Thelema



The Book of the Law by Aleistar Crowley

This blog will explore the rich symbolic system developed chiefly by Aleistar Crowley, the religion's founder and main prophet. These images and symbols convey many of the pillars of Thelemic philosophy, including gnosticism, occult magick and Satanic worship. To do this I will be using clips from the experimental film Lucifer Rising directed by Kennith Anger, who was also a dedicated Thelemite.

THELEMIC PANTHEON

In 1904, when Aleistar Crowley began writing the religions main text Liber AL vel Legis or The Book of the Law, he believed the world was entering the Aeon of Horus, a new age in which religious expression would take on a new form. Previously the world had worshipped female fertility spirits (Aeon of Isis) and singular male gods (Aeon of Osiris), but the current Aeon is one of self-realization and actualization (Aeon of Horus).

Here we see Anger's representations of the Aeon's of Isis and Osiris. The scene begins with the materialization of the Ankh (a symbol associated with Isis and eternal life) which has been appropriated in Thelema as a symbol of the eternal life force in the physical realm. Next, we see Osiris whom carries the Crook and Flail (again, a symbol associated with Osiris and the afterlife) that symbolizes the death and the spiritual realm.

In the next clip, we witness the birth of Horus whom represents a linking of the physical and spiritual realms (Horus being the child of Isis and Osiris). The Thelemic gods together act as symbols of the gnostic cosmos. Humans exist in the physical realm (Isis) and Gods exist in the spiritual realm (Osiris) and it is knowledge/light (Horus) that enables humans to transcend the physical realm into the spiritual.

TRUE WILL

Crowley wrote that everyone has a True Will, or a divine calling, and that the only way to realize this calling was through the practice of ritual magick. Thelemites believe that they can use magick in everyday life to effect the world around them, in accordance with their will. Whether it is a mental, physical or spiritual exercise, magick is the tool that allows Thelemites to carry out their True Will.

In this clip, we see a mass ritual in which Thelemites dance and are able to invoke a spiritual Deity. They are able to physically interact with the spirit (climbing on its limbs, Deity begins picking them up with its hands). We then see a man evoking nature, causing thunderstorms and earthquakes. Common rituals also include purification, divination even sexual fulfillment. Rituals often are accompanied by symbolic tools which help Thelemic mystics control magick to their will.

This longer clip shows a slew of ritual tools, which bear symbols of Thelema.

A list in order of appearance followed by a description of significance:

1. Wand - The wand is a magic tool that can be used to command elemental spirits. (followed by the Eye of Horus, a key symbol of Thelema). [0:12-0:25]

2. Speculum - The mirror is used to see into the spirit realm or a non-adjacent physical location. (Framed by the Hexagram, a six pointed star which is prominent symbol of Thelema). [1:07-1:09]

3. The Throne - The throne is often used by overseers of rituals to observe and command mass ritual (has the Winged Sun Disc symbol associated with Horus). [1:35-1:50]

4. Spear/Sword - Used in rituals to cast circles of control over spirits (the man is also wearing a Hexagram with a 5 petal flower in the middle which symbolizes unity of the divine and the earthly) [1:57-2:06]

SATANIC WORSHIP

In accordance with Thelemic gnosticism, Thelemites believe that the physical realm was created by a demiurge, like Satan. The non-corporeal spirit whom dictated The Book of the Law to Crowley was named Aiwass and, like Satan, reins over the physical realm. The worship and communication with this spirits through ritual magick was vital in order to fulfill ones True Will.

This scene shows the Pentagram, a symbol of Satan, which is used as a cover for a portrait of Crowley. One of the men also retrieves The Book of the Law and opens it to The Book of Thoth, which discusses Satan and other devils. The illustration at the top of the page shows the copulation of Lucifer and Sin, which brings Death into existence.



This scene shows a Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram. Mystics will use incense and candles to purify the air in their circle, which has a pentagram in the center (In this case, Anger places a giant T in the middle for Thelema). Like all of Anger's films, the film's title is printed onto the back of a leather jacket and displayed by the main actor.

 

To learn more about Thelema, go to http://www.thelema101.com/

A director who's short films are well worth your time, go to http://www.kennethanger.org/

DISCLAIMER: I do not own rights to the above mentioned video material. Under fair use, I used clips from Lucifer Rising for criticism and analysis of Thelema and its precepts.

The Book of Abraham

The Book of Abraham is striking to someone who has read the bible, first because it places a firsthand account of Abraham in the hands of readers. The books of the bible which many read today are a selected works of many writers divided by millenniums of history. I guess if you were to compare the two works, one might be under the impression that the bible is a text that faced more scrutiny, editing and discussion than much of Joseph Smith’s writing. However, this merely outlines the first hurdle Joseph Smith had to overcome through this text.

By translating a first hand, authorial script from Abraham, Smith is asserting a more direct link to this figure and this time period which so many religions harken back to for legitimization. The book begins with Abrahams near death at the hands of his people, whom wished to sacrifice him to their Egyptian idols. Again, we start to see a little bit of what I call “Smith syncretism”, which is an important tool he uses to make his work appeal despite lack of a higher standard of believability. Smith, who is no slouch of a writer, takes multiple stories of the Bible, in this case he combines the story of Abraham with that of his son Issac, and is able to turn them into one cohesive event with a lot of grandeur.

Despite this, however, Smiths work remains prey to so many arguments that make this story seem less and less believable, or just fantastic enough to be believable. The time in which Abraham was alive (2000BC), was a time of sustained peace known as “The Middle Kingdom”. Needless to say, the Gods he claims the people worshipped do not match up with the history. During this time the funerary cult of Osiris dominated Egyptian religion, which would not be focused on sacrificing live people, but performing rituals aimed at conferring and helping the already deceased.

Mormonism and the Second Great Awakening

The video we watched on Wednesday portrayed Joseph Smith Jr. as  young man struggling to make sense of the world around him. The interesting way the movie presented Smith’s situation growing up, dependent on his family and others but existing comfortably in New York without much contest. Of course this movie does not mention several key problems that Smith would have faced during his young life which I think are important in order to better understand Mormonism as a faith through the facts. The movie makes no mention of the massive debt Smith’s father owed and worked most of his life to pay off and conflicts with other folk religious during the Second Great Awakening.

Living in a indebted house is not easy. Smith’s family would’ve all needed to help in order to work off his father’s debt. This is important to understand, as it wasn’t uncommon for the family to be an economic model, but this would’ve been an important problem the Smith family had to deal with. Certainly that debt would not pass away with his father’s death, and would’ve passed on to him. While considering this American life the Smiths were involved in, maybe the economic and property benefits given to them as Americans were not a major focus of theirs. For Smith, folk religion might have been an escape from the pressures of debt and land ownership. The religious fever of the Second Great Awakening certainly frames the perfect time period for such an escape to occur. However, fervor can lead to violence and the movie makes no mention of the Mormon Wars of 1838. Anti-Mormon mobs did battle with Mormon followers that left many dead over their religious idealism.

To think that the Mormon faith was born of the passive, free and carefree age in the early 1800’s is a farce. It seems like it was actually born out of tension and strife of white indebted landowning Americans, which does not in any way discredit the faith or insult its pillars. In fact, I find the more historically correct story to be much more interesting account that attests to life in the 19^th century as well as important religious movements that shaped our nation.

Spectacle in the Third Book of Nephi

The visitation of Christ to the people of Nephi is one of the most visually descriptive passages in the the book of Mormon. The people look up to the sky, and witness Jesus descending from heaven, in a white robe, speaking to the people in a voice that “shaketh them to the core”. He orders the people to feel his wounds and know that it is him. There was never a visitation of Christ in this manner to the people of Israel in the Bible after his death, and this physical appearance of him seems to cater to a 19^th and 20^th century audience as grand spectacle that would have impressed readers.

Continuing with the use of spectacle, Christ blesses 12 disciples whom he wants to go out and baptize in his name. He selects these people from the crowd, including Nephi. This makes the anointed known to the people and reinforces Nephi as their true prophet, removing all doubt. Christ then orders everyone to bow to the earth and being to pray. His words to God are unknown to the people, but they fill them with an immense sense of joy that they begin weeping and praising him afterwards.  He then performs several other miracles, including multiplication of the loafs, healing the sick and ascending to heaven in a cloud which obscures him. This would likely appeal to the previously discussed audience’s need for spectacle since it is a condensed version of Christ’s miracles into one visitation, making it all the more grand and impressive.

The use of spectacle in The Book of Mormon is fantastic, and this seems like one of the more embellished accounts of a visitation from Christ. It certainly is not aiming for subtlety. Readers get all the fireworks of the event, and are left shocked and a little bit overwhelmed. The early 18^th century saw massive religious revival during the Great Awakening, which permanently affected American religion. The forceful preaching and use of spectacle was all important in this movement, and this passage from The Book of Mormon is reflective of that grand air of exhibition.

Intertheoretical Religion

Can common religious ideas about compassion be intertheoretically reduced into a single adjective “religious compassion”? Baha’u’llah’s writing about past manifestations of God collectively teaching a single body of truths to be followed by the Baha’i faith encourages a collective evolution towards the universal compassion, justice and education. However, these past manifestations have specific contexts in which they were writing, often thousands of years apart. Compassion, then, as taught by these manifestations must be very different in many respects. The Catholic, Hebrew and Muslim teachings about compassion are unique in each religion, and just each religion establishes itself apart from others, so do their “religious compassion”.

One of the pillars in Judaism is the tikkun olam, or the duty for all Jews to help repair and perfect the world. This is an idea that by nature implies the idea that there can be a world without suffering. Thus this duty places a large burden on the behalf of the faith to do works of mercy until this goal is achieved. The Quran states "(Zakat) charity is only for the poor and the needy and those employed to administer it, and those whose hearts are made to incline, and (to free) the captives, and those in debt, and in the way of Allah and for the wayfarer – an ordinance from Allah. And Allah is Knowing, Wise." (9:60). This is a very different kind of compassion from Judaism. Islamic compassion is used rather as a tool to help only the truly suffering. This promotes a very different message, one that focuses specifically on those who suffer inherently more than others. Catholicism sums up an important pillar of their faith in Corinthians, “And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not love, it profiteth me nothing” (13). Catholicism emphasizes the importance of love over compassion. Compassion, therefore, must be in the name of God and the loving relationship between him and man. Without this, compassion is empty and trivial.

All of these ideas about compassion are used in different ways to achieve different means. What compassion means to these different faiths is very unique and any reduction of these ideas into a single term would be derelict in its duty. These are all different types of compassion, to your needy, to yourself and to God and therefore illustrate important ways in which we might be able to show compassion through religion.

Globalized Religious Compassion

Baha’u’llah’s religious tradition is one that fits in with the message that Armstrong promotes in her video. Armstrong is calling for a planet wide reconsideration about religion and how compassion should be brought to the forefront of their discussion on globalized, golden ruled policy concerning religion. Baha’u’llah promotes this very same kind of complete, compassionate and worldwide religion that seeks to unify all people across the planet. Many instances in Baha’u’llah’s life can be linked to his mission of one unified global spirituality beginning from his time spent preaching to when he was finally imprisoned until the end of his life.

 Baha’u’llahs time spent in solitude in the Kurdish mountains would be a sort of acid test as to how dedicated someone might be towards a globalized compassionate religion. This area, as well as the people of this mountain is yearly slaughtered by religious zealots who hunt and murder the people of Kurdistan even today. Baha’u’llah went to this mountain alone, dressed as a Sufi and began writing by himself in impoverished conditions. Soon, others living around him saw he knew how to write, and he was called to advise leaders and religious authorities in Kurdistan. He later was called home by his family back to Iran and after years spent there.

Baha’u’llah is not only an inspirational figure simply because of his charisma or skill writing, but his dedication to starting a globalized compassionate spiritualism was beyond belief. To even set foot in one of the most dangerous places in war torn Kurdistan alone, no protection only to preach and seek study in solitude is unbelievably compassionate. This is what Karen Armstrong would like to bring to the forefront of the discussion on globalized religious compassion, the story of an individual taking this goal into his own hands so that others may be more like him.

Individualism in Rastafari

Rastafari is a way of life, and since it promotes individual thought and self-recognition, it is not designed to be universally identifiable. However, through many of its ritualistic practice including singing and “chanting down Babylon” and ritualistic smoking of ganja in groups forces a diffusion of these individualistic ideas to many different people. This is an interesting quality of the religion and because of these two practices, individualism and group reasoning, it may cause many other people to recognize but not necessarily understand the Rastafari completely, especially with a western lens. How does this style of information work on a long scale timeline?

Over years and years you have a group of Rastafari who have been meeting in a group to smoke ganja and formalize their understanding. The informal leadership of the group may change over several years as other members begin to gain favor with other rastas. This individual might informally begin leading this group during discussion. Therefore, if someone joined the group before or after this specific rasta became an informal leader, their experiences might be quite different. Although each person is anchored in their own specific realm of individual thought, the disjunction between personal thought and “speechifying” is an epistemological one.

On a large scale, these groups may someday decide to become a mansion and move to a secluded space with their own means of survival and provision. They will begin dedicating a large amount of time going out and doing public works as a group, preaching and many other large group activities. This individualistic sermon is preached to anyone who will hear them and strangely enough, this is all from the result of individualistic thought originally. One observing these events from the outside has no idea where the individual begins and the mansion of rastas ends, and therefore misunderstands their message possibly until he begins wondering about it in its original, individualistic nature.

Children of Africa

The Bobo shanti appear to be a spiritually developed group of Rastafari, especially the many spiritual precepts they observe as such. They appear to have firmly established themselves as “Children of Africa”, and the way they have organized a system of ideology around that concept is what I thought was the most striking aspect of their way of life. The stress our textbook puts on the individualist characteristics of each Rasta as being their major concern is still at work here, but we see it in terms of a community of spiritually dedicated themselves and each other.

The men of the group earn the right to live with each other, spending the days focusing on spiritual development without the stresses and troubles of non-spiritual life. They wrap their dreadlocks in turbans, which they claim is Ethiopian, as “children of Africa” they make several specific mentions to the crown of Ethiopia. They are also waiting for the time to sail across the Atlantic from Jamaica. The Boboshanti organized themselves in a loosely based individualistic standpoint yet work as a group through these individual practices to create a symbolic group, the “children of Africa” who wish to return and escape injustice.

The loose organization of the Bobo shanti as a mansion is precisely the symbol that confers the title “children of Africa” and the practices which they celebrate in their way of life in order to return to Africa once again and be freed from spiritual enslavement. This is not shocking, as our textbook make it clear that the most important facet of Rastafari faith is self-acknowledgement. I and I and the importance of the individual play into this organization and the main focus of each Boboshanti is his introspection and desire to understand himself. However, together, they create a symbolic idea like the kind they are introspecting about, and a mutual end to their spiritual journey as “children of Africa”.

A Bobo shanti Rasta

                The Kebra Negast makes several references to Solomon and Sheba describing them as good and wise rulers who are blessed by God and rule justly during long standing surpluses of unimaginable wealth. This is an archetypal characterization of the wise ruler that finds itself in many religious texts as well as stories dating back before Christ’s life. The wise ruler derives their power to rule directly from God, a governmental system set up on the divine rite of power passed from heaven down to the ruler. This creates an interesting understanding of both God and the ruler as characters in the story itself.

                The wise ruler often has immense wisdom which they dole out as much they can. Their presence is something of comfort and people often seek to be by their leader. No matter where the ruler leads them, the governed feel secure and do not fear anything except their ruler. The fear they have for him is out of respect and admiration to be like the ruler. Solomon and Sheba exemplify these qualities in the Kebra Negast in the way their manner and actions are described.

                Through the description of the ruler, we then get an idea for how God is like a spiritual ruler. People pray to him for understanding and wisdom to complete challenges in their lives. They rely on him for comfort during difficult times of suffering and seek his guidance when they feel spiritually lost. Yet aspects of him are more powerful than the wise king, including the amount of fear God garners out of worship and respectful prayer. In a way, anthropomorphizing a wise ruler is a way of writing about God, a concept of a perfect and worthy of ruling king.

To read more of the Kebra Negast which is facinating, go to: http://www.sacred-texts.com/chr/kn/

The Steps to Wisdom

Many religions have a step system that helps illustrate purification rituals. For Catholics, there is confession and reconciliation, for Buddhists there is the Eightfold Path; but I found the most interesting example of their purifications was Augustine's seven steps to Wisdom. In these set of steps written in book II, Augustine gives us seven steps towards purification of the mind and preparing mentally and emotionally in order to better understand the scriptures. However he also believes this will focus the energies and faculties of our individual humanity towards important things like the scriptures.



This is a relatively interesting concept, the idea that one must be pure of heart and mind to understand the scripture live our temporal lives well. Especially since this writing is not canonical to the Roman Catholic faith. The time spent contemplating these ideas is very thorough as well. Almost like the inevitable stages of grief, Augustine’s steps illustrate unavoidable challenges of the mind towards wisdom. He describes several steps in the system may cause the individual to feel “sorrowful” for the true nature of knowledge is not boastful. The individual must then pray to God for strength to continue despite these challenges.



Augustine’s dedication towards the faith and his own mind are inspirational to me as a thinker. He takes painstaking time to clearly express what he needs to, yet he is a fan of brevity on these subjects which have troubled others for centuries. He has developed a discernible method for overcoming philosophical strains on the mind from grappling with theological questions he muses on in his writing. In a way this method also helps us read Augustine as well since it prepares us to focus our minds on his philosophic texts which contain a lot of information which requires time spent unpacking his ideas.

Solar Deities

The Aten as the sun disc

Throughout a large portion of recorded history, humans have religiously worshiped aspects or embodiments of our sun. There are even recorded events when two radically different cultures who come into contact are simultaneously worshipping different solar deities, such as the Roman Empire and Egypt. Aleister Crowley, an influential occultist in the early 20^th century, was raised in an astrological cult known as the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. This “cult of the sun” can be traced back through spheres of influence to the Psalms as well, which Alter brings attention to and mentions The Great Hymn to The Aten. Why has the sun so thoroughly imprinted itself in the religious philosophy of humans?

Astrology, or a belief system based on the correlation between observable phenomena in space to events in our human lives, has played a major role in our conceptualization of man and the cosmos. Humans and their preoccupation with their orientation within the universe have produced some of the most pervasive ideas in all magistrates of thought. The modern model of our universe was preceded by those which religious astrology influenced. Placement of the sun is all important in these ideas. We measure of time in relation to the suns movement, we depend on it as an energy source and therefore our thoughts about the sun seem to concern everything we ever think about.

Certainly the importance we place on the sun primes us to idealize it, personify it and represent it symbolically. This accounts for its preservation as a theme throughout history. It may seem deductive but I wonder if the sun will continue to play an ideological role in our culture 100 years from now in the future based on our past.





Symbolic Binary of Light and Dark

We see several parallels between “The Hymn to the Aten” and Psalm 104 including natural imagery and extended nature metaphor, attributing life to God and physical blazon of his characteristics. There is direct connection between the physical realm we inhabit here on earth that spiritual beings like YHWH and Aten intervene in according to these texts. The two spiritual entities are explained as solar beings bathed in light who control day and night. In the hymn, Aten’s body is like “rays embrace the lands as far as everything you have made” (W.K.S 1:2). YHWH is described as being “wrapped in light like a cloak stretching out heavens like a tent cloth” (Alter 104:2) The concept of God controlling the cosmos, day and night imagery is something I find very interesting as a focal point of similarity between the two.

Light and darkness have many connotations beyond their standard dictionary definitions. Light in Plato’s writings symbolically represented truth or the illuminating effects of truth while darkness was confusion and seclusion. In modern American literature, light symbolized purity and death while darkness stood for fecundity and life. If I were to effectively describe the relationship between Psalm 104 and “The Hymn to the Aten” it would be the general framework of a binary system of symbols of light and dark. These types of binary systems have been used in our understanding of the world throughout history and work particularly well in these songs to praise, acknowledge the good works of and admire and fear god like figures YHWH and Aten.

By recognizing the balance of forces in YHWH and Aten’s power (i.e. Light and darkness) the speakers attribute the order of the universe to the god figures power. They nourish the earth and all living things there and allow life to take its course. This is a good example of the Geertz definition of religion in action. By creating this binary symbolic system, these psalms make sense of life with an air of factuality by linking observable knowledge about the earth with spiritual explanation for the delicate balance of life giving forces.

The opening line of Psalm 27, as discussed in the footnotes in The Book of Psalms, invokes the spirit of a speaker that is petitioning God for help. It discusses the lack of worry or urgency in the speakers tone, knowing that God is helpful in all situations grave. If we examine next the excerpt from the Bay Psalm book…

We can see a manipulation of language in order to better fit the needs of the new world Catholics. We see critical word choice changes from “rescue” to “health” and from “whom shall I fear” to “what shall make me dismayed”. These subtle changes in language dramatically warp context of the speaker of the psalm. For instance, where one needs rescue is when they are imperiled. Health, as mentioned in the Bay Psalm book version, invokes a soundness of body and mind already achieved through God. Dismay happens when one loses conviction in what they believe as a result of fear. Yet if we can avoid losing this resolution, you avoid fear and therefore are encouraged in faith.  This is more direct and confident sounding than Alter’s translation.

The Bay Psalm version is an extra 5 lines longer than the Alter translation. These lines stress the importance of courage in the face of enemies and the strength renewed by means of faith in God. These lines are absent from Alter’s translation, and for what reason I do not know. I can speculate that these were maintained in the Bay Psalm just like the earlier sentiments that the individual is strengthened by his or her own faith and does not need to fear if they already believe.

The differences between Alter’s translation and the Bay Psalm book are noticeable in language and context. The meanings expressed in the latter translation are much more impassioned with the concept of individual faith and strength found in faith. The faithful have a predisposition not to fear since their faith in God will protect them. These ideas seem also to fit with many Puritan ideals, such as mans relationship with God only and no mention of the "church' or papal authority.

Cahokia Temple Mound Builders

Much like our inability to determine just what group of Homo sapiens traveled northward towards Europe during the Cultural Revolution, and returned the species we bear a direct evolutional link to, we know very little about the society of the Cahokia. When anthropologists talk about the Cultural Revolution, we know that weather patterns, leadership and resources played a role in the massive migration northward from the savanna to the plains. Not surprisingly, these are exactly the factors that lead to the migration of the Mississippian peoples away from the Midwest and back to the southeast where it remained “until the appearance of the Europeans” (Birmingham 163).

The complex jump from tribal, organized religion which had at most possibly 100 people to a large society of over 10,000 is astonishing, to say the least. The complex interactions that are intimately tied to this size of civilization, large public works, well defined boarders and localized leadership or chiefdom. Not to mention the farming, clothing and trading that went on to gather the needed properties to thrive. The Mississippian peoples influence was also, therefore, widespread in its need for goods as well as its valued exports from farm yields.

 All of the sudden, this magnificent sophistication of people seemingly disappears transparently as they organized and began. The hundreds and hundreds of years of influence were lost on the tribes that inhabited that area when settlers eventually moved out towards Wisconsin and other Midwestern states. What remains of their culture includes the massive temple mound constructions, some so complex like flat top pyramids are considered the largest prehistoric construction. There is also evidence of large ceremonial practices by the chiefdoms like the Green Corn Ceremony. The strangest thing about this tribe is the amount of information we have about them. It may seem like anthropologists can know a lot from these reliquaries but we cannot know what we consider the most basic facts, the name of these people, where they saw themselves in relation to the world around them and what drove them towards developing into such a large culture.

Ritualistic Earth Renewal

R. Clark Mallam discusses the Wisconsin effigy mounds and their intimate relationship with ritualistic practices that were a major part of Native American culture.  After consulting Geertz definition of religion, many of the rituals Mallam describes in Indian Mounds of Wisconsin promote a “general order of existence”.  These rituals, Mallam theorizes, were made in order to “maintain a balance and harmony with the natural world (Birmingham 113). He further reasons that effigy mounds, therefore, were important settings for spiritual renewal.  Based on evidence of symbolic offerings at ritual burials, diversity of effigy mound shapes, Native American effigy building is reflective of Geertz’s definition.

Burials underneath effigy mounds consisted of symbolic offerings including “colored soils, mucks, charcoal and ash” (Birmingham 127). These offering are a continuation of older traditions of earth renewal ceremonialism. The preservation of identity through these practices is a major part of Geertz’s definition of religion. Another critical feature of Native American effigy builders is their seeking to balance the world around them by constructing the mounds. In water-logged eastern Wisconsin the water spirit effigy mounds were offset with an air spirit, and vice versa in the western part of the state. The central area of the state had a mix of all three domains (sea, air and land). This this practice of seeking to define the world around themselves through the supernatural fulfills the Geertz definition.

The Late Woodland period saw much development of religious practices given the reliance on farmed sustenance and reliance on groups of at most 100 to travel between seasonal camps. Effigy mounds were built places of abundance of resource (Birmingham 113). I think it is interesting that Mallam proposes that Native Americans sought physical renewal at the effigy mounds as well as spiritual renewal. Their effigy mound building is a symbolic system like Geertz’s definition describes.

Ur-Religion

Ur-religion, humanities first religion, is a concept many believe is inaccessible to modern man. However, scientists continue to study the Upper Palaeolithic era in an effort to understand, however vaguely, our roots in religion. Due to a lack of living consultation and a large body of evidence, Clottes and Williams are able to overcome some, but not all of the major epistemological skepticism towards studying this period. We can be sure that prehistory hominids had a rich diversity in the way they supposedly interact with each other, the world around them and the spirit realm. The universal trait that seems to unite them is their leap in thought towards semantic construction. For whatever reason, as we can’t say for sure without evidence, Homo sapiens began to grasp at a larger sense of being, of explanation and influence in the world around them.

The article does make an effort to approach the concept from multiple perspectives of the natural sciences rather than the social. It is too often, the article claims, that we apply too much of our own understanding of the world to studying early humans. For example our understanding of the cave paintings at Lascaux--Scientists theorized that these painting were representations of the outside world to early man. We now theorize that they are representations of the cosmos, as complex a religious understanding of the world not unlike our modern religions in nature.

Religion is a way many cultures are able to keep their traditions as well as a link with ancestry throughout their cultural history. Ur-religion may be a concept scientists seek for reasons of explaining religion, but it is also out of a sense of desire to understand where we came from. In many ways, searching for Ur-religion is like reestablishing a link between modern man and prehistory Homo sapiens. Just like early man sought to understand his cosmos through his religion, we seek to understand him through this very same religion.

Is Religion important?

The article, “Why We Believe” examines religion anthropologically and discusses believe in religion in the context of evolutionary theory. Gould, Dawkins and Atran have different opinions on the role of religion in society but all seem to allow the logical possibility of a God and therefore do not see benefit in elimination of religion. Sam Harris’ CNN interview, although much more brief and less informative, suggests that religion does not serve an important purpose and negatively impacts society. To take a middle route, I agree that there is a place for moderate practice of religion as well as scientific thought.

Harris’ argues that religious issues consume governments’ time and money better spent solving energy, education and security issues.  He ineffectually demonizes religion as the sole institution that promotes genocide other major forms of human suffering. Harris neglects to mention that scientific thought, as his organization seeks to endorse, is an institution which has motivated several instances of human rights violation, such as the anthropological justification of the Holocaust. It seems morally deviant behavior finds modes of expression in the institutions of both religion and science.

 Gould and Dawkins argue about whether religion and science can mutually exist and be allowed to guide human behavior. It seems to me, however, that both lack the explanatory power to independently lead us to less suffering. In other words, neither holds the singular duty of guiding our every action. Therefore, we have a practical use for both in an even balance and a responsibility to use them correctly. Moderate trust in science and religion can lead to the human fulfillment all of the above parities desire.