from
Greek missionaries; but when at the close of the cycle, a new
solar deity, an avatar of Vishnu or Crishna was announced, and when
missionaries from the East proclaimed the glad tidings of a risen
Savior, the Irish people gladly accepted their teachings, not, however,
as a new system, but as the fulfilment to them of the prophecy of the
most ancient seers of the East, and as part and parcel of the religion
of their forefathers. Therefore when the devotees of the Romish faith,
probably about the close of the fifth century of the Christian era,
attempted to "convert" Ireland, they found a religion differing from
their own only in the fact that it was not subject to Rome, and was free
from the many corruptions and superstitions which through the extreme
ignorance and misapprehension of its Western adherents had been
engrafted upon it.

Concerning the form of religious worship in Great Britain, and the fact
that phallic worship prevailed there, Forlong writes: "The generality of
our countrymen have no conception of the overruling prevalence of this
faith, and the number of its lingham gods throughout our Islands."
These symbols were always in the form of an obelisk or tower, thereby
indicating the worship of the male energy. Although emblems of the
female element in the deity were present, they were less pronounced and
of far less importance than those of the male.

These monuments were erected on knolls, at crossroads and centers of
marts or villages, and were placed on platforms which were usually
raised from five to seven steps. A few years ago the shires of
Gloucester, Wilts, and Somerset still claimed over two hundred of these
crosses, though all of them were not at that time in a perfect state of
preservation.

It would seem that in Britain and Ireland the seed of the "new"
doctrine, that which involved a recognition of the mother element in the
god-idea, had fallen on more congenial soil, for within three centuries
after the birth of Christ, the various original monuments typifying the
male principle had all been ornamented with the symbols representing the
female in the deity. The ancient religious structures of the Lingaites
still continued as recognized faith shrines, changed only by the emblems
of the new religion which had been engrafted upon them.

The earliest Greek and Roman missionaries knew full well the
significance of these symbols, and we are given to understand that "a
few of the more spiritua