ALCHEMIC

HERMETIC
PHALLUS

THE ALCHEMICAL PHALLUS OF CYLLENIAN HERMES

“... these are those whom the Books of the Augurs mention in writing as potent deities for what
the Samothracians call powerful gods.”
(Varro)
“In Cyllene is a sanctuary of Asclepius, and one of Aphrodite. But the image of Hermes, most devoutly
worshipped by the inhabitants, is merely the male member upright on the pedestal.” (Pausanias)

“These customs, then, and others besides, which I shall indicate, were taken by the Greeks from the
Egyptians. It was not so with the ithyphallic images of Hermes; the production of these came from the
Pelasgians, from whom the Athenians were the first Greeks to take it, and then handed it on to others…
The Athenians, then, were the first Greeks to make ithyphallic images of Hermes, and they did this
because the Pelasgians taught them. The Pelasgians told a certain sacred tale about this, which is set
forth in the Samothracian mysteries.”
(Herodotus)1

This archaic sacred myth, according to Clement of Alexandria, was the phallus of Bacchus/Dionysus
which was brought to Lemnos and this rite was celebrated by the Cabeiri. These entities were the
ministers to the deified phallus and performed ritualistic orgiastic performances in its honour.

“Those Corybantes also they call Cabiric; and the ceremony itself they announce as the Cabiric mystery.
For those two identical fratricides, having abstracted the box in which the phallus of Bacchus was
deposited, took it to Etruria - dealers in honourable wares truly. They lived there as exiles, employing
themselves in communicating to precious teaching of their superstition, and presenting phallic symbols
and the box for the Tyrrhenians to worship.” 2

Zagreus was a deity associated with the Orphic Mysteries but the myth of his dismemberment by the
Titans was fused with those surrounding Dionysus/Bacchus and Osiris. The phallus of this deity was
recovered by the Cabeiri and enshrined in a cave on the island of Samothrace. This sacred myth became
the central inspiration of the Samothracian Mysteries.

Herodotus describes the Cabeiri as being formed in the shape of pygmies and being related to
Hephaestus. They were therefore associated with the forging of metals and were the denizens of the
labyrinthine substrata from which the ores were mined.

“Cambyses committed many such mad acts against the Persians and his allies; he stayed at Memphis,
and there opened ancient coffins and examined the dead bodies. Thus too he entered the temple of
Hephaestus and jeered at the image there. This image of Hephaestus is most like the Phoenician Pataici,
which the Phoenicians carry on the prows of their triremes. I will describe it for anyone who has not
seen these figures; it is the likeness of a dwarf. Also he entered the temple of the Cabeiri, into which no
one may enter save the priest; the images here he even burnt, with bitter mockery. These also are like
the images of Hephaestus, and are said to be his sons.” 3

These pygmies or dwarfish-formed deities had apotropaic powers and were phallic in nature. Depictions
show their oversized phalli that dominate their diminutive bodies and define them as phallic entities.
The rituals are described by Strabo as being equivalent to those of the Dionysian satyrs that engage in a
‘Bacchic frenzy.’ The Cabeiri perform a type of war-dance to the accompaniment of the noise of cymbals,
drums, flutes and chanted exhortations. This frenzy can be deduced as informing the spirit of the
Samothracian Mysteries.

This establishes a visual image of the mysteries that confirms their central phallic character. In the words
of Strabo the revellers are “subject to Bacchic frenzy, and, in the guise of ministers, as inspiring terror at
the celebration of the sacred rites by means of war-dances, accompanied by uproar and noise and
cymbals and drums and arms, and also by flute and outcry; and consequently these rites are in a way
regarded as having a common relationship, I mean these and those of the Samothracians and those in
Lemnos and in several other places, because the divine ministers are called the same.” 4

The oil lamps excavated from Pompeii/Herculaneum extend the theme of phallic pygmies into a
sculptured form. In some examples these pygmies are involved in a dance that matches the description
of the war-dance described by Strabo. These entities with their monstrous phalli engage in a war-like
dance with the potential aim of creating an ecstatic Bacchic state.

Depictions of orgiastic rituals that are related to the Samothracian Mysteries can also be seen in painted
images that have been excavated from Pompeii. In the House of the Physician/Doctor a depiction of
pygmies engaged in an orgy is presented as a voyeuristic spectacle.

Another depiction from Pompeii creates a vision of the pygmies engaged in Nilotic orgiastic celebrations.
The Nile is identified by the inclusion of hippopotami and crocodiles alongside the copulating pygmies.
The paintings of orgiastic pygmies from Pompeii are therefore linked to the mysteries in Egypt. The
dismemberment of Osiris is related to that of Zagreus/Dionysus/Bacchus and this supports the text of
Clement of Alexandria that posits the severed phallus as being at the centre of the Samothracian
Mysteries.

“... those accounts which, although they are called ‘Curetan History’ and ‘History of the Curetes,’... are
more like the accounts of the Satyri, Sileni, Bacchae, and Tityri; for the Curetes, like these, are called
genii or ministers of gods by those who have handed down to us the Cretan and Phrygian traditions,
which are interwoven with certain sacred rites, some mystical, the others connected in part with the
rearing of the child Zeus in Crete and in part with the orgies in honour of the mother of the gods which
are celebrated in Phrygia and in the region of the Trojan Ida… they represent them, one and all, as a kind
of inspired people and as subject to Bacchic frenzy…” 5

The satyrs were formed partly of animal characteristics and were the ithyphallic followers of Dionysus
with equine features. They are depicted on Greek amphorae and vases as bearded humans with the tail
of a horse, equine ears and a phallus which is a fusion of the human and equine. The satyr thus exhibits
an erect hybrid phallus that is part human and part equine. This allowed an animalistic or bestial sexual
energy to emerge.

“In Crete, not only these rites (the Orgies), but in particular those sacred to Zeus (the Kouretes) were
performed along with orgiastic worship and with the kind of ministers who were in the service of
Dionysus, I mean the Satyroi (Satyrs).”6

The image of the phallus relates back to Osiris and the myth of his death and resurrection. In Egyptian
myth Typhon hacked the body of Osiris into multiple parts and scattered them. Plutarch explains why the
phallus became the object of veneration. “Of the parts of Osiris’s body the only one which Isis did not
find was the male member… But Isis made a replica of the member to take its place, and consecrated the
phallus, in honour of which the Egyptians even at the present day celebrate a festival.” 7

The genital parts that Isis could not find had been thrown into the Nile. The foaming and inundating
waters of the river thus contained the divine semen. Phallic rituals were therefore related to the life-
giving substance of water. According to Diodorus Siculus “... the privates (of Osiris), according to them,
were thrown by Typhon into the Nile… Yet Isis thought them as worthy of divine honours as the other
parts, for, fashioning a likeness of them, she set it up in the temples, commanded that it be honoured,
and made it the object of the highest regard and reverence in the rites and sacrifices accorded to the
god. Consequently the Greeks too, inasmuch as they received from Egypt the celebrations of the orgies
and the festivals connected with Dionysus, honour this member in both the mysteries and the initiatory
rites and sacrifices of this god, giving it the name ‘phallus.’” 8

Semen was described as a substance like brain matter that contained hot vapour. From the hot aether in
the semen the process of creation began. “But the wiser of the priests call not only the Nile Osiris and
the sea Typhon, but they simply give the name of Osiris to the whole source and faculty creative of
moisture, believing this to be the cause of generation and the substance of life-producing seed; and the
name of Typhon they give to all that is dry, fiery and arid, in general, and antagonistic to moisture.” 9

The foaming froth of the flooding Nile thus has a direct correlation with the warm foamy substance of
semen. Both are the originators of life. From this foaming substance the human body would be created.
From the foaming flood waters of the Nile the seeds would germinate. “In fact, the tale that is annexed
to the legend to the effect that Typhon cast the male member of Osiris into the river, and Isis could not
find it, but constructed and shaped a replica of it, and ordained that it should be honoured and borne in
processions, plainly comes round to this doctrine, that the creative and germinal power of the god, at
the very first, acquired moisture as its substance, and through moisture combined with whatever was by
nature capable of participating in generation.”10

Thus semen contained the life-giving moisture as its substance infused with a hot aether to provide the
spark of creation. The genital parts of Osiris had been hacked off and thrown into the Nile which could
then be seen as containing the semen of Osiris that was deposited over the soil. “As they regard the Nile
as the effusion of Osiris, so they hold and believe the earth to be the body of Isis, not all of it, but so
much of it as the Nile covers, fertilizing and uniting with it.” 11

Rain itself could be likened to a shower of semen fertilizing the earth. The duality of the heavens and the
earth was likened to the copulation of humans. The central element was the moisture without which life
could not exist. The moisture was in the rain, fructifying the earth, and part of the substance of semen.
“In fact, the Greeks call emission apousia and coition synousia, and the son (hyios) from water (hydor)
and rain (hysai); Dionysus also they call Hyes since he is lord of the nature of moisture; and he is no other
than Osiris.”12

Lightning which accompanied the penetrating seminal rain also struck the earth from the aetherial
realms of the gods. The cult of Jupiter Elicius was endowed with the belief that humans could command
lightning from the heavens. This phenomenon appears to derive its origin from Egyptian practises that
attempted to attract lightning strikes on their architectural edifices.

The supposition that obelisks were struck by lightning and that these events were considered significant
is attested by the record of the lightning strike on the obelisk in the Circus Maximus. By order of
Constantius Augustus an obelisk was transported from Egypt and erected in the Circus Maximus in
Rome. Ammianus Marcellinus documented this adventure.

The gilded apex of the obelisk was struck by lightning and thus attained a sacred status. A gilded
sculpture of a flaming torch was erected there in commemoration of the lightning strike. Likewise the
interior of the Pantheon’s dome was originally gilded thus reflecting the celestial fire that the building
celebrated.

The obelisk “was gradually drawn up on high through the empty air, and after hanging for a long time,
while many thousand men turned wheels resembling millstones, it was finally placed in the middle of
the circus and capped by a bronze globe gleaming with gold leaf; this was immediately struck by a bolt of
the divine fire and therefore removed and replaced by a bronze figure of a torch, likewise overlaid with
gold foil and glowing like a mass of flame.”13

The place or building that was struck by lightning thrown by the god assumed this sacred status by
containing the spirit of the deity. Lightning was a manifestation of heavenly phenomena that included
meteorite strikes. Pliny draws parallels between meteorites and stones that had been struck by lightning
and consequently attained magical properties.
“Sotacus mentions also two other varieties of ceraunia, one black and the other red; and he says that
they resemble axes in shape. Those which are black and round, he says, are looked upon as sacred, and
by their assistance cities and fleets are attacked and taken… They make out also that there is another
kind, rarely to be met with, and much in request for the practises of magic, it never being found in any
place but one that has been struck by lightning.” 14

When a specific location had been struck by lightning from the god then a circular barrier was to be
constructed around the sacred location and the space left open to the heavens. “... as Jupiter Fulgur he
had an altar in the Campus Martius and all places struck by lightning were made his property and were
guarded from the profane by a circular wall.” 15

The original building on the site of the Pantheon in Rome was struck by lightning in 110 CE. Orosius
attests that “lightning struck and burned the Pantheon in Rome.” 16 The new construction in the reign of
Hadrian was designed to commemorate this lightning strike that had been hurled by the gods. The
Pantheon was therefore constructed on new foundations as a huge circular drum that encased the area
that had been struck by the lightning. The change in the architectural format from a rectangular to a
circular form reflects the new purpose of the reconstructed building.

This architectural format followed archaic instructions that laid out procedures governing the sanctity of
a location struck by lightning. These specified that the space penetrated by the lightning should remain
open to the heavens to propitiate the gods. Hence the Pantheon has a large oculus that is open to the
sky.

This then is the architectural genesis of the Pantheon that is defined by its circular form and oculus that
is open to the sky. The ideas behind this sacred architectural form were also applied to humans that had
been struck by lightning. It was believed that a human that was killed by the celestial fire acquired an
incorruptible sacred status. Like the place that had been struck the body had to be fenced around and
left open to the sky.

“But that which is most wonderful, and which everyone knows, is this, - the bodies of those that are
killed by lightning never putrefy. For many neither burn nor bury such bodies, but let them lie above
ground with a fence about them, so that every one may see they remain uncorrupted… And I believe
brimstone is called divine, because its smell is like that fiery offensive scent which rises from bodies that
are thunderstruck. And I suppose that, because of this scent, dogs and birds will not prey on such
carcasses.”17

Therefore lightning purifies the human that has been struck. The celestial fire also allowed humans that
survived the strike to transcend their mortality and achieve heroic status. The thunderbolt, the fiery
phallus of the gods, conferred a divine status on its victim. “For no one who has been struck by a
thunderbolt is without honour, wherefore he is revered even as a god.” 18
Courting sexual congress with the gods was inherently dangerous. Seneca suggests that the sacred
lightning could be brought down from the heavens through entreaties to Jupiter. Humans could
“summon or, to use a more polite word, invite Jupiter to share a sacrificial feast with us. If he happens to
be angry with his host when he is invited, then his coming, Caecina says, is fraught with danger to his
entertainers.”19

Livy also describes the way humans by invoking rites could bring down lightning from the heavens.
“Tradition records that the king, whilst examining the commentaries of Numa, found there a description
of certain sacrificial rites paid to Jupiter Elicius: he withdrew into privacy whilst occupied with these
rites, but their performance was marred by omissions or mistakes. Not only was no sign from heaven
vouchsafed to him, but the anger of Jupiter was roused by the false worship rendered to him, and he
burnt up the king and his house by a stroke of lightning.” 20

According to legend the birth of Romulus and Remus and consequently the founding of Rome is caused
by a fiery phallus. The phantom phallus of fire appears in the hearth of Tarchetius and is understood to
be the phallus of Mars. This deified phallus impregnates a virgin who gives birth to Romulus and Remus
who are then cast off on the river to be discovered and suckled by a wolf.

“... they say that Tarchetius, king of the Albans, who was most lawless and cruel, was visited with a
strange phantom in his house, namely, a phallus rising out of the hearth and remaining there many days.
Now there was an oracle of Tethys in Tuscany, from which there was brought to Tarchetius a response
that a virgin must have intercourse with this phantom, and she should bear a son most illustrious for his
valour, and of surpassing good fortune and strength.” 21

Plutarch also describes another version of this myth in which a Vestal virgin gives birth to the twins. The
myth therefore incorporates the fire that is famously tended by the Vestals. These sacred flames in the
temple of the Vestals symbolize the hearth of Rome itself. The fiery phallus of the deity protects the city
and wards off evil. In the words of Plutarch the phallus of fire confers “surpassing good fortune and
strength.”

The fire that was tended by the Vestals had itself originated from the sun. Plutarch describes the
elaborate ritualistic process that was followed in order to capture this pure fire.

“... the altar was demolished and the fire extinguished, then they say it must not be kindled again from
other fire, but made fresh and new, by lighting a pure and unpolluted flame from the rays of the sun.
And this they usually effect by means of metallic mirrors… the sun’s rays now acquiring the substance
and force of fire. Some, moreover, are of the opinion that nothing but this perpetual fire is guarded by
the sacred virgins; while some say that certain objects, which none others may behold, are kept in
concealment by them…”22

In the Villa of the Mysteries in Pompeii the images are interpreted as illustrating a Dionysian ceremony
and potentially referring to the Eleusinian Mysteries. The revelation of the mysteries revolves around the
unveiling of the phallus. The unveiling is the central depiction at the end of the series of images in the
Villa of the Mysteries.

Also revealed is the mystica vannus, the winnowing fan or basket, that formed part of the Eleusinian
Mysteries. This separated the corn from the chaff and functioned as a metaphor for the capture of
human seed.

“It was from producing this separation, that the universal Bacchus, or double Apollo, the creator and
destroyer, whose essence was fire, was also called the purifier, by a metaphor taken from the winnow,
which purified the corn from the dust and chaff, as fire purified the soul from its terrestrial pollutions.
Hence this instrument is called by Virgil the mystic winnow of Bacchus.” 23

On the Day of Blood, during the rites of Attis, the Galli castrated themselves in a frenzy of ecstasy and
offered the severed parts to the goddess. These parts were symbolized by the pomegranate with its
blood-red flesh that encased the multiple seeds.

“These broken instruments of fertility were afterwards wrapt up and buried in the earth or in
subterranean chambers sacred to Cybele, where, like the offering of blood, they may have been deemed
instrumental in recalling Attis to life and hastening the general resurrection of nature, which was then
bursting into leaf and blossom in the vernal sunshine. Some confirmation of this conjecture is furnished
by the savage story that the mother of Attis conceived by putting in her bosom a pomegranate sprung
from the severed genitals of a man-monster named Agdestis, a sort of double of Attis.” 24

The vernal equinox of spring marked the resurrection of Attis from the underworld. Human fertility is
linked with the process of nature’s cycle of decay and rebirth. This is the basis for human resurrection in
the rites that were performed in Eleusis.

The pomegranate formed a central part of the Eleusinian Mysteries where the concept of natural
mortality is followed by resurrection in the spring. In these myths Persephone consumes pomegranate
seed and is compelled to inhabit the underworld for the duration of the gestation of the seed.

In the archaic ‘Hymn to Demeter’ the goddess demands to know if Persephone has tasted the food of
the underworld during her imprisonment there:

“... but if you have tasted food, you must go back again beneath the secret places of the earth, there to
dwell a third part of the seasons every year: yet for the two parts you shall be with me and the other
deathless gods. But when the earth shall bloom with the fragrant flowers of spring in every kind, then
from the realm of darkness and gloom thou shalt come up once more to be a wonder for gods and
mortal men… Then beautiful Persephone answered her thus… he secretly put in my mouth sweet food, a
pomegranate seed, and forced me to taste against my will.”
Thus in the Eleusinian Mysteries the pomegranate is equated with human fertility and represents the vial
containing human seed. The concepts of violent castration and resurrection also formed part of the
myths of Dionysus. These relate that, in similar fashion to Osiris, the body of the god was brutally torn
apart. From the blood shed by the act pomegranates spring to life.

“Pomegranates were supposed to have sprung from the blood of Dionysus, as anemones from the blood
of Adonis and violets from the blood of Attis: hence women refrained from eating seeds of
pomegranates at the festival of Thesmophoria.”25

The pomegranate came to symbolize the rituals of Attis and Dionysus and pomegranate seeds formed
the core of the Eleusinian Mysteries. The pomegranates are linked in concept to the symbolism of the
lily-formed columns of Egyptian temples. The architectural form of the column capital with the lily flower
in an open or closed state was intrinsic to Egyptian temples. The stalk of the plant was represented by
the shaft of the column.

The Nymphaea caerulea water lily (often referred to as the blue lotus) was sacred to Egyptian myth. The
flower tracked the course of the sun by opening in the morning and closing at night. It visually
represented the sun in the sky by being constructed with a yellow centre contrasting with a surround of
blue petals. By being both immersed in water and blooming above the surface the plant symbolized an
existence both in the temporal and underworld realms.

“For everything pertaining to the lotos (lotus), both the forms in the leaves and the appearance of the
seed, is observed to be circular. This very energy is akin to the unique circle-like motion of the mind,
manifesting it in like manner according to the same forms, in a single arrangement, and according to one
principle.”26

The psychoactive properties of the Nymphaea caerulea were used in the temple rites to gain access to a
passage to the afterlife. The water lily was evidently food for the gods since depictions in Egyptian
temples show the lily being offered to the gods and suggest that it was consumed in the afterlife. The
Nymphaea caerulea is believed to be the lotus that is referred to by Homer in the ‘Odyssey.’

“... what they did was to give them some lotus to taste, and as soon as each had eaten the honeyed fruit
of the plant, all thoughts of reporting to us or escaping were banished from his mind. All they now
wished for was to stay where they were with the Lotus-eaters, to browse on the lotus, and to forget that
they had a home to return to.”

At Hierapolis the castration rituals were performed before the monumental phallic pillars that stood in
front of the temple. Their dual presence linked the monumental phallic forms to the castration rituals of
the eunuch priests. The two giant phalli framed the entrance to the temple.

“In this entrance those phalli stand which Dionysus erected: they stand thirty fathoms high. Onto one of
these a man mounts twice every year, and he abides on the summit of the phallus for the space of seven
days. The reason of this ascent is given as follows: the people believe that the man who is aloft holds
converse with the gods, and prays for good fortune for the whole of Syria, and that the gods from their
neighbourhood hear his prayers.”27

The pomegranate as the metaphorical container of human seed can be compared to Egyptian temple
columns whose lily-shaped capitals also encase the human seed. In these temples the phallic columnar
forms based on the water lily contained in their bulbous capitals the seeds of creative generation.

“... from under the body of the serpent springs the lotus or water lily… The figures of Isis, upon the Isiac
Table, hold the stem of this plant, surmounted by the seed-vessel in one hand, and the cross,
representing the male organs of generation, in the other; thus signifying the universal power, both active
and passive, attributed to that goddess. On the same Isiac Table is also the representation of an Egyptian
temple, the columns of which are exactly like the plant which Isis holds in her hand…” 28

Plutarch states that everywhere the Egyptians worshipped the phallus of Osiris and that this veneration
was associated with the power of the sun. “Everywhere they point out statues of Osiris in human form of
the ithyphallic type, on account of his creative and fostering power; and they clothe his statues in a
flame-coloured garment, since they regard the body of the Sun as a visible manifestation of the
perceptible substance of the power for good.”29

This idea is contained in the oil lamps that have been excavated from Pompeii/Herculaneum which
display a phallic form with the flame arising from the head of the phallus. The oil lamps show an
association between the flame of the burning oil and the phallic form.

Fire is emblematic of the sun and infuses the form of the phallus. The path of the sun starts with its
resurrection at the beginning of every day and its decline into a state of repose at the end. The shape-
shifting nature of the phallus must have held a magical fascination for humans from the earliest dawn of
their existence. This was related to the procreative power of the sun.

“In the sacred hymns of Osiris they call upon him who is hidden in the arms of the Sun… On the waning
of the month Phaophi they conduct the birthday of the Staff of the Sun following upon the autumnal
equinox, and by this they declare, as it were, that he is in need of support and strength, since he
becomes lacking in warmth and light, and undergoes decline, and is carried away from us to one side.” 30

The phallus was infused with the generating fire of the sun and contained magical powers. In this garden
of unearthly delights the phallus formed of blood and fire forms the central pillar of the Eleusinian
Mysteries. Fire was the element that was embodied by the phallus. Tertullian states that “As to the
superstition of the Eleusinian Mysteries… the whole of what they aspire to, what sealeth the tongue, is
this: simulacrum membri virilis revelatur.”

Therefore, in the words of Iamblichus, “we remark that the planting of ‘phallic images’ is a special
representing of the procreative power by conventional symbols, and that we regard this practise as an
invocation to the generative energy of the universe. On this account many of these images are
consecrated in the spring, when all the world is receiving from the gods the prolific force of the whole
creation.”31

In this magical garden exists the field of beans that forms part of the history of Pythagoras wherein his
disciples are unable to cross a field of beans despite being pursued. Porphyry offers an explanation for
this myth which extends the understanding of the gestation of seeds in the mysteries.

“Beans were interdicted, it is said, because the particular plants grow and individualize only after (the
earth) which is the principle and origin of all things, is mixed together, so that many things underground
are confused, and coalesce; after which everything rots together. Then living creatures were produced
together with plants, so that both men and beans arose out of putrefaction whereof he alleged many
manifest arguments.”32

The synthesis of vegetative fertility and human reproduction is a known feature of the Eleusinian
Mysteries. These mysteries can be recognized in the description of the ritual process of burying the
beans in an earthen container which then gives birth to human infants or human sexual organs.

“For if anyone should chew a bean, and having ground it to a pulp with his teeth, and should expose that
pulp to the warm sun, for a short while, and then return to it, he will perceive the scent of human blood.
Moreover, if at the time when beans bloom, one should take a little of the flower, which then is black,
and should put it into an earthen vessel, and cover it closely, and bury it in the ground for ninety days,
and at the end thereof take it up, and uncover it, instead of the bean he will find either the head of an
infant, or the pudenda of a woman.”33

A process of fermentation is inferred here which compares to the text of Augustine on the Eleusinian
Mysteries where the dry seed of plants and the liquid seed of animals (semen) are placed in the same
context as the fermentation of wine. “Now as to the rites of Liber, whom they have set over liquid seeds,
and therefore not only over the liquors of fruits, among which wine holds, so to speak, the primacy, but
also over the seeds of animals… Varro says that in Italy, at the places where roads crossed each other,
the rites of Liber were celebrated with such unrestrained turpitude, that the private parts of a man were
worshipped in his honour.”34

In these myths Pythagoras travels to Delos and so creates a confluence of concepts that ties the
Eleusinian Mysteries to those of Delos. This reveals an underground network of beliefs that united the
various threads of the mysteries. Pythagoras “was the author of a compound divine philosophy and
worship of the Gods; having learned some things from the followers of Orpheus; some from the
Chaldeans and Magi, and some also from the Mysteries performed in Eleusis, in Imbrus, Samothracia
and Delos, as well as in Iberia and by the Celtae.” 35
In contrast to Eleusis physical evidence of the cults on Delos survives in the monumental phallic forms
that dominate the Stoibadeion. These must be related to the mysteries performed in Delos and by
extension those of Eleusis.

These Dionysian phallic monuments are partially destroyed but retain the seed-shaped testicles from
which the phallus rises. The relationship between the plant and the human therefore has a monumental
physical presence that is made explicit by the stylized rounded shape of the testicles.

Today the term ‘Egyptian Bean’ is still used in relation to the sacred lotus that is prevalent in eastern
Asia. However in the context of this myth the lotus seed is more likely that of the Nymphaea caerulea
that was native to Egypt.

New research into the treatment for erectile dysfunction has now revealed the true secret behind the
phallic symbolism of the Nymphaea caerulea. This also reveals the role of this plant in the celebrations of
the mysteries in Egypt. Apomorphine, the chemical component contained in the Nymphaea caerulea,
was recently approved by the U. S. Food and Drug Administration as a treatment for erectile dysfunction.

There is a direct relationship between the plant and human sexuality since the chemicals within it can
induce an erection. This quality demonstrates a far more substantial symbiosis between the plant and
the human than a purely symbolic association. The consumption of the lotus leads to a real observable
physical effect that unites the human to the plant and opens the human mind to the mysteries of the
universe.

Apomorphine can therefore be used to enhance and prolong the sexual experience even when there is
no underlying erectile dysfunction. This then explains the use of this plant in the orgiastic celebrations of
the mysteries. It also explains the numerous depictions in Egyptian temples that show serpents springing
erect from the lotus.

One form of representation of this magical staff or wand was the caduceus which was carried by
Hermes/Mercury. Around the caduceus were entwined two writhing or copulating snakes or serpents.
These writhing snakes/serpents wrap around the central phallic shaft or wand. The two mirrored snakes
therefore represent the concept of polarity.

The snake was revered both for its ability to signal resurrection by shedding its skin but also because of
its ability, especially evident in the cobra, to rear up in the manner of an engorged phallus. In addition it
was evident that this cold-blooded reptile was infused and energized by the power of the sun. The wings
also express the ability of the snakes and the implied phallus to rise erect. They thus symbolize the
concept of resurrection.

In the Dionysian rites ritualistic orgies were performed beside the sacred lake that was believed to mark
the entrance to the underworld. Dionysus descended into the underworld in order to raise his mother
Semele from the unfathomable depths. “The local Argive tradition was that he went down through the
Alcyonian lake; and his return from the lower world, in other words his resurrection, was annually
celebrated by the Argives, who summoned him from the water by trumpet blasts, while they threw a
lamb into the lake as an offering to the warder of the dead.” 36

This worship was accompanied by frenzied orgiastic rituals that celebrated the resurrection of the
deified phallus from the depths of the lake. Dionysus as a phallic god was represented by depictions of
his immortal phallus by the celebrants of the nocturnal rituals. There is therefore a syncretism between
the Dionysian and Egyptian mysteries. “They call him (Dionysus) up out of the water by the sound of
trumpets, at the same time casting into the depths a lamb as an offering to the Keeper of the Gate. The
trumpets they conceal in Bacchic wands, as Socrates has stated in his treatise on The Holy Ones.
Furthermore, the tales regarding the Titans and the rites celebrated by night agree with the accounts of
the dismemberment of Osiris and his revivification and regenesis.” 37

The Alcyonian Lake from which Dionysus is summoned has an equivalence to the lake at Sais in Egypt
which was central to the mysteries in Egypt and the resurrection of Osiris. Herodotus identifies these
nocturnal rites with the mysteries. “There is also at Sais the burial-place of one whose name I think it
impious to mention in speaking of such a matter; it is in the temple of Athena, behind and close to the
length of the wall of the shrine. Moreover, great stone obelisks stand in the precinct; and there is a lake
nearby, adorned with a stone margin and made in a complete circle; it is, as it seemed to me, the size of
the lake at Delos which they call the Round Pond. On this lake they enact by night the story of the god’s
sufferings, a rite which the Egyptians call the Mysteries.” 38

The “great stone obelisks” that stand in the temple precinct and are linked to these mysteries are
equivalent to the legendary phallic towers at Hierapolis. The concept is replicated in the dual columns
that framed the entrance to the biblical Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem. These columns are described
as lily-shaped and therefore probably had an Egyptian genesis. In addition they were decorated all
around with pomegranate motifs.

“He made pomegranates in two rows encircling each network to decorate the capitals on top of the
pillars. He did the same for each capital. The capitals on top of the pillars in the portico were in the
shape of lilies, four cubits high. On the capitals of both pillars, above the bowl-shaped part next to the
network, were the two hundred pomegranates in rows all around… The capitals on top were in the
shape of lilies. And so the work on the pillars was completed.” 39

Outside the gate of the temple complex in Samothrace stood two male statues in bronze. Hippolytus
states that these statues were in essence phallic with their “pudenda erecta.” The statues reveal the
essential nature of the Samothracian Mysteries.

“This is, he says, the great and ineffable mystery of the Samothracians, which is allowable, he says, for us
only who are initiated to know. For the Samothracians expressly hand down, in the mysteries that are
celebrated among them, that (same) Adam as the primal man. And habitually there stand in the temple
of the Samothracians two images of naked men, having both hands stretched aloft towards heaven, and
their pudenda erecta, as with the statue of Mercury (Hermes) on Mount Cyllene. And the aforesaid
images are figures of the primal man, and of the spiritual one that is born again, in every respect of the
same substance with that man.”40

According to Pausanias the image of Hermes that was worshipped on Mount Cyllene and is referenced
by Hippolytus above was the pure form of a phallus. “In Cyllene is a sanctuary of Asclepius, and one of
Aphrodite. But the image of Hermes, most devoutly worshipped by the inhabitants, is merely the male
member upright on the pedestal.”41

An original source for the contention that there were two phallic statues at the gates of the temple in
Samothrace is the rare surviving text by Varro. He describes them as virilis which in the context of the
proceeding text on the nature of semen does imply that they were phallic. The two male statues are
described as male and female. This would seem impossible unless the modern terms of positive or
negative polarity are understood as the basis for this male/female duality. Like the caduceus with the
two mirrored snakes the two male statues form a positive and negative polarity at the gate.

“For Earth and Sky, as the mysteries of the Samothracians teach, are Great Gods, and those whom I have
mentioned under many names, are not those Great Gods whom Samothrace represents by two male
statues of bronze which are set up before the city-gates (ante portas statuit duas virilis species aeneas
dei magni), nor are they, as the populace thinks, the Samothracian gods, who are really Castor and
Pollux; but these are a male and a female, these are those whom the Books of the Augurs mention in
writing as potent deities for what the Samothracians call powerful gods.”42

Varro states that these great gods which he describes as powerful and potent represent the duality of
heaven and earth. The sky or sun is male and fertilizes the earth which is female and moist. “Therefore
the conditions of procreation are two: fire and water. Thus these are used at the threshold in weddings,
because there is union here, and fire is male, which the semen is in the other case, and the water is the
female, because the embryo develops from her moisture, and the force that brings their vinctio ‘binding’
is Venus ‘love.’”43

Archaeological evidence links these myths to magnetized iron rings that have been found on Samothrace
which are undeniably connected to the mysteries. Iron rings appear to have been a central feature of the
cult and probably became souvenirs upon initiation. In addition the advanced metallurgy of the island is
shown by the reported invention of a new type of gilding that was applied to iron rings. They were
known as ‘Samothracian rings’ and are attested by Pliny.

“At the present day, too, the very slaves even, encase their iron rings with gold (while other articles
belonging to them, they decorate with pure gold), a licence which was first originated in the Isle of
Samothrace, as the name given to the invention clearly shows.” 44

The magnetic power of the lodestone is extensively documented in antiquity. Numerous references to
the phenomenon, when combined with the archaeological evidence of the magnetized iron rings, enable
an understanding of the concepts behind the Samothracian Mysteries. It appears that the rings were
strung in a chain with only magnetic power as the binding force. This magical chain can be imagined as a
prototype of the initiation.

According to Plato, in the words of Socrates, this magnetic attraction was “... a divine power, which
moves you like that in the stone which Euripides named a magnet, but most people call ‘Heraclea stone.’
For this stone not only attracts iron rings, but also imparts to them a power whereby they in turn are
able to do the very same thing as the stone, and attract other rings; so that sometimes there is formed
quite a long chain of bits of iron and rings, suspended one from another; and they all depend for this
power on that one stone. In the same manner also the Muse inspires men herself, and then by means of
these inspired persons the inspiration spreads to others, and holds them in a connected chain.” 45

Lucretius makes explicitly clear that these texts are referring to the Samothracian Mysteries. He
describes brazen bowls that hold iron fillings which are excited by the action of the lodestone beneath
the bowl. The brazen bowls therefore perform the same symbolic function as the winnowing fan in the
Eleusinian Mysteries.

“Those Samothracian iron rings leap up,

And iron filings in the brazen bowls
Seethe furiously, when underneath was set
The magnet stone.”46

This force is described by Pliny as animating the iron rings and propelling them to leap towards the
magnetic stone as if they possessed hands and feet. “What is there more stubborn than hard iron?
Nature has, in this instance, bestowed upon it both feet and intelligence. It allows itself, in fact, to be
attracted by the magnet, and, itself a metal which subdues all other elements, it precipitates itself
towards the source of an influence at once mysterious and unseen. The moment the metal comes near
it, it springs towards the magnet, and, as it clasps it, is held fast in the magnet’s embraces.” 47

This is also equivalent to the force that is exerted by the gods on humans driving the participants in the
mysteries into various ecstatic states. There is a similar equivalence to the forces that drive the lyric
poets to create works that are inspired by the pull of the gods. Plato compares this momentum to the
forces that lie within the magnetic stone. These unseen forces drive the souls of both the bacchants and
the poets.

“... just as the Corybantian worshippers do not dance when in their senses, so the lyric poets do not
indite those fine songs in their senses, but when they have started on the melody and rhythm they begin
to be frantic, and it is under possession - as the bacchants are possessed, and not in their senses, when
they draw honey and milk from the rivers - that the soul of the lyric poets does the same thing, by their
own report.”48
Meteorites that were found on earth were believed to be mediums between the gods and humans and
contained the living gods. The stones were thus animated by the spirits of the gods and functioned as a
type of extraterrestrial relic that contained magical powers. They were termed baetyls, a Semitic word,
that expressed the concept that the stone was the house of the god.

A coin from Emesa clearly shows the conical Baetyl of El-Gabal. Herodian says that the shrine containing
the sacred conical stone was dedicated to the sun god and was worshipped under the Phoenician name
of El-Gabal. A great temple was erected to this god and lavishly decorated in gold and silver.

“No statue made by man in the likeness of the god stands in this temple, as in Greek and Roman
temples, the temple does, however, contain a huge black stone with a pointed end and round base in the
shape of a cone. The Phoenicians solemnly maintain that this stone came from Zeus; pointing out certain
small figures in relief, they assert that it is an unwraught image of the sun, for naturally this is what they
wish to see.”49

In reference to the shrine of Astarte at Byblos, and her cult there, Philo of Byblos states that “Astarte set
the head of a bull upon her head as mark of royalty; and in travelling round the world she found a star
that had fallen from the sky, which she took up and consecrated in the holy island of Tyre. And the
Phoenicians say that Astarte is Aphrodite.”

Aphrodite was represented by a black conical stone that was thought to be animated by the spirit of the
goddess. The black baetyl was believed to be a meteorite that had come from the stars and to be a gift
from the gods. Thus the baetyl was the body of the star that enclosed the spirit of the deity.

Uranus, the god of the vault of the heavens, sent the meteorites or baetyls to seed the earth. Urania, the
daughter of Uranus, also symbolized the heavens and by extension these sacred stones. She was
combined with Aphrodite to form a deity that encapsulated the qualities of the fallen stars.

Aphrodite Urania was worshiped across Asia Minor and her sanctuary on Cyprus was one of the most
celebrated in antiquity. The Phoenicians identified her with their own Baalath or Astarte. “If two deities
were thus fused in one, we may suppose that they were both varieties of that great goddess of
motherhood and fertility whose worship appears to have spread all over Western Asia from a very early
time. The supposition is confirmed as well by the archaic shape of her image as by the licentious
character of her rites; for both that shape and those rites were shared by her with other Asiatic
deities.”50

Varro indicates that this goddess was worshipped in Samothrace by referring to her myth in close textual
proximity to the section describing the Samothracian statues. He also states that the goddess was born
from fiery seed that fell from the sky. “The poets, in that they say the fiery seed fell from the Sky into the
sea and Venus (Aphrodite) was born ‘from foam-masses,’ through the conjunction of fire and moisture,
are indicating that the vis ‘force’ which they have is that of Venus. Those born of this vis have what is
called vita ‘life’...”51
The use of the expression “foam-masses” clearly indicates that Varro is speaking of the myth recited by
Hesiod about the birth of Aphrodite Urania. In this vision the stars become the semen of the gods filling
the night sky with a shining heavenly foam. Aphrodite Urania emerged from the foam surrounding the
severed genitals of Uranus. According to Hesiod this seminal foam formed the heavenly body of the
goddess.

“And so soon as he had cut off the members with flint and cast them from the land into the surging sea,
they were swept away over the main a long time; and a white foam spread around them from the
immortal flesh, and in it there grew a maiden… Her gods and men call Aphrodite and the foam-born
goddess and rich-crowned Cytherea, because she grew amid the foam…” 52

Aphrodite Urania was therefore an archaic deity that represented a period when the deities were closely
associated with the meteorites that seeded the earth. The myth that Hesiod is relating is very ancient
and is believed to have been inspired by myths associated with the archetypal Mesopotamian deity Anu.

The corn that is tossed into the air by the winnowing fan in the Eleusinian Mysteries can be seen as
equivalent to the meteorites that fall to earth. In the creation myth of Hephaestus and Athena the
semen from the gods in the heavens impregnates the earth (Gaia) below. Hephaestus ejaculates his fiery
semen over Athena who casts it down upon earth, so impregnating it. Human life is therefore formed by
the Demiurge, Hephaestus or Vulcan, moulding his creations from the fiery heat. “She (Athena) founded
your city a thousand years before ours, receiving from the Earth and Hephaestus the seed of your
race…”53

This fiery semen can be seen as the falling meteorites that seed the earth. Lightning fulfils the same
purpose by being the fiery phallus of the gods as it strikes the earth and by extension the goddess. The
creative actions of the gods therefore replicates the sexual actions of humans on earth. Pliny places
meteorites (baetyli) and stones that had been struck by lightning in the same magical category.

“Sotacus mentions also two other varieties of ceraunia, one black and the other red; and he says that
they resemble axes in shape. Those which are black and round, he says, are looked upon as sacred, and
by their assistance cities and fleets are attacked and taken: the name given to them is baetyli, those of
an elongated form being known as cerauniae. They make out also that there is another kind, rarely to be
met with, and much in request for the practises of magic, it never being found in any place but one that
has been struck by lightning.”54

The ancient idea that a stone that had been struck by lightning could accrue magical powers now lies at
the forefront of scientific research. Magnetite naturally exhibits a low level of magnetism but the high
level of magnetic polarity in rare examples was unexplained. New scientific research has revealed that a
lightning strike on magnetite creates a powerful magnetic field that magnetizes the stone giving it a
potent magnetic polarity.
Given the strong magnetic polarity that is attested by ancient texts documenting the Samothracian
Mysteries it appears that this was the type of stone that was used. The magnetic stone or lodestone of
Samothrace was therefore a magnetite rock that had been struck by lightning. Varro refers to the
‘potent’ deities that determined the mysteries. “... these are those whom the Books of the Augurs
mention in writing as ‘potent deities,’ for what the Samothracians call ‘powerful gods.’” 55

Some of the baetyls were carved to make them more anthropomorphic. The cult object at Ephesus was
believed to have been carved from a meteorite. The Nabataeans similarly carved baetyls to emphasize
certain cult features. The magnetic stone of the Samothracians could likewise have assumed a phallic
shape either through design or imagination. A phallic object that had been struck by lightning, thus
acquiring magical magnetic powers, would have been a potent invocation of the phallus of the gods.

The Samothracians were renowned for their proficiency in metallurgy and Pliny attributes to them the
invention of a new technique for gilding iron rings. The magnetic iron wand that was used in the
mysteries could therefore have been gilded to emphasize the link to the golden wand of Hermes.

It was Hermes that guided Persephone out of Hades and thus reunited her with the goddess in the
temple of Eleusis. In the ‘Hymn to Demeter’ the role of Hermes in the resurrection of Persephone is
linked to his golden wand.

“Now when all-seeing Zeus the loud-thunderer heard this, he sent the Slayer of Argus whose wand is of
gold to Erebus, so that having won over Hades with soft words, he might lead forth chaste Persephone to
the light from the misty gloom to join the gods… And Hermes obeyed, and leaving the house of Olympus,
straightway sprang down with speed to the hidden places of the earth.”

The golden wand is central to the role of Hermes as the psychopompos that guides the souls of the
departed. The god crosses the threshold between the dark inner recesses towards the sacred aetherial
light of the gods. Homer in the ‘Odyssey’ refers to Cyllenian Hermes which in the context of the temple
at Cyllene implies a phallic aspect to the golden wand.

“Meanwhile Cyllenian Hermes called forth the spirits of the wooers. He held in his hands his wand, a fair
wand of gold, wherewith he lulls to sleep the eyes of whom he will, while others again he wakens even
out of slumber; with this he roused and led the spirits, and they followed gibbering. And as in the
innermost recess of a wondrous cave bats flit about gibbering, when one has fallen from off the rock
from the chain in which they cling to one another, so these went with him gibbering, and Hermes, the
Helper, led them down the dank ways.”56

There is a direct relationship here between the bats in the cave in “the chain in which they cling to one
another” to the chain of magnetized iron that is described by Plato. Homer thus provides the context for
the magnetic chain of souls that are linked to the Samothracian Mysteries.
“For this stone not only attracts iron rings, but also imparts to them a power whereby they in turn are
able to do the very same thing as the stone, and attract other rings; so that sometimes there is formed
quite a long chain of bits of iron and rings, suspended one from another; and they all depend for this
power on that one stone. In the same manner also the Muse inspires men herself, and then by means of
these inspired persons the inspiration spreads to others, and holds them in a connected chain.” 57

The concept that creative processes such as lightning, meteor and comet strikes could have seeded life
on this planet lies at the limit of our current understanding and yet is expressed in the mysteries of
antiquity.

“Ignis ‘fire’ is named from gnasci ‘to be born,’ because from it there is birth, and everything which is
born from fire enkindles; therefore it is hot, just as he who dies loses the fire and becomes cold. From
that fire’s vis ac violentia ‘force and violence,’ now in greater measure, Vulcan (Hephaestus) was named.
From the fact that fire on account of its brightness fulget ‘flashes,’ come fulgur ‘lightning flash’ and
fulmen ‘thunderbolt,’ and what has been called fulmen ictum ‘hit by a thunderbolt’ is called
fulguritum.”58

“Dionysus: I, the son of Zeus, have come to this land of the Thebans - Dionysus, whom once Semele,
Kadmos’ daughter, bore, delivered by a lightning-bearing flame.” 59

“... that image shall become thy Guide itself, because the Sight (Divine) hath this peculiar (charm), it
holdeth fast and draweth unto it those who succeed in opening their eyes, just as, they say, the magnet
(draweth) iron.” (Corpus Hermeticum)60

1. Herodotus - Histories 2.51

2. Clement of Alexandria - Exhortation to the Heathen 2
3. Herodotus - Histories 3.37
4. Strabo - Geography 10.3.8-9
5. Ibid. 10.3.7-9
6. Ibid. 10.3.11
7. Plutarch - Isis and Osiris 18
8. Diodorus Siculus - Library of History 1.22
9. Plutarch - Isis and Osiris 33
10. Ibid. 36
11. Ibid. 38
12. Ibid. 34
13. Ammianus Marcellinus - Res Gestae 17.4
14. Pliny - Natural History 37.51
15. Encyclopaedia Britannica -Jupiter
16. Orosius - Historiae Adversus Paganos 7.12
17. Plutarch - Quaestiones Convivales 4.2
18. Artemidorus - Oneirocritica 2.9
19. Seneca
20. Livy - History of Rome 1.31
21. Plutarch - The Life of Romulus 2
22. Plutarch - The Life of Numa
23. Richard Payne Knight - A Discourse on the Worship of Priapus
24. James Frazer - The Golden Bough
25. Ibid.
26. Iamblichus - Theurgia 7.15
27. Lucian of Samosata - De Dea Syria
28. Richard Payne Knight - A Discourse on the Worship of Priapus
29. Ptutarch - Isis and Osiris 51
30. Ibid. 52
31. Iamblichus - Theurgia 1.4
32. Porphyry - The Life of Pythagoras 44
33. Ibid.
34. Augustine - The City of God 7.21
35. Iamblichus - The Life of Pythagoras
36. James Frazer - The Golden Bough
37. Plutarch - Isis and Osiris 35
38. Herodotus - Histories 2.170-171
39. 1 Kings 7:18-22
40. Hippolytus - Refutation of All Heresies 5
41. Pausanias - Description of Greece 6.26.5
42. Varro - On the Latin Language 5.58
43. Ibid. 61
44. Pliny - Natural History 33.6
45. Plato - Ion 533
46. Lucretius - De Rerum Natura 6
47. Pliny - Natural History 36.25
48. Plato - Ion 534
49. Herodian - History of the Roman Empire 5.3.4-5
50. James Frazer - The Golden Bough
51. Varro - On the Latin Language 5.63
52. Hesiod - Theogony 176-180
53. Plato - Timaeus 23
54. Pliny - Natural History 37.51
55. Varro - On the Latin Language 5.58
56. Homer - Odyssey 24.1-14
57. Plato - Ion 533
58. Varro - On the Latin Language 5.70
59. Euripides - Bacchae 1
60. Corpus Hermeticum 4.11