The God-Idea of the Ancients Part 28

167) Torquemada.

A Deity which occupied a conspicuous place in the mythology, and which was probably an inheritance from more ancient times, was Quetzalcoatl, doubtless the same as the Eastern G.o.ddess of Nature, or Wisdom. She was the "grain G.o.ddess," and "received offerings of fruit and flowers" at her two great festivals. She also took care of the growth of corn. She was doubtless the same as the Earth Mother of the Finns and Esths, she who "undertakes the task of bringing forth the fruits." She is evidently the Demeter of the Greeks, the Ceres of the Romans, etc. She is also the G.o.ddess of Wisdom, for she had "instructed the nations in the use of metals, in agriculture, and in the art of government." Under this Deity the

"Earth had teemed with fruits and flowers without the pains of culture.

An ear of Indian corn was as much as a single man could carry. The cotton, as it grew, took, of its own accord, the rich dies of human art.

The air was filled with intoxicating perfumes and the sweet melody of birds. In short, these were the halcyon days, which find a place in the mythic systems of so many nations throughout the world. It was the golden age of Anuhuac."

We are given to understand that for some cause not explained the beneficent G.o.d Quetzalcoatl was banished, that he (or she) was deposed through the influence of some deity which had become more popular, or, at least, more powerful; but that when Quetzalcoatl departed from the country "in a winged skiff made of serpent skins," it was with a promise to return to the faithful, which promise was sacredly cherished down to the time of the Spanish invasion.

The Mexican Mars, Huitzilopotchi, was born of a virgin. His mother, a devout person, while at her devotions in the temple saw floating before her a bright colored feather ball, which she seized and placed in her bosom. She soon became pregnant, her offspring being a G.o.d, who like Minerva appeared full armed with spear and helmet.

Although the exact manner in which the Mexicans sacrificed to their Deity to atone for the sins of the people differs somewhat from the modus operandi employed in the Christian vicarious atonement, still the likeness existing between them is sufficient to indicate the fact of their common origin and the similar manner of their development.

The Mexicans were wont to select a young and handsome man from their midst, whom they invested with the dignity of a G.o.d. After having surrounded him with every luxury, and when they had showered upon him every attention, crowning him with flowers and wors.h.i.+pping him for a year or more as a Savior, they killed him, offering him as an atonement or sacrifice, in order that the rest of the people might escape the vengeance of their great Deity, who, it was claimed, is pleased with such offerings, and who demands sacrifices of this kind at the hands of his children. Within blood was contained life, hence the offering of a b.l.o.o.d.y victim was but the returning to their G.o.d, as a free-will gift that which he had bestowed, such sacrifice being regarded as the only acceptable means of grace or reconciliation.

That the offering of a victim to the Jewish G.o.d was deemed necessary to the fulfilment of Christian doctrine is a fact which is clearly shown by numerous pa.s.sages in the New Testament. "We are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all." "By one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified."(168) "Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many."(169)

168) Hebrews, x., 10, 14.

169) Ibid., ix., 28.

That the Jewish Paschal feasts and the Eucharistic rites of Christians had their counterpart among the Mexicans is observed in the fact that shortly after the death of their G.o.d, cakes which had been prepared and blessed by the priests were offered by them to the people to be eaten as the veritable body of their sacrificed lord.

The source whence the doctrine of an atonement--a b.l.o.o.d.y sacrifice which lies at the foundation of Christian theology--has proceeded is not at the present time difficult to determine, for we shall presently see that it, like all the leading doctrines contained in this later system, and which are regarded as exclusively Christian, had its origin in the religion of past ages, a religion which although originally pure, in course of time degenerated into the grossest phallicism and even into human sacrifice and cannibalism.

Although among the Mexicans as among the Jews, human sacrifices were offered to the Deity, no hint of gross and sensual rites practiced in the temples of the latter is recorded. Hence, as the Mexicans had not arrived at that stage of religious progress (?) at which sensuality inculcated as a sacred duty, and at which moral and physical debas.e.m.e.nt was encouraged both in public and private life, we may reasonably conclude that their faith represents a somewhat earlier stage of development than does that of either Jew or Greek. In point of morality, as judged by the most ancient standards, or by the more modern, the Mexicans compare favorably with either of these nationalities. Indeed when we compare the social, religious, and civil conditions of Mexico as we find them under Montezuma with those of the Jews under David or Solomon, or with those of the Greeks under Solon, or even with those of the Christians during the Spanish Inquisition when thousands upon thousands, not of captives taken in war, but of the n.o.blest and best of the land, were yearly slaughtered for "the glory of G.o.d," there is quite as much to meet the approval of an enlightened conscience under the first named system as under that of any one of the other three.

By priests the fact has long been understood that effects may be produced through appeals to the religious or emotional nature which under other circ.u.mstances would be impossible; and as, for thousands of years, it has been the special business of this cla.s.s to formulate creeds for the ignorant ma.s.ses, religious belief and the ceremonies connected with "sacred" wors.h.i.+p, during certain periods of the world's history, have a.s.sumed a grotesqueness in design unsurpa.s.sed by the most fanciful fairy tales which the imagination has ever been able to create, at the same time that they have portrayed a depth of sensual degradation capable of being reached only by that order of creation which alone has been able to develop a religion.

CHAPTER XVIII. THE CROSS AND A DYING SAVIOR.

In Egypt, the cross when unaccompanied by any other symbol signified simply creative energy both female and male, but whenever a distinctively female emblem was present it denoted the male power alone.

The Ibis, which is represented with human hands and feet, bears the staff of Isis in one hand and the cross in the other. There is scarcely an obelisk or monument in Egypt upon which this figure does not appear.

The symbol or monogram of Venus was a circle and a cross, that of Saturn was a cross and a ram's horn.

Plato declared that the son of G.o.d was expressed upon the universe in the form of the letter X, and that the second power of the supreme G.o.d was figured on the universe in the shape of a cross.

There is little doubt that the early Christians understood full well the true meaning of the cross, and that it was no new device. In later ages, however, every monument of antiquity marked with this symbol was claimed by the Church and by it believed to be of Christian origin.

It is related that when the temple of Serapis at Alexandria was overthrown by one of the Christian Emperors, beneath its foundation was discovered the monogram of Christ. The Christians made use of this circ.u.mstance to prove the divine origin of their religion, "thereby making many converts." The Pagans, on the contrary, were of the opinion that "it should forever silence the claim put forward by the devotees of Christianity." It is plain, however, that the Christians had the better of the argument for "the cross being uneasy under the weight of the temple overthrew it."

On the coins of Decius, the great persecutor of the Christians, is to be observed the monogram of Christ which is also the monogram of Osiris and Jupiter Ammon. On a medal proved to be Phoenician appear the cross, the rosary, and the lamb. There is another form of the same monogram which signifies DCVIII. These devices although in use hundreds of years prior to the Christian era are all said to be monograms of Christ. At the present time they may be seen in almost every church in Italy.

In the cave of Elephanta, in India, appears the cross in connection with the figure which represents male reproductive power. Inman relates that a cross with a rosary attached has been found in use among the religious emblems of the j.a.panese Buddhists and the lamas of Thibet, and that in one of the frescoes of Pompeii, published at Paris, 1840, is to be seen, vol. v., plate 28, the representation of a phallic cross in connection with two small figures of Hermes.(170)

170) Inman, Ancient Faiths Embodied in Ancient Names, vol. i., p. 408.

The Rev. Mr. Maurice adds his testimony to that of other investigators to show the universality of this emblem. He says that the princ.i.p.al paG.o.das in India, viz., those of Bernares and Mathura, are built in the form of a cross.

In the museum of the London University is a mummy upon whose breast is a cross "exactly in the shape of a cross upon Calvary."

The true significance of this emblem, and the reason for its adoration are not, at the present time, difficult to understand; but whence comes the symbol of a dead man on a cross, and what is its true meaning?

Perhaps there is no problem connected with ancient symbolism, or with mythical religion, which is more difficult to solve, than is the representation of a dying Savior on a cross. It is stated by those who have investigated this subject, that although the sun, or the fructifying power within it, was adored by all the historic nations, no hint of a cross is to be found amongst the most ancient Nature wors.h.i.+ppers. We must then look for a solution of this problem to those ages in which the higher truths of an older race were partially forgotten, and to a time when phallic wors.h.i.+p had supplanted the adoration of Light or Wisdom. The cross doubtless came into use as a religious emblem at a time when the s.e.xes in union began to stand for the G.o.d-idea, the lower end of the upright shaft being transfixed to the horizontal bar.

As soon as the male energy became G.o.d, the cross gradually grew into the figure of a man with arms extended. It became the original "life giver," it was Adam, the creator of the race. Doubtless for ages Adam represented the G.o.d-man-phallus-Tree of Life, or cross idea. He was the progenitor of the race. From this same idea sprang ancestor wors.h.i.+p, or the deification of the past vital spark. The adoration paid to the Lares and Penates, the household G.o.ds of the Romans, on the first of May, is an example of this wors.h.i.+p, as is also the homage paid by the Chinese to their progenitors.

Of religious emblems R. P. Knight says that one of the most remarkable among them is a cross in the form of the letter T which was used as an emblem of creation and generation before the church adopted it as a sign of salvation. To this representation of male reproductive power "was sometimes added a human head, which gives it the appearance of a crucifix, as it has on the medal of Cyzicus."

Originally the figure of a dead man on a cross typified creation and destruction or the operations of the creative forces in Nature.

Everything dies only to live again. Although man dies, and although the individual man becomes but a dead branch on the tree of life, still the tree lives. Through the cross-phallus idea, or through man's power to create, existence on the earth continues. Although the sun dies in winter, in spring it revives again to quicken and enliven Nature and make all things new.

There is much evidence to show that a dying figure on a cross was no new conception at the advent of Christianity. Crishna, whose history as we have seen is almost identical with that of Christ, and Ballaji, from whom the thorn-crowned figures of Jesus have doubtless been copied, are ill.u.s.trations of this mythical figure of a crucified savior in India.

It seems altogether probable from the facts at hand that the Romans wors.h.i.+pped a cross with a dying figure of a man upon it. Minucius Felix, a Christian father, in defense of his religion, has the following pa.s.sage:

"You certainly, who wors.h.i.+p wooden G.o.ds, are the most likely people to adore wooden crosses, as being parts with the same substance as your deities. For what else are your ensigns, flags, and standards but crosses gilt and purified? Your victorious trophies not only represent a simple cross, but a cross with a man upon it. When a pure wors.h.i.+pper adores the true G.o.d with hands extended, he makes the figure of a cross.

Thus you see that the sign of the cross has either some foundation in Nature, or in your own religion, and therefore not to be objected against Christians."

Higgins says that it is proved as completely as it is possible to prove a fact of this kind that the Romans had a crucified object of adoration, and that this could be no other than an incarnation of the G.o.d Sol, represented in some way to have been crucified.

An ancient medal found in Cyprus has upon one of its sides the figure of a crucified man with the chaplet or rosary, the same as those now in use by Romanists. From the style of workmans.h.i.+p it is thought that this medal must have been anterior to the Macedonian conquest.

There is little doubt that the early fathers and the bishops in the Christian church recognized in the cross the ancient emblem of fertility, but as the idea of a spiritual life had begun to take root, it was deemed proper to conceal its real significance; hence from a symbol representing the continuity of existence on the earth the cross now prefigured eternal life or existence after death. Henceforward although man was dead in transgressions, through the cross, or through the crucified Christ, he received eternal life.

That the original signification of this symbol was understood by early Christians is apparent from the fact that the Emperor Theodosius, between the years 378 and 395, issued a decree prohibiting the sign of the cross being sculptured or painted on the pavements of churches.

Tertullian also, after declaring that the devil made the sign of the cross on the foreheads of the followers of the Persian Mithra, accused the Christians of adoring the same emblem.

In 280, A. C. Porphyry, referring to crosses, asked why theologists give pa.s.sions to the G.o.ds, erect Phalli and use shameful language; to which the Christian Iamblichus in the year 336 replied: "Because Phalli and crosses are signs of productive energy, and provocative to a continuance of the world."

It was not until the second century, or until after the days of Justin Martyr, that the instrument upon which Jesus was executed was called a cross. But whatever may have been its form, as soon as the myths of former religious wors.h.i.+p began to attach themselves to his history, he became the symbolical dead man on a cross, the original sacrifice to Mahadeva. He portrayed the same idea as did Crishna, Ballaji, the dying Osiris, and all the other sun-G.o.ds. He, like each of these, represented a new sun at the beginning of a new cycle. He was a risen savior, and to him were finally transferred all the festivals, seasons, symbols, and monograms of former solar deities. That the figure of a dead man on a cross was a familiar emblem throughout Asia and various portions of Europe, and that numberless crucified G.o.ds--incarnations of the sun--have been wors.h.i.+pped throughout the East, is a fact which it has been the aim of the initiated among the Christian clergy to conceal, but one which no one who has examined the evidence with a mind free from prejudice attempts to deny.

In Italy, on many of the earlier pictures of Christ, may be observed the words Deo Soli, which inscription signifies either "to the only G.o.d," or "to the G.o.d Sol."

Of the various so-called Christian antiquities which cover the walls of the Vatican, we are a.s.sured by those who have acquainted themselves with the signification of pagan symbolism that "they have no more reference to Christianity than they have to the Emperor of China." The same may be said with reference to the representations on the walls of the Catacombs.

Crishna, who was the equinoctial sun in Aries, appeared 2160 years after the first Buddha, who was the equinoctial sun in Taurus. According to Plutarch they were both modern G.o.ds when compared with the deities which gave names to the planets. Buddha, or the sun in Taurus, was wors.h.i.+pped in the form of a bull. Crishna, or the sun in Aries, was adored under the figure of a ram with a man's head. The true significance of these figures was the fructifying sun or reproductive energy as manifested in animal life, and this meaning to those who wors.h.i.+pped them was identical with the carved figures on the caves of India, the Lares and Penates of the Romans, and the stone pillars or crosses in the market-places and at the intersection of roads in Brittany.

Eusebius says that at Elephanta they adored a Deity in the figure of a man in a sitting posture painted blue, having the head of a ram with the horns of a goat encircling a disk. The Deity thus described is said to be of astronomical origin, denoting the power of the sun in Aries.

This figure, which was one of the representations of the sun-G.o.d Crishna, was wors.h.i.+pped both in India and in Egypt. In various of the manifestations of this Deity he appears in the act of killing a serpent. He was the dead man on a cross and also the sun, which although continually dying is constantly being revived again. Various incarnations of this G.o.d have appeared as crucified saviors.