I HAVE said that the phallic origin attributed to the cross is destitute of evidence. In a work like this, which will be in the hands of general readers, it is impossible to enter into the subject.
I believe I have conscientiously examined the question. If I saw that there was sufficient evidence to substantiate the theory, I would adopt it without hesitation. But I think a better claim may be made for the lightning, and a better still for the ancient instrument of two sticks used for producing fire by friction.
An article on Sun worship in the “English Leader,” copied into “Public Opinion” (Sept. 14, 1867), assumes the identity of the cross with the phallus. The article is full of assertions, rather bold and reckless than well supported by evidence.
It asserts on the authority of the Abbé Pluche that the crux ansata was the symbol of the annual inundation of the Nile. The speculations of the learned on the signification of the Egyptian hieroglyphics, previous to the discoveries of Champollion, are, however, devoid of weight. “The crux ansata,” it adds, “that is, the cross and circle, was the sign of Venus or sensual love,—the goddess from whose name our word venery is derived,—and it is still the astronomical symbol of the planet which bears her name.” As we have already seen, the crux ansata was not exclusively the symbol of Astarte; it was a sign of divinity and was placed near every god to indicate him as being Divine. It appears beside Baal as well as Astarte.
If used more frequently with her than with other deities it was because it symbolized her power over moisture, she being the Moon. The cross did not belong to her as a goddess of sensuality, but as presiding over the month and its rains; to Baal it belonged as a year-god guiding the seasons.
The same article refers to the Indian cross as though its were a phallus; whereas the symbols are entirely and radically distinct, as may be seen by reference to the plates of Müller’s “Glauben, Wissen, und Kunst der Hindus.”