FAITHS' PHALLIC FOUNDATION

This article traces the evolution of pagan phallic worship and how it became the foundation of Judaism & Christianity. It starts out slow but read on, where else will you read how phallus worship, the religions of Egyptians, Greeks, Hebrews & Christians, the Cross, Christmas trees, Yule logs, Phallic Saints and Hebrew names all celebrate the power of the male erection? Skeptical? Read on...

IN THE BEGINNING
In the Neolithic way of life, mother-rights and the clan system were dominant as they had been in the paleolithic period, and land would generally have descended through the female line. From 3.5 million years ago to about l0,000 years ago, was a peaceful period, when "marriage" was informal, casual. They sang to the moon and played and worked together and watched the children grow. For the most part life was good, and we made art and rituals celebrating our participation in the glorious spectacle and process of life within nature. A woman did not need a husband as a means of support; she was herself economically independent as a producing member of the community. This gave women, like men, the freedom to follow their personal inclinations in sex relations. A woman had the option of remaining for life with one husband, but she was not under any legal, moral or economic compulsion to do so.

MAN STRUTS HIS STUFF
This freedom was destroyed with the advent of class society, private property and monogamous marriage. Men took over and it was their belief that the male had an indispensable role in the central mysteries of life, death, and rebirth. No reproduction could take place without the life force that only the male could provide. Indeed, children were considered of the father.

ISHTAR/DUMUZI
The earliest record we have come out of the Middle East, the myth of Ishtar (Inanna) and Tammuz (Dumuzi). Worshipped in the vicinity of Ur. Tammuz was the god of vegetation and fertility, and the underworld. He is called 'the Shepherd' and 'lord of the sheepfolds'. In Sumeria he is the husband of the goddess Inanna, the Sumerian counterpart of Ishtar. According to the Sumerian King-List Gilgamesh was descended from 'Dumuzi a shepherd'. Dumuzi was originally a mortal ruler whose marriage to Inanna ensured the fertility of the land and the fecundity of the womb. This marriage, however, ended in stark tragedy when the goddess, offended by her husband's unfeeling behavior toward her, decreed that he be carried off to the netherworld for six months of each year. Hence the barren, sterile months of the hot summer. At the autumnal equinox, which marked the beginning of the Sumerian new year, Dumuzi returned to the earth. His reunion with his wife caused all animal and plant life to be revitalized and made fertile once again.

HOW THE "WAILING OF TAMMUZ" BECAME LENT
We find him mentioned in the Bible as an example of the pagan worship that the Israelites had fallen into. "Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the Lord's house which was toward the north; and, behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz." (Ezekiel 8.14-15).

The month of Tammuz wailing was from 20th June till 20th July, when the heat and dryness brought forth the demons of pestilence. The mourners chanted:

"...The shepherd, the wise one, the man of sorrows, why have they slain?...
"...There is wailing for Tammuz "at the sacred cedar, where the mother bore thee",
(a reference which connects the god, like Adonis and Osiris, with tree worship)

The wailing is for the herbs, they are not produced.
The wailing is for the grain, ears are not produced.
The wailing is for the habitations, for the flocks which bring forth no more.
The wailing is for the perishing wedded ones; for the perishing children; the dark-headed people create no more.

The season of LENT, as observed by the Catholic and the Orthodox Churches, is actually an adaptation of the mourning for Tammuz. The forty days abstinence was directly borrowed from the worshippers of Astarte/Ishtar. Held in the spring, which was celebrated by alternate weeping and rejoicing, observed in Palestine and Assyria in June, called the month of Tammuz, Egypt in May, Britain in April. To conciliate the Pagans to nominal Christianity, Rome pursuing its usual policy, took measures to get the Christian and Pagan festivals amalgamated, by a complicated but skillful adjustment of the calendar, they got Paganism and Christianity, far sunk in idolatry, to shake hands.

MAN BECOMES SPERM DONOR
Inanna’s descent to the underworld is her death and the end of fertility on earth. Her return to the upper world is the return of life on earth. But renewed life can be purchased only at the price of another’s death, in this case of her consort Dumuzi. Herein lies the logic of ritual even human sacrifice. The metaphor in which water is to earth, as semen is to womb, whence new life springs. The Shepard Dumuzi is connected with milk in many descriptions, the milky white stuff is like semen, or like the water that makes the earth fruitful by flowing across it, impregnating the female’s womb. Here is where we first obtain our idea of Man as “sperm donor.” His life-giving seed is essential for all life on earth.

ISIS/OSIRIS
In Egypt the myth becomes Isis and Osiris. A brief summary:
Osiris the king of Egypt and Isis his queen was beloved by all his people. But his brother Seth was jealous and plotted against him to take over the throne. One day Osiris held a big banquet, Seth was also invited. This was the moment he had long waited for. He gave Osiris a coffin made of the finest wood and gilded and painted. When he was persuaded into taking place in it, Seth´s accomplices quickly nailed the lid,it was taken away and thrown into the Nile. Isis was overcome with grief. She searched all over Kemet and beyond finally finding it in Egypt. She brought it back to bury him. One night Seth happened upon the casket, realized his treachery had been found out and feared that Isis would punish him. He broke into it and tore Osiris´ body into several pieces which he spread out all over the land. For many years she searched. Wherever they found a piece of Osiris´ body, they erected an altar. When at last all the parts had been assembled, Isis made Osiris into the first mummy. She then proceeded to use her powerful magic and breathed new life into Osiris and so she was able to conceive the child Horus. She recovered all the pieces except for the penis, which was eaten by three different species of fish, whose eating was ever after taboo. As a substitute, she made a phallus of wood, which was worshiped in many of the temples. After this Osiris became the King of the Land of the Dead, while Horus became the Living King of Egypt.

Please note the moral of this story: OSIRIS BECAME KING OF THE LAND OF THE DEAD, BECAUSE HE NO LONGER HAD HIS PHALLUS, WHICH GIVES LIFE. Because of this fact, the phallus became an object of veneration and WORSHIP. Phallus worship spread to Africa. These ideals of male fertility worship would eventually spread from Egypt, the Middle East and Asia Minor to the Greeks that most influenced our Western Civilization. However, make no mistake: phallus worship was practiced in other places such as:

India: Shiva Linga is a wide spread Indian Phallic figure. It consists of a feminine base ‘Yoni’ or ‘vagina’ and a rising masculine portion ‘the Phallus’ or ‘penis.’ The Linga artifacts, dating from the first century BC to the third century AD, are shaped like realistic ‘Phalli’. Thereafter the shape becomes progressively more abstract. By medieval times, its observable portion, rising from the Yoni, forms a round block with domed apex.

Japan: The Hounen festival at Tagata Jinja shrine is one of the most famous festivals in Japan. It is frequently referred to as the "penis shrine", or "Japanese penis festival", primarily due to the ancient Hounen Matsuri,a festival celebrating fertility and renewal, which is held here every March 15th when a huge two and a half meter wooden phallus is carried a short distance between two shrines.

Europe: Among Celtic peoples, tumuli, dolmens, menhirs, and most megalithic monuments, are the abode of various orders of fairies, of pixies in Cornwall, of corrigans in Brittany. The menhir were regarded both as an abode of a god or as a seat of divine power, and as a phallic symbol. As a phallic symbol, the menhir was related to a sun-cult; because among all ancient peoples where phallic worship has prevailed, the sun has been venerated as the supreme masculine force in external nature from which all life proceeds, while the phallus has been venerated as the corresponding force in human nature.

Now you know that the male energy was held with respect and awe not with contempt and loathing as we see in modern times. It is clear that any notion of the female as being the sole giver of life would be anathema to our forefathers. The modern church that seeks to denigrate the “profane” men of the world never abandoned the principle of phallus worship.

GREEKS TAKE A PAGE FROM EGYPT
The Greeks did not develop their religious and philosophical ideals in a vacuum. They borrowed quite liberally from the Egyptians:

Egypt was clearly divided from the yellow desert by the black Nile-mud, and was called Chemi, the Black Land, when made into a person, Chem, or Ham. He was the father of their race, called in the Bible one of the sons of Noah, and considered by themselves the god of increase, the Priapus of the Greeks.

Isis, or Isitis, the Earth, the mother of all creation. Her name is derived from SAT, to sow seed, like the Latin Ceres. Thoth, a Pillar at the corner of the field, became an important god, often shown writing, or counting the years on the the back of a palm branch, which became hieroglyphical character for the word "year." The Greeks called Hermes, a name which has the same meaning, a pillar.

Osiris was piously lamented by Isis. This story the Greeks copied as Venus and Adonis, a mortal. The boar which killed Adonis the hippopotamus Typhon. Osiris alone had a place of birth and burial. Mount Sinai, to the Egyptians mount Nissa. From which Greeks derived the name Dionysus, the same as the Hebrew Jehovah-Nissi. The name Moses gave to the Almighty when he set up an altar to Him at the foot of the holy mountain, a spot sacred alike with Jews and Egyptians.

The story of Uranus: Three sons were born of Earth (Gaea) and Heaven (Uranus), Cottus and Briareos and Gyes, of all the children that were born of Earth and Heaven, these were the most terrible, and they were hated by their own father from the first. Uranus hid them away in a secret place. Earth got upset and plotted to castrate Heaven. Cronos (Saturn) accepted the task. While Heaven lay about Earth spreading himself full upon her, Cronos took a sickle with jagged teeth, and swiftly lopped off his own father's members and cast them away into the sea, a white foam spread around them and in it there grew a maiden. Named Aphrodite, the foam-born goddess. And with her went Eros, and comely Desire into the assembly of the gods. The lesson here is the fact that through the Blood of Uranus, various gods were born from mother Earth, and that from his genitals sprang the goddess Aphrodite, ruler of love and sexual desire.

PENIS ENVY
Then theres Priapus, mainly known for his huge virile member, and the size of it is so enormous that it has been called "column", "twelve-inch pole, "cypress" "spear"
"pyramid", and many others referring to the dimensions of his penis. And just as Zeus shows his thunderbolt, Poseidon his trident, Athena her spear, Apollo his golden arrows, Hermes his caduceus, Dionysus his thyrsus, Heracles his club, so Priapus cannot but proudly exhibit his penis, which best represents him, and without which he is weaponless. This is the reason why his privy parts are always shameless displayed in erection. His statue was used in the Roman gardens as scarecrow, and his enormous penis as a threat against thieves! The Greeks were very fixated with phallic worship. The interesting thing is we still use our “phalli” as a means of communication, as the Greeks did to express certain religious ideas. The use of the phallus apotropaically to turn away evil, is older than our species; among higher primates aggressive males show their erect penis to warn off intruders. Today we “flip the bird” to those who act abusively, to turn their aggression back on them .

CLEANING UP THE DEVINE PROFANE
We see now that the Mesopotamians, Egyptians, and Greeks were fascinated by phallus worship. These peoples built huge temples, phallic symbols, and idols which they proceeded to venerate and worship. However, over time One God began to make himself known to Abraham. Humankind had fallen into the error of worshiping the created, instead of the Creator. All of this was going to change...

The male sex drive was embedded and encouraged by God, “Be Fruitful” was not a mere suggestion; it was a direct order that the Hebrews took quite seriously. The Sexual ability of man and Nature was personified, and likewise supplied with a governing Deity, which was elevated to the niche of the Supreme. Being God of the genital power and numberless children were born under his auspicious rule. The names of his dutiful descendants were composite in signification, and in many, ways characterized the honored Deity. Hence, derived therefrom, we meet with the El God in Michael, Raguel, Raphael, Gabrael, Joel, Phaniel, Uriel, Sarakiel, Bethel, Chapel, Eli, Elijah. The children of course were the angels.

WHAT'S IN A NAME?
Let us look to Biblical names to confirm whether or not the Bible concerns itself with male fertility. The Hebrews believed God was the source of male vitality, and were not ashamed to let it be known. Below are names and their true translations from two different sources.

Aram, "high," "to swell up," "to be uncovered or naked."
Aram: meaning to be high, rise up.
Baal-Peor: "the maiden's hymen opener," "my Lord the opener."
Baal-peor: Master of the opening
Ben-zoheth: "son of firmness," "to set up," "an erection," "a cippus."
BEN-ZOHETH: "son of Zoheth," from a Hebrew root meaning "to be strong"
Elkana: "El the erect One," "the tall reed," "El burning with desire."
Eshek: "he presses, squeezes, penetrates into."
eshek: from an unused root (meaning to bunch together); a testicle (as a lumpGaza: "strong," "the trunk of a tree," "a phallic emblem."
Jakim: "he set up," "standing erect," "raising seed to."
Jakeem: "raised up" variant form: Jakim.

This strongly suggests erections, hardons, the penis were a subject of some fascination to the Hebrews. Male fertility worship did not go away with the revelation of Yahweh to his chosen people. The early Israelites merely abandoned (officially anyway) the crude art of phallus worship. I suppose not all men are created equal ;-)

PHALLIC CHRISTIAN ROOTS
The Cross, adopted by the Christians as a symbol of everlasting life and victory over sin and death, has a very ancient pedigree. In antiquity, it was used as a symbol of the Triad, or Trinity. The cross was a horizontal piece of wood fastened to an upright beam and indicated the height of the Niles flood waters. This formed a cross, the Nileometer. If the Nile failed to rise to a certain height, no crops and no bread was the result. From famine on the one hand to plenty on the other, the cross came to be worshiped as a symbol of life and regeneration, or feared as an image of decay and death.

JUNIOR AND HIS TWO PALS
The Assyrians, Egyptians, Hindus, Canaanites, Israelites, Christians, and many other religious peoples, had and have their Trinity, purely phallic in origin and significance. The phallus was noted to be not alone efficient in the work of procreation; its creative labors were shared by two coefficients, the two testes. Hence these were likewise honored, personified, and deified, with distinctive names: the right one, supposed to be prepotent in the generation of a man-child, was named Anu, or On -- that is, "strength, power"; the left, or female-producing was called Hoa or Hea. When Jacob's son was born, his mother Rachel "called his name Ben-oni [son of strength]: but his father called him Benjamin [son of my right hand] (Gen 35: 18 ). Thus Anu and Hea completed the Trinity, side by side with Asshur.

There is little doubt that the early fathers 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. They now speak of spiritual truths, not of crude phallic ideas. However, we must not forget that in its various forms, the cross began as a symbol of MALE FERTILITY which gives life.

A few phallic symbols that remain embedded within the Christian faith to this day.

SPIRES/OBELISKS
At the top of many church towers, a spire often points to the sky. Linked with the ancient obelisk erected outside pagan temples, the show the influence of our phallus-worshipping ancestors. So why is there an Egyptian obelisk in St. Peters square? The official Vatican story puts it this way: Augustus ordered the obelisk erected in Alexandria, where it stayed until A.D. 37. Caligula moved it to the Vatican Circus in Rome where innumerable Christians, including St. Peter, were put to death. The reason this obelisk was not later overturned as were all the others in Rome was that it was looked upon as the last witness to the martyrdom of St. Peter. The obelisk is 836 feet high, and weighs 360.2 tons. Its apex is adorned with a bronze cross containing a fragment of the True Cross. This represents the triumph of the Church over paganism. It is clear that the early Church took these concepts of manliness and male vitality seriously, and weren’t afraid to “flip the bird” to those pagan types.

CHRISTMAS TREES
Since the earliest of times, trees especially evergreens, were worshipped by the pagans. Since it was EVER green, it always had life. The trees were worshipped as symbols of life, fertility, sexual potency and reproduction. These pagan rituals of worship were then brought into the homes and set up as idols, with the belief that it would give men a heightened potency of sexual virility to procreate new life. The evergreen tree represented a "PHALLIC" symbol set in an upright position. Any wonder why people hang round balls on a tree?

YULE LOG
The Yule log dates back to Scandinavian countries where their pagan sex and fertility god was called Jul, or Yule. He was honored in a twelve day celebration in the month of December. When the season began, a Yule Log was lit and put into the fireplace where the same log was used for 12 days to keep the fire lit. Since Jul was the pagan god of sex and fertility, it does not take much to see what this also represented. The lit Yule Log represents again a "phallic" symbol, and being a log and lit, it represented a good omen for heightened sexuality for the coming year. It was the shadow and type of a burning lust of a man to fuel the fires of sexual potency to reproduce fertility. When one sends "YULETIDE GREETINGS", they are basically saying, "I greet you with this flaming log to fulfill a year of sexual virility.

PHALLIC SAINTS
The phallus of St. Foutin was worshipped; the women poured wine upon the head of the phallus, which was collected in a vessel, in which it was left till it became sour; it was then called the "sainte vinaigre," and the women employed it for a purpose which is only obscurely hinted at. When the Protestants took Embrun in 1585, they found this phallus among the relics, its head red with the wine.

A much larger phallus of wood, covered with leather, was an object of worship in the church of St. Eutropius at Orange, but it was seized by the Protestants and burnt publicly in 1562.

Similar phallic saints were worshipped St. Guerlichon in Bourges, St. Gilles in Britany, of St. Rene in Anjou, of St. Regnaud in Burgundy, of St. Arnaud, and above all of St. Guignolé near Berri. Many of these were still in existence and their worship in full practice in the last century; in some of them, the wooden phallus is described as being much worn down by the continual process of scraping, while in others the loss sustained by scraping was always restored by a miracle. This miracle, however, was a very clumsy one, for the phallus consisted of a long staff of wood passed through a hole in the middle of the Saints body, and as the phallic end in front became shortened, a blow of a mallet from behind thrust it forward, so that it was restored to its original length.

The evidence is clear. The Church did not destroy the ancient ideas of male fertility; it preserved and perpetuated them, directly and indirectly.