Untitled : This work first appeared as the second half of the 1865 printing of A Discourse on the Worship of Priapus. Wright's extended essay on Phallic worship is distinguished by much better scholarship and writing than some of the other works of this genre. Along with the usual suspects (ancient and modern...
Phallic Festivals : PHALLIC FESTIVALS Besides the invocations addressed principally to Priapus, or to the generative powers, the ancients had established great festivals in their honour, which were remarkable for their licentious gaiety, and in which the image of the phallus was carried openly and in triumph. These...
The Witches' Sabbath : p. 154 THE WITCHES' SABBATH We have thus seen in how many various forms the old phallic, or priapic, worship presented itself in the middle ages, and how pertinaciously it held its ground through all the changes and developments of society, until at length we find all the circumstances...
Antiquity : Click to view PLATE I p. 7 THE WORSHIP OF THE GENERATIVE POWERS: DURING THE MIDDLE AGES OF WESTERN EUROPE ANTIQUITY RICHARD PAYNE KNIGHT has written with great learning on the origin and history of the worship of Priapus among the ancients. This worship, which was but a part of th...
Inniskea : INNISKEA The worship of the reproductive organs as representing the fertilizing, protecting, and saving powers of nature, apart from these secret rites, prevailed universally, as we have traced it fully in the preceding pages, and we only recur to that part of the subject to state that perhaps...
May Day : MAY-DAY In medival poetry and romance, the month of May was celebrated above all others as that consecrated to Love, which seemed to pervade all nature, and to invite mankind to partake in the general enjoyment. Hence, among nearly all peoples, its approach was celebrated with festivities, in which...
Priapic Amulets : PHALLIC AMULETS The use of priapic figures as amulets, to be carried on the person as preservatives against the evil eye and other noxious influences, which we have spoken of as so common among the Romans, was certainly continued through the middle ages, and, as we shall see presently, has not...
Priapus Worship : PRIAPUS WORSHIP Antiquity had made Priapus a god, the middle ages raised him into a saint, and that under several names. p. 50 [paragraph continues] In the south of France, Provence, Languedoc, and the Lyonnais, he was worshipped under the title of St. Foutin. 41 This name is said to be a mere...
Middle Ages And Renaissance : MIDDLE AGES AND RENAISSANCE This brings us to the close of the fourteenth century, and shows us how long the outward worship of the generative powers, represented by their organs, continued to exist in Western Europe to such a point as to engage the attention of ecclesiastical synods. During...
Sexual Demons : SEXUAL DEMONS There were personages connected with the worship of Priapus who appear to have been common to the Romans under and before the empire, and to the foreign races who settled upon its ruins. The Teutonic race believed in a spiritual being who inhabited the woods, and who was called in old...
Plants And Flowers : PLANTS AND FLOWERS Plants and flowers were, indeed, intimately connected with this worship. We have seen how constantly they are introduced in the form of garlands, and they were always among the offerings to Priapus. It was the universal practice, in dancing round the fire on St. John's eve...
The Knights Templar : THE KNIGHTS TEMPLAR But the most remarkable, and at the same time the most celebrated, affair in which these accusations of secret and obscene ceremonies were brought to bear, was that of the trial and dissolution of the order of the knights templars. The charges against the knights templars were...
Shelah Na Gigs : SHELAH-NA-GIGS It is a singular fact that in Ireland it was the female organ which was shown in this position of protector upon the churches, and the elaborate though rude manner in which these figures were sculptured, show that they were considered as objects of great importance. They represented...
Midsummer Night : MIDSUMMER NIGHT The eve of St. John was in popular superstition one of the most important days of the medival year. The need-fire--or the St. John's fire, as it was called--was kindled just at midnight, the moment when the solstice was supposed to take place, and the young people of both sexes...
Other Festivals : OTHER FESTIVALS Besides these great and general priapic festivals, there were doubtless others of less importance, or more local in their character, which degenerated in aftertimes into mere local ceremonies and festivities. This would be the case especially in cities and corporate towns, where...
The 'fig : THE 'FIG' There was another, and less openly apparent, form of the phallus, which has lasted as an amulet during almost innumerable ages. The ancients had two forms of what antiquaries have named the phallic hand, one in which the middle finger was extended at length, and the thumb and other...
Title Page : THE WORSHIP OF THE GENERATIVE POWERS: DURING THE MIDDLE AGES OF WESTERN EUROPE BY THOMAS WRIGHT Assisted By J. E. Tennent And George Witt London, J. C. Hotten [1865] Scanned And Proofed By Eliza Fegely At Sacredspiral.com, July 2003. Additional Proofing And Formatting To HTML , By J.B. Hare, July...
Mediaeval Secret Societies : MEDIAEVAL SECRET SOCIETIES The leaden tokens, or medalets, which we have already described, 71 seem to point evidently to the existence in the middle ages of secret societies or clubs connected with this obscene worship, besides the public festivals. Of these it can hardly be expected that any...