. Ancient faiths embodied in ancient names; or, An attempt to trace the religious belief, sacred rites, and holy emblems of certain nations . abylon divided the god-head, much as the Papal Church does, into a maletriad and a female unity ; but, with the usual incon-sistency of theosophists, they gave a wife to eachof the male divinities, without, at the same time, s s 642 ] assigning a husband to the virgin, although, para-doxically enough, this was done in a fashion bydescribing her as the wife of the head of thetrinity. In like manner, Brahma, Vishnu, andSiva, like some other minor god
. Ancient faiths embodied in ancient names; or, An attempt to trace the religious belief, sacred rites, and holy emblems of certain nations . abylon divided the god-head, much as the Papal Church does, into a maletriad and a female unity ; but, with the usual incon-sistency of theosophists, they gave a wife to eachof the male divinities, without, at the same time, s s 642 ] assigning a husband to the virgin, although, para-doxically enough, this was done in a fashion bydescribing her as the wife of the head of thetrinity. In like manner, Brahma, Vishnu, andSiva, like some other minor gods, have a wife each,who is designated as the sacti, which represents theenergy or power of her lord. The names of thethree sactis of the Hindoo triad are Saraswati, Lak-shmi, and Parvati, or Devi. Some Hindoos prefer toworship these, just as certain Europeans prefer theworship of the Virgin to that of the Father; andjust as the latter are called, somewhat derisively,Maryolaters, so the former are designated sactis also go by the name of matris, ormothers, and they are supposed to have great powerover the demons. Figure 643 Sacti] In plates, the sacti are usually represented asordinary females, more or less draped, but alwaysfree from any idea of indelicacy. Sometimes theyare represented as united to their lords after themanner of androgynous compounds, the male beingon the right side, the female on the left, as if malesand females were the right and left hands of theAlmighty. It is worthy of remark, in passing, thatthe man has, in every picture, the thumb and twoforefingers conspicuously separated from the fingers,just as we see them in Christian bishops, when inthe act of blessing the faithful. We have on various occasions endeavoured toillustrate the past by a reference to the present,believing that what is hath already been; thatthere is nothing of which it may be said. See, thisis new, for it hath been already of old time whichwas before us (Ecclesiastes i
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