Lingam

(Sk., “sign,” “symbol,” “mark”). A sign or symbol of abstract creation. Force becomes the organ of procreation only on this earth. In India there are twelve great Lingams of Shiva, some of which are found on mountains and rocks, and also in temples. Such is the Kedara or Kedaresa in the Himalayas, a huge and shapeless mass of rock. In its origin the Lingam never had the gross meaning connected with the phallus, an idea which is altogether of a later date. The symbol has the same meaning in India that it had in Egypt, which is simply that the creative or procreative Force is divine. It also denotes the dual Creator — male and female, Shiva and his Shakti. The gross and immodest idea connected with the phallus is not Indian but Greek and pre-eminently Jewish. The Biblical Bethels were real priapic stones, the “Beth-el” (phallus) wherein God dwells. The same symbol was concealed within the Ark of the Covenant, the “Holy of Holies.” Therefore, the Lingam, even as a phallus, is not a symbol of Shiva only, but of every Creator or creative god in every nation, including the Israelites and their God of Abraham and Jacob.