indispensable." This emblem, as we have seen, was the symbol of
the Great Mother, and we are assured that it was "little less
sacred than the Queen of Heaven herself."
Regarding the lotus and its universal significance as a religious
emblem, Payne Knight says:
"The lotus is the Nelumbo of Linnaeus. This plant grows in the
water, and amongst its broad leaves puts forth a flower, in the
center of which is formed the seed vessel, shaped like a bell or
inverted cone, and punctured on the top with little cavities or
cells, in which the seeds grow. The orifices of these cells
being too small to let the seeds drop out when ripe, they shoot
forth into new plants, in the places where they were formed, the
bulb of the vessel serving as a matrix to nourish them until they
acquire such a degree of magnitude as to burst it open and
release themselves, after which, like other aquatic weeds, they
take root wherever the current deposits them. This plant,
therefore, being thus productive of itself, and vegetating from
its own matrix, without being fostered in the earth, was
naturally adopted as the symbol of the productive power of the
waters, upon which the creative spirit of the Creator operated in
giving life and vegetation to matter. We accordingly find it
employed in every part of the Northern hemisphere, where the
symbolical religion improperly called idolatry does or did
prevail. The sacred images of the Tartars, Japanese, and Indians
are almost all placed upon it, of which numerous instances occur
in the publication of Kaempfer, Sonnerat, etc: The Brama of India
is represented sitting upon a lotus throne, and the figures upon
the Isaic table hold the stem of this plant, surmounted by the
seed vessel in one hand, and the cross representing the male
organs in the other: thus signifying the universal power, both
active and passive, attributed to that goddess."[19]
[19] Symbolism of Ancient Art.
The lotus is the most sacred and the most significant symbol
connected with the sacred mysteries of the East. Upon this
subject, Maurice observes that there is no plant which has
received such a degree of honor as has the lotus. It was the
consecrated symbol of the Great Mother who had brought forth the
fecundative energies, female and male. Not only throughout the
Northern hemisphere was it everywhere held in profound
