CROSS.  No symbol was so universally diffused at an early period as the cross.  It was, says Faber (Cabir. ii. 390), a symbol throughout the pagan world long previous to its becoming an object of veneration to Christians.  In ancient symbology it was a symbol of eternal life.  M. de Mortillet, who in 1866 published a work entitled “Le Signe de la Croix avant le Christianisme,” found in the very earliest epochs three principal symbols of universal occurrences; viz., the circle, the pyramid, and the cross.  Leslie (Man’s Origin and Destiny, p. 312), quoting from him in reference to the ancient worship of the cross, says “It seems to have been a worship of such a peculiar nature as to exclude the worship of idols.”  This sacredness of the crucial symbol may be one reason why its form was often adopted, especially by the Celts in the construction of their temples, though I have admitted in the text the commonly received opinion that in cross-shaped temples the four limbs of the cross referred to the four elements.  But in a very interesting work lately published—­“The Myths of the New World” (N.Y., 1863)—­Mr. Brinton assigns another symbolism.  “The symbol,” says this writer, “that beyond all others has fascinated the human mind, THE CROSS, finds here its source and meaning.  Scholars have pointed out its sacredness in many natural religions, and have reverently accepted it as a mystery, or offered scores of conflicting, and often debasing, interpretations. It is but another symbol of the four cardinal points, the four winds of heaven. This will luminously appear by a study of its use and meaning in America.” (p. 95.) And Mr. Brinton gives many instances of the religious use of the cross by several of the aboriginal tribes of this continent, where the allusion, it must be confessed, seems evidently to be to the four cardinal points, or the four winds, or four spirits, of the earth.  If this be so, and if it is probable that a similar reference was adopted by the Celtic and other ancient peoples, then we would have in the cruciform temple as much a symbolism of the world, of which the four cardinal points constitute the boundaries, as we have in the square, the cubical, and the circular.

CTEIS.  A representation of the female generative organ.  It was, as a symbol, always accompanied by the phallus, and, like that symbol, was extensively venerated by the nations of antiquity.  It was a symbol of the prolific powers of nature.  See Phallus.

CUBE.  A geometrical figure, consisting of six equal sides and six equal angles.  It is the square solidified, and was among the ancients a symbol of truth.  The same symbolism is recognized in Freemasonry.

D

DARKNESS.  It denotes falsehood and ignorance, and was a very universal symbol among the nations of antiquity.

In all the ancient initiations, the aspirant was placed in darkness for a period differing in each,—­among the Druids for three days, among the Greeks for twenty-seven, and in the Mysteries of Mithras for fifty.