Nature Worship. An Account of Phallic Faiths & Practices, Ancient and Modern; Including the Adoration of the Male and Female Powers in Various Nations and the Sacti Puja of Indian Gnosticism.
London: Privately Printed. 1891. First Edition Thus. Hardcover. Small octavo. (iv) + 106pp.(+iipp blanks). White parchment covered boards with red illustration and lettering, beveled edges. Frontispiece. One of an unstated but apparently small limited printing. The book is identical to those of the privately & anonymously published "Nature Worship and Mystical Series" on phallic worship but was apparently separate to them. According to the Preface it is basically a greatly revised and enlarged edition of the first work in the series, "Phallicism" ["Phallism"] which had recently sold out. The series is anonymous but is genereally believed to have been authored by Hargrave Jennings (1817-1890) a British Freemason, Rosicrucian, and student of comparative religion. Jennings was best known for his writing on the subject of phallism (phallicism - phallic worship) and its place in the origin of all religions. The anonymity of this series would have been necessary because the subject matter of the work was considered much too controversial for public release at the time. Jennings was also the author of 'Phallicism, Celestial and Terrestrial', 'The Rosicrucians: Their Rites and Mysteries ' among others. Both the binding and paper stock of the books in this series are notoriously fragile - the present volume is in unusually good condition. It was previously in a Masonic library, and has a shelf number neatly lettered at the base of the spine, and two neat, period bookplates on the front pastedown. No other library markings. The white boards are darkened at the edges, margins and spine (as common), and there is a little rubbing and darkening to the boards, bottom corners bruised. Endpapers unevenly browned, small sliver torn from top edge of final blank. Were it not for the shelf mark on the spine it would rate as a solid, VG+ copy. Item #69645
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