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CHAPTER XXII.
THE HOLY GHOST OF ORIENTAL ORIGIN
OF all the weird, fanciful, and fabulous stories appertaining to the
Gods and other spiritual entities of the olden times, whose capricious
adventures we find so profusely narrated in oriental mythology—of all
the strange, mythical and mystical feats, and ever-varying and
ever-diverging changes in the shape, appearance, sex, and modes of
manifestation which characterize the hobgoblins or ghostly beings which
comprise the esoteric stock of the ancient mysteries, that appertaining
to the third member of "the hypostatic union," the Holy Ghost, seems to
stand pre-eminent. And I propose here to submit the facts to show that
the Holy Ghost story of the Christian Gospels, like the more ancient
pagan versions of the same story, is marked by the same wild, discordant
and legendary characteristics which abound in all the accounts of gods
and ghosts found recorded in the religious books of various nations.
The following brief exposition of the history and exploits of this
anomalous, nondescript, chameleon-like being will clearly evince that
the same fanciful, metaphorical and fabulous changes in the size, shape,
sex and appearance of this third limb of the triune God are found in the
Christian Scriptures which are disclosed in the more ancient oriental
traditions.
We will first exhibit a classification of the names and characteristics
of this imaginary being drawn from the gospels
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and epistles of the Christian bible, by which it will be observed that
scarcely any two references to it agree in assigning it the same
character or attributes.
1. In John xiv. 26, the Holy Ghost is spoken of as a person or personal
God.
2. In Luke iii. 22, the Holy Ghost changes, and assumes the form of a
dove.
3. In Matt. xiii. 16, the Holy Ghost becomes a spirit.
4. In John i. 32, the Holy Ghost is presented as an inanimate, senseless
object.
5. In John v. 7, the Holy Ghost becomes a God—the third member of the
Trinity.
6. In Acts ii. 1, the Holy Ghost is averred to be "a mighty, rushing
wind."
7. In Acts x. 38, the Holy Ghost, we infer, from its mode of
application, is an ointment.
8. In John xx. 22, the Holy Ghost is the breath, as we legitimately
infer by its being breathed into the mouth of the recipient after the
ancient oriental custom.
9. In Acts ii. 3, we learn the Holy Ghost "sat upon each of them,"
probably in the form of a bird, as at Jesus' baptism.
10. In Acts ii. 3, the Holy Ghost appears as "cloven tongues of fire."
11. In Luke ii. 26, the Holy Ghost is the author of a revelation or
inspiration.
12. In Acts viii. 17, the Holy Ghost is a magnetic aura imparted by the
"laying on of hands."
13. In Mark i. 8, the Holy Ghost is a medium or element for baptism.
14. In Acts xxviii. 25, the Holy Ghost appears with vocal organs, and
speaks.
15. In Heb. vi. 4, the Holy Ghost is dealt out or imparted by measure.
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16. In Luke iii. 22, the Holy Ghost appears with a tangible body.
17. In Luke i, 5, and many other texts, we are taught people are filled
with the Holy Ghost.
18. In Matt. xi. 15, the Holy Ghost falls upon the people as a
ponderable substance.
19. In Luke iv. 1, the Holy Ghost is a God within a God—"Jesus being
full of the Holy Ghost."
20. In Acts xxi. 11, the Holy Ghost is a being of the masculine or
feminine gender—"Thus saith the Holy Ghost," etc.
21. In John i. 32, the Holy Ghost is of the neuter gender—"It (the Holy
Ghost) abode upon him."
22. In Matt. i. 18, the Holy Ghost becomes a vicarious agent in the
procreation of another God; that is, this third member of the Trinity
aids the first member (the Father) in the creation or generation of the
second member of the trinity of bachelor Gods—the Word, or Savior, or
Son of God.
Such are the ever-shifting scenes presented in the Scripture panorama of
the Holy Ghost. Surpassing the fabulous changes of some of the more
ancient demigods, the Christian Holy Ghost undergoes (as is shown by the
above-quoted texts) a perpetual metathesis or metamorphosis—being
variously presented on different occasions as a personal and rational
being, a dove, a spirit, an inanimate object, a God, the wind or a wind,
an ointment, the breath or a breath, cloven tongue of fire, a bird, or
some other flying recumbent animal, a revelator or divine messenger, a
medium or element for baptism, an intelligent, speaking being, a
lifeless, bodiless, sexless being, a measurable fluid substance, a being
possessing a body, ponderable, unconscious substance, a God dwelling
within a God, and, finally—though really first in order—the author or
agent of the incarnation of the second God in the Trinity (Jesus
Christ).
p. 168
[paragraph continues] That many of these fabulous conceptions were drawn
from mythological sources will be made manifest by the following facts
of history:—
1. The Holy Ghost in the shape of a bird, a dove or a pigeon. This is
proven to be a very ancient pagan tradition, as it is found incorporated
in several of the oriental religious systems. In ancient India, whose
prolific spiritual fancies constitute the primary parentage of nearly
all the doctrines, dogmas and superstitions found incorporated in the
Christian Scriptures, a dove was uniformly the emblem of the Holy
Spirit, or Spirit of God. Confirmatory of this statement, we find the
declaration in the Anacalypsis, that a "dove stood for or represented a
third member of the Trinity, and was the regenerator or regeneratory
power." This meets the Christian idea of "regeneration and renewing of
the Holy Ghost." (Titus iii. 5.) A person being baptized under the
Brahminical theocracy was said to be "regenerated and born again," or,
as the above-quoted writer expresses it, "They were born into the
spirit, or the spirit into them—that is, the "dove into or upon them,"
(As vide the case of the Christian's "Holy Ghost descending in bodily
shape like a dove," and alighting on Christ's head at baptism, as
related in Luke iii. 22.) In ancient Rome a dove or pigeon was the
emblem of the female procreative energy, and frequently a legendary
spirit, the accompaniment of Venus. And hence, as a writer remarks, "it
is very appropriately represented as descending at baptism in the
character of the third member of the Trinity." The same writer tells us,
"The dove fills the Grecian oracles with their spirit and power." We
find the dove, also, in the romantic eclogues of ancient Syria. In the
time-chiseled Syrian temple of Hierapolis, Semiramis is represented with
a dove on her head, thus constituting the prototype of the dove on the
head of the Christian Messiah at baptism. And a dove was in more than
one of the
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ancient religious systems—"The Spirit of God (Holy Ghost) moving on the
face of the waters" at creation, as implied in Gen. i. 2, though a
pigeon, was often indiscriminately substituted. In Howe's "Ancient
Mysteries" it is related that "in St. Paul's Cathedral, at the feast of
Whitsuntide, the descent of the Holy Ghost was performed by a white
pigeon being let fly out of a hole in the midst of the roof of the great
aisle." The dove and the pigeon, being but slight variations of the same
species of the feathered tribe, were used indiscriminately.
2. As evinced above, the Holy Ghost was the third member of the Trinity
in several of the oriental systems. Father, Son and Holy Ghost, or
Father, Word and Holy Ghost (1 John v. 7), are familiar Christian terms
to express the divine triad, which shows the Holy Ghost to be the
acknowledged third member of the Christian Trinity And, as already
suggested, the same is true of the more ancient systems. "The Holy
Spirit and the Evil Spirit were, each in their turn (says Mr. Higgins),
third member of the Trinity." We might, if space would allow, draw
largely upon the ancient defunct systems in proof of this statement. "In
these triads (says Mr. Hillell) the third member, as might be supposed,
was not of equal rank with the other two." And hence, in the Theban
Trinity, Khonso was inferior to Arion and Mant. In the Hindoo triad,
Siva was subordinate to Brahma and Vishnu. And a score of similar
examples might be adduced from the fancy-constructed trinities of other
and older oriental religious systems (but for the inflexible rule of
brevity which forbids their presentation here), with all of which the
more modern Holy Ghost conception of the Christian world is an exact
correspondence, as this imaginary, fabulous being is less conspicuous
than and has always stood third in rank with the Father and second to
the Son, alias the Word, and is now seldom addressed in practical
Christian devotion; and
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thus the analogy is complete. Mr. Maurice says, "This notion of a third
person in the Deity (the Holy Ghost) was diffused among all the nations
of the earth." See Ind. Antiq. vol. iv. p. 750.) And Mr. Worseley, in
his "Voyage" (vol. i. p. 259), avers this doctrine to be "of very great
antiquity, and generally received by all the Gothic and Celtic nations."
3. The Holy Ghost was the Holy Breath which, in the Hindoo traditions,
moved on the face of the waters at creation, and imparted life and
vitality into everything created. A similar conception is recognized in
the Christian Scriptures. In Psalms xxxiii. 6, we read, "By the Word of
the Lord were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath
of his mouth." Here is the Brahminical conception, square out, of the
act of creation by the Divine Breath, which is the Holy Ghost, the same,
also, which was breathed into Adam, by which he became "a living soul."
M. Dubois observes, "The Prana, or principle of life, of the Hindoos is
the breath of life by which the Creator (Brahma) animates the clay, and
man became a living soul." (Page 293.)
4. Holy Ghost, Holy Breath and Holy Wind appear to have been synonymous
and convertible terms for the living vocal emanations from the mouth of
the Supreme God, as memorialized in several of the pagan traditions. The
last term (Holy Wind) is suggested by "the mighty rushing wind from
heaven" which filled the house, or church, on the day of Pentecost. (See
Acts ii. 2.) Several of the old religious systems recognize "the Holy
Wind" as a term for the Holy Ghost. The doxology (reported by a
missionary) in the religious service of the Syrian worship runs thus:—
"Praise to the Holy Spiritual Wind, which is the Holy Ghost;
Praise to the three persons which are one true God."
Some writers maintain that the Hebrew Ruh Aliem,
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translated "Spirit of God" (Gen. i. 2) in our version, should read,
"Wind of the Gods." And we find that the word pneuma, of our Greek New
Testament, is sometimes translated "Ghost" and sometimes "Wind," as best
suited the fancy of the translators. In John iii. 5, we find the word
Spirit, and in verse eight both Wind and Spirit are found. and in Luke i.
35, we observe the term Holy Ghost—all translated from the same word.
Let it be specially noted that in the Greek Testament the word pneuma is
used in all these cases, thus proving that Spirit, Holy Ghost and Wind
are used in the Christian Scriptures as synonymous terms; and proving,
also, that an unwarranted license has been assumed by translators in
rendering the same word three different ways. M. Auvaroff, in his
"Essays on the Eleusinian Mysteries," speaks of "the torch being ignited
at the command of Hermes of Egypt, the spiritual agent in the workshop
of creation;" relative to which statement a writer remarks, "Hermes
appears in this instance as a personification of Wind or Spirit, as in
the bible (meaning the Christian bible), God, Wind and Spirit are often
interchangeable terms, and the Word appears to be from the same windy
source."
5. The Holy Ghost as "a tongue of fire, which sat upon each of them"
(the apostles). (See Acts. ii. 3.) Even this conception is an
orientalism. Mr. Higgins tells us that "Budha, an incarnate God of the
Hindoos (three thousand years ago), is often seen with a glory or tongue
of fire upon his head." And the tradition of the visible manifestation
of the Holy Ghost by fire was prevalent among the ancient Budhists,
Celts, Druids and Etrurians. In fact, as our, author truly remarks, "The
Holy Ghost, or Holy Spirit, when visible, was always in the form of fire
(or a bird), and was always accompanied with wisdom and power." Hence,
is disclosed the origin of the ancient custom amongst the Hindoos,
Persians and Chaldeans, of making
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offerings to the solar fire, emblem of the Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit.
6. Inspiration by the Holy Ghost. (Luke ii. 26.) "Holy men of God,"
including some of the prophets, are claimed to have been inspired by the
Holy Ghost. (See 2 Peter i. 21; Acts xxviii. 25.) In like manner, as we
are informed by Mr. Cleland in his "Specimens" (see Appendix, the
ancient Celts were not only "moved by the Holy Ghost" in their divine
decrees and prophetic utterances, but they claimed that their Salic laws
(seventy-two in number) were inspired by the "Salo Ghost" (Holy Ghost),
known also as "the Wisdom of the Spirit, or the Voice of the Spirit."
This author several times alludes to the fact, and exhibits the proof,
that the doctrine of the Holy Ghost was known to this ancient people.
7. The Holy Ghost imparted by "the laying on of hands." This, too, is an
ancient oriental custom. "And by the imposition of hands on the head of
the candidate," says Mr. Cleland, speaking of the Celts, "the Holy
Ghost, or Holy Spirit, was conveyed." And thus was the Holy Spirit,
Ghost, Gas, Wind, Electrical Fire or Spirit of Authority imparted to the
hierophant or gospel novitiate. "And their public assemblies" continues
our author, "were always opened by an invocation to the Holy Ghost."
8. Baptism by or into the Holy Ghost accompanied with fire. (Matt. iii.
ii.) This rite, too, is traceable to a very ancient period, and was
practiced by several of the old symbolical and mythological systems. The
Tuscans, or Etrurians, baptized with fire, wind (ghost) and water.
Baptism into the first member of the Trinity (the Father) was with fire;
baptism into the second member of the Trinity (the Word) was with water;
while baptism into the third member of the Trinity (the Holy Ghost, or
Holy Spirit) consisted of the initiatory spiritual or symbolical
application of gas, gust, ghost, wind, or spirit. It appears from
"Herbert's
p. 173
[paragraph continues] Travels," that, in "ancient countries, the child
was taken to the priest, who named him (christened him) before the
sacred fire;" after which ceremony he was sprinkled with "holy water"
from a vessel made of the sacred tree known as "The Holme."
9. The Holy Ghost imparted by breathing. (See John xx. 22). "Sometimes,"
says Mr. Higgins, relative to this custom among the ancient heathen,
"the priest blew his breath upon the child, which was then considered
baptized by air, spiritus sanctus, or ghost—i.e., baptism by the Holy
Ghost." In case of baptism, a portion of the Holy Ghost was supposed to
be transferred from the priest to the candidate. "The practice of
breathing in or upon," says our author, "was quite common among the
ancient heathen."
10. The Holy Ghost as the agent in divine conception, or the procreation
of other Gods. Jesus is said to have been conceived by the Holy Ghost
(see Matt. i. 18), and we find similar claims instituted still more
anciently for other incarnate demigods. In the Mexican Trinity, Y, Zona
was the father, Bacal the Word, and Echvah the Holy Ghost, by the last
of whom Chimalman conceived and brought forth the enfleshed God
Quexalcote. (See Mex. Ant., vol. vi. p. 1650.) In the Hindoo mythos,
Sakia was conceived by the Holy Ghost Nara-an.
Other cases might be cited, proving the same point.
Thus, we observe that the various heterogeneous conceptions, discordant
traditions, and contradictory superstitions appertaining to that
anomalous nondescript being known as the Holy Ghost, are traceable to
various oriental countries, and to a very remote antiquity.
We will only occupy space with one or two more historical citations of a
general nature, tending to prove the prevalence of this ghostly myth in
other countries, not yet cited. "Tell me, O thou strong in fire!"
ejaculated Sesostris of Egypt, to the oracle, as reported by Manetho,
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[paragraph continues] "who before me could subjugate all things, and who
shall after me?" But the oracle rebuked him, saying, "First God, then
the Word, and with them the Spirit." (See Nimrod, vol. i. p. 119.) "And
Plutarch, in his 'Life of Numa,'" says our oft-quoted author, "shows
that the incarnation of the Holy Spirit was known both to the ancient
Romans and Egyptians."
The doctrine is thus shown to have been nearly universal.
ORIGIN OF THE HOLY GHOST SUPERSTITION
The origin of the tradition respecting this fabulous and mythical being
is easily traced to the ancient Brahminical trifold conception of the
Deity, in which stands, in Trinity order, first, the God of power or
might—Brahma or Brahm (the Father); second, the God of creation—the
Word—answering to John's creative Word (see John i. 3); and third the
God of generation and regeneration—the Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost. The
last member of the triune conception of the Deity was considered, under
the Brahminical theocracy, the living, vital, active, life-imparting
agent in both the first and second births of men and the gods.
It will be borne in mind by the reader that the Holy Ghost is
represented in the Christian Scripture as being the active generating
agent of Christ's conception, he being, as Matthew declares, "conceived
by the Holy Ghost." The Holy Ghost was also the regenerating agent at
his baptism. Although the specific object of the descent of the Holy
Ghost on that occasion is not stated by Luke, who relates it; although
it is not stated for what purpose the Holy Spirit, after assuming the
form of a bird, alighted and sat upon his head, yet the motive is fully
disclosed in the older mythical religions, where we find the matter in
fuller detail.
Baptism itself is claimed by all its Christian votaries as
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regenerating or imparting a new spiritual life; and this new spiritual
life was believed by several nations, as before stated, to make its
appearance in the character and shape of a bird—sometimes a pigeon,
sometimes a dove; and thus the origin of this tradition is most clearly
and unmistakably exposed.
As the foregoing historical exposition exhibits the Holy Ghost as
performing several distinct and discordant offices, so we likewise find
it possessing at least two distinct genders, the masculine and neuter,
i.e., no gender—changing, ghost-like, from one to the other, as occasion
seemed to require.
From all these metamorphoses it is shown and demonstrated that the
sexual and other changes of this "mysterious" being equal many of the
demigods of mythology. The primary windy conception of the Holy Ghost is
traceable to that early period of society when the rude and untutored
denizens of the earth, in their profound ignorance of natural causes,
were very easily and naturally led into the belief that wherever there
was motion there was a God, or the active manifestation of a God,
whether it was in the wind, breath, water, fire, or the sun.
Hence, the Buddhists had their god Vasus, who manifested himself
variously in the shape or character of fire, wind, storms, gas, ghosts,
gusts, and the breath, thus constituting a very nearly-allied
counterpart to the Christian Holy Ghost, which Mr. Parkhurst tells us
originally meant "air in motion." This god was believed to have sprung
from the supreme, primordial God, which the ancient Brahmins and
Buddhists generally believed was constituted of a fine, spiritual
substance,—aura, anima, wind, ether, igneous fluid, or electrical fire,
i.e., fire from the sun, giving rise to "baptism by fire;" and hence,
the third God, or third member of the Trinity, subsequently arising out
of this compound being, was also necessarily composed of or
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consisted of the same properties—all of which were believed to be
correlated, if not identical.
Such is a complete, though brief, historical elucidation of that
mysterious, imaginary being so corporally intangible that Faustus, of
the third century, declared respecting it, "The Holy Spirit, the third
majesty, has the air for his residence." And it is a fabulous God whose
scriptural biography is invested with so many ludicrous and abstruse
incidents as to incite several hundred Christian writers to labor hard
with a "godly zeal," by a reconstruction of "God's Word" and a
rehabiliment of the ghostly texts to effect some kind of a
reconciliation of the story with reason and common sense—with what
success the reader is left to judge.
THE UNPARDONABLE SIN AGAINST THE HOLY GHOST
Before dismissing our ghostly narrative, it may effect something in the
way of mitigating the anxious fears of some of our Christian brothers
and sisters to explain the nature of "the sin against the Holy Ghost,"
and assign the reason for its being unpardonable. The sin against the
Holy Ghost consisted, according to the ancient Mexican traditions, in
resisting its operations in the second birth—that is, the regeneration
of the heart or soul by the Holy Ghost. And as the rectification of the
heart or soul was a prominent idea with Christ, there is scarcely any
ground to doubt but that this was the notion he cherished of the nature
of the sin against the Holy Ghost. And it was considered unpardonable,
simply because as the pardoning and cleansing process consisted in, or
was at least always accompanied with baptism by water, in which
operation the Holy Ghost was the agent in effecting a "new birth,"
therefore, when the ministrations or operations of this indispensable
agent were resisted or rejected, there was no channel, no means, no
possible mode left for the sinner to
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find a renewed acceptance with God. When a person sinned against the
Father or the Word (the Son), he could find a door of forgiveness
through the baptizing processes, spiritual or elementary, of the Holy
Ghost, But an offense committed against this third limb of the Godhead
had the effect to close and bar the door so that there could be "no
forgiveness, either in this life or that which is to come." To sin
against the Holy Ghost was to tear down the scaffold by which the door
of heaven was to be reached.
And thus it is explained the great "mystery of godliness," the
"unpardonable sin against the Holy Ghost," which, on account of the
frightful penalty annexed to it, while it is impossible to learn what it
consists in—it being undefined and undefinable—has caused thousands, and
probably millions, of the disciples of the Christian faith the most
agonizing hours of alarm and despair.
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