The Fundamental Principles of Old and New World Civilizations Part 35

Ruined groups of buildings, consisting of seven sanctuaries or churches, situated around a round, high tower, usually with four windows near the top, opening to the cardinal points, exist in various parts of Ireland, the Seven Churches in County Wicklow being the most famous example. The cosmical character of the round towers has been set forth by John O'Neil, to whose work I refer the reader. According to my views the groups testify to the establishment, at one time, of several septarchies in Ireland, the geographical centres of which, as in a.s.syria and elsewhere, were marked in this case by the cosmical round tower, figuring the axis or spindle, around which each sept built its council house, for religious and political a.s.semblies.(131) In connection with such it is interesting to read what Caesar says of the priests and judges of Gaul, which was organized into seven provinces, as late as at the time of Constantine: "These Druids held a meeting at a certain time of the year in a consecrated place in the country of the Carnutes [modern Chartres] which country is considered to be in the centre of all Gaul." It is well known that anterior to the Roman Conquest there existed in Britain a long-established, seven-fold state, governed by seven kings, compared by John Speed (1630) to seven crowned pillars.

The kingdom of Mercia included the counties in the centre of the kingdom and is said to have been founded by Crida or Creoda. The central and chief ruler of Britain was styled Bretwalda. It is well known that Stonehenge, which is a.s.sociated in folk-lore with the number seven, is situated in the heart of the plain region of England and is supposed to have been the seat of central religion and government.(132)

It is moreover acknowledged by Knight that the ancient Britons were a people who evidently had some great principle of a.s.sociation in their religion as in their industry. The familiar fact, that at one period the ancient Kent, Cantium, was governed by four kings, also styled "the four princes of Cantii," furnishes an indication that quadruplicate division was also known to the ancient Britons.

A few instructive facts concerning Welsh Druidism may be appropriately cited here.

Morien has pointed out that the Druidic Celi Ced corresponds to Amen-Ra, the Egyptian Hidden Sun. According to Welsh system the universe was born of Celi-Ced, a dual power, Celi being the masculine and Ced the feminine principle. Ceridwen is termed the Welsh Isis, and her name translated as "the producing woman." Celi is invariably represented as _hidden_, the three Hus representing him in manifestation.

"The three Hus are: Hu cylch y Cengant=the Hu of the circle of infinitude; Hu cylch y Sidydd=the Hu of the circle of the zodiac and Hu yn Nghnawd=Hu incarnate. The latter was incarnate in the Arch Druid. He, standing in the middle of the Gorsedd circle, where the triple life lines met, implied by his action that the three emanations which had their root in the dual Ced-Celi, focussed themselves in him. He stood facing the east where the sun rises" (_cf._ the ceremonial position a.s.sumed by the king of Erin in council and that of the Roman augur on drawing his templum). "The name for the physical sun was Huan, translated as 'the abode of divinity.' " "The Druidic bards of N. Wales wors.h.i.+pped Beli."(133)

In Welsh legend a G.o.d named Peredur Paladye Hir (of the long spear or pal) is a.s.sociated with his brother, both sons of Eliffer, one of the _thirteen princes of the north_. Peredur is one of seven brothers; there were seven profound mysteries of Druidism, _i. e._ seven divisions of the reverberations of the Word, emanating from Ced, and the seven Tattaras or seven rays.

SCANDINAVIA.

According to the Icelandic historian Snorri Sturlesson, whose opinion was the re-echo of ancient traditional beliefs, Odin and his eight sons and four companions, twelve in all, were earthly kings and priests of a sacerdotal caste, who had emigrated from Asia-perhaps from Troy-and who conquered and ruled over various parts of Scandinavia and Northern Germany where, after their death, they were regarded by the people as deities (Chambers' Encyclopaedia).

O'Neil states "that Odin was named Mith-Odinn (Mid-Odin?) by Saxo Grammaticus," and quotes the following: "Odinn died in his bed, in Sweden, and when he was near his death he made himself be marked with the point of a spear and said he was going to G.o.dheim" (Ingliga Saga). "The twelve _G.o.des_ or diar or drotnar of Odin were obviously cognate to our _G.o.d_ as a name of a deity. They (or the priests who represented them) directed sacrifices and judged the people, and all the people served and obeyed them" (O'Neil I, p. 76).

A strange reality is given to Odin and his twelve "G.o.des," when it is realized that at Mora, near Upsala, Sweden, there exists the ancient stone throne on which the ancient kings of Sweden were crowned and this central stone is surrounded by twelve lesser stones, just as the Irish "Mound-chief" was surrounded by twelve idols.

While the above facts suffice to indicate that, in remotest antiquity, the government of the state was vested in one supreme and twelve minor chiefs, the following brief extracts from the Eddas reveal the cosmical beliefs of the Nors.e.m.e.n: "In the cold north existed Niflheim in the middle of which was a well from which sprang twelve rivers. In the south existed the warm Muspelheim. There was a contention between both of these worlds.... The union of heat and cold produced Oergelmer or Chaos, and the first human being, Ymir. The revolving eye of the Norse world-millstone was directly above Oergelmer and through it the waters flowed to and from the great fountain of the Universe waters." Ymir drew his nourishment from four streams of milk proceeding from the mythical cow Aedhumla. Subsequently he was slain by three divine brothers who carried his body to the _middle_ of Ginnungagap, and formed from it the earth and the heavens ... of his skull they formed the heavens, at each of the four corners of which stood a dwarf, viz: Austri at the East, Vestri at the west, Northri at the north and Suthri at the south.... When heaven and earth were formed, the chief G.o.ds or Oesir, of whom there were twelve, met in the Centre of the world and built Midgardr or Asgard, the yard, city or stronghold of the Middle and of the Asen=the G.o.ds. It was situated on the Himinbiorg, or Hill of Heaven, on the summit of which was the ash-tree, Yggdrasil, whose branches spread over the whole world and tower over the heavens.

The following is from the prose Edda: "Then the sons of Br built in the middle of the universe the city called Asgard, where dwell the G.o.ds and their kindred, and _from that abode work out so many wondrous things both on earth and in the heavens above it_. There is in that city a place called Hlidskjalf, and when Odin is seated there upon his lofty throne, he sees over the whole world."

In the Eddas we find evidences that while Odin or All-fader was the ruler of heaven, his powerful son Thor was "the ruler of Thrudheim and drove through the world in a chariot and became the supreme G.o.d."

The following facts, taken from Mr. Allen's "Star-names," established the a.s.sociation of Thor with Polaris and the Ursae. "In ancient times the northern nations termed Ursa Major 'the wagon of Odin, Woden or Wuotan, the father of Thor.'(134) The Danes, Swedes and Icelanders also knew it as Stori Vagn, the Great Wagon and as Karl's Vagn; Karl being Thor, their chief G.o.d of whom the old Swedish Rhyme Chronicle of Upsala says '... The G.o.d Thor was the highest of them. He sat naked as a child, seven stars in his hand and Charles' Wain.' "

The "throne of Thor" or "Smaller Chariot," was the name given to Polaris (Ursa Minor) by the early Danes and Icelanders and their descendants still call it the "Litli Vagn," the little wagon. The Finns, apparently alone among the northern nations of Europe in this conception, named Ursa Minor, Vaha Otawa, the Little Bear. They, however, termed Polaris, Taehti, "the star at the top of the heavenly mountain."

It is striking how clearly, in Scandinavia, the Middle is a.s.sociated with a sacred mountain and tree, the world axis, a heavenly city, an enthroned central G.o.d, and with Polaris, Ursa Major and the idea of eternal circ.u.mpolar rotation expressed by the wain eternally wheeled around the throne of Thor. To any one imbued with the ideas set forth above, the signification of the Scandinavian, Druidic, New Year festival, the name for which was "the wheel" (yule, yeol, yeul, hjol, hiugl, hjul), must clearly appear as the date on which the complete circuit of the Ursae around the pole, was ceremonially registered. It is obvious that this could best be expressed by a circle being drawn around the swastika or cross, to which the fourth arm would be added, completing thus the registration of the four seasons, marked by the opposite positions a.s.sumed by the Ursae at nightfall. It is well known that the wheel-cross, swastika, triskeles and S-figure const.i.tute, with the winding serpent and the tau, named Thor's hammer, the main symbols of ancient Scandinavia (see fig. 13, p. 29 and fig. 38, p. 119). I venture to point out how obviously Thor's hammer symbolizes the union of the Above and Below, the heaven represented by the horizontal line resting on the perpendicular support, symbolizing the sacred pole, column, mountain and tree intimately a.s.sociated with Polaris, the world axis.

As a suggestion only, I venture to point out how, the old Norse name for star being tjara and for tree=tar, the role of the tree in Druidic cult would be fully accounted for, the initiated only being aware that it was but a rebus symbol of the secret or hidden star-G.o.d Polaris.

It can readily be seen how natural or artificial elevations and erected stones, trees, staffs or poles must have been used as means of determining the positions of the Ursae at the public celebration of the Yule festival and that the ceremony of kindling of new fire was observed at the time when the "wheel" was supposed to begin its new annual revolution.

Reflection clearly shows that pole-star wors.h.i.+p must have taken a stronger hold upon the ancient inhabitants of Scandinavia and their descendants, the seafaring Vikings, than upon any other nation. We are compelled to admit that the recognition that Polaris formed the centre of axial rotation and the middle of the sky, would have impressed itself most profoundly upon observers stationed in the lat.i.tude where winter darkness prevailed and the pole-star appeared to be nearly overhead. Under such conditions the a.s.sociation of the opposite positions of the Septentriones with directions in s.p.a.ce, _i. e._, the cardinal points, would be most striking.

What is more: the re-appearance of the sun, after the long darkness of a northern winter, must have established the idea of a fixed relations.h.i.+p between certain positions of Ursa Major and the solst.i.tial position of the sun. It may indeed be said that the observation of the solstices and equinoxes was forced upon the inhabitants of the north as nowhere else on the globe and that it may perhaps be therefore designated as the birthplace of primitive astronomy.

The origin of the idea of an all-pervading duality and the chains of a.s.sociation which linked Light and the Sun to air and water, and to the male element, whilst Darkness and the Nocturnal Heaven became connected with earth, fire and woman, are clearly accounted for in the circ.u.mpolar regions only, where the year divides itself into a period of light in which independent and roaming out-door life was possible, and a period of darkness during which family life, in underground fire-lit dwellings, was compulsory. If fathomed, the mind of the Eskimo to-day may possibly reveal the germs of identical a.s.sociations of ideas, for it would seem as though existence in the polar regions would infallibly stamp them indelibly upon the consciousness of all living creatures, until they unconsciously pervaded their entire being and even affected the structural organization of the human brain.(135)

The tendency to believe that the human race must have spent its infancy near the pole and received there an intellectual stamp, which could not have been conveyed to it so clearly in any other lat.i.tude, is undoubtedly encouraged by the opinion of various authorities, that "all forms of life must have originated at the pole, this having been the first habitable portion of our world." This view is exhaustively treated in William Fairfield Warren's "Paradise Found, the cradle of the human race at the North Pole" (Boston, 1885), to which I refer the reader and which contains much valuable data which I would have incorporated in the present investigation had I had earlier access to the volume. It would seem as though Warren's conclusions were in perfect accord with the conclusions arrived at by some leading palaeontologists, geologists and botanists, concerning the distribution of life on the globe. These are conveniently summarized in the article on "Distribution" in the Encyclopaedia Britannica, from which the following detached excerpts are made for the benefit of the reader.

"The general result arrived at is that the great northern continents represent the original seat of mammalian life and the regions of its highest development.... The tertiary fauna of North America, compared with that of Europe, exhibits proofs of a former communication between the two northern continents both in the North Atlantic and North Pacific, but always, probably, in rather high lat.i.tudes. This is indicated both by the groups which appear to have originated in one continent and then to have pa.s.sed across to the other and also by the entire absence from America of many important groups which abounded in Europe (and _vice versa_) indicating that the communication between the two hemispheres was always imperfect and of limited duration.... On the other hand, the marked continuity of the Northern Flora (with only a gradual east and west change in the arctic regions, but with an increased divergency southwards) requires it to be treated as a whole, although it has long been divided into that of the old and new world by the severance of North America from Northern Asia and by the barrier to an interchange of vegetation in the upheaval of the Rocky Mountain range. The old and new world divisions of the flora which, no doubt, began to diverge from the mere influence of distance, have now had that divergence immensely increased by isolation.... Large American genera (of the intermediate flora) have sent off offsets into Eastern Asia which, gradually diminis.h.i.+ng in number of species and sometimes slightly modifying their character, have spread over the whole of Asia and invaded almost every part of Europe.... With regard to the arctic alpine flora, Hooker found that, estimating the whole arctic flora at 762 species, arctic East America possessed 379 of which 269 are common to Scandinavia. Of the whole flora 616 species are found in arctic Europe and of these 586 are Scandinavian and this leads Hooker to the striking observation that 'the Scandinavian flora is present in every lat.i.tude of the globe and is the only one that is so.' According to Bentham, Scandinavia, which would, according to older rules, have been termed the centre of creation for the arctic regions, may now be termed the chief centre of preservation within the arctic circle owing, perhaps, to its more broken conformation and partly to that warmer climate ...

which was, during the glacial period a means of preservation of some colder species which were everywhere expelled or destroyed.... We may infer that, towards the close of the Tertiary epoch, the continuous circ.u.mpolar land was covered with a vegetation also largely composed of identical plants, but adapted to a warmer climate. As the climate became less warm there would commence a migration southwards which would result in the modified descendants of these plants being now blended with the vegetation of central Europe and the United States. As the glacial period gradually advanced, the tropical plants will have retreated from both sides towards the equator followed in the rear by the temperate productions and these by the arctic. When the climate of the earth again ameliorated, the migration took place in a reverse direction and in this way mountain ranges became the havens of refuge for the fragments of the original arctic flora which were exterminated on the lowlands. An indication of the great antiquity of the arctic alpine flora is afforded by the fact of its absence in the comparatively modern volcanic mountains of France.... If it be granted that the polar area was once occupied by the Scandinavian flora and that the cold of the glacial epoch did drive this vegetation downwards ... in arctic America ... where there was a free southern extension and dilatation of land for the same Scandinavian plants to occupy, these would multiply enormously in individuals...."

The following remarkable results of recent botanical research will be found to be of profound interest to investigators and to support the foregoing conclusions. Amongst the many important discoveries of hitherto undescribed species of plants, made by the distinguished botanists Mr.

Stephen Sommier and Dr. Emile Levier during their expedition in the Caucasus mountains, in 1890, was that of a species of fungus named _Exobasidium discoideum_ Ell., which was found growing on the _Rhododendron flaro_ L. This fungus was submitted to Prof. P. Magnus of Berlin, who p.r.o.nounced it to be the identical Exobasidium which has been found growing on the _Azalea viscosa_ L. in New Jersey, U. S. A. The following is the authoritative statement of Prof. P. Magnus which appears in Messrs. S. Sommier and E. Levier's Enumeratorio plantarum caucas: acta horti petropolitani, vol. XVI. St. Petersburg, 1899.

"The occurrence of the identical species of fungus on two closely related plants, which respectively grow in the Caucasus and in North America and are missing in intermediate countries, deserves our deepest interest....

These plants are relics of the Tertiary period, during which North America and Europe still formed a continuous floral area. While the plants, on which the fungus grew, differentiated into two closely related species, in two at present widely separated but formerly connected radii of distribution, the parasitical Exobasidium remained outwardly unaltered.

This is exactly like the case of another fungus, _Uromyces glycyrrhizae_, which I have described and explained in the 'Berichten der Deutschen Botanischen Gesellschaft' (Bd. VII, 1890, S. 377-384). _Exobasidium disc._ is also a parasitical fungus which has been growing on the parent form of _Rhododendron viscosum_ and _Rhododendron flavum_ ever since that period when North America and Europe were continuous and possessed the same flora."

I am also indebted to Professor Magnus and to Dr. Levier for the following names of closely allied species of plants which are found in America and Asia only, it being particularly noticeable that it is in Asia Minor and the Caucasus mountains that the relatives of the American species are most frequently met with.

_Plata.n.u.s occidentalis_: North America.

_Plata.n.u.s orientalis_: Asia Minor.

_Liquidambar styraciflua_: North America.

_Liquidambar styraciflua_: Asia.

_Rhododendron viscosum_: North America.

_Rhododendron flavum_: Caucasus Mts.

_Rhododendron maximum_: North America.

_Rhododendron pontic.u.m_: Causasus Mts.

Professor Magnus has, moreover, recently pointed out that the fungus Uropyxis, which is a widespread American species and grows in Mexico, has a representative in Manchuria. In his monograph on Uropyxis, Professor Magnus enumerates further species of fungi which occur in America and Asia only and are missing in other portions of the world (P. Magnus, Berichten der Deutschen Botanischen Gesellschaft, Jahrgang 1899. Band XVII, Heft 3).

Referring the reader to Professor Edward S. Morse's trite article, Was Middle America peopled from Asia? (Appleton's Popular Science Monthly, November, 1898), I cite, from this, the following authoritative statements: "From the naturalist's standpoint the avenues have been quite as open for the circ.u.mpolar distribution of man as they have been for the circ.u.mpolar distribution of other animals and plants, down to the minutest land snail and low fungus. The ethnic resemblances supposed to exist between the peoples of the two sides of the Pacific may be the result of an ancient distribution around the northern regions of the globe."

The very remarkable survival of certain plants and fungi, dating from the Tertiary period, in two such widely sundered countries as Asia Minor and North America, certainly finds a curious and striking parallel in the a.n.a.logy of the cosmical ideas and social organization of Babylonia and a.s.syria with those of Mexico.

What is more: A cosmical scheme, attributable to a prolonged observation of natural celestial phenomena, such as could best have been carried on in circ.u.mpolar regions, has been shown to be as widespread as the Scandinavian flora which "is present in every lat.i.tude and is the only one that is so."

Many of my readers will doubtless be inclined to explain the ident.i.ty of cosmical and religious conceptions, social organization, and architectural plans shown to have existed in the past between the inhabitants of both hemispheres, as the result of independent evolution, dating from the period when primitive man, emerging from savagery, was driven southward from circ.u.mpolar regions, carrying with him a set of indelible impressions which, under the influence of constant pole-star wors.h.i.+p, sooner or later developed and brought forth identical or a.n.a.logous results.

Those who hold this view may perhaps go so far as to consider the possibility that, before drifting asunder, the human race had already discovered, for instance, the art of fire-making and of working in stone, had adopted the sign of the cross as a year-register, and evolved an archaic form of social organization. To many this view may furnish a satisfactory explanation of the universal spread of identical ideas and the differentiation of their subsequently independent evolution.

On the other hand, another cla.s.s of readers may prefer to think that, while both hemispheres may have originally been populated by branches of the same race, at an extremely low stage of intellectual development, civilization and a plan of social organization may have developed and been formulated sooner in one locality than in another, owing to more favorable conditions and thence have been spread to both continents by a race, more intelligent and enterprising than others, who became the intermediaries of ancient civilization.

The great problem of the origin of American peoples lies far beyond the scope of the present work and its final solution can only be obtained at some future day by the joint cooperation of Americanists and Orientalists.

On the other hand certain incontrovertible facts which throw light upon the question of prehistoric contact have been coming under my observation during my prolonged course of study and the presentation of these may advance knowledge by acting as a stimulus to discussion, inquiry and research by learned specialists.

For ready reference I submit the following tabulated record of the widely sundered countries in which are found, applied to the governmental scheme, the same cosmical divisions, respectively consisting of four, seven and thirteen parts, the group being invariably a.s.sociated with the idea of an all-embracing One, const.i.tuting the Four in One, Seven in One and Thirteen in One. It is superfluous to add that, in each country enumerated, the existence of more or less distinct traces of an ancient pole-star wors.h.i.+p and the cult of the sacred Middle, the Above and Below and Four Quarters, _i. e._, the four, seven and thirteen directions in s.p.a.ce, have been recorded in the preceding pages. Important additional facts, acquired by reference to Hewitt's Ruling Races of Prehistoric Times, to which my attention was directed by Mr. Stansbury Hagar, and to other valuable works, will be found included in the following summary.

It would be of utmost a.s.sistance to me in my future researches and I would regard it as a personal favor if specialists would draw my attention to any deficiencies they may detect, and inform me of the latest results of their individual investigations bearing upon the subjects under consideration.

INDIA.

Seven zones, seven directions in s.p.a.ce, seven sages.

"The conception of the confederated kingdom formed of six dependent and allied states surrounding the seventh ruling state in the centre."... "It is this conception which is worked out in the six kingdoms surrounding the central kingdom of Jambudvipa, into which they divided India. This form of kingdom still survives in those which form the tributary states of Chota Nagpore, for in all of these the central province is ruled by the king and those surrounding it by his subordinate chiefs ..."(136) (Hewitt, Ruling Races of Prehistoric Times, p. 256).

Four lakes, four rivers, four cosmical divisions, four guardians, p. 320.

"In the Gond 'Song of Lingal,' it is related how, Lingal, having been slain by the confederacy [of six kingdoms surrounding seventh], came to life again, and with four new-born Gonds, founded a new race of Gonds; taught them to build houses and to grow millets.... He divided the people into _four tribes_.... With these he united the four tribes descended from the Gonds he had brought down in his first avatar.... These formed the eight united races of the tortoise-earth.... Lingal placed among them priests ... who married the new-comers to the daughters of the previous immigrants.... This ... marks the first stage of the union of the Kus.h.i.+kas and the Maghadas, the latter being the race who wors.h.i.+pped the mother-Maga as the sacred alligator (Hewitt).

"According to the Mahabharata the two races of Kus.h.i.+kas and Maghadas were united under one king.... This land was called by Hindu geographers Saka-dvipa, said in the Mataya Purana to be the land of the mountain whence Indra gets the rain;" that is of the mountain called Khar-sah-kurra, Us.h.i.+dhan and Savkanta. "This mountain stood as the meeting point of the two confederacies of the patriarchal tribes and the matriarchal races.... Each confederacy is formed by six kingdoms surrounding a seventh or ruling kingdom in the centre.... This, in the Iranian federation, is Khavaniras or Huaniratha and in India, Jambu-dvipa, the land of the Jambu tree."