The God-Idea of the Ancients Part 11

We must bear in mind the fact that under these earlier democratical inst.i.tutions, the term "people" included not only men but women, and as the grand chief, the local rulers, and the judges held their positions by virtue of their descent from, or relations.h.i.+p to, some real or traditional leader of the gens, who during all the earlier ages was a woman, we may believe that the power of women to depose their political leaders so soon as their conduct became obnoxious to them was absolute and unquestioned.

Doubtless, as we have seen, the government of Oman has undergone a considerable degree of modification since the days of Cus.h.i.+te splendor and supremacy; that, like all other nations which have come in contact with the Aryan and Semitic races, the tendency has been toward monarchial government; nevertheless, with its practically free inst.i.tutions, representing as they do, in a measure, the political system of the grandest and oldest civilizations of which we have any knowledge, it furnishes an ill.u.s.tration of the degree of progress possible under gentile organization, at the same time that it points to the source whence has proceeded the fierce democratic spirit observed among succeeding nations, notably the Greeks.

Modern writers agree in ascribing to the Touaricks, a people inhabiting the Desert of Sahara, a considerable degree of civilization. We are informed that in the Sahara, which, by the way, is far less a barren waste than we have been taught to suppose it, "the Touaricks have towns, cities, and an excellent condition of agriculture"; that with them fruit is cultivated with great success and skill. Their method of political organization is democratic and similar in construction and administration to the old Cus.h.i.+te munic.i.p.alities. Baldwin, quoting from Richardson, says: "Ghat, like all the Touarick countries, is a republic; all the people govern. The woman of the Touaricks is not the woman of the Moors and Mussulmans generally. She has here great liberty, and takes an active part in the affairs and transactions of life."(68)

68) Prehistoric Nations, p. 341.

One who is disposed to search for it, will find no lack of evidence going to prove that in an earlier age of the world, prior to the written records of extant history, the human race had attained to a stage of civilization equal in all and superior in many respects to that of the present time.

That this remarkable stage of progress, the actual extent of which has not yet been fully realized, was attained during a period of pure Nature-wors.h.i.+p, or while the earth and the sun were venerated as emblems of the great creative energy throughout the universe, is a proposition which, when viewed by the light of more recently acquired facts, is perfectly reasonable, and exactly what might be expected.

That this high stage of civilization was reached while women were the recognized heads of families and of the gentes, and at a time when Perceptive Wisdom, or the female energy in the Deity, was wors.h.i.+pped as the supreme G.o.d, is a fact which in time will be proved beyond a doubt.

Indeed, had not the judgment of man become warped by prejudice, and his reason clogged by superst.i.tion and sensuality, the fact so plainly apparent in all ancient mythologies, that in the early G.o.d-idea two principles were contained, the female being in the ascendancy, would long ere this have been acknowledged, and our present religious systems, which are but outgrowths from these mythologies, would, with the partial return of civilized conditions, have been so modified or changed as to embrace some of the fundamental truths which formed the basis of early religion.

Regarding the religion of the ancient race which we have been considering, we are told that they wors.h.i.+pped a dual Deity, under the appellations of Ashtaroth and Baal, and that this G.o.d "comprehended the generative or reproductive powers in human beings and in the sun, together with Wisdom or Light." In other words, they adored the great moving force throughout Nature, a force which they venerated as the Great Mother.

Before the Zend and Sanskrit branches of the Aryan race had separated, their religion was doubtless that given them by their Cus.h.i.+te civilizers. The wors.h.i.+p of the sun and the planets, with which were inextricably interwoven the fructifying agencies in Nature, explains their devotion to the study of the heavenly bodies and their advanced knowledge of astronomy. The types of regeneration or reproduction which they venerated were symbols of abstract principles, and, from facts connected with their religious ceremonies as practiced by their immediate successors, and from the pure significance attached to their emblems, we are justified in the conclusion before referred to, that the sensuous element, which became so prominent in later religious developments, const.i.tuted no part of their wors.h.i.+p.

The number of ages during which the most primitive religion, namely, that of pure Nature-wors.h.i.+p, prevailed among the inhabitants of the earth may not be conjectured, and the exact length of time during which earth and sun adoration unalloyed by serpent and phallic faiths remained is not known. It is probable, however, that its duration is to be measured by that of the supremacy of the altruistic or mother element in human affairs, and that the gradual engrafting of the later-developed sensuous faiths upon their earlier G.o.d-idea, marks the change from female to male supremacy.

We have observed that whenever a remnant of the civilization of the ancient Cus.h.i.+tes appears, exactly as might be expected, women hold an exalted position in human affairs, at the same time that the female principle const.i.tutes the essential element in the Deity.

Of the ancient Persians who received their religion and their civilization from this older race Malcolm observes:

"The great respect in which the female s.e.x was held was, no doubt, the princ.i.p.al cause of the progress they made in civilization.... It would appear that in former days the women of Persia had an a.s.signed and honorable place in society; and we must conclude that an equal rank with the male creation, which is secured to them by the ordinances of Zoroaster, existed long before the time of that reformer, who paid too great attention to the habits and prejudices of his countrymen to have made any serious alteration in so important an usage. We are told by Quintus Curtius, that Alexander would not sit in the presence of Sisygambis, till told to do so by that matron, because it is not the custom in Persia for sons to sit in the presence of their mothers.

There can be no stronger proof than this anecdote affords, of the great respect in which the female s.e.x were held in that country, at the time of this invasion."(69)

69) See History of Persia.

No one I think can study the sacred books of the Persians without observing the emphasis which is there placed on purity of character and right living. Indeed, within no extant writings is the ant.i.thesis between good and evil more strongly marked, at the same time that their hatred of idolatry is clearly apparent. The same is observed in the early writings of the Hindoos. Within the Vedas, although they have been corrupted by later writers, may still be traced a purity of thought and life which is not apparent in the writings of later ages. Not long ago I was informed by a learned native of India that the original writing of the Vedas was largely the work of women.

That the early conceptions of a Deity in which women const.i.tuted the central and supreme figure were in Egypt correlated with the exercise of great temporal power, may not, in view of the facts at hand, longer be doubted. By means of records revealed on ancient monuments, we are informed that in the age of Amunoph I. a considerable degree of sovereign power in Egypt was exercised by a woman, Amesnofre-are, who had shared the throne with Ames. She occupied it also with Amunoph, and, notwithstanding the statement of Herodotus, that women did not serve in the capacity of priests, this Queen is represented as pouring out libations to Amon, an office which was doubtless the highest connected with the priesthood.

Less than forty years later, it is observed that another woman, Amun-nou-het, shared the throne with Thotmes I. and II. and that "she appears to have enjoyed far greater consideration than either of them."

Not alone are monuments raised in her name, but she appears dressed as a man, and "alone presenting offerings to the G.o.ds." So important a personage was she that she is believed by many to be the princess who conquered the country, perhaps even Semiramis herself. Her t.i.tle was the "s.h.i.+ning Sun."(70)

70) Rawlinson, History of Herodotus, app., book ii., ch. viii.

As these women doubtless belonged to the old Arabian, Ethiopian, or Cus.h.i.+te race, the people who had brought civilization to Egypt, we are not surprised to find them holding positions which were connected with the highest civil and religious offices. The Labyrinth, in the country of the Nile, is described by ancient writers as containing three thousand chambers. Strabo says of it that the enclosure contained as many palaces as there formerly were homes, and that there the priests and priestesses of each department were wont to congregate to discuss difficult and important questions of law.

According to the Greeks, the Egyptian G.o.d Osiris corresponds to their Jupiter; and Sate, the companion of Kneph, is identical with Juno. It is quite evident, however, that the Greeks understood little of the true significance of the G.o.ds which they had borrowed, or which they had inherited from older nations. It would seem that as a people their conceit prevented them from acknowledging the dignity even of their G.o.ds, hence, they endowed them with the attributes best suited to their own depraved taste or pleasure, and then wors.h.i.+pped them as beings like themselves.

It has been observed of the Egyptians that they were wont to ridicule the Greeks for regarding their G.o.ds as actual beings, while in reality "they were only the representations of the attributes and principles of Nature." Unlike the religions which succeeded it, Egyptian mythology, as understood by the learned, was essentially philosophical, and dealt with abstractions and principles rather than with personalities.

Notwithstanding the importance which in process of time came to be claimed by males, and the consequent stimulation which was given to the animal tendencies, it is evident, from certain historical and undeniable proofs in connection with this subject, that although woman's power in Egypt, as in all other countries, gradually became weakened, the effect of her influence on manners and social customs was never wholly extinguished.

Regarding the existence of polygamy, it has been said that the high position occupied in ancient Egypt by the mother of the family, the mistress of the household, is absolutely irreconcilable with the existence of polygamy as a general practice, or of such an inst.i.tution as the harem. Although the plurality of wives does not appear to have been contrary to law, it "certainly was unusual," and although Egyptian kings frequently had many wives, "they followed foreign rather than native custom."(71)

71) Renouf, Religion of Ancient Egypt, p. 81.

Herodotus says of the women of Egypt: "They attend the markets and trade while the men sit at home at the loom"(72); and Diodorus informs us that in Egypt "women control the men."

72) Book ii., ch. x.x.xv.

Were we in possession of no direct historical evidence to prove that down to a late period in the history of Egypt women had not lost their prestige, sufficient evidence would be found in the fact that, notwithstanding the growing tendency of mankind in all the nations of the globe to suppress the female instincts and to reject, conceal, or belittle the woman element in the Deity, still Isis, the gracious mother, retained a prominent place in the G.o.d-idea of that country.

I am not unmindful of the remarks which a reference to a past age of intellectual and moral greatness will call forth; indeed, I can almost hear some devotee of the present time remark: "So we are asked to regard as a sober fact the existence in the past of a golden age; also to believe that man was created pure and holy, and that he has since fallen from his high estate; in other words, we are to have faith in the ancient tradition of the 'fall of man.'" If by the fall of man we are to understand that a great and universal people, who in a remote age of the world's history had reached a high stage of civilization, gradually pa.s.sed out of human existence, and that a lower race, which was incapable of attaining to their estate, and which, by the over-stimulation of the lower propensities, sank into a state of barbarism, in which the original sublime conceptions of a Deity were obscured and the great learning of the past was lost, I can see no reason to disbelieve it, especially as all the facts, both of tradition and history, bearing upon this subject unite in proclaiming its truth.

After stating that in Chaldea has been found rather the debris of science than the elements of it, Bailly asks:

"When you see a house built of old capitals, columns, and other fragments of beautiful architecture, do you not conclude that a fine building has once existed?... If the human mind can ever flatter itself with having been successful in discovering the truth, it is when many facts, and these facts of different kinds, unite in producing the same results."

That the descendants of a once mighty nation lapsed into barbarism, forgetting the profound knowledge of the sciences possessed by their ancestors, is a fact too well attested at the present time to be doubted by those who have taken the pains to acquaint themselves with the evidence at hand.

Regarding the manner in which this ancient civilization was reached, or concerning the way in which it was achieved, history and tradition are alike silent, although it is believed that the present methods of investigation will, at least in a measure, unravel the mystery. At present we only know that, as far in the remote past as human ken can reach, evidences of a high stage of civilization exist which it must have required thousands upon thousands of years to accomplish.

CHAPTER VII. CONCEALMENT OF THE EARLY DOCTRINES.

After the decline of Nature-wors.h.i.+p, and when through the constantly increasing power gained by the ruder elements in human society a knowledge of the scientific principles underlying ancient religion had been partially lost or forgotten, it became necessary for philosophers to conceal the original conception of the Deity and to clothe their sacred writings in allegory. Hence it is observed that every ancient form of religion has a cabala containing its secret doctrines--doctrines the inner meaning of which was known only to the few. In order that these truths might be preserved, they were inscribed on the leaves of trees in characters or symbols understood only by the initiated. The allegories beneath which these higher truths were concealed were handed down as traditions to succeeding generations--traditions in which history, astrology, and mythology are strangely combined.

After long periods, through war, conquest, and the various changes incidental to s.h.i.+fting environment, these traditions were in the main forgotten. Fragments of them, however, were from time to time gathered together, and, intermingled with later doctrines, were used by the priests as a means of increased self-aggrandizement and power.

It is now thought that the Iliad (Rhapsodies) of Homer is only a number of "detached songs" which perhaps for centuries were delivered orally, and that they contain the secret doctrines of the priests. Porphyry says that "we ought not to doubt that Homer has secretly represented the images of divine things under the concealment of fable." It has been said of Plato that he banished the poems of Homer from his imaginary republic for the reason that the people might not be able to distinguish what is from what is not allegorical. Hippolytus informs us that the Simonists declared that in Helen resided the principle of intelligence; "and thus, when all the powers were for claiming her for themselves, sedition and war arose, during which this chief power was manifested to nations." These songs which were gathered together by Pisistratus and revised by Aristotle for the use of Alexander, have generally been regarded merely as a bit of history recounting a severe and protracted struggle between the Greeks and Trojans.

Within the earliest historical accounts which we have of the Egyptians, we observe that their ceremonies and symbols have already become mult.i.tudinous, the true meaning of the latter being concealed. The ma.s.ses of the people, who had grown too sensualized and ignorant to receive the higher divine "mysteries," and too gross to be entrusted with their true significance, had become idolaters.

Not only the Egyptian and Chaldean priests, but Moses and the Jewish doctors were well versed in religious symbolism. The fact is observed, also, that as late as medieval Christianity, the fathers in the Church, the Christian painters, sculptors, and architects, still employed signs and symbols to set forth their religious doctrines. Even at the present time, many of the emblems representing certain ideas connected with the creative principles, and which were part and parcel of the pagan wors.h.i.+p, are still in use. The ma.s.ses of the people, however, are without a knowledge of their origin or early significance.

Everywhere, throughout the early historic nations, were wors.h.i.+pped symbols of the attributes or functions of the dual or triune G.o.d. Each symbol represented a distinctive female or male quality. Animals, trees, the sea, plants, the moon, and the heavens were, at a certain stage of religious development, symbolized as parts of the Deity and wors.h.i.+pped as possessing certain female or male characteristics or attributes.

It is plain that, with the decline of female power, and the consequent stimulation of the animal instincts in man, the pure creative principles involved in Nature-wors.h.i.+p gradually became unsuited to the sensualized capacities and tastes of the ma.s.ses; but in addition to this were other reasons why the female principle in the Deity should be concealed. Women were already deposed from their former exalted position as heads of families and as leaders of consanguine communities. All their rightful prerogatives had been usurped. The highest development in Nature had become the slave of man's appet.i.tes, and motherhood, which had hitherto been accepted as the most exalted function either in heaven or on the earth, trailed in the dust.

Under these conditions it is not perhaps singular that the capacity to bring forth, and the qualities and attributes of women which are correlated with it, namely, sympathy--a desire for the welfare of others outside of self, or altruism,--should no longer have been wors.h.i.+pped as divine, or that in their place should have been subst.i.tuted the leading characters developed in man. From the facts at hand it is plain that at a certain stage of human growth physical might and male reproductive energy, or virility, became the recognized G.o.d. With pa.s.sion as the highest ideal of a Creator, the female element appeared only in a sensualized form and simply as an appendage to the G.o.d which was dependent upon her ministrations. Under the above conditions it is not in the least remarkable that by the priests it should have been deemed necessary to conceal from women the facts bound up in their nature.

Woman's importance as a creative agency and as a prime and most essential factor in the universe must be concealed. "Isis must be veiled."

Through the appropriation of the t.i.tles of the original dual G.o.d by reigning monarchs, is perceived at least one of the processes by which the great universal female Deity of the ancients has been transformed into a male G.o.d. We are a.s.sured that the "redundant nomenclature of the deities of Babylon renders an interpretation of them impossible.

Each divinity has many distinct names, by which he is indifferently designated." It is observed that each Deity has as many as forty or fifty t.i.tles, each of which represents a certain attribute.