Ancient Mystic Oriental Masonry

330." The point within became a universal emblem to denote the temple of the Deity, and was referred to the planetary circle in the center of which was fixed ^[163] the sun, as the universal god and father of nature; for the whole circle of heaven was called God. It was believed that the center of a temple was the peculiar residence of the Deity; the exterior decorations being merely ornamental. Mexico, Britain, Egypt, India, etc., present us many remains of temples built in circular form, in the center of which still remains the point or emblems of Divinity.

331."All nations recognized as an object of worship a great Supreme Deity by whom all that was, was made. Another idea was that nothing possessing life could be created without the junction of the active and passive generative powers. And as God created all life, he must necessarily possess within himself each of those powers, and hence the Phallic worship, so common among the ancient nations, the symbol of which was the emblem that we have been considering, and which is found in this connection in the monuments of antiquity everywhere."*

332." The Point within a Circle is derived from the Ancient Sun worship, and is in reality of Phallic origin. It is a symbol of the Universe, the Sun being represented by the point, while the circumference is the Universe. "* *

333."The point within a circle is an interesting and important symbol in Freemasonry, but it has been so debased in the interpretation of it in the modern lectures that the sooner that interpretation is ^[164] forgotten by the Masonic student, the better will it be. The symbol is really a beautiful but somewhat abstruse allusion to the old Sun-Worship, and introduces us for the first time to that modification of it, known among the ancients as the worship of the Phallus. "*

334."Perfectly to understand this symbol, I must refer, as a preliminary matter, to the worship of the Phallus, a peculiar modification of sun-worship, which prevailed to a great extent among the nations of antiquity.

335."The Phallus was a sculptured representation of the Membrum Virile, or male organ of generation, and the worship of it is said to have originated in Egypt, where, after the murder of Osiris by Typhon, which is symbolically to be explained as the destruction or deprivation of the sun's light by night, Isis, his wife, or the symbol of nature, in the search for his mutilated body, is said to have found all the parts except the organs of generation, which myth is simply symbolic of the fact, that the sun having set, its fecundating and invigorating power had ceased. The Phallus, therefore, as the symbol of the male generative principle, was very universally venerated among the ancients, and that, too, as a religious rite, without the slightest reference to any impure or lascivious application. He is supposed, by some commentators, to be the god mentioned under the name of Baal-peor, in the Book of Numbers, as having been worshipped by the idolatrous Moabites. Among the Eastern nations ^[165] of India the same symbol was prevalent, under the name of 'Lingam. ' But the Phallus or Lingam was a representation of the male principle only. To perfect the circle of generation it is necessary to advance one step farther. Accordingly we find in the Cteis of the Greeks, and the Yoni of the Indians, a symbol of the female generative principle, or co-extensive prevalence with the Phallus. The Cteis was a circular and conclave pedestal or receptacle, on which the Phallus or column rested, and from the center of which it sprang.

336."The union of the Phallus and Cteis, or the Lingam and Yoni, in one compound figure, as an object of adoration, was the most usual mode of representation. This was in strict accordance with the whole system of Ancient Mythology, which was founded upon a worship of the prolific powers of nature. All the Deities of pagan antiquity, however numerous they may be, can always be reduced to the two different forms of the generative principle — the active, or male, and the passive, or female. Hence the gods were always arranged in pairs, as Jupiter and Juno, Bacchus and Venus, Osiris and Isis,

Christ and Mary.