In a former work the fact has been mentioned that the first clue
obtained by Herr Bachofen, author of Das Mutterrecht, to a former
condition of society under which gynaecocracy, or the social and
political pre-eminence of women, prevailed, was the importance attached
to the female principle in the Deity in all ancient mythologies.

According to the testimony of various writers, Om, although
comprehending both elements of the Deity, was nevertheless female in
signification. Sir William Jones observes that Om means oracle--matrix
or womb.(27) Upon this subject Godfrey Higgins, quoting from Drummond,
remarks:

27) See Anacalypsis, book iii., ch. ii.

"The word Om or Am in the Hebrew not only signifies might, strength,
power, firmness, solidity, truth, but it means also Mother, as in
Genesis ii., 24, and Love, whence the Latin Amo, Mamma. If the word be
taken to mean strength, then Amon will mean (the first syllable being
in regimine) the temple of the strength of the generative or creative
power, or the temple of the mighty procreative power. If the word Am
means Mother, then a still more recondite idea will be implied, viz.:
the mother generative power, or the maternal generative power: perhaps
the Urania of Persia or the Venus Aphrodite of Crete and Greece, or the
Jupiter Genetrix of the masculine and feminine gender, or the Brahme
Mai of India, or the Alma Venus of Lucretius. And the City of On or
Heliopolis will be the City of the sun, or City of the procreative
powers of nature of which the sun was always an emblem."

According to Prof. W. R. Smith, Om means uniting or binding, a fact
which is explained by the early significance of the mother element in
early society. The name of the great Deity Om or Aum scarcely passes the
lips of its worshippers, and when it is pronounced is always reverently
whispered. Regarding the mystic word Om, we are told that it is the name
given to Delphi, and that "Delphi has the meaning of the female organs
of generation called in India the Os Minxoe."

Although the great God of India was female and male, yet we are assured
by Forlong that the female energy Maya, Queen of Heaven, even at the
present time is more heard of than the male principle.

According to Bryant, the worship of Ham is the most ancient as well as
the most universal of any in the world. This writer remarks that Ham,
instead of representing an individual, is but a Greek corruption of Om
or Aum, the gre