The Ganga, moon and snakes are fertility symbols, and associated with fertility rituals in Hinduism. Shiva is depicted with River Ganges and moon on his head. In Hinduism, Lingam is the most powerful fertility symbol, showing the critical union of Shiva and Shakti. The deity presides over childbirth and agriculture. In Ancient Rome, the custom was for the groom to break a cakes over the bride's head to symbolize the end of the bride's virginal state, ensure fertility, and the beginning of her husband's power over her.įertility symbols were used by Native Americans, the most common being a supernatural figure called Kokopelli, a fertility deity usually depicted as a hunchback, dancing flute player carrying a sack also shown with a large phallus. Wedding cakes are a form of fertility symbols. Fertility symbols įertility symbols were generally considered to have been used since Prehistoric times for encouraging fertility in women, although it is also used to show creation in some cultures. Some have noted the apparent similarity of the Black Stone and its silver frame to the external female genitalia. Circumambulation was often performed naked by male and sometimes female pilgrims, and worship associated with fertility goddesses. Īccording to Ibn Ishaq, the Kaaba was formerly worshipped as a female deity. The sacrifice included cooking a kid in the milk of its mother, a Canaanite custom which Mosaic law condemned and formally forbade. In Ancient Phoenicia, a special sacrifice was conducted in the harvest season to reawaken the spirit of the vine while another winter fertility rite was performed to restore the spirit of the withering vine.

Because of his link to the grape harvest, however, it is not surprising to see Dionysus associated with Demeter and Kore in the Eleusinian Mysteries. Most women's festivals related in some way to woman's proper function as a fertile being (believed to allow women to promote the fertility of crops). Her rites included celebrating the change of seasons. ĭemeter was the central deity in fertility rites held in classical Greece. They may include sacrifices of animals and at times humans. Erotic pastry from Portugal claimed to have originated with Celtic fertility ritesįertility rites are religious rituals that reenact sexual acts actually or symbolically.

Fertility rites by K.R. Brown