The Way of St. James or Santiago de Compostella

The Cathedral of Santiago de Compostella

The way of St. James is one of the most famous and important pilgrimage routes in Europe.

Though it has many possible origin points, its ultimate goal is the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostella, pictured above, which is said to be the final resting place of St. James, one of Jesus' apostles.  The trek from a pilgrim's home to the cathedral itself represented a spiritual journey, as well as a physical one.  The structure acquired significance beyond its status as a cathedral by virtue of its association with a prominent figure in Christian scripture.  By making the sometimes arduous journey to the Shrine, pilgrims partake in a holy tradition with ancient roots, forging a connection between the past and present.

A Map of the Route

Given the importance of the Way of St. James in the Christian faith, there are several routes which it is traditional to follow, allowing access to people from all over Europe.  Though cheap air travel allows modern pilgrims to choose what they believe is the most significant point of departure for their journey, during the middle ages (when the practice of pilgrimage was at its height) it was common for travelers to simply walk out of their doors and begin right there.  In this way one could find French, Italians, Germans, Swiss, representatives of any European political or ethnic group which paid homage to Jesus Christ.  In a time of great political and military strife, when neighboring fiefdoms often fought bitterly with each other, the main unifying factor was religion, which often caused relatively small and weak nations to band together in the face of outside interference (such as the Moorish invasion).  Religion was the social glue holding Europe together as more than just a battle ground and the Way of Saint James was one of the primary methods of accomplishing that.

Saint James

St. James' importance to the Christian religion stems from two sources.  First of all he was one of the Apostles, the disciples of Jesus who knew him in life and were tasked with spreading his word after his death (and resurrection).   The practice of proselytizim is one of the central tenants of the Catholic faith, since they believe that the only way into Heaven is to accept the Gospel and Jesus, making it a Christian's duty to preach in order to help more people be saved.  James' position as an Apostle makes him one of the original twelve, a role model upon whom to base one's behavior.  Second, he was beheaded by Herod upon his return to Judea after (supposedly) preaching the Gospel in Iberia (present day Spain).   The concept of Martyrdom is one common to nearly all of the Abrahamic religions and it is fairly common for saints to have died for their beliefs.  James was the first of the Apostles to be martyred (though by no means the last) and thus by extension one of the first Christians to do so, giving him an a sort of authority in the arena of holding to his convictions in the face of all opposition. 

The Scallops of Saint James

The scallop is very strongly associated with Saint James, to the point that it's name in French is coquille St. Jacques (St. James' Shell).   There are many variations of the myth explaining this but the two most common are as follows.  In one possible tale, James' disciples lost his body at sea while transporting it to Ibera and when they recovered it (undamaged) washed ashore, it was covered in scallops.  The other tale involves a knight who fell into the sea while James' body was being transported to the location of present day Santiago by a ship with no crew.  According to legend the knight was saved by divine intervention and emerged (I think you can see were this is going) covered in shells.  Because of this strong association, the scallop has become the symbol of the way, as well as a sign of it's completion (the scallop is native to the area around Santiago, so pilgrims would pick it up as proof that they had completed the journey.  The scallop also served as a sort of signpost for both the correct route and the pilgrims themselves.  The various roads by which the pilgrimage might be completed were marked with carved scallop shells and pilgrims would indicate their religious status by sewing imitations into their clothing.

The modern symbol for the Way.

The symbol of the scallop also has important metaphorical meanings relating to the nature of the pilgrimage.  The shape of the scallop (represented above in a simplified form) consists of many lines converging on a single point from widely divergent starting locations.  This is a parallel of the many possible routes by which the Way of St. James may be walked.  Although there are certain towns in France and Spain which are traditional places for a pilgrim to begin their journey, the only true requirement for the Way is to travel more than a certain minimum distance and to end up at the Shrine.  This is a sort of unification effect, leaving the Way available to all who wish to walk it and reducing the differences between them, giving them a common status as pilgrims.  The scallop shell also stands for the individual pilgrims themselves, according to the the following reasoning: "As the waves of the ocean wash scallop shells up on the shores of Galicia, God's hand also guided the pilgrims to Santiago."

Saint James in Pilgrim garb.

This image depicts Saint James wearing the traditional outfit of a pilgrim on the Way of Saint James, an amusing little bit of metatextuality. The staff, the hat, and the scallop shell sewn into the lining of the cloak are exactly what the average pilgrim would equip themselves before making their journey.  This perfectly illustrates one of the most important psychological factors behind the Way. James' status as a saint made him one of the primary role models of the Catholic faith, a person after whom to model one's behavior.  By coming into physical proximity with his remains the pilgrims are attempting to gain a greater spiritual connection with him

Saint James the Moor-slayer

Oddly enough, considering that most of the miracles concerning him were miraculous healings, Saint James has a very significant military aspect to him, which lead to the founding of the Order of Santiago during the time in which Spain was invaded by the Moors (the word for Muslim at the time).  The picture above depicts him in that capacity as "Saint James the Moor-slayer."  According to legend St. James appeared on horseback to assist at the battle which finally saw the Moors defeated and driven out of Spain.  This gives him a sort of protective aspect in addition to his position as a missionary and a martyr.

The Cross of Saint James.

The cross of Saint James is another of his symbols.  Just as the scallop represents his pious and holy nature, as relating to the pilgrimage to see his remains, the cross stands for his more war-like qualities.  The exact construction of this emblem has a fair amount of symbolic significance to it.  The white background signifies purity and the red stands the blood of Christ.  The most important part however, is the shape.  The elongated lower prong coming to a point is evocative of a sword-blade, making this cross a warrior's symbol.  This stemmed from the fact that the Galician kings (whose banner it was) believed that Saint James was providing them with literal protection from Moorish invasion.  By riding under his banner they believed that they could maintain that protection over them.

the meaning of the cross

The Codex Calixtinus.

This picture is the cover of a book called the Codex Calixtinus, a work which compiles advice for pilgrims following the Way, in the form of sermons, descriptions of the route, descriptions of miracles, and the customs of the local people along the way.  What is interesting about this work is that the very manuscript itself is rumored to posses miraculous properties (in its original form at least).  Compiled by a man a man claiming to be Pope Callixtus II, it is reported to have survived fire and drowning as notes relating to the good deeds of St. James were gathered together.

The Way served another purpose beyond just providing the faithful with spiritual growth.  It also served as one of the mechanisms by which someone who had sinned or transgressed could cleanse their soul of that stain.  Thus there was a period of time during which the Church would allow convicted criminals to escape temporal punishment by making them walk the Way (with company to ensure compliance) making confessions along the way and at the end.  This is an extension of the christian idea that any sin or wrong doing can be forgiven if the transgressor confesses their crime and honestly begs for absolution from god.  This is an interesting idea, since it means that no matter how far out of the community a Christian's actions have taken them, they can be reabsorbed so long as they repent.  This particular belief is vital to the faith, since one of the other main foundation points is that everyone automatically starts out stained by original sin.  Their spiritual beliefs influenced their legal system.

 

The Bahai Temple

At first glance the website for the Bahai Temple seems more like the homepage of the love child of a political rights group and a health spa.   The information which is first presented (especially in  the tours) focuses on the physical location, especially as a place of relaxation, and the beauty of the building and gardens.  The links you find after a bit more poking around tend to lead to articles concerning equality and unity.

Interesting little note:  It is not immediately obvious that Baha'i is a religion of Islamic origin.  Only the names of the founder and his son, along with a single segment of the video, give any indication of this.  I wonder whether this is accidental or a deliberate attempt to remove specific religious trappings (either to make it easier for non-Baha'i to relate or to avoid prejudice from those with chips on their shoulders).

Another interesting note:  Upon reading the specific laws of the Baha'i, most of the prohibitions are pretty self explanatory and are in line with Baha'u'llah's general message of unity and equality.  For example: Be kind to animals, no slavery, no war, no drugs, etc. The prohibition against homosexuality is a little troubling, but still pretty standard for religion.  The abolition of the priesthood and monasticism are fairly startling but I can see how those institutions could create divisions and prejudice which would run counter to the faith's message.

I have to ask though, what exactly is Baha'u'llah's problem with "the kissing of hands?"  That's a pretty odd thing to forbid and I have no idea why it's on this list.

A Nifty Little Thing

Ok, this has nothing to do with the Bahai Temple Tour (which I'll blog about later) and it's technically not related to the religions we've been looking at in class, but I just had to share this webcomic I've found.  

http://www.diggercomic.com/

I won't get too deep into the premise (other to say that the main character is a wombat) but I will say that there is a great deal of reference to various world religions and mythologies in it which are pretty hilarious when you get right down to it (a crafty statue of the Hindu god Ganesh is a prominent character.

Memetic Mutation

I am always surprised by the extant to which a religion can change without any alteration of the original source material.  I understand that evolution with the social structures of the time are vital for any religion that wants to survive past the nascent cult stage and become self perpetuating, but what tends to stand out most in my mind is the forced evolution undergoes when it is being twisted towards a political end.

Back towards the beginning of the course we talked about how religion is one of a number of categories (along with politics, nationality, and economic status) by which people order their lives to varying degrees of adherence.  In our modern society we strive to keep these circles separate, or at least we used to.   There was a time in the past when they overlapped considerably more, a time which is starting again as which are primarily economic in nature are being cast in a religious light.  The occupation and attempted liberation of Ireland, the war in the Middle East, etc.  Religion overlaps with political and social life so thoroughly that any alteration in them first requires an alteration to the overlaying religion.  It is from this process that the Crusades and the Jihad of the Sword were unleashed upon the world. (I will not attempt to categorize or define the various types of Jihad here but suffice to say that jihad can be both an external physical struggle and an internal spiritual one).  Most religions emphasis peace and harmony (they have to, in order to be able to provide a functional basis for society) but once they are the social norm they inevitably start to spit out warriors.

The dangerous thing to my mind about all of these situations is that they create feedback loops.  Politics in influenced by religion, which in turn is altered to fit political needs and both of them warp society correspondingly.

Where will it all end I wonder?

External Pressures

When I was reading about the life of Baha' u' llah, I noticed that most of the impetuous for the religion to declare itself  separate from mainstream Islam came in the form of outside persecution.

In the beginning,  the Babi faith (and the Bahai faith following it) were just reactions to perceived inadequacies or injustices in the way that the prevailing religious and political structures of the time.   They seem to be mostly nebulous at first, only gaining structure when the authorities started to crack down on it.  In fact, the faith seemed to grow even faster when it's adherents were getting rounded up or killed.

This seems to be a common feature with religious thought.  Judaism, Christianity, Islam, etc all seem to undergo the most growth (both in terms of number of followers and in terms of the strength with which they clung to their beliefs).

I think that an emerging religion needs two things:  First it needs a strong leader to act as a central focus for the attentions of the flock, since God only very rarely makes a physical appearance these days.  Second it needs external pressures and hardships.  If they lack the first then a budding religion crumbles when it is exposed to opposition, never being able to form a united front and provide a long-lasting continuity.  If they lack the second, on the other hand, they never really have the motivation to congeal into an organized group, rather than just a movement of people with similar ideals.

God gets better signal in the wilderness.

One thing that struck me about the video we watched for Wednesday was the Boboshanti's idea that physical isolation enhanced their abilities to perform those tasks which in their mind are required by God (or Jah, to use their term).

This is a tendency which has cropped up in religions around the world centuries, if not millennia. Hermits take to the wilds, taking nothing with them, in the belief that physical proximity to their fellow man somehow distances one from God, as though humans emit some kind of signal which interferes with God's messages.

The Christian hermits are perhaps the best known, but the same instinct can be found in Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism, etc.  And it goes even further than that.  When one actually examines the religious texts in question we find that the greatest prophets received their most important revelations while they where in the wilds, removed from society.  Jesus walked the desert, Buddha became a beggar, the great prophets of the Jewish tradition were vagabonds.

I really wonder where this disdain for our own society comes from, this conviction that our day to day life is somehow ungodly unless an attempt is made to distance ones self from its trappings.

Monastic Rastafari

The vision of Rastafari which is presented in this video seems to bear the same relation to the main religion that the monasteries in Europe bore to Christianity.  They follow a specific interpretation of the faith which emphasizes closeness to God in direct proportion to isolation from worldly concerns. 

Superficially it is the same, sharing the main symbols of the Rastafari faith (repatriation back to ethiopia, escape from the evils of the world, etc) but there is a fundamental difference in the approach to dealing with Babylon.

Marley's particular brand of Rastafari is very proactive, actively seeking to alleviate the conditions of Babylon by using music to alter the minds of the people, and thus by extension the society they live in.  Marley's Rastafari seeks to change the entire world.

The Boboshanti on the other hand seem to have a more inward focus.  They are concerned with extracting themselves (and their families) from the Babalonyian system and are prepared to do without the benefits of society in order to do so.  Within the context of their community they maintain a high level of social contact but the community itself imposes an isolation on them by simple virtue of geography.

Both of these approaches are valid ways for dealing with the corrupting influence of Babylon but I can't help but think that Marley's was more effective.  The Boboshanti may have achieved

their goal of a deeper connection with their faith but Marley's music has done far more to spread the message of Rastafari to those who would otherwise not have heard it.

Your Religion Leveled Up!

During my research concerning Ethiopia I happened to chance upon a relatively minor reference to a faith called the Baha'i, which had  a fair number of followers there.  Further research revealed that Baha'i is a religion with Islamic roots (in much the same way that Christianity has Jewish roots) that purports to being the most appropriate religion for the modern world (which is an odd way of putting it, but more or less in line with the claims of most other religion).

It's attitude towards other religions is where it gets interesting, however.  Rather than denounce other faiths as false, they believe that each of them was a sort of update, a new covenant between God and the world which was socially and spiritually appropriate to that time and place.  Jesus, Buddha, Muhammad, etc, are each viewed as Messengers of God, who each arrived to teach a way of life which was closer to God's truth than the last one (since God is too great for a human to comprehend, all religions are just approximations which become gradually more correct with each successive generation.

Though they believe that their religion is the most correct, the still choose to trace their lineage to every other religion in the world, emphasizing the unity of human religious experience.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bahá%27í_Faith

Ethiopia

The origin tale of Ethiopia underscores the long-standing continuity of existence which it has enjoyed, both in terms of a nation and a culture.   The early Ethiopians adopted certain Judeo-Christian customs and adapted them to their own lifestyle.  This had the effect of making them more resistant to alteration caused by the influx of missionaries and religious invaders which other African nations had to contend with.

Since they were already following "civilized" religion, there was no excuse to invade "for their own good."  Thus, what they have done can be construed as some sort of spiritual inoculation, taking in something in order to become acclimatized to it and avoid being overwhelmed at a later date.

A Green God

Rabbi Zalman, a proponent of Eco-Kosher

With all of the fuss over the fluctuations in the economy, the political strife into which we have been embroiled abroad, and the passing of the political torch at home it cannot be denied that we are living in a time of changes, both good and bad.

One of the most eye-catching, at least for me, is the stance being taken by a large number of fairly conservative religious leaders on a subject which eventually has an effect on every man, woman, and child on the planet: the environment.

For a long time religious leaders have stayed quite on the subject or have followed their (usually conservative) politics on the subject, meaning that most advocate for environmental preservation were either more or less religious or in some way affiliated with New Age thought (a mode of spiritual expression which finds little traction with the more staunch proponents of religion in our country).  This, combined with their over the top demonstration tactics, had the side effect of relegating most of them to the status of crack-pots in the eyes of many Americans.

Now however, religious leaders from many different faiths are starting to speak up in favor of environmental preservation (or at least awareness) and starting to put their weight behind a lot of environmental reform.  Their rational for this actually makes a lot of sense and basically boils down to:  "God gave us stewardship over the Earth, so we should damn well watch over it."

This is a development which I find to be greatly positive, the bulk of the religious establishment utilizing their influence in a beneficial way that is helpful to all.

http://kosherfood.about.com/od/kosherbasics/a/ecokosher.htm

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/moyersonamerica/green/environment.html

That Voodoo That You Do

Reading the article on conceptual blending got me thinking about syncretism the blending of religion in general, the evolution that a faith undergoes when it encounters another.  Of particular interest to me is Voodoo, both the Haitian variety and that practiced in Louisiana. 

African slaves, faced with the destruction of their culture and their religion by their new masters found a way to blend their old ways with those of Catholicism and the local Indians, creating a religion which both met their spiritual needs and was able to pass undetected (or at least mostly unmolested) while surrounded on all sides by a hostile and alien faith.

This syncretism is the ultimate test of the strength of a religion.  Nothing in this world can remain static without eventually falling into stagnation and dying out.  Neither is it possible to avoid encounters with alien modes of thought or speech.  Thus, true long term survival demands adaptation and change.

A good metaphor for this phenomenon would be the composition of glass versus steel.  Glass is technically harder than steel, with stiffer molecular bonds.  But this makes it brittle.  When steel is struck with enough force to damage it, it bends and dents, becoming partially deformed but remaining essentially intact.  Glass, on the other hand, shatters at the first blow.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syncretic

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisiana_Voodoo

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoodoo_(folk_magic)

Toss it all in the Blender

The idea of conceptual blending is useful because it allows us to draw meaningful comparisons between otherwise unrelated or incompatible religious dialogues.  It also allows us to more easily transmit ideas from one person to another.

One of the most important aspects of religion is that it is self-perpetuating, with each new generation being inculcated in the religious beliefs of their elders.  This is usually the area where problems crop up, however, since as of yet there is no known method to transfer ideas directly from one head to another.  Our words, which serve us so well for real world phenomena, become less useful for discussing events and forces which are by definition outside of our frame of reference, a situation complicated by the differing values which are attached to some words by different people. 

Blending allows teachers to take large, difficult concepts and break them down into a simple format which is more readily comprehensible to their listeners.  This can eliminate much of the confusion associated with religious thought, which often deals with extremely complex ideas, which in term can serve to bring people of different creeds closer together, by showing them the similarities between their modes of thought.

The possible drawback, of course, is the fact that sometimes the message is over-blended, lost in whatever allegory or rhetorical formula is being used.  This is problematic to both the uninitiated, who are driven away by obscure or poorly explained dogma, and to the faithful, who can often draw the wrong message entirely from their sources.

The Power of Christ Compels You

One of the things which was brought to mind for me in reading St. Augustine's work was his obsession with demons and his attribution of all sorts of (admittedly fantastic) phenomena to them.  

When I noticed this I started to think about all of the other ways in which both Christians and other religions attribute their misfortunes to supernatural intervention.   A great many psychological illnesses and syndromes, for example, are thought to be the work of demonic possession.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoA-dBREM5c

In many cultures diseases are thought be caused by demons, the deaths of livestock or crops is thought to be the work of witchs, and there is even a superstition (still fairly common today in some parts of Africa) that a man's penis will can be stolen by a sorcerer and hidden away somewhere.

http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSN2319603620080423?feedType=RS

This got me to wondering why the belief in these agencies of supernatural evil was so widespread and universal.  After awhile I realized that it was part of the same mechanism which brings about belief in gods.  

When we are young children we often have difficulty telling the difference between animate and inanimate objects, especially when they pose obstacles to us.  The chair which falls on us or the door which slams on our fingers is doing so deliberately, we think. 

As we grow older this idea fades away and we realize that these things have no will of their own, but we also internalize the idea that things do not just occur on their own: they must have some kind of motive force.

Thus, we have the tendency to attribute things to an invisible force when we do not know what caused them to occur.  Good things to God (or gods), bad things to demons.  If early man didn't know about disease contagion or weather patterns, these very dangerous events would seem like deliberate attacks upon him, which in  turn would lead to rituals designed to avert these disasters, a well known facet of religious experience.

The largest problem with this occurs when the demon explanation is retained even at the expense of a more logical explanation (such as disease being caused by bacteria) is presented.

Saint Auggy.

Once you get past St. Augustine's apparent obsession with demons, he seems to be advocating a sort of pack-rat mentality towards learning, wherein every single fact could be used to get a clearer view of the scriptures and is thus worthy of learning.

This idea of learning as an approach to God is something which has very deep roots in Christian tradition, despite an equally strong tendency for reactionism and closed mindedness.  Some of the groundbreaking scientists in the western world where strongly christian (Newton, Copernicus, etc) and we pretty much owe the survival of our written language to a few monasteries in Ireland. 

Religion on the upswing.

I've noticed that religion seems to employ a dichotomous role in our society.  One the on hand our entire legal system is founded on the idea of secularism and more and more people are declaring as atheists/agnostics.  On the other hand fundamentalism, strict adherence to all parts of religion even when they are inconvenient or incompatible with modern life, seems to be on the rise for all faiths.   As followers drift away, those who remain behind get more and more fervent in their belief.

I am inclined to think that this is a self reinforcing process.  There are few things in life which are as disconcerting as someone who is highly vocal about something with which you disagree so the atheists and fence sitters are gradually pushed away from religion.  The religious people, for their part, feel threatened by people who deny the truth on which they have based their life, so they become even more vocal, which in turns alienates non-believers even more.

This is why we get so many religious groups these days which seem to drop the more friendly aspects of their scriptures and lash out with hate (islamic jihadists, the religious groups who say that soldiers die because we tolerate homosexuality, etc.).

This is an unfortunate tendency which is present in alot of other areas of our lives where one group identity collides with another.  I don't really see a workable solution, other than trying to be open to the idea of multiple identities.

God Smash!

The image of God which is presented to us in the 18th psalm is extremely warlike, a far cry from the loving and forgiving God that most of us learned about while growing up.   The odd thing about the imagery being used, however, is that it raises the implication that God is less powerful than the omnipotent omni-being much of the Bible presents him as.  The fact that he requires a cherub to ride upon or darkness to hide behind calls to mind the way people portrayed the "lesser" gods of polytheism, who were far closer to being human with the addition of some specific divine magic.  

This would make Psalm 18 ideal for appealing to people who would have a hard time dealing with the idea of a ubiquitous God capable of doing anything.   By seeming to lessen Him, the psalm actually casts Him in a more sympathetic light and allows Him to avoid Superman Syndrome (wherein a character is so powerful that it is impossible to form an emotional connection with them or care about their trials).  

It is far easier to imagine and emphasis a God who rides into battle with specific magics than it is to make a connection with a being who can solve problems by willing them to go away before they happen. 

Historical Relevance

 Odin, the ruler of the gods.
One thing that has started to interest me lately is the idea of historical events influencing religions and working their way into sacred texts.  

Since people who partake of a religious structure tend to assign absolute truth to it, any and all experiences can and must be worked into a context which is compatible with their religious views. 

On a small scale this can lead to ideas like "Rich people are rich because God wills it so" or "It's raining because you forgot to propitiate the Spirit of the Rain."

Some events however, are just so huge that rather than being explained in terms of a religion, they go the other direction and alter it.   An eclipse at the right time or a battle lost can have an immense influence on the think of those effected.

A relatively well known example comes from the bible, specifically the Plagues with which God afflicted Egypt prior to the Exodus.  These events (which basically boil down to plagues, ecological disasters and astronomical occurrences) would have been so earthshaking in their effects on the population that they would have been declared acts of God and forever altered the relationship of the faithful with their deity. 

The specific example which first brought this to my mind comes from a mythology which is now more or less defunct but which still holds a great attraction.  Ancient Norse myths, which form the basis for a great deal of Western fantasy and mythology (along with the Greeks) features not one but two tribes of gods (the Aesir who the Norse actually worshiped and the Vanir) which start by making war on each other and finally seal a peace treaty by exchanging hostages.  The Vanir who are thus exchanged actually become established members of the pantheon, meriting worship in their own right.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Æsir-Vanir_War

A little extra info about the war between the Aesir and the Vanir.

This is interesting because that method of hostage exchange is very similar to those used to seal peace between warring clans the world over, not just among the Norse.   Whether or not an actual historical formed the basis for this myth, the political conflicts thus resolved were important enough to the Norse to actually warrant a place in their mythology.

The Evolution of The King

It seems fairly obvious to me that early American readers of the Psalms would interpret it as a reference to the fledging American nation/colonies.   The majority of the colonists were Christians of one stripe or another and the original colonies were still ruled by the King in England.  Given their world-view, their religion would designated them as god's chosen/anointed and as such, completely in the right when it came appropriating the land.  This seems borne out by the reference to "heathens" in the first line, as opposed to the "nations" we have in our version.

Their reasoning essentially boils down to this:  Their God created this world, thus all of it would belong them, the chosen people of that God.  It gave them a palatable religious justification for what was essentially a wide scale, long-term invasion and genocide.

It's something that we don't think about very often now, since we're so well entrenched, but when our ancestors first arrived in this land they were military invaders.   It's interesting to note that, since both sides where so deeply connected to their spirituality in everyday life, the enter process could be viewed in religious terms; an almost direct conflict between to irreconcilable religious structures.  

Aerial View

One of the things which strikes me the most about the Indian Mounds is that none of them are meant to be view beyond their initial construction.  Their very design makes them almost impossible to fully without viewing them from the air (something impossible for a people at the technological level of the mound building cultures) and after the initial effort of their construction, there would be nothing to draw attention to them as non-natural features.   They seem almost to have been designed to be hidden.  

The fact that their true shape would be most visible from the air reminds me of the Nazca Lines, which are similar in kind, if not in size.  The importance of these constructions seems to have been intensely personal, of significance only to the builders and their gods, not requiring any attention by outsiders to make them important. 

A System of Symbols

The symbolic importance of the Indian mounds comes from the fact that they represent and attempt to order the real world according to the internal symbols of their religion.   The clan symbols are inscribed in a permanent fashion upon the very landscape, where whatever significance they hold is publicly expressed.  It's as though they are branding the world.

Isolationism in Religion

One thing that has struck me as interesting recently is how often isolation or solitude plays a significant role in religion, despite its nominally communal nature.  The Lasceaux cave paintings were deep underground, the anchorites were on top of poles out in the desert, and monks of all strips inhabited isolated monasteries.  

Given that most religions seems to be social experiences it would be interesting to know where this tendency towards hermitism comes from. 

Personally I would guess that it comes about as a result of the intensity of the religious feeling, which sometimes is so overwhelming that the believer cannot devote sufficient to both contemplate it and live in a society at the same time.

Inaugural Post

So.  This blog is on the internet as part of my Religious Studies class, which requires me to air some of my opinions in a semi-public forum.  That being the case it will deal with my thoughts on the class itself and religion in general.

First Impressions on the Lasceaux Cave Art:

The religious symbolism of the caves seems to be steeped in a great deal more mystery than contemporary spiritually, given its underground location and the inscrutability of the art.  There is a real sense of struggling to come to grips with a universe which is both large and unknowable.  The tiny size of the human figures next to the comparatively massive and detailed animals shows that any religious feeling attached to the caves would have been focused primarily on the the animals, not surprising given the importance hunting carried in hunter-gatherer societies.