The History of Initiation - The Masonic Trowel

30 HISTORY OP INITIATION
naked, and decorated with jewels and other ornaments.
In this sacellum, accessible only to the initiated, the
deity was represented by that obscene emblem, which
was used in a greater or less degree by all idolatrous
21
nations, to represent his generative power. On each
side were ranges of cells and passages, constructed for
22
the express purpose of initiation and a sacred ;
orifice,
23
as the medium of regeneration.
The caverns of Salsette, excavated in a rock whose
external form is pyramidal, and situated in the bosom of
an extensive and fearful wood, infested by enormous serpents
and ravenous beasts, 24
very greatly exceed, in
magnitude, those of Elephanta; being in number three
hundred, all adorned with an abundance of carved and
emblematical characters. 25 The largest cavern is eightyfour
feet long, forty-six broad, and forty high full of
;
cavities on all sides, placed at convenient distances, for
the arrangement of the dreadful apparatus of initiation,
which was so constructed as to overwhelm the unconscious
aspirant with horror and superstitious dread. The
different ranges of apartments were connected by open
galleries; and the most secret caverns, which contained
the ineffable symbols, were accessible only by private
entrances, curiously contrived, to give greater effect to
certain points in the ceremonial of initiation; and a
cubical cista, for the periodical sepulture of the aspirant,
was placed in the inmost recesses of the structure. In
every cavern was a carved basin, to contain the consecrated
water of ablution, on the surface of which floated
the flowers of the lotus, this element being considered
the external medium by which purity was conveyed
And amongst an innumerable multitude of images and
symbolical figures with which the walls were covered,
the Linga, 26 or Phallus, 27 was everywhere conspicuous;
often alone, and sometimes in situations too disgusting to
21 22
Maur. Ind. Ant., vol. ii.. p. 332. Archaeol., vol. vii., p. 287.
3
Fab. Pag. Idol.,
vol. in., p. 185. This orifice is used at the present
day, for the same mysterious purpose.
4 Maur. Ind. Ant., vol. ii., p. 273. Archaeol. Ant., vol. vii., p. 333.
25 Vid. Signs and Symbols, Lect. 9.
!S Maur. Ind. Ant., vol. ii., p. 156.
27 A specimen of this obscene emblem is preserved in the Museum
of the Asiatic Society, London.