Chapter V: Part 5

Another mode of worshipping the young sun-god, born at the winter solstice, December 25th, was that known as the Mysteries of the Night, or Passion of Osiris, at which an idol of the infant Horus, or Amen, called also the Holy Word, was presented to the people in its mother’s arms, or exposed to view in a crib for the adoration of the people by the priests, who were, according to Adrian, called Bishops of Christ (χριστος, the anointed one); and when King Ptolemy, B.C. 350, asked the meaning of the custom, he was informed that it was a sacred mystery. During these mysteries, which took place annually, bread, after sacerdotal rites, was mystically converted into the body of Osiris, to be partaken of by all the faithful, who were called Christians; and an idol representing the body of the god, stretched on a cross within a circle, was placed upon the mystic table for adoration and praise.

The winter solstitial point is really December 21st; but the ancients always kept the festival of the birth of the sun-god on December 25th, because at twelve o’clock, midnight between December 24th and 25th the uppermost stars in the constellation _Virgo_ made their appearance above the horizon, being the first indication of the birth of the new sun, which had taken place exactly three days and three nights previously. This gave rise to the popular superstition that the new sun-god was born of a virgin, from whose womb he had been trying to extricate himself for the space of three days and three nights. From this the idea prevailed that the sun-god underwent similar periods of struggle also at the summer solstice and the two equinoctial points; and thus arose the legend of the two crucifixions, the one at the vernal equinox, when the sun in _Aries_ crossed the Equator and was crucified as the “Lamb of God” on March 21st, commencing the ascension to heaven on March 25th; and the other at the autumnal equinox, when the sun in _Libra_ (the balance of justice) crossed the Equator and was crucified as the “Just Man” on September 23rd, descending to hell for three days and three nights, after which he emerged into the shades until born again at the winter solstice.

A very popular deity of the Lower Nile was Mises (drawn from water), the sun-god of wine and mirth, who was born on Mount Nyssa (Sinai), and was found as a babe in a box floating on the Red Sea, and who, by means of his magic wand, took his army dry-shod through the Sea and the rivers Orontes and Hydaspes, drew water from rocks, and caused the land through which he passed to flow with milk, wine, and honey. He was depicted with a ram’s horn on his forehead, being the personification of the new-born sun delivering the world from the powers of darkness, and was afterwards worshipped in Phœnicia as Iēs, in Greece as Dionysos (Διονυσος], God of Nyssa), son of Zeus, and in Rome as Bacchus. The temples dedicated to this sun-god were, in the time of the Greek kings of Egypt, very gorgeous, the mystic table having upon it, not only the infant in its cradle, the transubstantiated bread, and the Osirian crucifix, but also a bleeding lamb, the emblem of the sun-god at the vernal equinox, over which was placed the Phœnician name of Mises, Iēs, in Greek capitals (ΙΗΣ]), surrounded by the rays of glory, to signify that he was the risen and crucified sun-god, and one with Horus and Amen-Ra.

Turning to the third great division of the Iranians—viz., the Semites, who migrated to the Valley of the Euphrates, we find a more or less complicated religious system, varying in accordance with the amount of intercommunication which took place between the Semites and the tribes belonging to the Aryan, Mongolian, and Egyptian families. The earliest Semitic settlement was in the district stretching from the Euphrates to the Red Sea and Mediterranean, and their religion was, at first, one of pure animistic polydæmonism, varying enormously in details of drama in the different tribes, but exhibiting in all common characteristics.

All early Semitic peoples worshipped the sun-god, Shamsh, and all were moon, planet, and star-worshippers to a very large extent; but, as the race became divided into Northern and Southern Semites, a distinct difference gradually arose between the religious cults of the two branches. The Southern, or Arab, tribes, on account of their more isolated situation, retained the original Semitic mythology, worshipping the sun as their chief god, Shamsh, the moon as his consort, and the stars and planets as inferior gods and goddesses, the _Pleiades_ being objects of special homage. Shamsh was father of all, and disappeared to the under-world at night to rest in slumber until awakened into activity in the morning as Yachavah, his son, who became one with his father.

The Northern Semites, on penetrating, at a later period, the borders of Mesopotamia, came in contact with a powerful and advanced civilisation, which had been already established by the Akkadian branch of the Northern Mongolian family, and thus the original Semitic religion became very much modified by the introduction into it of many of the Mongol, as well as some also of the Aryan, myths.

Very little is known of the Akkadian mythology; but it is pretty certain that they were, at a very early period, acquainted with the science of astronomy, and that the Chaldeans, their successors, who were a mongrel race, partly Akkadian and partly Semitic, invented the cuneiform writing to take the place of the old Mongolian hieroglyphic characters. From what we know of the religion of the old Mongol Chinese empire prior to 1200 B.C., it was a kind of spirit-worship, the Shang-ti, or supreme spirit, being Thian (Heaven), who, in co-operation with Heu-thu (earth), produced everything. Man, according to this cultus, had two souls, one of which ascended after death to heaven, while the other descended into the earth, both being absorbed respectively into Thian and Heu-thu.

The Akkadians, who were but a branch of the same race as the progenitors of the ancient Chinese, also worshipped spirits, the greatest of whom was Ana (the highest heaven), the next Mulge (the hidden heaven in the interior of the earth), and the third Ea, the god of the atmosphere and of moisture. After these came an inferior group—Uru-ki, the moon-god; Ud, the sun-god; and Im, the wind-god. The spirits were divided into good and bad, which were constantly at war with each other; and thus was introduced into the religion of the semi-Semitic Chaldeans the dualistic notion of good and evil existing in conflict throughout all time.

The Northern Semites may be conveniently divided into four distinct nations—viz., the Chaldeans (Babylonians and Assyrians), who were partly Semitic and partly Akkadian, the Aramæans, the Canaanites, and the Phœnicians. These peoples soon became acquainted with the astronomical learning of the Akkadians, and were taught the wonderful phenomenon of the precession of the equinoxes; and it is highly probable that the fact of the vernal equinoctial sign having changed shortly before B.C. 2000 from that of the Bull to that of the Ram or Lamb had much to do with the changing of the old Semitic name Shamsh to that of El, as a designation of the sun-god, El (אל) being the old Chaldean word for Ram.

Owing to the mixed character of the Chaldean nation, their religion was a peculiar blending of the Akkadian and Semitic mythologies, El Ilu, or Ilah, being their chief deity; but, instead of sinking into the lower world each night for peaceful slumber, as the older Shamsh had done, he became the victim of the wicked demons, who tormented him all through the dark hours, until he was avenged by his son Yachavah, who thereby became the conqueror and saviour god, one with his father Ilu, and yet different. To a great extent the religion of the purely Semitic tribes of the north was affected by this Chaldean myth; but there arose many points of difference between them. The Assyrians worshipped El under the name of Asur, their national deity, the Babylonians converting the name into Bel; while the pure Semites worshipped him as Bel and Baal in the west, and as Al in the south. Out of the story of El and Yachavah was fabricated the great Adonis myth of the Chaldeans, which became so popular in future times among all the Semites except the Arabs of the south, who retained the original character of the supreme Shamsh, El or Al (afterwards Allah), and his son Yachavah, afterwards Yahouh. This Adonis drama, as originally conceived, was that El reigned in supreme power and glory in the highest heaven, enjoying the delights of his spouse Istar, but that in the autumn the wicked gods of winter overcame him, separating him from his lover, and tormenting him all through the winter months, until in the spring he conquered the evil demons as Adon, the beautiful youth, who is restored to his mourning Istar. The worship of Adonis, or Adon was generally adopted by all the Northern Semites, the god becoming eventually the most popular deity of the Semitic people, being known as Yao (ΙΑΟ of the Greeks) to the Phoenicians, Yahoo (יהו) to the Canaanites, and Tammuz to the Aramæans, while his lover Istar became the Phoenician Ashtoreth. Iēs, the god of wine, and Greek Dionysos, was another saviour sun-god worshipped largely by the Phœnicians; but was most probably of Egyptian origin, being identical with Mises, the Egyptian Bacchus. As already stated, the Southern Semites of Arabia retained, in common with their Ethiopian brethren, the old and simpler worship of the supreme god El and his son Yahouh, although, owing to their propinquity to Egypt, many strange inferior deities had been introduced into Arabia from that country, which resulted, in much later times, in the formation of various religious sects, each having a particular tribal deity, or patron god, though all recognising El as supreme. One of these tribes, with Yahouh as their tribal god, on which account they were called Yahoudi, having left their native Arabian home, penetrated far into the country of the Northern Semites, learning from the Canaanites, Phœnicians, and Babylonians the strange legends of the Northern Semitic deities, including the Adonis myth; and, after wandering about for many years, one large portion of their tribe settled in the delta of the Nile, while the remainder crossed the desert of Syria and approached the confines of Babylonia, finally settling in the barren and rocky interior of Syria, and making the spot where now stands the small town of El-Khuds (Jerusalem) their headquarters. During their long wanderings they became acquainted not only with the various Semitic myths of the north, but also with the Babylonian and Persian legends, and incorporated a quantity of strange deities and customs into their own rude and primitive religion, thus manufacturing a very complicated and weird system of mythology.

The date of the Yahudean migration into Syria was certainly not earlier than about B.C. 250, despite the declaration of interested parties that these people were known as Israelites and Jews for centuries before that time. The following quotation from Major-General Forlong’s “Rivers of Faith” is worth reproducing on this point:—“The first notice of the Jews is, _possibly_, that of certain Shemitic rulers of the Aram, paying tribute about 850 B.C. to Vool-Nirari, the successor of Shalmaneser of Syria, regarding which, however, much more is made by Biblicists than the simple record warrants. This is the case also where Champollion affirms that mention is made on the Theban temples of the capture of certain towns of the land we call Judea, this being thought to prove the existence of Jews. Similar assumption takes place in regard to the hieratic papyri of the Leyden Museum, held to belong to the time of Rameses II.; an inscription read on the rocks of El-Hamamat, and the discovery of some names like Chedorlaomer in the records of Babylonia; but this is all the ‘evidence’ as to the existence of ancient Jews which has been advanced, and the most is made of it in Dr. Birch’s opening address on ‘The Progress of Biblical Archæology,’ at the inauguration of that Society. The only _logical_ conclusion justifiable, when we give up the _inspiration_ theory, is that Arabs and Syro-Phenicians were known to Assyrians and Egyptians, and this none would deny. Indeed, we readily grant with Dr. Birch that, ‘under the nineteenth and twentieth Egyptian dynasties, the influence of the Armenœan nations is distinctly marked; that not only, by blood and alliances, had the Pharaohs been closely united with the princes of Palestine and Syria, but that the language of the period abounds in Semitic words, quite different from the Egyptian, with which they were embroidered and intermingled.’ Could it possibly be otherwise? Is it not so this day? Is a vast and rapidly-spawning Shemitic continent like Arabia not to influence the narrow delta of a river adjoining it, or the wild highlands of Syria to its north? Of course, Arabs, or Shemites, were everywhere spread over Egypt, Syria, and Phenicia, as well as in their ancient seats of empire in Arabi Irak (Kaldia), and on the imperial mounds of Kalneh and Kouyunjik, _but not necessarily as Jews_. I cannot find that these last were anything more than possibly a peculiar religious sect of Arabs, who settled down from their pristine nomadic habits, and obtained a _quasi_ government under petty princes or sheks, such as we have seen take place in the case of numerous Arabian and Indian sects.”

Again, the author of “Rivers of Faith” remarks: “No efforts, say the leaders of the Biblical Archæological Society, have been able to find, either amid the numerous engravings on the rocks of Arabia Petrea or Palestine, _any save Phenician inscriptions_—not even a record of the Syro-Hebrew character, which was once thought to be the peculiar property of Hebrews. ‘_Most of those inscriptions hitherto discovered do not date anterior to the Roman Empire_’ (Dr. Birch, President of Soc, op. cit., p. 9). ‘Few, if any, monuments (of Jews) have been obtained in Palestine’ or the neighbouring countries of any useful antiquity, save the Moabite Stone, and the value of this last is all in favour of my previous arguments on these points. At the pool of Siloam we have an ‘inscription, _in the Phenician character_, as old as the time of the kings.... It is incised upon the walls of a rock chamber, apparently _dedicated to Baal, who is mentioned on it_.’ So that here, in a most holy place of this ‘peculiar people,’ we find only Phenicians, and these worshipping the Sun-God of Fertility, as was customary on every coast of Europe, from unknown times down to the rise of Christianity. The Biblical Archæological Society and British Museum authorities tell us frankly and clearly that no Hebrew square character can be proved to exist till after the Babylonian captivity, and that, ‘at all events, _this inscription of Siloam shows that the curved or Phenician character was in use in Jerusalem itself under the Hebrew Monarchy, as well as the conterminous Phenicia, Moabitis_, and the more distant Assyria. No monument, indeed,’ continues Dr. Birch, ‘of greater antiquity, inscribed in the square character (Hebrew), has been found, _as yet, older than the fifth century_, A.D.; and the coins of the Maccabean princes, as well as those of the revolter Barcochab, are impressed with _Samaritan_ characters.’” As to the Moabite Stone, I would refer my readers to a little work entitled “An Inquiry into the Age of the Moabite Stone,” by Samuel Sharpe, the celebrated author of “The History of Egypt,” in which will be found abundant evidence to prove that the inscription on the Stone is a forgery of about the year A.D. 260.

Apart from the history contained in the books of the Old Testament, there is absolutely no record of the Jews as an independent people, except that contained in the writings of Josephus (about A.D. 100); and, although that author may be tolerably trustworthy when relating matters near to his own time, yet in his description of Jewish antiquities he evidently, as he himself asserts, rests only on tradition. For instance, he alone records the story of Alexander entering the holy place at Jerusalem and offering sacrifice on the altar; but Arrian, in his “Anabasis of Alexander the Great,” where he specially treats of the life and actions of this great conqueror, says not one word about such a place as Jerusalem, or about such a story as that recorded by Josephus. Curtius, who wrote a far more detailed account of the life and conquests of Alexander, mentions neither Jerusalem nor the story of Alexander and the holy place. Herodotus, about B.C. 430, when narrating the two raids of the Scythians through Syria, as far as Egypt, says not a word about any Jews. Xenophon, who wrote 150 years after they were said to have returned from Babylon, or about B.C. 386, appears to have been unconscious of their existence, only mentioning the Syrians of Palestine. Neither did Sanchoniathon, Ctesias, Berosus, nor Manetho even once mention them as a nation. Diodorus also, when writing of the siege of Tyre by the soldiers of Alexander, neither mentions the Jews as a nation nor Jerusalem as their chief town. In fact, we have no account of them at all, except that contained in the Old Testament and that in the writings of Josephus, until we find them subject to the Romans, under Antiochus Epiphanes, about B.C. 165, when in all probability they had just settled down into a dependent nation, having been driven into Syria by the Babylonians, whose fertile valleys these Arabian nomads had attempted to colonise. Being surrounded on all sides by nations whose religions so very far surpassed their own in development, it did not take long for the Yahoudi (afterwards called Jews) to become affected by the mythological dramas of their neighbours; and, in carefully examining the mythical records of their tribe, we find that they very soon became acquainted with, and in some cases offered worship to, almost all the purely Semitic and Chaldean, as well as to a few of the Egyptian, deities. Their principal god always remained as before, El (אל) signifying the zodiacal sign _Aries_, the heavenly ram and first of the twelve zodiacal figures. Combined with Yah (יה), the abbreviation of Yahouh (יהוה), their tribal deity, it formed a compound word, Eloh (אלוה), or Elyah (אליה, the ו and י being interchangeable), the plural of which was Elohim (אלהים), a word used frequently in the Bible to signify the supreme God. Bearing in mind the fact that the fables of the Bible are not actual history, but merely so many accounts of the ever-recurring phenomena of the sidereal heavens, and that in the various saviour myths the vernal equinoxial sign, or saviour sign, _Aries_, was looked upon as the supreme god, who housed the new-born sun on his first appearance in the upper world, just as in the present day the song of praise on Easterday is “Worthy is the lamb who was slain (crucified) to receive the power and bring back salvation to the world,” the meanings of these names of the supreme deity become apparent at once. All the words—and, in fact, almost every divine name found in every divine record—signify the sun in one or other of the divisions of his annual or daily apparent march, or else one of the divisions itself. El signifies the first and saviour sign of the zodiac, the celestial ram, and is always used when the winter period is referred to, because from the autumnal to the vernal equinox the sun-god, Yahouh, is separated from the ram, El, which remains god of the lower world, until again united with its spouse, the sun, at the vernal equinox, becoming the ram-sun-god, El-Yah or Eloh, whose plural is Elohim, the ram-sun-gods, from the vernal to the autumnal equinox, when the sun and _Aries_ are together for six months. At a later time, when the old Bacchus worship was revived at Alexandria in the person of the young Semitic Yahoshua, who was named Iesous, we have a good illustration of this when the sun-god, in his agony at being separated from the ram at the autumnal equinox or crucifixion, exclaimed: “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?”—“My ram, my ram, why hast thou forsaken me?” In, I believe, every instance in which the plural word, Elohim, is used in the Bible the reference is to the summer half of the year, from the vernal to the autumnal equinox, when El and Yah are together. We meet with El—in its Babylonian form, Bel; in its Aramæan forms, Bel and Belus; and in its Phenician form, Baal—frequently in the Bible, and often in combination with other deities, as El-Shaddai and Bel-Shaddai (בעלשדי), signifying the “breasted ram,” or the ram at the vernal equinox, the period of suckling.[2] Other forms of the same divine name were Baal-Berith, god of the equinox or covenant (_co-venire_, to come together, as when the ecliptic crosses the equator at the two equinoxes or crucifixions); Baal-Yah and El-Yah, rendered in the authorised version respectively Bealiah and Elijah, when in reality they signify the god Yahouh, or ram-sun-god; El-Yah also does duty for Joel; Elishah signifies the saviour ram; Eliakim, the setting ram; Eleazar, the creating ram; Samuel, the god of fame, or famous ram; Daniel, the ram judge; and Israel, the struggle with El. The Phenician Hercules wrestled with Typhon (the sun at the meridian) in the sand, just as Israel or Jacob wrestled with Elohim in the dust—Hercules, like Jacob, being wounded in the thigh; and the Canaanites knew the Greek Hercules, who wrestled with Zeus, by the name of Ysrael.

[2] El not only signified a ram, but also a lamb, or any other kind of sheep. The vernal equinoxial sign, for instance, of the Persians was a lamb, while that of the Egyptians was a ram.

Baal-gad (בעלגד) was the god of Fortune, Gad being a Babylonian deity representing fortune, which was placed at the foot of Hermon for public worship. From this deity G D (גד) are derived the English words God and Good, the German Gott and Gut, the Danish and Swedish Gud, and the Wesleyan Methodist Gawd. Baal-Peor was the Phallic deity (_Deus Vulvæ_), god of the opening, worshipped largely by the Hebrews, who, as General Forlong points out, “had a strong solo-phalik fire-and-serpent cult. They all had Baal, Nebu, and Peor on their high places; Yachavah or Yahuê, the ‘Grove,’ or Asherah [Ashtoreth] and fire in their central groves.” Baal Zephon was the god Typhon; Baal Hermon was another name for Gad, god of Fortune; Baal Hazor was the god Hathor; and Baal Hamon (בעלאמון) was the god Amen, or Jupiter Ammon. The word Yahouh, in various terminal forms, was frequently used to designate the sun at different times and seasons—as Joseph, the lamented Yah; Jehu, Yahouh himself; and, according to Gesenius, Jehozabad, Yeho the giver; Jehohanan, Yeho is good; Jehoiada, Yeho is knowing; Jehoshua, or Joshua; Jehoshaphat; Jehoiakim; Hoshea; Zedekiyah, etc. Yahoshua (Joshua) was the Canaanitish name for the Phoenician Yēs or Iēs, and Egyptian Mises, and became in Latin Josue, or Jesus, according to whether the Romans referred to the Phenician or Canaanitish Bacchus, whose histories, though similar in the main, differed considerably in details. The Egyptian Mises became also the Jewish law-giver and leader, Moses, and is described in Ex. xxxiv. as being horned like Bacchus (_vide_ my “Popular Faith Unveiled”). The Adonis myth occurs over and over again in fragments throughout the Bible, the Babylonish name Adon frequently being found in that form (אדן), in its Hebrew rendering Adonai (אדני), and occasionally in its Aramæan form of Tammuz. It occurs alone, as in Psalm cx. 1, “Yahouh said to Adonis, sit at my right hand;” in Isaiah vii. 14, “Therefore our Adonis himself shall give you a sign;” and in conjunction with Yahouh, as in Isaiah vii. 7, “Thus saith Yahouh, our Adonis,” and numerous other places. It also occurs with different terminations, to signify different forms and positions of the sun-god—as Adoniyah or Adonijah, Adonis is Yahouh; Adoni-zedek, the liberated Adonis; Adoni-bezek, the rising Adonis; etc. The old Semitic sun-god Shamsh remained, as of old, the Hebrew שמש (Shemosh), signifying the sun; and his Greek _alter ego_, Hercules, the sun-hero, was not forgotten either, for we find a very poor attempt to reproduce him in the history of Samson. Moloch, Dagon, and other Semitic deities are also introduced into the Jewish Scriptures. There is one other deity frequently met with which must now be named, and that is the Egyptian Amen—the Zeus Amen (Ζευς Αμην·) of the Greeks, and the Jupiter Ammon of the Romans. This god Ammon (אמן or אמון) was worshipped by the Jews as the equal in power to, and the very counterpart of, Yahouh, and was called by the very same names by which he was known to the Egyptians—viz., the hidden god, true and faithful witness (which epithet gave origin to the Greek adverb, Αμην, truly), and saviour of the world, or regenerator of nature. In Isaiah xlv. 15 we read, “Truly thou art the hidden god of Israel, the saviour;” and, again, in chapter lxv. 16, “He who blesses himself on earth shall bless himself by his god Ammon (אלהיאמן); and he who sweareth in the earth shall swear by the god Ammon, because the former troubles are delivered to oblivion, and because they are hidden from mine eyes.” This hidden or occult god, Ammon, or Amen, is frequently addressed in the Psalms and other places, and is there identified with Yahouh and Adonis. In Psalm xxvii. 8, 9, we read, “Seek ye my face. My heart said to thee, Thy face, O Yahouh, will I seek. O hide not thy face from me;” and Psalm x. 1, “And why standest thou so far off, Yahouh, and hidest thy face in the needful time of trouble?” Psalm lxxxix. 46 says, “Yahouh, how long wilt thou hide thyself?” Verses 49, 50, “O our Adonis, where are thy loving kindnesses of old, which thou swearest to David in thy truth?” and verse 52, “Blessed be Yahouh for evermore (who is) Ammon, even Ammon.” In Isaiah i. 15 we also read, “When ye spread forth your hands I will hide myself from you; yea, when ye make many prayers I will not hear you.” We find the same god also in the New Testament Scriptures of the later Christian sect of Eclectic Egyptian Jews. In the Apocalypse, for instance, the word Αμην is rendered “Amen” in the authorised version, and is sometimes met with as a Greek noun, Ὁ Αμην (never heard of in the classics), when it is rendered “the Amen,” which senseless rendering is no doubt intended to conceal the real and obvious meaning. In Rev. i. 18 we read, “I am he that liveth and was dead, and behold I, Ammon, am alive for evermore,” the word Αμην being rendered “Amen;” and in chap. iii. 14, “These things saith Ammon [“the Amen” in the authorised version], the true and faithful witness, the beginning of the creation of God.” As the celestial ram or lamb, _Aries_, Amen is again mentioned in chap. xiii. 8, “The lamb which has been slain from the foundation of the world”—that is, each year at the vernal equinox, when the occult god rose from his hiding-place in the lower hemisphere to bring salvation to the world.

This concludes the examination of the old sun-myth religions; but there are yet three very important religious systems to be dealt with—viz., Confucianism, Mohammedanism, and Christianism.

Confucianism took its birth in the sixth century B.C., at a time when the old solar myth was very extensively believed in China and the neighbouring countries, and was, strictly speaking, a system of morality and conduct. Its author, Confucius (Kong-fu-tse), was born B.C. 550, in Lu, a province of China, and at a very early age commenced to preach a higher and purer morality among the Chinese people, many of whom became regular followers of the young reformer, and followed his good example by likewise teaching the people at every favourable opportunity. He was strongly opposed to all false show, hypocrisy, and deceit, and abhorred the life of a hermit as unnatural and mischievous. He preferred not to speak of heaven as a personal being, as was the habit of his countrymen, but was exceedingly fond of quoting its example as the preserver of order, frequently alluding to its commands, ordinances, and purposes. He attached no value to prayer, preached the doctrine that good and evil are rewarded on the earth by prosperity and adversity, and expressed his disbelief in special revelations to men. The canonical books of the Confucians are known as the five _Kings_ (the historical _Shu-King_, the psalms of the _Shi-King_, and the ritual of the _Li-ki_, the chronicles of the _Tshun-tsiew_, and the magical _Yi-King_), and the three volumes containing the remarkable and benevolent utterances of the master Confucius himself—viz., the _Lun-yu_, the _Ta-hio_, and the _Tshung-yung_. In the _Ta-hio_ occur those celebrated and beautiful moral passages which have so justly immortalised the name of Confucius. The one is the 24th moral: “Do unto another what you would he should do to you, and do not to another what you would should not be done to you. Thou needest this law alone; it is the foundation and principle of all the rest.” The other is the 53rd moral: “Acknowledge thy benefits by return of other benefits, but never avenge injuries.” Notwithstanding the great persecution of Confucians in b.c. 212, by the Ts’in rulers, and other smaller attempts to destroy the new system of morality in favour of the sun-gods, the moral code of Confucius was publicly permitted to be used in A.D. 57, and since the seventh century has almost entirely taken the place of god-worship, a few only of the more uneducated classes still professing to worship Fo-hi.

Mohammedanism, or Islamism, the reformed faith of Arab polytheists, arose in the sixth century of our era. Mahomet, or Mohammed, was a young religious enthusiast, a camel-driver of Mecca, who determined to uproot the idolatry and superstition of the Arab tribes, and was singularly successful in his arduous undertaking. He had a powerful aversion to all kinds of priestcraft, sacrifices, and superstitious ordeals, and boldly preached the unity of God, declaring that “there is but one God, and Mahomet is his prophet.” Of all the religions of the world, perhaps none has been more successful than this; and, certainly, not one ever spread so rapidly over the face of the earth. In less than 100 years after the decease of the prophet the Khalifs of Islamism were masters of the whole of Northern Africa, Spain, and part of France, besides a great portion of Asia; which vast territories they retained possession of for about 600 years, encouraging the while philosophical and scientific studies, establishing libraries, schools, and universities, and otherwise benefitting the human race. At the present day upwards of 100,000,000 people embrace this faith, whose God is Allah, the great unity, whose prophet is Mahomet, and whose Bible is the Koran.

We now come to Christianism, that widely-spread faith, whose cradle was Alexandria, whose nursery was Rome, and whose workshop was Europe. The founder of this religion, if he ever lived at all, about which there is considerable doubt, was a young ascetic monk belonging to the Essenes—a Syrian branch of the large order of Therapeutæ—whose headquarters were in Alexandria. His name was Yahoshua ben Pandira and Stada; he was born about B.C. 120, in the reign of Alexander Jannæus; and he preached the doctrines of Confucius, declaring publicly that the priests were liars and hypocrites, and inculcating communistic and socialistic theories. He gained many lowly followers, who followed him about preaching in the open air, and begging their bread from day to day, and, at last, was publicly executed for his seditious conduct.

At the same time a remarkable mental revolution was taking place in Greece and Egypt, the natural homes of mythology; the University of Alexandria and the Academic Groves of Athens were fast sending to the right-about-face the old superstitions, much to the dismay of the priests and religious fanatics, who were driven to their wits’ end to know how to counteract this dangerous tendency of the age towards infidelity and science. The idea struck them of utilising for their purpose the new sect of religious reformers, who lived according to the teaching of the young socialist, Yahoshua; they boldly declared that this man was, when on earth, an incarnate deity, and proceeded to attribute to him all the miraculous performances that had been previously imputed to the sun-god Bacchus; and commenced forthwith to prepare their documentary evidences ready for the ignorant and credulous multitudes. A new sect of the Therapeut monks of Alexandria came into existence, called Eclectics, whose mission was to collect all that was good and useful in the religions of their neighbours, and commit them to manuscript for the use of their monasteries and the priestly class generally. It did not take long to fabricate a very imposing story of the young man Yahoshua, whom they now called Iesous (Ιησους, a name used by the Greeks to signify a hero personification of the sun-god Bacchus, the Phœnician Ιης), Greek being at that time the prevailing language of Lower Egypt. The performances of the ancient sun-gods of Egypt, Persia, Arabia, India, Greece, Phœnicia, and Italy were recalled to the minds of these Eclectic monks, by diligent search among their old musty MSS., and, after carefully and judiciously collating the fables, they were enabled to clothe their new Iesous, or Jesus, with all the leading characteristics of these various deities. He was born of a virgin at midnight between December 24th and December 25th, as were all the sun-gods: his birth, like that of Mithra and that of Krishna, was foretold: a star pointed out the place of his nativity, as in the case of Mithra: his birth-place was a manger in a stable, as in the case of Hercules; or, according to another account, a cave, as in the case of Mithra and Horus: he cured the sick, as did Æsculapius: he fasted in the wilderness, as did Buddha: he performed miracles, as did Bacchus, Hercules, and others: he turned water into wine, as did the Egyptian Bacchus, and as was done at the Bacchanalian orgies: he was crucified, as were also Krishna, Osiris, and Prometheus: he rose from the dead after having been in the grave three days and three nights, as did all the sun-gods: he descended to hell, as did all the sun-gods: he was called Saviour (Σωτηρ, Gr., and Saotès, Egyp.) and Lamb of God (_Agnus Dei_), as were all the sun-gods (Ζευς Σωτηρ, Mises Saotès, etc.); Amen, as was Jupiter Ammon (Ζευς Αμην); Christ, or the Anointed (χριστος), as was Osiris; Son of God, as were Plato’s Logos (λογος), Bacchus, Mithra, and Horus; Holy Word (of Plato and Philo), as also was Horus; God of Love, as were Adonis, Mithra, and Krishna; Light of the World, as were all the sun-gods; and, like his _alter ego_, Krishna, The Resurrection, The Incarnate, The Beginning and the End, Existing before All Things, Chief of Prophets, and Messenger of Peace: he was the incarnation of one third of a trinity, as were also Horus, Krishna, and Plato’s Logos: his day was called the Day of the Sun: his followers were called Christians, and his priests Bishops of Christ, just as were those of Osiris: his priests absolved sins, received confessions, and practised celibacy, as did the priests of Bacchus, Adonis, Mithra, Krishna, Buddha, etc.: his feast was called the Lord’s Supper and the Mystery of the Night, as were those of Bacchus, Adonis, and Osiris: these suppers became, in course of time, obscene midnight orgies, as did those of Bacchus and Adonis: at these suppers the insignia over the table were the letters Ι Η Σ (the Phœnician name of Bacchus, in Greek capitals), surrounded by the rays of light and surmounted by a crucifix and a bleeding lamb, precisely as was the case with the Bacchanalian orgies: at the Lord’s Supper bread and wine were transubstantiated into the body and blood of Jesus, exactly as was done in the case of Bacchus and Osiris: and lights were used at these feasts just as they were at the Bacchanalian orgies.

These fables were carefully compiled together, attributed to various imaginary authors, and finally issued to the people as an appendix, or New Testament, to the volume of the old Jewish Scriptures, or Old Testament. Thus were gathered together by the Alexandrian Eclectics the principal essentials of all the old mythological cults, and thus came into existence the huge and powerful system of religion called Christianism, which has been the great curse of Europe for well nigh two thousand years. From the brutal murder of Hypatia, in a Christian church, by the fanatical mob of a Christian bishop, down to the last poor wretch burnt alive at the stake by the orders of the Church of Jesus, the story of Christian infamy is not relieved by one bright spot. Humanity stands aghast, and shudders at the hideous tale of crime which the history of Christian Europe unfolds. It is one long wail of anguish, poured forth by suffering man, finding relief only in the silence of the grave—that stronghold of peace within which neither god, devil, priest, nor tyrant can wreak their diabolical vengeance further. How terrible have been the sufferings of poor Humanity under the ghastly shadow of the Cross is beautifully expressed in Shelley’s “Queen Mab,” in the dialogue between the spirit of Ianthe and the Fairy Queen:—

SPIRIT. I was an infant when my mother went
To see an Atheist burned. She took me there:
The dark-robed priests were met around the pile
The multitude was gazing silently;
And as the culprit passed with dauntless mien,
Tempered disdain in his unaltering eye,
Mixed with a quiet smile, shone calmly forth:
The thirsty fire crept round his manly limbs;
His resolute eyes were scorched to blindness soon;
His death-pang rent my heart! the insensate mob
Uttered a cry of triumph, and I wept.
Weep not, child! cried my mother, for that man
Has said, There is no God.

FAIRY. There is no God!
Nature confirms the faith his death-groan seal’d:
Let heaven and earth, let man’s revolving race,
His ceaseless generations, tell their tale;
Let every part depending on the chain
That links it to the whole, point to the hand
That grasps its term! Let every seed that falls,
In silent eloquence unfold its store
Of argument: infinity within,
Infinity without, belie creation;
The exterminable spirit it contains
Is Nature’s only God; but human pride
Is skilful to invent most serious names
To hide its ignorance.
The name of God
Has fenced about all crime with holiness,
Himself the creature of his worshippers,
Whose names and attributes and passions change,
Seeva, Buddh, Foh, Jehovah, God, or Lord,
Even with the human dupes who build his shrines,
Still serving o’er the war-polluted world
For desolation’s watchword; whether hosts
Stain his death-blushing chariot wheels, as on
Triumphantly they roll, whilst Brahmins raise
A sacred hymn to mingle with the groans;
Or countless partners of his power divide
His tyranny to weakness; or the smoke
Of burning towns, the cries of female helplessness,
Unarmed old age, and youth, and infancy,
Horribly massacred, ascend to heaven
In honour of his name; or, last and worst,
Earth groans beneath religion’s iron age,
And priests dare babble of a God of peace,
Even while their hands are red with guiltless blood,
Murdering the while, uprooting every germ
Of truth, exterminating, spoiling all,
Making the earth a slaughter-house!

There is no God! What, then, caused this mighty universe? To be caused implies a cause, certainly; and that cause must, in the very nature of things, be adequate for the production of the effect manifested. But, inasmuch as cause and effect are but relative terms, the cause could not exist independently of the effect, and _vice versâ_. Therefore, as far as the human mind is capable of mentating, the universe could not have been caused. It is, therefore, eternal. What that inherent power of matter is that hides itself so mysteriously behind the phenomena of nature we cannot tell, farther than that, being the inherent property of eternal matter, it also is eternal. This point is the limit of the human understanding, beyond which it is apparently impossible at present for the mind of man to soar. In the words of Mr. Herbert Spencer, “there is a power behind humanity and behind all things; a power of which humanity is but a small and fugitive product; a power which was, in the course of ever-changing manifestations, before humanity was, and will continue through all other manifestations when humanity has ceased to be.” This power, of which matter and motion, thought and volition, are but the phenomenal manifestations, and which regulates the varied movements of those myriads of stellar systems interspersed throughout the infinity of space—this exhaustless power of life and energy is to the human mind, as at present constituted, unknowable. Call it Law; call it Gravity; call it the Mysterious Unknown; but call it not God, that word which has brought so much bitter anguish to humanity, and which blighted the beauty of nature, causing hate where love should be, and tears to fall where smiles should gladden the heart of man. Whether or not the mind of man in future ages will be able to lift the veil that at present lies between him and the Great Unknown time alone can tell.

At present we are at the mercy of an imperfectly-developed nervous organisation, with its five special senses, which, though very far superior to the lowly nervous development of our remote ancestors of millions of centuries back in the history of life, is perfectly inadequate for the solution of the great problem of existence. But a time will probably arrive in the dim and misty future when other and more important senses will be evolved within the human frame, which may bring man nearer the elucidation of this greatest of all mysteries. Meanwhile let us apply ourselves boldly to the uprooting of the old Upas tree of religious faith—that pernicious development of the god-idea that has been the constant blight of all ages, stifling reason by fostering blind faith and gross credulity, robbing the race of all that is noble, manly, and honest, by the propagation of those canker worms, hypocrisy and cant, and retarding the temporal salvation of man by the substitution of the vain and foolish theory of future rewards and punishments.

_Printed by Watts & Co., 17, Johnson’s Court, Fleet Street, London, E.C._

LIBRA A
VIRGO B
LEO C
CANCER D
GEMINI E
TAURUS F
ARIES G
PISCES H
AQUARIUS I
CAPRICORNUS J
SAGITARIUS K
SCORPIO L

A Earth’s position at Vernal Equinox B.C. 4340.
B " " " " " " 2188.
C " " " " " " 36.
D " " " Winter Solstice " 4340.
E " " " " " " 2188.
F " " " " " " 36.
G " " " Autumnal Equinox " 4340.
H " " " " " " 2188.
I " " " " " " 36.
J " " " Summer Solstice " 4340.
K " " " " " " 2188.
L " " " " " " 36.
]

Virgo Eve V. Mary

Cetus Blasphemy]

Sagittarius. Joseph son of Jacob. Philip of Bethsaida.

J. BENNETT.]

GOD INCARNATE WITH MAN

COPY OF CELEBRATED BRONZE IN THE VATICAN ΣΩΤΗΡ ΚΟΣΜΟΥ]—SAVIOUR OF THE W0RLD

Taken from Payne Knight’s “Priapus Worship.”

A Cross, the Phallic symbol, has been substituted for the male organ erect of the original.]

Representing the sexual union of the bull-sun-god, or Active principle of generation, with the Passive, or female principle of nature or earth.

Crosses have been here substituted for the erect male organs of the original.]

Found buried in London.

Both figures are copied from “Priapus Worship”.]

I. The god’s assistance was sought on behalf of a couple, PRIMINUS and MENTILA, who were probably childless. Found in Roman camp at Adel, Yorkshire, and now in Leeds Philosophical Society’s museum.

II. Found in Roman camp at Westerford Fort, Scotland, upon the wall of Antoninus.

III. Found on one of the gateways of Hadrian’s wall, in the Roman camp at Homesteads, Northumberland.

The above are taken from “Priapus Worship”.]

From “Priapus Worship”. Two Crosses are here substituted for the male organs of the original.]

Copied from one in the British Museum.

A Cross is here substituted for the male organ of the original as shown in “Priapus Worship”.]

ZODIACAL MYTHOLOGY.

To us of the nineteenth century, who have our national institutions for the discovery and propagation of scientific truths, thus being saved the trouble of investigating for ourselves, having only to open a book to see when the next eclipse of the sun will take place, or whether the Easter holidays fall later, or earlier than usual, it seems almost incredible that there once existed races of men who devoted almost all their time to the study of astronomy; but such is nevertheless the fact; and when we consider the different conditions under which society existed in very remote times from what we are now subject to, we shall at once see that it was not altogether a pleasure, but in fact a stern necessity, that impelled the people of those early times to make themselves thoroughly acquainted with the various natural phenomena taking place around them day after day, month after month, and year after year. In those days, when writing was either altogether unknown or limited entirely to a few, and when such things as almanacks and encyclopedias were not the order of the day, people had to trust to their own knowledge of the movements of the heavenly bodies and the properties and uses of plants, etc., for the successful carrying on of their daily pursuits, which were then principally of an agricultural nature. Instead of watches and clocks, the people had only the sun in heaven to tell them the hours of the day; instead of monthly almanacks, they had the moon for their guide; and, instead of annual calendars to mark the commencement of the seasons, they had only the stars above to teach them the proper times to till their lands and sow their grain. Consequently, it was absolutely necessary that they should be well acquainted with all the movements of the heavenly bodies; and we need only glance at the earliest records of the human race to find that they were more or less full of astronomical allusions—in fact, that the principal study which engaged the attention of primitive man was the study of the starry heavens.

In my lecture on “The Evolution of the God Idea” I have already pointed out how the earliest religious conceptions arose from this study; and in my “Popular Faith Unveiled” I have endeavoured to show that, in naming the constellations, the ancients adopted the wise device of giving to groups of stars the names of the particular earth productions or earth phenomena that happened to take place at the time when such star groups made their appearance in the heavens. Now, it is a very remarkable fact that in those ancient countries of which we have any exact knowledge the heavenly bodies received very similar and, in many instances, identical names, which is just what we should expect if the above theory of the naming be correct. Take the zodiac, for example, which is the line of the apparent annual circuit of the sun, and we find that in Egypt, India, Persia, and Greece it was divided into twelve portions of 30 degrees each, the whole circuit consisting of 360 degrees; and the equivalent signs bore a wonderful similarity to each other. In the old Indian zodiac published in the “Philosophical Transactions” of 1772 the signs are as follows, commencing at the vernal equinoxial point:—Ram, Bull, Man with two shields, Crab, Lion, Virgin, Balances, Scorpion, Bow and Arrow, Monster with goat’s head and fish’s hindquarters, Urn, Fish. In the Indian zodiac published by Sir W. Jones they are as follows:—Ram, Bull, Youth and Damsel, Crab, Lion, Virgin in a boat, holding an ear of rice-corn, Man holding the balances, Scorpion, Centaur shooting with a bow and arrow, Monster with antelope’s head and fish’s hindquarters, Man carrying a water-pot on his shoulder, Two Fishes. The ancient Persian zodiacal signs were: Lamb, Bull, Twins, Crab, Lion, Ear of Corn, Balances, Scorpion, Bow, Goat, Pitcher of Water, Two Fishes. In the zodiac depicted on the ceiling of the Egyptian temple of Isis at Dendera the following are the signs:—Ram, Bull, Twins, Beetle, Lion, Virgin holding an ear of corn, Balances, Scorpion, Centaur shooting with bow and arrow, Monster with goat’s head and fish’s hindquarters, Man pouring water from two water-pots, Two Fishes. In Kircher’s Egyptian zodiac the signs are:—Man with ram’s horns, Bull, Twins, Hermes with head of an Ibis, Lion, Virgin holding an ear of corn, Man holding the balances, Man with serpents for legs and having a serpent twisted round his body, Centaur shooting with bow and arrow, Monster with goat’s head and fish’s hindquarters, Man with an urn from which water was falling, Woman with fish’s tail. Ancient Greek zodiacs had the following signs:—Ram, Bull, Twins, Crab, Lion, Virgin, Balances, Scorpion, Centaur shooting with bow and arrow, Goat with fish’s hindquarters, Canobus with his pitcher of water, Two Fishes. The Romans followed the Greeks, and these signs have since remained unchanged in all modern zodiacs, being now known under the following names:—Aries, the ram; Taurus, the bull; Gemini, the twins; Cancer, the crab; Leo, the lion; Virgo, the virgin; Libra, the balances; Scorpio, the scorpion; Sagittarius, the centaur-archer; Capricornus, the goat-fish; Aquarius, the water-bearer; Pisces, the fishes.

Each of these signs corresponds with a particular portion of the year, varying according to the slow movement known as the precession of the equinoxes, by which all the signs are moved forward very slightly year by year, at the rate of one degree in 71 or 72 years, until, at the end of about 2,152 years, a whole sign has moved forward into the position previously occupied by the sign immediately preceding it. This is caused by the failure of the sun to reach the same point in the same time in his apparent circuit each year; and thus it happens that, in a period of rather less than 26,000 years, each sign will have moved completely round the zodiacal band. Now, by careful calculation it has been found that the vernal equinoxial point coincided with the first degree of Aries about 28,000 years ago, with the first degree of Libra about 17,000 years ago, with the first degree of Taurus B.C. 4,340, with that of Aries B.C. 2,188, and with that of Pisces B.C. 36; so that, at the present time, the vernal equinoxial point is really occupied by the sign of the fishes, although, for astronomical purposes, the sign of the ram is always placed in that position, and will, for the future, always be considered as the first sign of the zodiac, no matter what sign may really occupy that position. Thus there is now what is called a fixed zodiac, which never changes, and which is an arbitrary arrangement made for scientific purposes, and a real zodiac whose figures move steadily and slowly year by year, until at the end of rather more than two thousand years the vernal equinoxial point is occupied by the sign immediately following the one which occupied it during that period of time.