Note: Terms which are difficult to render into our language have been keyed to certain numbers, and are represented as [1], [2], etc. A glossary has been provided at the end, along with some explanatory notes. I have also chosen to translate using the ethnographic terms “mana” or “magic” their word which designates the divine favor.
B: You have been with us for some time. Today we will tell you about our religion.
C: It is the most ancient of them all. And the only one which has come from heaven.
B: You’ve seen our rites and our symbol. Today I will explain what each one signifies. I’ll start with our symbol. It designates the object of our worship, [2].
B: [2] was the greatest of all the true shamans and medicine-men who have ever lived in this world. He was also the great warrior which all the legends had foretold. And the great chief above all other chiefs, forever. He took away all the bad magic and to this day he puts the good magic in us when we perform the rituals. He saved our world from the ancient evil (from the great dragon) and killed all the monsters who live in the dark. And one day he will lead our people to a place without any hunger or cold, where the rays of the sun shine brighter than they do on this earth and the harvest season never ends.
C: But he had to perform a great ritual.
B: (mournfully) Yes, it came at a great price. It was as if, before he was born, [1] had taken him into his lodge and conferred with him, saying:
B: “My son, my son… the world of men is too evil to exist. The ritual impurity is too great. Unless you give up your life, I will take man away from the face of the earth.”
B: And his son replied: “Father, do not take man away. I will give up my life so that they can be happy forever.”
B: And he came down out of the sky and lived with us until the time had come for him to die.
C: He died so we could live!
They perform a brief genuflection, as if to indicate that those words are an epitome of their belief. As they stand, they lift their eyes towards heaven with a stirring expression of love.
B: He went to the altar (to the sacred place) and became our sacrifice.
C: All that we have, we owe to his love.
B: He is waiting for us to apologize to him for our bad actions. He is waiting for men to perform the rituals which he has given.
C: But they must be performed with sincerity.
B: The world will go on and on until he is tired of waiting. Then there will be a great ceremony — like at the end of a great feast, or like a wedding— and everything will be over.
C: This world has a lifespan. The ancient evil has made it so that the world must grow old and die, just as men do.
A: This is not the first time that I have heard you speak about this ancient evil. Please tell me more about it.
B: There is a mouth at the center of the world. It is hungry, always eating, always chewing, yet never satisfied. If we live like animals, then we will become like them. We will gradually sink into the earth and then we cannot see the sky. You can sink so deep that your mouth and nose are in the earth, and your eyes can still see. That is not enough. You have to keep your whole head at least above the mud.
A: Why do you look to the sky when you speak to [1]? Is that where his lodge is?
B: The sky is figurative of the spirit world. When we look to the sky, in our hearts we look at the invisible place beyond it.
B: [1], [2], [3], [4], and all the good ancestors live in the spirit world — though often they come down to give our people strength.
A: I’ve noticed that you hold [4] in very high regard. Tell me more about her.
B: [4] was [2]’s mother. She was the most beautiful and loving woman who ever lived. She is like the spirit of all goodness in women. The spirit of all mothers. Like a picture of all the goodness in this world.
C: She makes up for [6], who cursed us.
B: Just as [2] makes up for [5], who cursed us.
C: But [2] is the source of it all.
B: Yes. [4] has nothing which did not come from [2].
C: But she leads us to him.
B: [5] and [6] are why there is bad magic, refusal to perform the correct rituals, and impiety in this world. But the ancient evil did not begin with them. They were persuaded by another, the one whom we do not like to speak of.
C: [9].
They both make another apotropaic gesture, as if to protect against the “bad magic” connected to that name.
A: How is bad magic expiated?
B: Principally through the great ritual.
A: What is the great ritual?
B: The shaman or medicine man performs the proper actions, utters the words which [2] instructed the shamans to say, and offers food and drink to [1].
Before [2] died, he had dinner with his followers, his friends. He said that, in the future, they should eat dinner together in the same way, in memory of what he was about to do.
Whenever we perform the ritual, [2] eats with us again. Moreover, [1] remembers the ancient sacrifice, and he sends down the good magic and all its benefits.
C: Like the rain which produces life.
There is a group of men among them whose sole duty it is to perform this sacred ritual, although the whole community is obliged to participate in some way.
None of this surprised me. It is common for a people to gather around such rituals in order to help shore up their identity, to help define themselves. Certain stories have an almost inexplicable fascination for a people, a culture, a family — sometimes even for just a single person. Fascination leads people to re-enact the same stories again and again. Even modern cultures do something like this when they re-interpret their favorite fables. Look at Hollywood and all its remakes.
What I found more notable was this people’s unique belief regarding the food and drink which the shaman presents to the divinity during the great ritual. They believe that the shaman’s performance of the rite changes the food and drink into the body and soul of the good man himself.
At first I thought that this was just symbolic language, or a loose means of expressing something inexpressible, but as I talked to them I came to understand that they really believe that the food and drink is somehow identical in its being with the good man. I mean that they just “naively” believe that it is the good man.
B: This is a great and special magic.
It is also the job of the elders (the ones who perform the great ritual) to forgive, on the behalf of [2], whenever people regret the evil they have done.
They received the power to forgive and the power to offer sacrifice from [2] himself, who authorized them to do so before he died.
The fundamental hierarchy of the medicine men is relatively simple. There are the shamans, the great shamans, and the “father.” All the shamans descend from an original group whom the good man appointed long, long ago, when he walked the earth. The father is the descendant of the foremost member of that first group. He exists as a kind of administrative overseer. His authority is strictly formal — that is, it does not inhere in his own person as something natural to himself, but it is only given to him for the good of the community as a whole. The same is true of the rest of the shamans.
A: Why do you continue to perform the ritual of sacrifice today?
B: He told us to do it. We must do as he said.
A: …
B: But we have found that there is much good in it. There is good magic, great mana in the ritual. The death of the good man made infinite mana, and the great ritual is the means by which it comes to mankind.
In addition to the great ritual, the ritual of forgiveness, and the ritual of membership by which a member of the community becomes a shaman, they also have a sacred ritual not dissimilar to marriage, wherein a bond is established between male and female which they believe is not dissoluble except by death. In their eyes, this bond is the only thing which can sanction sexual expression. Their treatment of morality between the sexes is unusually restrictive for a people of such limited technological development.
In a way it is as if they seek to emulate the behavior of children, or the innocence of children. Human nature being what it is, they frequently fail to rise to the level of this strict teaching. But this does not discourage them. It is not as if they do not possess the analytical capability to see that their system does not serve them. Rather, the love they bear for the good man is so great, that they use their intelligence to justify his commands, rather than to undermine them. Again, this serves to solidify their identity, especially against rival tribes.
There is another major ritual which they perform for infants and people who wish to join their community, as well as one to strengthen a person in the struggle against the “bad father,” typically performed when a child comes of age. Last of all, there is a ritual which is meant to comfort and protect a person when they are about to make the great journey to the spirit world — that is, when they are about to die.
Mana or good magic comes through very many means, such as earnestly speaking to or calling upon the good man or his close friends, or through any sincere well-doing done with him in mind. There are also some talismans which when worn with the proper intention serve to confer spiritual benefits on their wearers. But these seven rituals are the primary source of mana—the great ritual most of all. They believe that the great ritual is the primary means by which the spiritual force or animating spirit of the ancient sacrifice (which they see as absolutely central to their way of life) is communicated to mankind.
There is a homely humanity to these rituals.
Birth, coming-of-age, marriage, growth (spiritual growth, that is—sincere regret for wrongdoing), death, the essential act of worship and the rite which authorizes a man to offer it as propitiation to the divinity; together these seem to comprise the bedrock of those unshakable realities which all human beings have in common.
Their holy scriptures, which they also revere, are of great antiquity. Through them they believe that [1] speaks to human beings.
They also believe that at the very end of time the good man will come back and judge, separating the good men from the evil. The bad people will be punished, and the good will be rewarded.
Yet perhaps in connection to their asperity in moral matters, they seem to believe that no one is truly good. I wanted to explore this paradox, so I asked them:
A: You say that the good will be rewarded, and that good ancestors help you. But how can one be called good, even in a relative sense?
B: You are only good if [3] lives in your heart.
C: The goodness is not yours, it’s his. But if you work with him, he shares it with you.
I soon learned that [3] was a separate person, another deity. Sometimes he is called the good man’s spirit, sometimes he is called the sky father’s spirit. They told me that he was like the wind, or like a dove.
It is here that things begin to become quite confusing. The sky father, the good man, and the good spirit are all one thing. Of this they had very much to say, but I couldn’t understand any of it.
C: Listen! This is the worship which has been practiced since before the creation of the world.
B: The world and all that is in it are only symbols. The shamans see what is real. They see into the spirit world and by their rituals they draw good magic from it.
C: Take heed, take heed. The time is coming, very soon, when the good man will return. Everything will go away, and you will have to stand face to face with him, alone.
B: Listen to our warnings, listen to our words.
B & C (together): We love you.
Notes/Glossary:
[1] Sky Father
[2] Good Man
[3] Living Energy / Love-Spirit
[4] Pure Girl
[5] Old Man
[6] Old Woman
[7] Good Magic
[8] Bad Magic
[9] Bad Father