Madya, Maithuna, and Mudra, that is fish, flesh, wine, women, and certain charms or mystical gesticulations with the fingers. Suitable muntrus, or incantations, are also indispensable, according to the end proposed, consisting of various seemingly unmeaning monosyllabic combinations of letters, of great imaginary efficacy.* In many of the religious observances solitude is enjoined, but all the principal ceremonies culminate in the worship of Sacti, or POWER, and require, for that purpose, the presence of a young and beautiful girl, as the living representative of the goddess. This worship is mostly celebrated, in all due serious religious formality, in a mixed society; the men of which represent Bhairavas, or Viras, and the women Bhanravis and Nayikas. The Sacti (or "Sacred Presence" †) is personified by a naked girl, to whom offerings

* "The combination of 'H' and 'S' is principal, and is called Prásáda-Mantra, and described in the Kulárnava." Wilson, As. Res. + The female thus worshipped is ever after denominated Yogini, i.e., "attached" (set apart, sacred). This Sanscrit word is in the dialects pronounced Jogi and Zogee, and is equivalent to a secular nun, as these women are subsequently supported by alms. The leading rites of the Sakti-Sodhana are described in the Devi-Radhasya, a section of the Rudra- Yámala. It is therein enjoined that the object of worship should be either-" A dancing-girl, a female devotee (or nun), a courtesan, a Dhobee woman, a barber's wife, a female of the Brahminical or Sudra tribe, a flower-girl, or a milkmaid." Appropriate muntrus are to be used. She is to be solemnly placed naket (as a sacred, unapproachable "Thing" or object), but richly ornamented with jewels and flowers-the triumphant spoils of glorious nature-on the left of a circle (inscribed for the purpose), with muntrus and gesticulations. The circle, or vacant enchanted space, must be rendered pure by repeated incantations and rites; being finally baptized with wine by the peculiar mantra. The Sacti is now sublimised or apotheosised; but if not previously initiated, She is to be farther made an adept by the communication of the radical Mantra or last charm whispered thrice in her ear, when the object of the ceremony is complete. The finale to this solemnity is what might be concluded as likely, but— strange to say-accompanied throughout by muntrus and forms of meditation and of devotion incomprehensibly foreign to the scene. other aspects this presentation of the "Yogini" is a Sacrifice," and the whole meaning of the rites is sacrificial-rites performed before an altar and implying-superstition undoubtedly-but deep mystery and some profoundest suggestions. (Wilson, As. Res., vol. xii. 225, on Hin. Sects. Vide Rig. Vedam, Book ii. c. viii. s.s. 13, 14, 2d attham, 8th pannam, Rigs B. 14, which contain the Sucla Homa Mantram, &c.)

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In

The caste-mark of the Saivas and Sactas consist of three horizontal

(5.1593 ANNO.

ROSICRUCIAN SYSTEM.

Structure (Symbolic) of the "Argha," or
"Arc." Also-

(Forms-exterior and interior-of the

"Ark of Noah," from the description of Moses.)

(5.12 Signs-((5 "SIGNS," or "Zodiacal Spaces"

"Preadamite.'

Left -

*Place of the "Escaped" Signs.

CABALISTIC "ARK," AND ITS CONTENTS.

351

are made of meat and wine, which are then distributed amongst the assistants. Here follows the chanting of the Muntrus, and sacred texts, and the performance of the mudra, or gesticulations with the fingers. The whole service terminates with orgies amongst the votaries of a very licentious description. This ceremony is entitledthe Sri Chakra, or Purnabisheka, THE RING or 'Full Initiation." This method of adoring the Sacti is unquestionably acknowledged by the texts regarded by the Vanis as authorities for the excesses practised. Wilson, on Hin. Sects, vol. xvii., As. Res. Ward, on the Vaisnavas, p. 309.

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In Gregory's Works ("Gregory's Notes and Observations upon several difficult passages in Scripture "-vol. 1. 4to. London, 1684) is to be found a significant comment."Noah prayed daily in the Ark before the body of Adam," * i.e., before the PHALLUS, or Regenerator (Adam being the primitive "Phallus," or great Procreator of the Human Race)-(under its present circumstances, and in the existing dispensation).

"The body of Adam was embalmed and transmitted from father to son, till at last it was delivered up by Lamech into the hands of Noah." Again, the "middle of the Ark" was the place of prayer (and worship) made holy by the presence of "Adam's 'Body.'"-Gregory, p. 121. "And so soon as ever the day began to break,' Noah stood up towards the 'body of Adam,'" &c., &c., "and 'prayed' (or 'worshipped')." Here was the origin of the "Eucharist," as the reader will clearly see farther on. (See accompanying plate.)

The most ancient monuments of Idolatry among the Gentiles were consecrated pillars (Lingas), or columns, which the Jews were forbidden to erect as objects of divine homage and adoration. And yet a most extraordinary lines on the forehead, with ashes obtained if possible from the hearth, on which a consecrated fire is perpetually maintained.

"It may possibly seem strange," Gregory says, that this orison should be daily said before the body of Adam; but it is a most confessed Tradition among the Eastern men that Adam was commanded by God that his dead body should be kept above ground till a fulness of time should come to commit it NNDDD to the middle of the earth by a priest of the Most High God." Pp. 120, 121. This "middle of the earth" is Mount Moriah-the Meru of India.

contradiction-this practice is conceived to arise from an imitation of Jacob, who "took a stone" and "set it up," &c. Further "this stone was held in great veneration in subsequent times by the Jews and removed to Jerusalem." They were accustomed to "anoint this stone;" and from the word Bethel, the place where the pillar was erected, came the word Botylia among the Heathen, which signified rude stones, or uprights, which they worshipped either as "symbols of Divinity," or as "true gods," animated (at certain times) by the heavenly power. Thence the name "Bowing Stones" amongst the Welsh-not as stones to be "bowed-to," but "bowing of themselves," like the modern "tipping-discs" or other supposed enchanted idols or consultative tables or objects. Indeed, it would seem not improbable that the erection of the Pillar of Jacob actually gave rise to the worship of Phalius among some of the Pagan peoples. "For," says Lewis, "the learned Bochart. asserts that the Phoenicians (at least as the Jews think) first worshipped this very stone which Jacob set up, and afterwards consecrated others in imitation and in reminder of it."

It is to little purpose that we are reminded that the Jews were forbidden by their law to "make unto themselves any graven image;" for, as Lewis shows in the following passage, there may be exceptions to this, as to every other general rule. "Notwithstanding," he says, "the severity of the Law against the making of Images, yet, as Justin Martyr observes in his Book against Trypho, it must be somewhat mysterious, that God in the case of the 'Brazen Serpent' should command an image to be made, for which

*The "Brazen Serpent" continued to be worshipped by the Jews, and to have incense offered to that Idol, till the reign of Hezekiah :— "For it being written in the Law of Moses, 'whosoever looks upon it shall live,' they fancied they might obtain blessings by its mediation, and therefore thought it worthy to be worshipped. Our learned Dr. Jackson observes, that the pious Hezekiah was moved with the greater indignation against the worship of this image, because in truth it never was-nor was intended to be-a type of our Saviour, but a figure of His Grand Enemy, " &c.

The Jews relapsed into idolatry by the adoration of the Golden Calf; set-up, too, not by a few schismatics, but by the entire people, with Aaron at their head. The calf-superstition was doubtless a relic of what they had seen in Egypt in the worship of Apis and Mnevis.