Sex Worship

Wherever people live, people worship. The search for a satisfying religion is the greatest adventure and the boldest quest. As far back as we can go in history, before there were alters, churches, prophets and priests, humans were trying to come to terms with the mystery and magic of the universe.

Primitive races asked themselves the same questions that we ask ourselves today. “How can I understand the hidden forces that play upon my life? How can I deal with the mysterious power which is sometimes so near I can control it with a prayer, and at other times, so far away it defies my prayers and my faith?”

As humanity set about to solve the enigma of personal relationships with the unseen, methods were used that seem curious and strange.  It was the beginning of a quest for truth, and seeking to unravel the mysteries of the universe.

In the simple mind of the ancients, it was logical that every stick, stone, plant, and tree appeared to be impregnated with life. Sticks were the source of both fire and fuel; stones provided both weapons and places for protection. Certain branches when stuck into the earth began to grow, certain plants contained magical powers to heal. Certain trees seemed never to die; certain herbs when eaten gave exotic visions of a life to come. Humans learned all this as they moved upon the bosom of the earth, having been placed here by whom or what, was unknown. They only knew that peace must be made with a strange, unmeasured, and at times, a lonely and a frightening land.  

The ancients seeing animals around them got the first clue of their own inherent instincts. In beasts and reptiles humans dimly perceived and believed they were ancestors which led to a better understanding of self. Each creature had the ability to reproduce its kind and, through its sexual functions, overcame the awesome power of death, gaining, it seemed, a small step toward some sort of immortality.

The first religious symbol was the totem, a pole in the shape of a phallus on which was crudely carved an image of an ancestral animal god. The first ceremonies were mimicking the animal which the clan or tribe had chosen. The dances, chants, and earliest prayers mimicked the movements, utterances, and habits of their deity. The most intimate ritual was patterned after the copulative act as observed in the creation which was the totem guardian and the god of the clan.

As humanity began to recognize the reproductive urge in all living things, the relationship between humans and the world deepened. Birds were reverenced because they flew upward toward the source of light. Fish became symbols of life (Marcus Bach in his book Strange Sects And Curious Cults suggests that the ancients somehow knew the modern truth that  fish resembled spermatozoon, whereas in my book When Sex Was Religion, I point out that the ancients believed fish were virgin born, and possess aphrodisiacal properties by the worshippers of Venus, it was also pointed out by George Ryley Scott Phallic Worship 1941 in regards to fish worship,  that it was because fish was considered to bear some resemblance to that of the female vulva). The virile animals, particularly the bull, ram, lion were honored for their creative power and the hint of conquest over fear. These were the gods and demigods etched upon the totem, and reverenced in ritual and song, unfolding the qualities hoped to be found within humans themselves.

The worship of the totem turned to the adoration of nature itself. Nature as the creator was more powerful than its creatures. At times it was cruel and formidable, but it was also loving and kind. It was also an unpredictable force. The wind was a spirit, the rain a messenger, the night a specter, the moon an eye, and the sun, a god. There was no god greater than the sun. It blessed and cursed brought joy and grief, filled humans with fear when it dropped from sight and aroused in the mind a hymn of praise at its reappearing.  Most of all, the sun stimulated and energized human creative powers. Light and life were its attributes and there was nothing in the vast world more worthy of worship and awe.  The sun was a king and the earth a queen; a queen endowed with never-ending life by her royal consort. The ancients reasoned that the rising and setting of the sun was a sexual act which fertilized the earth. As a mother begets her children, so mother earth begot her fruit. Out of this thought came the first hint of the cosmic father-mother relationship – the sexual union of the universe – of which man and woman were a part. This was the answer to the mystery of creation; it was light upon the puzzle of birth and death.  

It was reasoned that the earth had its springtime of impregnation, its summer of fruitful productivity, its autumn waning and its wintery death, and we were all part of this cosmic drama and death. As the earth received impulse from the sun to create and bear fruit, Humanity also reasoned that we too, were dependent upon the sun god for creative powers.

In a very real sense, it was believed we were considered a solar being, an offspring of the solar deity, the sun.

Prehistoric humanity developed the rudimentary concepts of religion.  The origin of religion as phallic worship was profound. They have left their influence upon worship all through the ages.  The meaning behind the sacrifices, chants, the rituals and rites, the ceremonies and ceremonials, together with the sexual symbolism, have persisted until our present day even though, with malice of forethought, we have sought to destroy their ancient meaning.   

The earliest elements of divine services had to do with the sun and sex. These have persisted all the way from the lingam and yoni in the temples of Hinduism to the towering minarets of Islam; from the star of David in Judaism to the phallic crus ansata in the Christian Faith.

If we reject the evidence pointing to some form of union for creation and the evolution of thought it inspired, the entire history of world religions become unintelligible and grotesque. If, however, this key to religion is grasped, it will unlock the past and show us that all that has happened is meaningful and profound.