On The Geometrical And Other. Symbols.

form , and into the angle of which A form one hand is almost always pointed . That the bird-form accords with the V or Y as a feminine symbol , notwithstanding what I have jusi said , however , of the male form with the bird hovering over itand although another male form even

, appears with a bird-shape behind , covering him as if it were by a z'obe , appears from the fact that Isis herself is frequently sculptured , as well as described , as a guardian angel standing behind , and covering or overshadowing and protecting her husband-brother Osiris with wings , as the Hindu bird-goddesses , " with" un "

clipped wings , " are said to be " the protectresses oi mankind ; " * and that the guardian angel , or ferocher , of the Egyptians , also appears as a winged sun , sometimes symmetrical or geometrical , sometimes more freely treated , as if it were intended for a bird , and indeed occasionally as a bird itself , with the disc or sun on its head . f

* The gates of the realms "beneath and Hie guardianship of life are placed in the hands of the goddess , and the initiation into her mysteries is celebrated as bearing a close reseniblance to a voluntary death ( by entrancement ) with a precarious chance of recovery .... whom , through her providence , being after a manner born again ( into life—a child , as it were , of the guardian goddess , after this " voluntary death " ) she restores to the career

of a new existence . "—Apideias t That the winged disc , which is so frequent and prominent a symbol in Egyptian temples , not only represents a winged sun , but the ferocher ( pharaoh ?) , fairy , peri , or guardian angel , and protector or saviour , and Egyptian equivalent for " the sun of righteousness , with healing in his wings , " appears to be corroborated by the peculiarities of the Persian and Assyrian ferochers :

both these latter hover over the protected , sometimes fighting his battles as it were , or shooting arrows at those whom the protected is shooting at , and otherwise simulating his actions ; sometimes assuming the attitude of blessing the protected , as in one case of a Persian ferocher , that of Darius , represented in Eawlinson ' s Herodotus , vol . iv . p . 4 , as a cruciform and feathered figure , and in which the protector and the protected evidently stand in a precisely similar relation to each other with

that in which a sun with rays , also represented , stands to the sacrifice on an altar before the protected , and on which the solar light is beaming . The Egyptian ferocher itself , too , in the form of a bird on the wing , aud sometimes with a solar disc on its head , may be seen accompanying warriors with weapons , just as the ferocher of Assyria does;—plate 51 , vol . 1 . (

Antiquities of Description de I'Jlgi / ple , for example . In some instances , at least , the sun-crowned bird seems clearly to be an owl , such as Hazelguist describes the supposed hawk to be which is so frequent on the Egyptian monuments : in which cases the sun-crowned bird is clearly identifiable with the goddess Isis , who , like Ceres , her Eleusinian equivalent , was the " midnight sun " as well as the ever suddenly-born , yet at once mature and full-grown- Minervaor goddess of wisdomand

, , , oracular counsellor , of the "Noefcis Societas , " or initiated , whose mysteries Swore always performed by night . Doubtless the human figures with a sun-head , or " lucid round , " in the centre of one of which is a " single eye" ( plates 63 and 79 , vol . i . ) , were also denotive of this nocturnal Irradiater , who turns darkness into li ght—night into a peculiar and internal day . —the translucid day of rest in the bliss or ecstacy of entrancement ,

during which , to those " brought to Light , " as the Ereemasons say , external darkness is no hindrance to perfection , and the initiated are " in the Light , " for " there is no night there , and they need no candle , neither light of the sun ; " their " eye " being " single" and their whole body being luciform or a glorious body , " full of Light , as when the bright shining of a candle iveth thee liht" Such is the clear vision of the

g g . highly entranced ; and blindfolding , as a test of the possession of such a faculty of the oracular Spirit , was well known and practised in ancient times , and among the Jews as well as among the Gentiles : hence the Jews even attempted , mock'ngly , to test our Saviour in this way : " they blindfolded him , and smote him on the face ; and asked him , saying , Prophecy 1 Who smote thee ?"

There is thus far , on the whole at least , some probability in the idea that the bident did denote a feminine principle , whatever that principle may have been ; and indeed the bident may have been meant also for the yoni itself , as representative of that unknown feminine princip le , seeing that phallic ideas

do so unequivocally crop out in the Egyptian sculptures , as we have just observed , no less than in the Indian . I shall ultimately show quite a different reason , however , for the V f ° ° f such a symbol . The St . Andrew ' s cross X may De sa ^ to combine both the V or feminine form and the \ or masculine

y form . It is also an ancient Egyptian symbol . J A large and conspicuous St . Andrew ' s cross appears on the breast of a male and phallic figure engraved on plate 36 th , fig . 5 , of tome 3 rd ( Antiquities ) in the Erench work " Description de l'Egypte . " The figure is surmounted by the winged sun or Egyptian

ferocher ; and on one hand , as usual , is raised into the angle of the agonistic scourge in its angular or /\ form ; the whole seeming to indicate , as it were , that the lower part or /\ of the cross on the breast denotes the phallic or agonistic , masculine soul , or man himselfwhile the part or V denotes his

, upper ecstatic , angelic , and oracular spirit , ferocher , pharoah , fairy , peri , winged orb , or Light of the soul . Thus it appears , at all events , that the St . Andrew's cross is not an exclusively Christian symbol . In tome i . of same series of volumes , plate 16 th , there is also a figure on whose dre 3 s the St . Andrew ' s cross

appears . The Tau ( j ) , or , with a ring handle at the top , the Crux ansata , of ancient Egypt , is a duad of angles , and was used even by Christians , in early ages , as a form of the cross itself ; as was the cross proper by the ancient Egyptians . The crux ansata is believed to have signified lifeand especiallthe life to come

, y , the life "in eternity , " or the " eternal life ; " and it has also been held to have denoted "the preserver . " Erom its occasional reversal on the sculptures .- ; being sometimes , as in the Tombs , by the mystic Thmei , or Spirit of Truth , held by the stalk , though more generallby the ringperhaps the had one

y , J meaning and its reverse or j _ another ; while the cross in what has been called its Greek form -j- may , I think , have comprised both in one , as it were thus , y > in which case the lower might denote the life that now is , and the upper the life to come , or the lower

the soul-life and the upper the spirit-life , as in the St . Andrew ' s Cross . Dr . Barlow ( see Builder of 24 th March , 1860 ) , while speaking of the Indian , Greek , and other uses of this symbol , says : — " The J" square [ Indian ] symbol , with a handle attached to it , became the Crux-ansata , the symbol of eternal life among the Egyptians . The lignam-yoni symbol of life [ 11 reversed , becomes the famous Tau or Cross