rshipped by every people on the
globe, but whose worship had become sensualized to satisfy the corrupted
taste of a more depraved age--an age in which passion constituted the
highest idea of a God.

Although the serpent Deity was originally portrayed with the head of a
woman and the body of a serpent or fish, after the change of sex in the
god-idea which has been noted in the foregoing pages had been completed,
it is observed that this figure is represented by the head of a man
and the body of a serpent. Hea, the great goddess to whom water, the
original principle, is sacred, and who is suspiciously connected with
Noah, the life-principle which appears at the close of a cycle, has
changed her sex. This god is now the "Ruler of the Seas," "Master of the
Life-Boat" (the ark), and "Lord of the Earth." The earth is his and
the fulness thereof. He is the "Life Giver," the "Lord of Hosts," who
subsequently becomes the maker of heaven and earth.

Minerva, who had been the first emanation from the Deity and the
daughter of the Great Mother of the Gods, now has a father but no
mother. Jove, who in course of time came to be represented as a male
Creator, brought her forth from his head. Later, woman is produced from
the side of man. The male principle, symbolized by a serpent, has become
"the one only and true God." It is Passion--the "Healer of Nations"--the
great "I Am."

No unprejudiced individual who carefully follows the results of later
investigation, and who attempts to unravel the mysteries surrounding the
ancient gods and the significance of the symbols of worship belonging
to the earliest historic times, will fail to note the attempt which has
been made in later ages to conceal the fact that the Deity worshipped in
very ancient times was female. Neither will he fail to observe the modus
operandi by which the attributes and prerogatives of this Deity have
been shifted upon males--usually deified monarchs. After priestcraft
and its counterpart, monarchial rule, had robbed the people of all their
natural rights, kings assumed not alone the governing functions, but
arrogated to themselves the symbols, titles, and attributes of the
dual Deity. The reigning monarch became not only the temporal ruler
and priest, but was actually God himself, the female principle being
concealed under convenient symbols.

CHAPTER VIII. THE ORIGINAL GOD-IDEA OF THE ISRAELITES.

Not only were religious doctrines veiled beneath allegories