Ancient Mystic Oriental Masonry

337.But the ancients went farther. Believing that the procreative and productive powers of nature might be conceived to exist in the same individual, they made the older of their Deities hermaphrodite, and used the term man-virgin, to denote the union of the two sexes in the same Divine person.

^[166] 338. "Now, this hermaphrodism of the Supreme Divinity was again supposed to be represented by the sun, which was the male generative energy, and by nature, or the universe, which was the female prolific principle. And this union was symbolized in different ways, but principally by the point within the circle, the point indicating the sun, and the circle the Universe, invigorated and fertilized by his generative rays.

339."So far, then, we arrive at the true interpretation of the Masonic symbolism of the point within the circle. It is the same thing, but under different form, as the Master and Wardens of a lodge. The Master and Wardens are symbols of the sun, the lodge of the Universe, or world, just as the point is the symbol of the same sun, and the surrounding circle of the universe.

340."But the two perpendicular parallel lines remain to be explained. Every one is familiar with the very recent interpretation, that they represent the two Saints John, the Baptist and the Evangelist. But this modern exposition must be abandoned, if we.desire to obtain the true ancient signification. "*

341."A New Zealand myth says we have two primeval ancestors, a father and a mother. They are Rangi and Papa, heaven and earth. The earth, out of which all things are produced, is our mother; the protecting and over-ruling heaven is our father.

^[167] 342. "It is thus evident that the doctrine of the reciprocal principles of nature, or nature active and passive, male and female, was recognized in nearly all the primitive religious systems of the old as well as of the new world; and none more clearly than in those of Central America, thus proving not only the wide extent of the doctrine, but also a separate and independent origin, springing from those innate principles which are common to human nature in all climes and races. Hence the almost universal reverence paid to the images of the sexual parts, as they were regarded as symbols and types of the generative and productive principles in nature, and of those gods and goddesses who were the representatives of the same principles. 'The first doctrine to be taught men would have relation to their being. The existence of a creator could be illustrated by a potter at the wheel. But there was a much more expressive form familiar to them, indicative of cause and effect in the production of births in the tribe, or in nature. In this way the Phallus became the exponent of creative power; and, though to our eyes vulgar and indecent, bore no improper meaning to the simple Ancient Worshipper.' Bonwick, Egyptian Belief, p. 257. The Phallus and the Kteis, the Lingam and the Yoni — the special parts contributing to generation and production — becoming thus symbols of those active and passive causes, could not fail to become objects of reverence and worship. The union of the two symbolized the creative energy of all nature; for almost all primitive religion consisted in the reverence and worship paid to nature and ^[168] its operation.

343."In those early days, all the operations of nature were consecrated to some divinity from whom they were supposed to emanate; thus sowing of the seed was presided over by Ceres. 'Hevia,' writes General Forlong, 'is equivalent to Zoe life, from the Greek to live; thus what is called * ' the fall, " ascribed to Eva, or Hevia, the female, and Adam, the male, becomes in reality the acts connected with generation, conception, and production, and the destruction of virginity. — Adam "fell" from listening to Eve, and she from the serpent tempting her, — details which merely assure us that we have procreative acts in all stories regarding Hawa (in Hindustani Lust, Wind, Air- Juno) and Chavah or Eve, or as the Arabs call it, Hayyat, life or creation. Eating forbidden fruit was simply a figurative mode of expressing the performance of the act necessary for the perpetuation of the human race. '