"The Basic Ideas of Mircea Eliade's The Sacred and the Profane"

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thus an easy symbol of chaos. But since we cannot live without water, its chaos is a prelude to cosmos, and there are numerous myths in which the hero or an entire people cross water to reach a promised land, such as the Israelites passing through the Red Sea. Basically, when people enter water, they return to chaos and thus their current forms (e.g., slaves in Egypt) dissolve into chaos, but when they emerge from the water, they come out as part of a cosmos (a free people). In ancient Christianity, baptism was often by immersion, that is, one went completely under water, signifying a destruction of the old (pagan) forms, presaging a rebirth into a cosmic form as a Christian. Anyone, of course, could see that the waters from Father Sky impregnate Mother Earth. The notion of a fountain of youth, waters which restore lost youth and potency, is a good example of an aquatic hierophany. Associated with this are the many rites of cleansing used in religion. These are the great, universal hierophanies, but there are many lesser but still important hierophanies. For example, the most important gift the Gods can give is life, and few things show life more than plants. Even today, when we know a lot about the science of botany, we can still be amazed how tiny seeds produce full-grown plants. Any plant can be a hierophany, but, since we have seen that myths convey truths about the Gods, it is common in myth to find some kind of sacred plant, such as the plant of youth in theMesopotamian Epic of Gilgamesh or the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the biblical Garden of Paradise. The moon is a hierophany of fertility. Not only does its waxing and waning show a constant pattern of birth, growth, decline, death, and rebirth, the moon also goes through a monthly cycle as does a woman's menstrual cycle, and menstruation is a sign that a girl has now become physically a woman, that is, that she can bear children, an important event in the life of a primitive tribe where births were not taken for granted. Finally, stones can also be hierophanies -- not so much pebbles but rather sizeable masses of rock, for example, sacred mountains or pyramids or even something like Stonehenge. Stones have solidity and power and they do not change. To be sure, geologists tell us that a mountain range will eventually be eroded to the ground, but, in the light of human life span, it is unchangeable. Since the Gods are usually free from the changes and vicissitudes of human life, stones seem like a good hierophany for them, as the popularity of sacred stones in primitive religions proves. Eliade's final point that since traditional cultures understand the natural world to contain hierophanies, they try to live their lives in harmony with this world. They can see a sacred dimension in many daily acts, such as cooking, eating, hunting, sexual activity, farming, and the like. This does not mean that these activities are any less demanding or pleasing for them than they are for us, but rather that primitive peoples realize that these acts are more than just human acts; for example, farming provides food for life as the farmer works with Father Sky and Mother Earth to produce the plants which give us life. People may even build their homes to reflect the natural world; for example, there are societies which have huts with holes in the roof, symbolizing the small opening at the top
of the human skull (which does not close completely at birth), and the soul of a deceased person can escape through the two holes and into the sky to be with the Gods. Many structures, especially formally religious ones, are built with doors open to the four directions to symbolize the wholeness of the religion, or with their focus of worship facing east toward the rising sun, or on top of a high place because this puts the house of worship closer to the primal hierophany. Some societies even see the body as reminiscent of the cosmos with the two eyes corresponding to the two lights of the sky. Because nature has separate elements performing separate functions, such as water or earth, many primitive peoples separate men and women or adults and children into groups with specific functions to perform. In a modern society which does usually not limit social functions or jobs on the basis of gender or age, this would be discriminatory, but, for primitives, this is following the natural pattern. Some primitive rites which initiate people into these societies seem harsh by our standards, but, in their context, make some sense. Eliade tells of one primitive group which separates girls who have their first menstruation from the rest of society by shutting them up in a darkened hut until the menstruation is over a few days later. This seems psychologically cruel, but the intent is symbolize for the girl her return to the womb (the darkened hut) as a reminder that her own womb is now fertile and to emphasize that she is dying as a girl to be born again as a woman. Here again the modern parallels are not difficult to see. Our society has many rites of passage; for example, if you did not go through the rite of high school graduation, you would not be in college. The rite is twofold - it marks the end of your life as a high school student and the beginning of your life as a high school graduate, that is, you are dying to one type of life to be born again into another. Modern religions have many rites of passage; to use Christianity as an example, there are rites of baptism, confirmation (for some denominations), marriage, and funerals. In each case, the Christian "dies" to one form of life to be born into another. Eliade's description of life deals heavily with the role which religion plays in society. He believes that, as a culture moves further and further from the traditional world-view, the smaller and smaller role these religious ideas will play in our lives. What do you think?
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Page 3 and 4: called the place Beth-el, that is,
Page 5 and 6: and rejuvenation, literally, to bec
Page 7: is, the worship of natural phenomen

"The Basic Ideas of Mircea Eliade's The Sacred and the Profane"

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