xtent of these beliefs is pointed out by Mr. John Newton in
_Assyrian Grove Worship_. Here we see that the ancient Hindus gave a
much more literal relationship between the sun and earth than we are
accustomed to express in modern times. He states, "This representative
of the union of the sexes typifies the divine Sakti, or productive
energy, in union with the pro-creative or generative power as seen
throughout nature. The earth was the primitive pudendum or yoni which
is fecundated by the solar heat, the sun, the primitive linga, to whose
vivifying rays man and animals, plants and the fruits of the earth, owe
their being and continued existence."

It is not possible to discuss sun worship at any length without at the
same time discussing phallicism and serpent worship. Hargrave Jennings,
who has made careful study of these worships, points out their general
identity in the following paragraph. He states: "The three most
celebrated emblems carried in the Greek mysteries were the phallus, the
egg, and the serpent; or otherwise the phallus, the yoni or umbilicus,
and the serpent. The first in each case is the emblem of the sun or of
fire, as the male or active generative power. The second denotes the
passive nature or female principle or the emblem of water. The third
symbol indicates the destroyer, the reformer or the renewer, (the uniter
of the two) and thus the preserver or perpetuator eternally renewing
itself. The universality of serpentine worship (or Phallic adoration) is
attested by emblematic sculptures or architecture all the world over."

The author of the _Round Towers of Ireland_ in discussing the symbols of
sun worship, serpent worship and phallicism, found on the same tablet,
practically reiterates these statements. He says: "I have before me the
sameness of design which belonged indifferently to solar worship and to
phallic. I shall, ere long, prove that the same characteristic extends
equally to ophiolatreia; and if they all three be identical, as it thus
necessarily follows, where is the occasion for surprise at our meeting
the sun, phallus and serpent, the constituent symbols of each, embossed
upon the same table and grouped under the same architrave?"

By a number of references, we could readily show the identity of all
these worships. The preceding paragraphs give, in summary form, the
conclusions of those writers who have made such religions their special
study. We shall not exemplify this further, b