Phallic Worship

Phallic Worship, a general term for the rites in which the male organ of generation figures as a magical or religious emblem. These writes, which stiil claim many followers in India/ probably had their origin among races of low culture, who hoped by their means to induce fruitfulness among their flocks and herds and fertility in their cultivated lands. The phallus, the emblem of these rites, took many shapes, as a rude stone, a pine cone, a pillar, etc. The jews borrowed these rites from their heathen neighbours, and their women made phallic emblems of gold and of silver (Ezek. xvi. 17). Wastropp and Wake note three phases in the representation of this emblem: (1) when it was an object of reverence; (2) when it was used as a protection against the evil eye, as it is in Italy at the present day; (3) when it was used as an emblem of licentiousness. Tylor classes phallic worship with stock-and-stone worship generally, there being no doubt that the first symbols of the gods were unhewn stones, some of which were reverenced long after idols - that is, figures - had become common.