with the first ideas of human
action and experience. The literal sense, however, of the
allegory in Genesis concerning the woman, the tree, and the
serpent, and its meaning as generally accepted by laymen and the
uneducated among the priesthood, has little in common with its
true significance as understood by the initiated.

In Vedic times, the home tree was worshipped as a god, and to the
exhilarating properties in its juice was ascribed that subtle
quality which was regarded as the life-giving, or creative,
energy supposed to reside in heat, and which was closely
connected with passion or procreative energy. This quality was
their Bacchus, Dionysos, or god-idea--the creator not alone of
physical existence, but of good and evil as well. It was the
Destroyer, yet the Regenerator, of life.

Of the Zoroastrian home, or sacred tree, which by the Persians
was worshipped for thousands of years, Layard remarks: "The plant
or its product was called the mystical body of God, the living
water or food of eternal life, when duly consecrated and
administered according to Zoroastrian rites." It has been
suggested, and not without reason, that to this idea of the
ancients, respecting the sacred character of the properties of
the home juice, may be traced the "origin of the celebration of
Jewish holy or paschal suppers and other eucharistic rites."

Although by the ancients water was sometimes regarded as the
original principle, later, wine, or the intoxicating quality
within it, came to constitute the god-idea. It was spirit, while
water was matter; hence, in the sacraments, water and wine were
commingled, wine representing the essence or blood of God; water,
at the same time, standing for the people. Cyprian, the bishop
martyr, while contending for the use of wine in the Sacrament of
the Lord's Supper, makes use of the following argument:

"The Holy Spirit also is not silent in the Psalms on the
sacrament of this thing, when He makes mention of the Lord's Cup,
and says 'Thy intoxicating cup how excellent it is!' Now the cup
which intoxicates is assuredly mingled with wine, for water
cannot intoxicate anybody. And the Cup of the Lord in such wise
inebriates, as Noe also was intoxicated drinking wine in Genesis.
. . . For because Christ bore us all, in that he also bore our
sins, we see that in the water is understood the people, but in
the wine is showed the blood of Christ. . . . Thus,
therefore, in consecrating the Cup of the Lord, water alone
cannot be offered, even as wine alone cannot be offered. For if
anyone offer wine only, the blood of Christ is dissociated from
us; but if the water be alone, the people are dissociated from
Christ."[10]

[10] Epistles of Cyprian, vol. i., pp. 215-217.


The Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, at which wine is mysteriously
converted into the essence of Deity, or into the blood of Christ,
is without doubt a relic of the idea once entertained regarding
the homa tree. Certain writers entertain the opinion that from
the use of the sacred homa juice have arisen various religious
practices and rites, such for instance as offering oblations to
the gods, anointing holy stones, and pouring wine on sacred
hills, also the custom of pledging oaths over glasses of wine.

The May pole, a decidedly phallic emblem, whose festivals until a
very recent time were celebrated in England by the old as well as
the young, was usually if not always sprinkled with wine. From
the accounts which we have of this sacred emblem and its
festival, it seems that no royal edict nor priestly denunciation
was sufficient to expel it from the country.

According to Dr. Stevenson, the festival of Holi or the worship
of Holika Devata, in the island of Ceylon, "has a close
resemblance to the English festival of the May-pole, which
originated in a religious ceremony or festival of the Cushites
(called Phoenicians) who anciently occupied Western Europe."[11]

[11] Quoted by Baldwin, Prehistoric Nations, p. 223.


The ash is the Scandinavian Tree of Life, and, like the sacred
trees of all nations, is emblematical of the continuation of
existence. This tree has a triple root, which peculiarity
doubtless accounts for its sacred character. It is both female
and male, and is said to be regarded as a "sort of Logos or
Wisdom." It is the first emanation from the Deity, and yet a
Trinity in Unity. To insult or injure this tree was sacrilege,
to cut it down was an offense punishable with death.

In the old Egyptian and Zoroastrian story, appear the
descriptions of two Trees of Life, also a Tree of Knowledge. In
the accounts given of these trees, the Ficus, the female Tree of
Life, represents the life of the soul, while the palm, the male
Tree of Life, is that which gives physical life, which also is
the true significance of the word "lord." When, however, either
of these trees stood alone, or unaccompanied by its counterpart,
by it both of the creative principles were understood. By these
ideas is suggested the thought which among a certain school of
psychologists of the present century seems to be gaining ground,
namely: that man is a dual entity, or, in other words, that he
has a subjective mind and an objective self, which so long as
this life endures must co-operate or work together.

In the following descriptions of Egyptian emblems, will be
perceived some of the changes which finally took place relative
to the idea of sex in the god-idea.

In the museum of Egyptian antiquities in Berlin is a sepulchral
tablet representing the Tree of Life. This emblem figures the
trunk of a tree, from the top of which emerges the bust of a
woman--Netpe. She is the goddess of heavenly existence, and is
administering to the deceased the water and the bread of life,
the latter of which is represented by a substance in the form of
cakes or rolls. The time at which this tablet was found is not
known, but it is supposed to belong to the period of the XIXth
dynasty, or about the time of Rameses II., 1400 years B.C.

There is also in the Berlin museum another representation of the
Egyptian Tree of Life, in which the trunk has given place to the
entire body of a woman. This, also, is Netpe, who is still
spiritual wisdom or the maternal principle. We are informed by
Forlong that Diana was worshipped by the Amazons under a sacred
tree.[12] From this symbol the tree, which grew first into the
figure of a divine woman, and later assumed the form of a divine
man, arose the emblem of the cross.

[12] Rivers of Life, vol. i., p. 70.


On the Nineveh tablets is pictured a Tree of Life which is
surrounded by winged spirits, bearing in their hands the pine
cone, a symbol indicating life, and which is said to have the
same significance as the crux-ansata, or cross, among the
Egyptians.

In later ages, the Tree of Life, i. e., the divine man, or
cross, or both together, furnish immortal food to those who lay
hold upon them, exactly in the same manner as did Netpe, the
goddess of wisdom, or spiritual life, in former times. According
to the testimony of Barlow, this is the subject "most frequently
symbolized on early Christian sepulchral tablets and
monuments."[13] Christ's body was the "bread of life," and his
blood was the "wine from the Tree of Life," of which to partake
was life eternal. The cross, as in earlier religions,
represented completeness of life. The jambu tree, the Buddhist
god-tree, is in the shape of a cross.[14]

[13] Essays on Symbolism, p. 74.

[14] Wilford, Asiatic Researches.


Among the Kelti a tall oak was not only a symbol of the Deity,
but it was Jupiter himself, while the earth from which it sprang
was the Great Mother. Throughout Europe, in all ages, the oak
has received divine honors. The fact that under its branches
Jew, Pagan, and Christian alike swore their most solemn oaths,
shows that its veneration was not confined to any particular
nation or locality.

The sacredness of the oak among the Druids is well attested by
all writers who have dealt with this interesting people. In Rome
its branches formed the badge of victory worn by conquering
heroes, this emblem being the highest mark of distinction which
could be conferred upon them.

Forlong assures us that the oak was even more worshipped at the
West than was the sacred Ficus at the East. Like it, the wood of
the oak must be used

"to call down the sacred fire from Heaven and gladden in the yule
(Suiel or Seul) log of Christmas-tide even Christian fires, as
well as annually renew with fire direct from Ba-al, on Beltine
day, the sacred flame on every public and private hearth, and
this from the temples of Meroe on the Nile, to the farthest icy
forests and mountains of the Sklavonian."[15]

[15] Faiths of Man in All Lands, vol. i., p. 68.


Among the Druids, the mistletoe was also sacred especially when
entwining the oak. Together they represented the Tree of Life,
or the two generating agencies throughout Nature. Of the species
of it which grows on the oak, Borlaise says that they deified the
mistletoe and were not to look upon it but in the most devout and
reverential manner: "When the end of the year approached, they
marched with great solemnity to gather the mistletoe of the oak
in order to present it to Jupiter, inviting all the world to
assist in the ceremony."[16]

[16] Borlaise.


According to the Latin writer Pliny, the "Druids have nothing
more sacred than the mistletoe and the tree on which it grows,
provided it be an oak." This plant, which is called All Heal,
although sought after with the greatest religious ardor, is
seldom found, but should the people who go forth at Christmas
time in large numbers succeed in finding it they immediately set
about preparing feasts under the tree upon which it grows; at the
same time, in the most solemn manner, two white bulls are brought
forth to be sacrificed. After the feast has been prepared and
the sacrifice made ready, the priest ascends the tree and with a
golden pruning-knife cuts the sacred branches of the mistletoe,
dropping them into a white cloth prepared for the occasion. The
bulls are then sacrificed and a prayer offered that "God would
render his own gift prosperous to those on whom he has bestowed
it." They believed that administered in a potion it would impart
fecundity to any barren animal, and that it was a remedy against
all kinds of poison. The branches of the mistletoe were then
distributed among the faithful, each cherishing the token as the
most sacred emblem of his faith. It is thought that the
Christmas tree is a remnant of this custom.

Although the Christbaum of the Germans, the Yggdrasill of the
Scandinavians, and the Christmas tree of the English speaking
nations are still regarded as belonging exclusively to
Christianity, their birthplace was the far East, and their origin
long anterior to our present era. This subject will be referred
to later in these pages. The palm, which in course of time
became the most sacred tree of Egypt, is said to have put forth a
shoot every month during the year. At Christmas tide, or at the
winter solstice, a branch from this tree was used as a symbol of
the renewal of time or of the birth of the New Year.

On the Zodiac of Dendera, preserved in the National Library at
Paris, are two trees, the one representing the East, or India and
China, the other, the West, or Egypt. The former of these trees
is putting forth a pair of leaves and is topped by the emblems of
Siva, emblems which indicate the fructifying powers of Nature,
whilst the Egyptian sacred tree, which is surmounted by the
ostrich plume, the emblem of truth, is indicative of Light,
Intelligence, or the life of the soul. In a discourse delivered
by Dr. Stukeley in 1760, attention was directed to the grove of
Abraham as "that famous oak grove of Beersheba, planted by the
illustrious prophet and first Druid--Abraham; and from whom our
celebrated British Druids came, who were of the same patriarchal
reformed religion, and brought the use of sacred groves to
Britain."[17]

[17] Barlow, Symbolism, p. 98.


The fact has been ascertained that in Arabia, in very ancient
times, there was a goddess named Azra who was worshipped under
the form of a tree called Samurch, and that in Yemen tree-worship
still prevails. To the date is ascribed divine honors. This
tree is said to have its regular priests, services, rites, and
festivals, and is as zealously worshipped as are the gods of any
other country. We are not informed as to whether the Jewish Tree
of Life was borrowed from the Chaldeans or the Egyptians, but, as
the significance is the same in all countries, it is of little
consequence which furnished a copy for the writer in Genesis.

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