New reads I sent for a couple nights ago and this morning, plus some related bits and bobs~
"Cultus Arborum: A Descriptive Account of Phallic Tree Worship" (Google~
Full View!)
"Sex Worship: An Exposition of the Phallic Origin of Religion" by Clifford Howard
"THE SERPENT AND THE CROSS.
Serpent worship, next to the adoration of the phallus, is one of the most remarkable and, at the same time, one of the most widespread and persistent forms of religion the world has ever known. There is not a country of the ancient world, in the western as well as the eastern hemisphere, where it cannot be traced, pervading every known faith and system of theology, and leaving abundant proofs of its existence and extent, in the shape of monuments, temples and earthworks, as well as in designs and inscriptions.
No other symbol has been invested with such a variety of meanings and uses as has that of the serpent. It typified Wisdom, Eternity, Good, Evil, Life, Reproduction and various other attributes of the creative principle. It entered into the mythology of every nation —Egypt, Syria, Greece, India, China, Scandinavia, America ; in short, there was no portion of the globe in which it was not recognized. It consecrated almost every temple, it symbolized almost every deity, it was imagined in the heavens, stamped on the earth, and ruled in the realms of everlasting sorrow...
This potent, energizing factor was the sexual instinct, the Divine Passion. In it the ancient philosophers beheld the vital source of procreation, the moving energy in the production of life and the population of the world ; and hence, to them, this divine passion, this all-pervading, impelling force, was the actuating, creative spirit of the Almighty. Consequently, it became an object of veneration, as the divine, spiritual agent in the great mystery of life; and, naturally, its worshipers sought for it some suggestive symbol, with the result that the serpent was chosen, as most fully and comprehensively embodying the various attributes of the Creator in his subtle and omnipotent power..."
"Homage to Pan: The Life, Art and Sex Magick of Rosaleen Norton" by Nevill Drury
"Rosaleen Norton achieved notoriety in 1950s Australia as a controversial pagan worshipper and artist who performed mysterious occult rituals in her secret Kings Cross coven and paid homage to the ancient Greek god, Pan. Norton s provocative visionary artworks soon plunged her into legal controversy, and she was widely criticised in the media for engaging in bizarre sexual practices with her lover, the poet Gavin Greenlees. Norton was also associated with the scandal that eventually engulfed the professional career of renowned musical conductor and composer, Eugene Goossens, who had arrived in Australia in 1947 and became a member of Norton s magical coven six years later. What has been little understood until now is that although Norton dedicated her magical practice to the Great God Pan and to a lesser extent Hecate, Lilith and Lucifer, she had many other occult and metaphysical interests that influenced her cosmology and world-view. Norton was intrigued by the visionary potential of Kundalini yoga and out-of-the-body trance-exploration as well as Aleister Crowley's Thelemic sex magick, and combined all of these elements in her ritual activities. Similarly fascinated by Crowley's approach to sexuality, Goossens proved to be a significant ally, offering to instruct Norton in the Goetia and reinforcing her Thelemic tendencies. HOMAGE TO PAN is an authoritative and fully-illustrated overview of Norton s life and metaphysical beliefs which provides a detailed insight into her pursuit of sex-magic and visionary art, and identifies her as a key practitioner of the Left Hand Path. HOMAGE TO PAN also provides, for the first time, a detailed comparison between Norton s visionary art and that of the acclaimed trance magician, Austin Osman Spare her influential British counterpart. HOMAGE TO PAN is a book on magickal systems in the same vein as PORTABLE DARKNESS. It is also a fascinating biography of a real-life "witch" and proto-feminist, and it is also an illuminating book on esoteric art."
"Cantus Circaeus: The Incantations of Circe, together with The Judiciary, being the Art of Memory" by Giordano Bruno
"Standard Edition: Small octavo, full black cloth over boards with gilt title and device. In a printed dust jacket. 144 pages. Illustrated with woodcuts.
There can be no doubt as to the importance Giordano Bruno's life and writings had on the western esoteric tradition and the history of scientific thought. With this in mind, Ouroboros Press is pleased to be issuing the first English translation of Giordano Bruno's Cantus Circaeus, rendered from the original Latin by Darius Klein. Originally printed in Paris 1582, the eloquence of Klein's English translation is fitting for the words of the Nolan.
"To one who is about to behold the Daughter of the Sun, she who is learned in magical lore, and who comes forth from the hidden places; you shall go as a free man into the House of Circe, not bound by the fetters of Night."In the beginning of his Cantus Circaeus, Bruno portrays the doctrine of correspondence as used with the seven planetary invocations, which are themselves tokens of praxis in the Hermetic tradition. The incantatory litanies include the names, attributes, plants, stones, animals and other qualities associated with the astral bodies, and are thus memory palaces of planetary arcana. Through dialogue, Circe and her assistant Moeris, explicate the use of images in the imagination in order to facilitate use of the Art of Memory which constitutes the latter half of the text.
"Bruno's magic memory system thus represents the memory of the Magus, one who both knows the reality beyond the multiplicity of appearances through having conformed his imagination to the archetypal images, and also has powers through this insight. It is the direct descendant of Ficino's Neoplatonic interpretation of the celestial images, but carried to a much more daring extreme." - Francis A. Yates; Giordano and the Hermetic Tradition.""Sexual Symbolism: A History of Phallic Worship" by Richard Payne Knight
See also
"Ophiolatreia" at Sacred Texts.com"The Rites and mysteries connected with the origin, rise, and development of serpent worship in various parts of the world, enriched with interesting traditions, and a full description of the celebrated serpent mounds & temples, the whole forming an exposition of one of the phases of phallic, or sex worship."
"Ancient Symbol Worship: Influence of the Phallic Idea in the Religions of Antiquity" Google book preview
Amazon link~
"Ancient Symbol Worship"I don't know anything about this guy Gardiner, but I found this article interesting~
"The Serpent Code""Serpent mounds – a worldwide phenomenon
Further references to serpent mounds can be found across the world. In the Persian holy book Zend Avesta one of the story’s heroes takes a rest on what he thinks is a bank – only to find out that it was a green snake. In Mauritania, Iphicrates says that "there were dragons of such extent that grass grew up on their backs." In Strabo (Lib xv. P.1022) two dragons are said to have resided in the mountains of India, one eighty cubits long and the other one hundred and forty. From Syria Posidonius tells of a dragon which was so large that horse riders on either side could not see each other. Each ‘scale’ was as big as a shield, so that a man "might ride into his mouth." It is thought that these must be ruins of Ophite (serpent worshiping) temples. In some parts of Syria serpent worshippers were known as Hivites (linked with the root word hivvah which from which came the biblical name of Eve which could then be equated with "female serpent"). In India serpent deities are known as the Naga. "
Also added to my Wish List~
"Pagan and Christian Creeds: Their Origin and Meaning""This book provides a systematic and logical approach to the origins of religion. Many common themes are shown to exist between Christianity and earlier Pagan religions that go back in time centuries before Christianity itself. Carpenter makes an effort to get to the very roots of religion in this book. He's trying to uncover where our religious concepts first originated, and reveals an evolutionary sequence which starts with phallic and procreative cults as having the earliest known impact. Following this came a cult of magic, much along the lines of Frazier's The Golden Bough, where spirits and earth divinities were worshipped. Lastly, came the belief in actual God-figures that came down from heaven. A big part of early religion also concerns the consciousness of man, which Carpenter divides into three stages. Simple consciousness was when man's mind was instinctive and similar to that of the animal, followed by self consciousness which is generally found today. Lastly, and most importantly, Carpenter mentions a third type of consciousness found in many of the rites and beliefs of ancient religions, but which we seem to have lost today. He considers this form of consciousness "unnamed," but provides an Appendix on the doctrines of the Upanishads which, he says, at least gives us an idea concerning this third stage of consciousness and the mental attitude required. Only here, in this higher stage that we've been striving for, are the real facts of the inner life found."
