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[Under Construction]

Lecture for April 12, 2006

Religious Studies 101

Bring: bowl, candle, matches

Chapter 3 – Mircea Eliade re: The Sacredness of Nature

  1. We will look at nature through the eyes of tribal peoples (anthropology).
    1. From where did nature come?
      1. The hands of the gods
  2. Therefore, nature is impregnated with sacredness.
  3. Therefore, earth and the heavens are not "a chaos"; instead they have structure built in by the gods who created all things.
  4. Therefore, creation is transparent
    1. The sky>reveals infinite distance, the transcendence of the deity
    2. The earth>reveals a universal, nurturing mother and nurse, the immanence of the deity
      1. Native Americans: Father Sky, Mother Earth, …dance…
    3. The seasons, phases of the moon, day and night (cosmic rhythms)>reveal order, harmony, permanence and fertility
    4. Therefore, nature always expresses something that transcends it—the obvious and the sacred within.
      1. Animism—everything has a soul
      2. Pantheism—God is the universe and its phenomena
      3. Celtic Christianity—The energy, power…of God is in all things; evolution is a manifestation of that power
  5. Therefore, creation is an organism
    1. Real…living…sacred
    2. St. Paul in the Christian scriptures, book of Romans, chapter 1:19-20

    "…that which may be known of God is manifest in them [nature]; for God hath showed it unto them.

    For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead;"

  6. Note: A sacred stone is not sacred because it is a stone, but because the stone is part of a sacred creation; the "beingness" of the stone manifests the sacredness and this is the true essence of the stone.
  7. The Sacred Sky (the celestial sacred)
    1. Long and thoughtful evaluation of the "celestial vault"—the sky—provokes a religious experience.
    2. Transcendence is revealed by simple awareness of infinite height.
      1. Sky gods: The Most High; Owner of the Sky; Sky Dweller, Father Sky, Heavenly Father
        1. Akposo in Togo:
          1. Uwoluwu--This personified sky is conceived of as the Supreme Being and a good God. He created everything, including the lesser gods. He bestows on men the blessings of offspring and harvest, of rain and sunshine. He has also given them fire. He is almighty and can impart all good things. Wherever a priest has set a place apart for his worship, there is the god in a special way near to men. The place of worship is a circle of stones from three to five feet in diameter, with a flat stone in the middle, "like the cromlechs of the later stone-age in England". In cases of sickness and at the end of harvest sacrifices are offered, consisting of rams, fowls, oil, meal, salt, cowry-shells, and palm-wine. The god punishes especially vampyres and persons who forswear themselves by his name. The week of the Akposos consists of five days, and the fifth day is sacred to Uwolowu. The second day is a bad day. People do not work on it, but they sacrifice to the gods, though not to Uwolowu. [http://www.giffordlectures.org/Browse.asp?PubID=TPTWON&Volume=0&Issue=0&ArticleID=7]
        2. Andaman Islanders: Ocean between India and Thailand
          1. Pulga—Dwells in the Sky; the thunder is his voice, wind is his breath, the storm is a sign of his anger; lightning punishes those who break his commandments.
      2. The sky "exists absolutely" because it is high, infinite, eternal, powerful.
      3. A religious sense of the divine transcendence is aroused by the very existence of the sky.
      4. God is not the sky (*naturism), but the creator of the sky.
        1. Naturism believes that God and nature are the same thing.
      5. God is seen to manifest his presence--an *epiphany—through certain structures of the cosmos: the sky, the atmosphere; the majesty of the celestial immensity [great size of the sky]; the terror of the storm.
  8. The Sky God Evolves
    1. After creating, he withdraws from the earth realm.
    2. He leaves a "son" or "demiurge" (subordinate deity) to finish or perfect Creation.
    3. Gradually his place is taken over by:
      1. Mythical ancestors
      2. Mother goddesses
      3. Fertility gods
    4. The Sky God becomes a remote god.
      1. The Selk’nam: Tierra del Fuego islands, southern Chile and Argentina (no extinct)
        1. "He Who Is", and dwells in the sky, finished his creation by a mythical ancestor who had been made by the high god.
        2. The high god has isolated himself from people and is indifferent to their affairs. Prayers are addressed to him only in case of sickness. He has neither images nor priests.
      2. African peoples
        1. The great celestial god plays a minor role in the religious life of the people. He is too far away or too god to need worshippers. Nevertheless he is invoked in times of calamity.
      3. The Sky God is remembered and entreated as last resort.
    5. The High God does, however, remain important to pastoral peoples (shepherding peoples) and peoples who are monotheistic.
      1. Example: The early Hebrews
        1. If peace and prosperity > abandon Yahweh (Creator) and worship local idols—Baal, Astarte
        2. In an historical catastrophe > Turned to Yahweh
  9. Who do the traditional people relate to as gods if the high god is remote?
    1. Personal experience draws them to gods that are perceived as close and full of life. Seen as having unlimited vital reserves—their fertility.
      1. Fertility gods of the bountiful earth
      2. Hierophanies
      3. Concrete religious experiences in sexuality, possession during dance/song rituals….
    2. Becoming agricultural makes the earth a focus—huge change!!!
      1. Mother goddesses and strong gods or spirits of fertility

1. more dynamic, more accessible than the Creator God

    1. Yet they knew they were unable to save them in a catastrophe; they could only reproduce and augment life.
    2. When would traditional people forsake these "gods that ensure and exalt life?" [vegetable, agricultural, cattle, human beings]
      1. In extremely critical situations
      2. When the existence of the community is at stake
    3. What did the traditional people lose when they forgot the High God?
    4. **Sacredness beyond their daily needs.
  1. What symbols were retained of the High God?
    1. What is "above" reveals the transcendent.
      1. Rituals (rites) contain celestial symbolism (sky symbolism)
        1. Rites of ascent
        2. Rites of climbing
        3. Rites of initiation
        4. Rites inducting royalty
      2. Myths contain celestial symbolism
        1. The cosmic tree
        2. The cosmic mountain
        3. The chain of arrows connecting heaven & earth
      3. Legends contain celestial symbolism
      4. The Center of the World—a place to communicate to the sky
  2. Celestial symbolism today
    1. Symbolism conveys messages to the human being even if it is no longer consciously understood.
      1. **A symbol speaks to the whole human being--body, conscious, unconscious—not only the intelligence.
      2. One student in the class journaled about the experience of viewing Gauguin’s painting. The mountain was what attracted the person. The mountain is a symbol for the High God such as, "the Heavenly Father." This connection was not made, because the attraction to the mountain came from the unconscious, which understands and speaks in symbols, e.g., our dreams.
  3. Water (aquatic) symbolism
    1. Why look at water as a religious symbol?
      1. The waters existed before the earth, for example, Genesis 1&2; "Darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters."
      2. By analyzing the religious valuing of water, we shall better understand the structure and function of symbolism.
        1. It is through symbols that the world becomes transparent; symbols are able to show the transcendent reality.
    2. Waters symbolize the pool of all the possibilities of life.
      1. They precede every form
      2. They support every creation
    3. Immersion in water symbolizes a return to the "waters of the womb"; of pre-existence; of dissolving away.
    4. Therefore, the waters represent both birth and death.
    5. Contact with water always brings new life, regeneration.
      1. Dissolution is always followed by new life.
      2. Immersion fertilizes and multiplies the potential of life.
      3. Baptism: Initiation ritual of "dying with Christ"
    6. In many traditions, heroes descend into the depths to confront marine (ocean) monsters.
      1. This is a typical initiation ordeal
      2. Sometimes dragons guard treasures
        1. The treasure = Ultimate Reality; image of the sacred
      3. Victory over the monster is equivalent to gaining immortality
      4. For the Christian, baptism (submersion in water or sprinkling with water) is a sacrament (a ritual that bestows power) because it is instituted by Jesus Christ, but it none the less repeats the initiatory ritual of the ordeal (= fight with a monster), of symbolic death and resurrection (= birth of the "new" person). [These images are not borrowed from other peoples, but arose within the Christian tradition.)
    7. Summary:
      1. Waters disintegrate and abolish forms—"wash away sins".
      2. Waters purify and make new again.
      3. Everything that is form manifests itself above the waters, by detaching from the waters.
  4. The Universality of Symbols
    1. Early Christian teachers, such as, Theophilus of Antioch and Clement of Rome, pointed to natural happenings as symbols of spiritual truths
      1. "The signs God sets before us: seasons, days, nights."
      2. "Day and night show us the resurrection; night sets, day rises; day departs, night comes."
    2. To these teachers, symbols were pregnant with messages.
      1. The symbols showed the sacred through the rhythms of nature and the heavens.
      2. To some, the Christian interpretation of the symbols indicates the highest value of the symbol as it points to the death and resurrection of Christ and salvation for all people.
    3. The symbols existed before Christianity, but new meanings were added with Christianity.
      1. The structure of the symbol (sky, water, winter, spring…) never changes, but new meanings are added as time goes by.
      2. The sacred is revealed in new ways through the old symbols.
    4. To the traditional peoples, never forget that all of nature, including the heavens, reveals the sacred, as they are created by the Sacred.
  5. Mother Earth
    1. Traditional peoples see the earth as a nurturing mother—fertility and abundance the primary characteristics.
      1. Smohalla, an American Indian prophet, Chief of the Wanapum tribe (Washington State, along the Columbia River), speaks of Mother Earth:
        1. "You ask me to plow the ground! Shall I take a knife and tear my mother’s bosom? Then when I die she will not take me to her bosom to rest. You ask me to dig for stone! Shall I dig under her skin for her bones? Then when I die, I cannot enter her body to be born again. You ask me to cut grass and make hay and sell it, and be rich like white men! But how dare I cut off my mother’s hair?" [about 1907]
        2. This speaks of the primordial image of mother earth.
        3. That human beings are born of the earth is a universally held belief.
          1. There is a "religious feeling" of belonging to a certain place, certain land. This is called the religious experience of *autochthony [au-talk-thon-ie]. It is the feeling of belonging to a place. It is a deep, deep feeling that goes beyond family and ancestors.
          2. The reason for so many wars—"This is my land, the land of my birth."
          3. The dying long to be buried in "their land."
    2. The human mother as representative of the Great Mother
      1. Customs developed as a result.
        1. Giving birth on the ground; from Australia to China, from Africa to South America
        2. For the Egyptians, "to sit on the earth" was to give birth.
        3. Every mother must put herself close to the Great Mother.
        4. The child, newborn, placed on the earth; inviting the Great Mother’s protection
        5. Partial burying in the earth meant cleansing as in baptism.
        6. Initiation may include ritual burial and rising from the grave to indicate a new status in life. Child > Adult
      2. Women were held to be one with the earth.
        1. Childbearing was a sign of the earth’s fertility
        2. The sacredness of the woman depended on the sacredness of the earth.
        3. In some religions, the earth is seen as being able to produce without the help of an impregnator.
          1. Many goddesses seen as giving birth without the help of a god.
          2. This is the mythical expression of the self-sufficiency and fertility of Mother Earth.
        4. In other religions, Father Sky and Mother Earth are co-creators. Widespread myth: From Indonesia to Micronesia and also in Asia, Africa and the two Americas.
          1. In Hinduism the bridegroom proclaims, "I am Heaven" and to the wife, "thou art Earth."
          2. Human sexual behavior was part of the sacred expression of the Sky God and Mother Earth creating all things.
  6. Symbolism of the cosmic tree
    1. Fertility is symbolic of the mystery of generation (to bring into being); of creation.
    2. For the traditional peoples, the appearance of life is the central mystery of the world.
      1. Life comes from somewhere not of this world and departs from this world to go to some mysterious beyond where it continues.
      2. To traditional peoples, death is not the end, but a transition to a different kind of life.
    3. The tree with its top in the sky [High God lives in the sky] and its roots in the earth [Mother Earth is sacred] came to symbolize the entire cosmos—a symbol of Ultimate Reality—what is truly real and sacred.
      1. Became a symbol of endless regeneration—repeated periods of barrenness (or death) and periods of fruitfulness (or life).
    4. Non-religious persons
      1. The tree is only a symbol of births and deaths, if that.
    5. To religious persons
      1. Many meanings
        1. Ideas of regeneration
        2. … of Eternal Youth
        3. … of Health
        4. … of immortality
        5. … of wisdom
    6. Mythology
      1. Contains many stories in many languages of the tree and its "golden" fruit or some kind of unusual fruit. May have to slay a monster to get to the tree. [Another image of initiation.]
      2. Symbolic as a search for immortality
    7. Vegetation cults
      1. First comes the re-creation by the Gods, then the sign of that re-creation which is Spring. To these traditional peoples, it is not Spring that is most important, but the re-creation by the Gods which precedes and makes possible Spring.
  7. The fairly recent experience of Nature as ordinary rather than sacred.
    1. Only in modern societies, and especially scientists.
    2. Even now, nature has a certain charm and mystery to many, and is refreshing for those who take the time to be in natural surroundings.
    3. Modern people still have an intuition of the "specialness" of nature.
    4. Example from China: Text pgs. 152-155
  8. Other symbols that open to sacred reality for traditional peoples.
    1. The moon—a lunar symbol
      1. Birth, becoming, death, resurrection
      2. If true for the moon, then true for the human.
      3. Ideas of cycle—death is not final, always followed by new birth
    2. The sun—a solar symbol
      1. Light fights darkness
      2. The sun goes into darkness and emerges victorious.
      3. The darkness coming to mean the Ultimate Adversary—an opposition to light
      4. In some societies, light is a symbol of intelligence.
  9. Summary:
    1. Nature is sacred because it is created by the gods.
    2. Aspects of nature become symbols that open to deeper truths.
      1. The sacred sky—infinity, the divine
      2. Mother Earth—fertility, life, abundance
      3. Water—purifies, reshapes, renews
      4. The cosmic Tree—the cosmos, the unity of heaven and earth
      5. The moon—birth, becoming, death, resurrection
      6. The sun—light opposed by darkness, good opposed by evil
    3. Even today, nature is felt to be special.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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