nt is, then, that sex worship as it was carried on
during the middle ages was a distinctly unnatural tendency in the race.

At this time opportunity may be taken to reconcile different
interpretations which some writers have given regarding early religious
motives. Considerable variation and some contradiction may be observed
in the writings of different authors in describing a religious
development of much the same period. One writer may describe the
features of nature worship and quite ignore the presence of sex worship.
Others may describe only phallic rites. These discrepancies may be
understood when the order in which the various beliefs developed is
recognized. Nature worship developed first, but much of its symbolism
was carried into the phallic ceremonies. Thus we see the phallus
associated with the pine cone and other elements of vegetative life.
Some of these elements, the pine cone for example, finally came to have
a phallic significance, but at an earlier period they probably
represented the vegetation spirit. In fact, reproductive attributes of
both nature and man were often worshipped at the same ceremony.

While we should not as a rule expect to find phallic rites associated
with the earlier forms of nature worship, since sex worship developed at
a somewhat later period, still in this connection we cannot be too
dogmatic; the primitive Australians appear to be at the stage of mental
development when simple nature worship predominated, yet, from _Mutter
Erde_[38] we learn that with the Australians a ceremony consisting of
the throwing of a spear into the earth was of phallic significance. This
co-existence of these two related motives is not unnatural since they
both equally represent fundamental biological demands on the part of the
race.

We may now return to the interpretation of decadent sex worship. When we
understand the setting in which sex worship was practiced in the middle
ages we are better able to appreciate its significance. As stated above,
it was the attempt by certain elements of the race to return to more
primitive motives, and to derive satisfaction from beliefs which had
long been outgrown by advancing civilization. This clinging to an early
type of reaction, or the return to more primitive feelings, must be
regarded as an unhealthy tendency. Moreover, at this time, the motive
itself was no longer expressed in the natural and healthy way of
primitive times. Sex worship during the middl