heir funereal and religious ceremonies, they seem in this to be
not far astray, if we but extend the application to their sacred bulls
and other animals, and not merely to their kings, as Herodotus would
have us suppose."(55)

55) The Round Towers of Ireland, p. 159.

According to the testimony of Inman, the pyramid is an emblem of the
Trinity--three in one. The triangle typifies the flame of sacred fire
emerging from the holy lamp. With its base upwards it typifies the
Delta, or the door through which all come into the world. With its apex
uppermost, it is an emblem of the phallic triad. The union of these
triangles typifies the male and female principles uniting with each
other, thus producing a new figure, a star, while each retains its own
identity.(56)

56) Ancient Faiths, vol. i., p. 145.

Thus the primary significance of the pyramid was religious, and in
its peculiar architectural construction was manifested the prevailing
conception of the Deity worshipped; namely, the fructifying energies in
the sun. We are informed that "all nations have at one time or another
passed through violent stages of pyrolatry, a word which reminds us that
fire and phallic cult flourished around the pyramids.... Every town in
Greece had a Pyrtano."(57)

57) Forlong, Rivers of Life, or Faiths of Man in All Lands, vol. i., p.
325.

As not alone the sun but the stars also had come to be venerated as
agencies in reproduction, the worship of these objects was, as we
have seen, closely interwoven with that of the generative processes
throughout Nature. The attempt to solve the great problem of the
origin of life on the earth led these people to contemplate with the
profoundest reverence all the visible objects which were believed to
affect human destiny. Hence both the pyramid and the tower served a
double purpose, first, as emblems of the Deity worshipped, and, second,
as monuments for the study of the heavenly bodies with which their
religious ideas were so intimately connected.

While comparing the early emblems which prefigure the primitive elements
in the god-idea, Hargrave Jennings observes:

"In the conveyance of certain ideas to those who contemplate it, the
pyramid boasts of prouder significance, and impresses with a hint of
still more impenetrable mystery. We seem to gather dim supernatural
ideas of the mighty Mother of Nature... that almost two-sexed entity,
without a name--She of the Veil whi