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Finally! Something all religions have in common.
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Let me tell you about this cult. First of all, people are forced to join at birth. The parents are so convinced this cult is the only way that from the time the kids are babies they are indoctrinated. Certain men who are truly devoted actually give up all their possessions, their family, even the right to have sex in order to gain a position in the cult. All the women who wish to devote themselves to the cult have to pretend to be married the cult's dead leader. Regular members have to pledge 10% of everything they earn, as well. The members have to follow certain rules and if they break them they must tell the cult' s local leader, who becomes God and can forgive them by offering punishment. The leaders, men and women alike, wear long robes, mostly black, some white. The rituals involve chanting, and incense, programmed body movements, and then cannibalism. They actually eat the body and drink the blood of the cult's founder~
Cannibalism! Yikes!
Well, OK. The cannibalism is symbolic, and the "cult" is the Catholic Church, 2000 years old and is the spiritual home to 1/6th of the world's population. My purpose was not at all to degrade the grand Catholic institution, but to demonstrate how easy it is for someone not acquainted with the Church to confuse it as some bizarre cult due to the variety of metaphor employed in Catholic dogma and ritual.
Earlier today I realized that the one thing every single religion shares is that some form of metaphor or symbology is utilized. Most of the time it has to do with deity but it can be about a practice, such as the Catholic use of transubstantiation to turn the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ. It can be a religious symbol or a sacred place. It can be a story with a moral, analogizing how lifestyle effects karma. Yes...it seems religion goes far out of its way to avoid being straightforward and blunt.
Just to be clear:
metaphor*:
–noun
1. a figure of speech in which a term or phrase is applied to something to which it is not literally applicable in order to suggest a resemblance.
2. something used, or regarded as being used, to represent something else; emblem; symbol.
archetype*:
–noun
1. the original pattern or model from which all things of the same kind are copied or on which they are based; a model or first form; prototype.
2. (in Jungian psychology) a collectively inherited unconscious idea, pattern of thought, image, etc., universally present in individual psyche
On second thought, I may be wrong in thinking that the use of metaphor/symbolism/archetype is the one thing all religions share.
It seems all religions also have in common an inability to understand the symbology and metaphors of the other guy's religion! Everyone thinks their religious symbolic is obvious and comprehensible, and all other religions are cryptic and nonsensical. One person's symbols are beautiful and spiritual, whereas their neighbor's are purposefully hiding something. 'makes tolerance a difficult proposition, at best.
The other day I became embroiled in a disagreement with a very knowledgeable and well intentioned Pagan gentleman. In my previous article I had described five areas by which anyone can get the basic gist of a religion: Deity, dogma, karma, organization and afterlife. This simplistic strategy to demonstrate religious differences went unopposed by said nice Pagan gentleman. Actually, what made him upset was that I, in his view, was wrong about why Wiccans had issues with Satanists in the 1980's during the Satanic Panic, which, of course would be a matter of opposing opinions. Yet I was astounded that despite the fact that I clearly wrote that Satan, in Satanism is a metaphor, an archetype, this gentleman refused to accept that. He wrote:
"As a general rule most witches, pagans and members of the WRCF I have ever known do distance themselves from 'Satanists' but not from the reasons or arguments you stated on their behalf, which would be totally against any credo we hold, but normally regard them as part of the Christian church, as a whole, as only Christians or those with a knowledge of Christian held beliefs could believe in Satan, certainly no, 'true', witch or pagan would recognize that deity."
Now, while I disagree completely with his explanation, that is the sort of debate that is expected and endless, and everyone is entitled to their opinion. But, as a Pagan, someone who's religion is rife with archetypes and symbols and metaphors why can he not comprehend Satan as an archetype, not a deity:
Satanists, not to be confused with Christian Heretical Devil Worshipers, are atheists who use the archetype of Satan as a metaphor.
So...we see here the essence of the problem. If I were to say that witches are green skinned, wart-nosed, brides of Satan who do evil things under the full moon, my Pagan friend here, I hope, would blow a gasket. If I added that Pagans are anti-Christians who wait at the bottom of Mt. Olympus, worshiping literal pantheons of Greeks gods and goddesses, replete with long flowing robes and the occasional flung lightening bolt, I would wait to be labeled for the ignorant bigot I would be proving myself to be.
But, despite their unequalled use of metaphor and archetype Pagans are very much like others in the mainstream in refusing to accept a different definition of Satanism---which, considering the word Witch, seems a tad hypocritical.
Naturally, Satanists are used to the presumption that we are actually Christian Heretics. Part of the reason our founder chose that name was to keep superstitious and easily frightened people at arm's length, so we expect that certain people will misinterpret our name BUT when folks who utilize archetype and metaphor all day long do it, it is a tad discouraging. So, in addition to symbology and archetype, we counter any ignorance with a written dogma, a canon of religious information that is as meaningful and paramount to us as The Holy Bible is to Christians. The Satanic Bible plainly and clearly demonstrates that our Archetype of Satan is based on something older than Christianity.
A Satanists View of Satan
www.geocities.com/~Alyza/Jewish/satan.html
www.bibletopics.com/BibleStudy/164.htm
These links support the Satanic contention that in the original Hebrew Satan was not originally a name of the devil, but more appropriately the title for someone who was the adversary, the accuser and the opponent of the religious status quo. There are about 10,000 other links but the point remains.
To the Satanist the Genesis story represents a misunderstood hero, the serpent who offers wisdom in defiance of a jealous God who wishes to keep humanity ignorant. To the Satanist it is hard to comprehend why the person who punishes the wicked is considered a bad guy? To the Satanist Milton's Paradise Lost embodies the Satanic traits of pride, self-responsibility, and the refusal to bow before anyone.
Those stories demonstrate the Satanic personality from the Judeo-Christian, and therefore Western, Cultural Perspective, and that is the culture where Satanism was founded.in 1966.
Pagans Do It Too
When Pagans talk about Goddess worship I wonder if they realize there are people who think Pagans literally believe that there are Titans, or that Zeus really sits on Mt. Olympus?
Are they aware that others assume Gaea worship is anthropomorphizing the Earth and imbues her with all the traits originally applied to the Patriarchal God?
The point is that most Pagans are not literally Polytheistic or Pantheistic. They don't believe in literal Greek Gods and Goddesses bouncing about Mt. Olympus or Rhiannon letting her birds sing men to sleep. These divine characters are representations, they are archetypes embodying the best in human virtue. They are facets of the human psyche, brought to life in story and myth, and worshiped as that which all can aspire to.
And The Traditional As Well
I have already proved, I hope, that Catholics aren't literally practicing cannibalism. We also see ashes on the forehead on Ash Wednesday and palms being given out on Palm Sunday. For Christians the palms commemorate Jesus coming to Jerusalem before the Passion. For Jews, however, the palm has long been associated with triumph and victory. Different religions may share symbols, but bestow upon them different meanings.
The most obvious symbol associated with Christianity is the cross or the crucifix. Now, as a Satanist, if i said i wanted to wear a pendant that displays the murder of a good man, I might be called sick. However, to the Christian it symbolizes salvation. 'major different strokes going on there!
If you are wondering what the message is here, what the ultimate point is, then I have done my job, because there should not be an answer beyond the fact that if we want to find common ground we have to ask questions and not rely on presumption.
Religion should enrich the lives of those within it, or it is purposeless. Symbols, myths, stories and rituals should touch the individual in a meaningful way or it is just drama, a pretend play, mere entertainment forgotten as soon as the curtain falls.
Yet, think of what we can learn by exploring the symbols and archetypes that inspire others? I hope my new friend puts down his predetermined assumptions about my religion long enough to understand me, and in return I plan to re-trace my steps and see if perhaps I have been too stringent in my beliefs about Wiccans during the Panic. That page of history has been turned and the only way to prevent it from happening again is not through blame, but through the growth that comes with understanding.
Oh, and in Orlando, the symbol for this: $ is little black mouse ears, often worn on the head's of small children!
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