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Primal Religions & The Goddess

PHIL 220 Week 22: Primal Religions, The Goddess & The Axial Age

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Black Elk Homework Questions

Please get in groups of 3-5 people and go over these questions. Comment on anything that surprised, delighted or annoyed you!

1.Black Elk makes an ‘offering of the pipe,’ first to the four directions he identifies as spirits, then says ‘but these four spirits are only One Spirit after all.” Which ‘–ism’ does this sound most like to you?

2.He also identifies the sky and earth using gendered language—are there any other faiths or belief systems that gender them the same way? What are they?

3.The story about the two scouts and the sacred women teaches us a lesson about how we should approach the sacred—what is it?

4.Black Elk talks about the Wasichus wanting to make the Lakota and animals live on ‘islands’—what is he describing? Where do many American Indians still live?

5.Black Elk discusses the ‘summer he first heard the sacred voices’ calling to him. What religious orientation is it when a person ‘hears a voice’ and then tells the others around him/her what the voice said? Outside of religious orientations, how does modern western society generally view people who talk about hearing ‘sacred voices?”

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Primal religions developed in paleolithic (c.30,000 BCE) and neolithic (c. 10,000 BCE) times.

Paleolithic people were nomadic hunter-gatherers living in small bands. What would their primary concerns be?

Neolithic people transitioned from hunter-gatherers to settled agriculturalists. What would their concerns be?

What kind of art would the two eras of people generate?

How did the hunter-gatherers and early agriculturalists transmit their culture?

We can call primal or basic religions ‘oral.’

Primal Religions

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Oral People

Oral peoples often have prodigious memories, but no written records.

Their stories tend to be mythic accounts of creation, the rise of their culture, and where their time will end.

All cultures have been oral, but peoples that develop writing change their cultures, because writing starts to change relationships:

official, personal ,religious, economic.

Education becomes more reflective.

Australian Aborigines, African Child’s Circle, Native American dancer

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Primal Religion: Embedded in Place

When the Australian Kurnai go on walkabout specific, concrete items interest them. The

springs, major trees and rocks are not interchangeable with others; each triggers

memories of the legendary events they were a part of.

Do you have that kind of specific connection with a piece of land?

Primal TimePrimal time is not forward-looking, as in the religions of the west, or cyclical as in the Asian

religions.

Primal time is atemporal, an ‘eternal now.’

The Hopi language gives an example: ‘past’ means closer to the gods, or beings who first made the world and ordered it…those beings continue to exist, but the past is considered the golden age, when all was perfect and right.

How would primal people view their elders?

Dreamtime of the Aborigines - Ancient Civilizations http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOWzcLuupi0 7

Dreamtime of the Aborigines

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The wisdom traditions of earth's first people, and the source for primal religious patterns.

Many of their stories have themes later found in ancient and the modern major religions.

Daily life and religion are not separate- everything a tribal person does has a religious meaning.

A Lakota Sioux saw his body as having a sacred function even when it was dead- the bones would help the grass to grow season after season.

Tribal religions support a life lived in the sacred world-- a holy life, in tune with the divine force of life or in harmony with nature and the spirit world. Why?

Tribal religions do have a notion of what is profane-- that which is not holy, not in tune with the divine force, or not in harmony with nature or the spirit world.

Very diverse

Not relics of the past, but ever changing  

Over 700 nations recognized today in the U.S. alone

Most teachings in sacred narratives, or myths

Few religions have creed or statement of belief

Creation Narratives

Creators and Sacred Power

Human Origins and Human Ancestors

Life Lessons

The Importance of Balance: Humanity and the Natural World

Sacred Places and Sacred Spaces

Sacred Language and Sacred Time

© Oxford University Press

Activity 11. Get out your Native American myth, your interpretation and an image or object you brought to help explain your myth.

2. Tell your partner your myth (try not to read it!)

3. Ask your partner what s/he thinks the myth is trying to teach and why. Compare your interpretations.

4. Switch!

5. Turn in your interpretation.

Because the world is not perfect now,

steps have to be taken to restore the

world to its original condition.

These steps are rites of renewal, which

primal

religious people ritually enact.

The annual Sun Dance of the Plains

Indians

is called, ‘The Dance for World and Life

Renewal.‘

Which religious orientation do they

have?

For a Native American, the natural and supernatural worlds are tied together by spirit power.

Spirit power is neutral, (it can be used either positively or negatively by the shaman.)

Spirit power is the source of knowledge and abilities.

Like a kind of energy-- a spiritual essence that resides in all living beings, all forms and forces of nature and all material objects. What ‘ism’ does this sound like?

When objects are inhabited by spirit power they are considered alive.

These objects can be used by shamans as sources of power to cure illness or provide protection or for harmful activities like causing disease and misfortune.

The energy of spirit power is releasedthrough prayers, songs and in dance.

Spirit power is experienced collectively by thecommunity that prays, sings and dances

together.

Have you ever been part of a community like this?

Dancers in sacred dances express their respectfor spirit beings and are vehicles fortransmitting spirit power to their communities.What religious orientation does that sound like?

The hoops are the circles of life with no beginning

and no ending. The dancer begins with one andkeeps adding and weaving the hoops intoformations that represent our journey through

life.

Each added hoop represents another thread inthe web of life.

Native American Hoop Dance by World ChampionBrian Hammill http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGzrF8LoHWs&list=PLB47AB5F1325F4310

Rites of RenewalExample: Yurok Jump Dance

Rites of Purification Example: Sweat Lodge Ceremonies

Sweat lodge

Mt. Shasta, in northern

California, is regarded

as sacred by many

tribes in the region.

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Hopi Mythology

The emergence of humanity is the starting point of Hopi mythology, the Kiva is the point where people first emerge from darkness to light.

The circle represents what the Hopi call the sipapu; the womb or the place of emergence. “We were not the first ones to come to this world.  The plants were already here; the insects, the, the animals, the birds -- were here.  The clouds were here; the lightnings were here; the stars were here.  All of these are life forms for us."            

Handout 2 Hopi: Songs of the Fourth World

Myths and Ultimate Reality

Myths contain sacred knowledge about ultimate reality and the nature of the world.

The world is believed to have been created by creator deities.

The entire world, and the many elements within it—including human beings—may be believed to be infused by the spiritual essence of a Supreme Being, or Great Spirit.

How Should We Live in This World?Myths provide the foundations for the way

people should live their lives.

Humans are one part of the general order of existence and live in a reciprocal relationship with the land, plants, and other animals.

Myths teach that it is the responsibility of humans to maintain balance, order, and right relationships with other elements of creation.

What Is Our Ultimate Purpose?

Some religions focus on humanity’s role in maintaining balance with the natural world.

Maintaining this balance can improve the human condition, and upsetting the balance can have terrible consequences.

Many Native American religions conceive of life and death to be cyclical in nature.

In some religions, the deceased transitions to the land of the dead, which may resemble this life.

The Great Goddess was the most common deity worshipped in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East for at least 30,000 years.

Later, the Goddess manifested manydifferent forms, some that shatter thestereotypes commonly associated withwomanhood.

Europe- Paleolithic GoddessesThe earliest images are from 27,000 to26,000 BCE, from areas spanning majorparts of Europe.

The goddess worshippers were tribal people

in the beginning: -20-30 people per tribe -hunter gatherers -dependent on nature -fertility was important

The Female images were probably used as

a form of ‘fertility magic’ in seasonal rights.

http://www.thearchetypalconnection.com/EROS%20.htm

Neolithic Goddesses existed in Europe, Middle

East, North Africa, and India

Neolithic images (beginning 10,000 BCE) toPaleolithic images are similar, suggesting

goddessreligion continued through the ages.

-Neolithic people were agricultural, mostly peaceful

-Practiced ‘fertility magic’

-Time of growth in power for women who were traditionally tenders of the soil and had knowledge of medicinal plants.

-Male ‘sky gods’ were worshipped, too.

- The earth itself became deified as ‘Mother Earth,’ ‘Gaia.’

When God Was a Girl | BBC Documentary | Women and Religion until 15 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ye5-_71NQhk

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Goddess Culture

Goddess worshippers were artists, peaceful. Example of Catal Huyuk, a neolithic village in Anatolia, Turkey, dating from about 7,000 BCE.

A large settlement, 5,000+ inhabitants at its peak, lasted some 1200 years, in equality, peace, and surprising levels of prosperity and comfort.

Art in the form of layered frescoes, statues, etc. was found. No weapons or surrounding walls. The settlement was near a swamp with clay.

The start of the mother goddess—the giver of life? The creator of life and death?

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Mom is Everywhere

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The Mother Goddess

Tara-- an all-embracing, compassionate and merciful mother.

An altar is a mediating place between the divine and humans.

What does Tara’s iconography reveal about her?

What kinds of offerings are made to a compassionate mother?

Other compassionate mother figures:

The Virgin Mary, The Virgin of Guadalupe

Tonatzin, Kwan Yin, Demeter, Isis, etc…

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The Great Mother Archetype

The great mother archetype is universal. An archetype is a prototype upon which others are copied, patterned, or emulated.

How do archetypes function? Jung thought there is a similarity between the 'mythological mind' and a child's mind.

Jung thought the primary, universal human experience is that of gestation in the mother, and that this view is reinforced after the birth.

A child first views her or his mother as divine, or all good.

As the child grows older the mother says ‘no’ and the child can view the mother as all bad.

The most mature view of the mother is as a mixed human being; good and bad.29

A 'mixed' goddess. Durga’siconography and meaning:

-She was created by the Hindugods to defeat the buffalo-

demon, Mahisa.

-She is a warrior goddess whohas weapons, rides alone, andrides a tiger or lion.

-She was created by godsbecause the special power of awoman was needed.

-Durga creates female warriorsto help her, such as Kali, andDurga is often pictured alone,

without a consort.

http://grrrltraveler.com/countries/asia/india-asia/varanasi/durga-puja-festival-in-varanasi/

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Hindu Deity Presentations

Choose a deity that is interesting to you: one of the Goddesses: Lakshmi (health & wealth), Sarasvati (Music, art & learning), or one of the Gods: Ganesh (remover of obstacles), Krishna (shown with his lover Radha), Shiva (destructive and erotic), Hanuman (monkey god, warrior). Form groups and look at homework handout!

Madame Pele33

Coatlicue, the Aztec goddess of the earth and duality of life and death Ix Chel The Mayan Moon Goddess

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The Axial Age (c. 700 BCE to 200 CE)

The Axial Age

During the Axial Age, civilization developed along with the faiths which continue to nourish humanity:

Rationalism in Europe (500 BCE)

Taoism and Confucianism in China (500 BCE)

Hinduism and Buddhism in the Indian subcontinent (8,000-500 BCE) Monotheism in the Middle East (2,000 BCE-570 CE)

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The Axial Age

Islam was the product of the Arabian Axial Age, which started app. 300 CE.

Social Concern, Social Conditions

Why did social concern and compassion become an essential part of the great world religions?

All pre-modern civilizations were based economically upon a surplus of agricultural produce.

Where would people go to barter surplus crops?

What other activities would be available at marketplaces?

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Pastoralists and Elites

What were the lives of those who labored in the fields to produce a surplus of food like compared to the lives of those living in the manor or castle?

-The elite depended on the labor of the pastoralists for food.

-The pastoralists could not enjoy high culture, which was only for the elite.

The new faiths stressed the importance of compassion and concern about the fundamental injustice of their society.

What were some of the injustices concerning health, wealth, literacy, and mobility?

Do we still have some of these injustices today?

Do the major world religions still emphasize compassion?