Ubi Caritas?

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There is a lovely Roman Catholic hymn that includes the old Latin phrase of 'Ubi Caritas'? 'Where is Love/Compassion?'

As I write strategy guides for games, I spend many hours in alternate universes, befriending a wide variety of characters, both young and old, and often courting an array of Eligible Girls or Bachelors in order to marry and have a child. Harvest Moon and Rune Factory are based on fundamental 'family values', where the ultimate success in life is being a valued and loved member of a social community and creating a thriving environment where your own child can flourish. Lest any one cry 'foul' on this, suspecting that these games are propaganda discouraging individuals from embracing a different lifestyle, such is not the case. Courtship and marriage almost ALWAYS are optional activities both in Harvest Moon and in Rune Factory. The fact of the matter is, though, that they are among the most popular optional goals among players of every age and both genders.

This brings me to the title of this post: Ubi Caritas? A gaming friend of mine noted my current obsession with an Eligible Bachelor named 'the Wizard' in the new Wii title, Animal Parade and sent me an email declaring: 'Now, little red flags should go up in your head when the Wizard talks about being lonely, misundertood, and having no friends. If Hannah were to date a guy like that, I'd try very hard to shoo her away from him, although I admit to liking his braid too.'

Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa! Some of the worst mistakes in my life occurred because of my tendency to feel compassion for the 'lame ducks' in this world, believing that they somehow could be saved by love or at least made happy. As every one knows, happiness is found within oneself and cannot be offered as a gift by any one else.

Anyway, after being amused by my friend's email, I began to think about my 'first loves' and I realised that they were very much like the Wizard in their natures. Intensely brilliant, but without the ability to socialise successfully...' And yet, what the Wizard possesses, and indeed, ALL the Harvest Moon/Rune Factory Characters is an essential core of love and compassion. It may be hidden when you do not know them well. They may indeed attempt to reject your early attempts to bring them out of their solitary loneliness, but ultimately, they ALL prove to care about others.

Unfortunately, real life is not so balanced in its Characters. Yes, all human beings may possess an essential core of compassion and love somewhere, but it can be blighted easily by life or by the choices they make for whatever reason, usually as a defence against pain.

One of my 'first loves' was a very literal-minded individual. He knew that I had a profound interest in spirituality and embraced what he believed to be my 'religion'. By that time, I was somewhere else and had my own life. I never really thought too much about his new religious 'faith'. In fact, he ultimately became an atheist who subscribed to the philosophy of 'the selfish gene'.

What I see now is that he missed the point as so many do where religion is concerned. In fact, organised religions are so horribly weighed down with rules and regulations that the essential point often is lost in the wealth of triviality created by HUMAN BEINGS, not any Divine Being. So-called 'religious wars' as well never are fought on the principle of the essential CORE of any religion but on the basis of all the manmade rules and regulations.

So where is Truth in Religion? I believe that the truth is that simple maxim, described in a number of different ways and different languages that declares that 'God is Love.'

Love in this sense is Caritas. Caritas is a combination of Love and Compassion and Empathy. It is THAT essential core of the Divine that placed Christ on the Cross and Attis on the Tree. All the great myths in religions are based on Caritas, whether it is a journey to learn how to Love as in the case of the Descent of Inanna and the Sacrifice of Dumuzi or an exaample of Love as in the Passion of Christ and the Eternal Sacrifice of Dionysus. Caritas is the thread that connects us with the Universe, with its creatures and beings, whether Animal, Plant or Mineral. To that extent, I fully subscribe with the philosophy of Animism and the modern Pagans. Human Beings are NOT the only important element of the equation. We are part and parcel of the grand tapestry of Nature and if we lack Caritas, we lack that essential understanding of our Universe and damn our Souls to perdition. Hell, in my view, is being cut off from the rest of the Universe. It is a state of being wherein that thread has become so frayed as to no longer pass any sustenance to the starving soul.

The premise of the 'selfish gene' theory, I believe, is that our fundamental nature pushes us towards that which is best for us. 'Best' is defined here in Darwinian terms rather than according to the ancient philosophy of the soul striving for 'that which is best' ins spiritual terms.

Perhaps there is an element of truth in this, but with an enormous caveat. What intervenes, whether one defines it as 'grace' or 'caritas' is a Divine impulse that fills us with empathy and compassion for others. 'The Grace of God' to me represents this Divine impulse. It is not a matter of 'original sin' but of a need to balance the selfishness that is at the heart of the very natural instinct for self-preservation.

Nor is this 'Grace of God' or 'Caritas' limited to human beings. Every one has seen evidence of the ability of animals of all species to sacrifice their own self-interest for the sake of love whether for a beloved owner, a mate, a child or the community. To argue that this is somehow related to 'self-interest' is spurious logic. It is the Divine spark that causes us to engage our emotions in this fashion, that inspires us to make sacrifices whether of emotion, material goods or life itself for the sake of another.

The Sacrifice of the King or Eternal Sacrifice of the God provides us with the prototype of the ultimate gift. This Sacrifice is NOT for humanity alone, but for the sake of Nature and fertility as well. It is motivated by all-embracing Love for Life itself.

The Great Sacrifice actually is not limited to human sacrifice either. The Tree of Life is sacrificed each Yuletide for the sake of the World and the future. Even the Ash Yggdrasil made constant sacrifices and experienced constant pain to sustain all of life in the Nine Worlds.

Odhinn himself speaks of Yggdrasil as the Tree of Life that sustains all nine worlds as suffering more pain than any one can imagine. As each new shoot appears, the four Harts that nibble on its highest boughs gnaw them. As each new root appears, the dragon Nithhogg tears them off. The trunk decays eternally. Yggdrasil, the World Tree is much like the Goddess of the Dead in this respect. Hel is a creature both of Life and Death, with one side vibrant and beautiful and the other maggot-ridden and rotting.

The Norse myths are extremely complex and have their foundation in many of the ancient world myths from Sumer and India. The Northern people were great warriors and were exposed to world cultures long before the birth of Christ. It therefore is not surprising to find that depictions of the World-Tree from ancient Sumer and Egypt are incorporated into the Edda.

Whether it is a human being who becomes the Tree, is nailed to the Tree or simply the Tree itself who represents the ultimate Sacrifice, the Cross and World-Tree are the symbol of Caritas in action. The sacrifice is made, from life to death and from death to rebirth 'for the sake of All'. Our lives are the compost into which the seeds of the future are planted and nourished and we were born from all who lived in the past.

The point of all this, I suppose is that it is necessary for the soul to be able to connect to others. In love is suffering and if we do not have the courage to take upon ourselves the pain and agony of others, then our souls wither and die. We must maintain that connection, which is why so many mystery religions reenact the Great Sacrifice ritually, and why women beat their breasts for Attis, Adonis and even now for Husayn. The ritual of matam in the Shi'a tradition is the re-affirmation of that connection with Life and with the World. If one cannot weep for Husayn, one is cut off from the Divine. It is not when we weep selfishly for our own pain and loss that our tears have any merit. It is the tears we shed for others that contribute to the great river filled with the Water of Life that nourishes the Universe. In like fashion, the enactments of the Passion of the Christ, whether in the ritual known as the Stations of the Cross or during Passion Week, allows the individual to connect with the rest of humanity and indeed Nature.

The 'selfish Gene' therefore is only one half of the equation. Yes, we were created with the instinct for self-preservation but we were created with the ability to reach out and connect with the rest of life as well. To divorce ourselves from Caritas is to damn ourselves to the real Hell of being alone. The soul that is not nourished by Love dies. It is as simple as that.

I have copied the actual text of the description of Yggadrasil in the Grimnismal poem of the Edda below.

Three roots in three ways run
Beneath the ash Yggdrasil;
Beneath the first lives Hel,
Beneath the second the Hrimthursar (Giants of Frost),
and beneath the last the lands of men.

Ratatosk (the 'Swift-Tusked') is the squirrel who fares
on the roads of Yggdrasil
Bearing the words of the Eagle from the top
To tell to (the dragon) Nithhogg at the root.
Four harts there are
That the highest shoots
Nibble each day with necks arched back:
Dain (the Dead One) and Dvalin (The Unconscious One), Duneyr and Dyrathror.
More serpents there are beneath the Ash
Than an unwise creature would think,
Goin and Moin, Grafvitnir's sons, (Grafvitnir: the gnawing wolf)
Grabak (Greyback) and Grafvolluth ('the one who rules in the ditch' or 'gnawer in the field', the old God Mot), Ofnir (the twisting one or 'one who confuses') and Svafnir (the one who puts to sleep or 'Death-bringer') shall ever, methinks gnaw at the small roots of the tree from below.
Yggdrasil's Ash great agony suffers
Far more than men do know.
The hart bites its top, its trunk forever decaying,
And Nithhogg tears at it beneath.'

Snorri in his Prose Edda, adds a variation to the effect that: 'An eagle sits in the branches of the Ash, very wise; between his eyes sits the hawk who is called Vethrfolnir.'

The Search for Dionysus

True gods, as many philosophers have pointed out, inspire Terror as well as Love and Awe. We tend to romanticise our Gods, especially in art, and our desire to bring them closer to our hearts can minimise their power to some extent.

Dionysius, Dionysus, Dionysus, Bacchos, Bacchus, Iacchus... whatever the spelling or even the name, he remains the most mysterious of gods, with a bad reputation to rival that of Lucifer.

I personally believe that the cult of Dionysus is connected to that of Cybele and Attis, but every religion shares roots both obvious and obscure with religions in the past.

Where most 'classical' gods either are male or female, Dionysus is neither or both at certain points. Classical gods often assume animal forms, but Dionysus apparently assumed female, male and eunuch form in turns. He is the 'twice-born' god, torn to pieces as an infant by the Titans and then reborn. He is a God born both from a female (Semele) and from a male (Zeus). In every land where he was worshipped, he was a foreign god, an arrival rather than a God who was a native of some kind. One could argue therefore that he was the one true God in ages when most Gods were deified humans. Dionysus may have been born of a mortal woman in the person of Semele but his paternity never was anything but divine. He is the son of Fire, the Lightning Bolt that incinerated his mother.

One of the most popular associations of the god Dionysus is with the grapevine and wine. Like Odhinn much later, Dionysus is the 'god of ecstacy' but those who assume that the actual focus of the spiritual power is wine are mistaken. The grapevine is a symbol of life and rebirth. The cluster of grapes represents the seeds of life as does the pomegranate. The vine must be cut back in order to live again. As Christ had to die in order to be reborn, so did Dionysus.

To go one step further, I personally see Christ as a successor to the ancient cult of Attis and Dionysus rather than a logical conclusion to the Judaic religion. That is why Christianity is so universal. It embodies all the ancient mysteries, and the essential pivotal sacrifice of life for death and death for life.

It would be simplistic, however, to view Dionysus as nothing more than the spiritual ancestor of Christ. The chaotic, unstoppable power of Nature is absent in Christianity but was very much a part of the Dionysian system.

One of my favourite portraits as a young girl was a portrait of Bacchus by Carvaggio. The boy is handsome, intoxicated and indisputably decadent but now when I look at that portrait, I see quite clearly that he is a boy and not a god. He may be striving to follow the god but I think it is far more likely that some very human man or woman is seducing him with wine...

Perhaps the reason that Bacchus or Dionysus fascinates me so much is his lethal combination of beauty and intent to kill. His kiss IS the kiss of death. In addition, to be twice-born means that one has died at least once or in this god's case, been ripped from the womb and robbed of life at least once. There is murder in his birthing.

I have to admit that I shrink from Terror and I never liked the genre of 'Horror' in film or in literature but if I am honest in my determination to pursue undiluted truth in religion, I have to embrace the form of the god in his/her aspect of pure Terror as well as Beauty. That is where I recognise every 'mystery cult' as being true to the Divine far more than any religious platform that seeks to cushion or otherwise veil the aspect of the god that speaks of death without the intervention of any romantic ideal.

The Goddess Hel, it is said, was half beauty and half decay. One side of her face was beautiful beyond the beauty known to any mortal but the other side of her face writhed with maggots and worms. I would imagine that the real face of Dionysus likewise would be unspeakably terrible. One would be confronted not by a wine-flushed young lad whose eyes hint only of languor but one incited by a degree of blood-lust that would render him/her capable of tearing animal and human flesh apart with his/her bare hands.

There are those who claim to embrace the 'Dionysian philosophy' by immersing themselves completely in a life of sexual profligacy but I think the alleged sexual component is part of the sometimes deliberate philosophical misdirection that accompanies any mystery religion. Some of this may have been deliberate but our contemporary misunderstanding of Dionysus is due to vitriolic Christian propaganda as well.

As with many of the ancient mystery religions, much of the literary evidence that remains was written by enemies rather than proponents. Apuleius, writing about the mysteries of Isis, is an exception here. Even Apuleius, attempting to illuminate the glory of Isis, was forced to keep silent about many of the vital mysteries of that faith. The combination of enforced secrecy and clerical hostility means that little can be gleaned at this point from literary sources. Archaeological evidence may be less bias in its physical form, but archaeology, like history, ultimately is recreated by the interpretations of 'experts'.

If, however, sex is not the true centre of Dionysus, why would sex be so much a part of his rituals? He has been called the 'god of Ecstacy' but the Divine in any manifestation is Lord/Lady of Ecstacy. Ecstacy is not physical gratification but a state in which one transcends all physical and emotional limitations.
If orgasm were the goal, then castration could not have been the ultimate act of devotion and identification with the god. In fact, male castration is as fundamental to the cult of Dionysus as it was to the cult of Attis. Those who would like to think that dressing as a woman or acting like a woman are what is it all about are sadly mistaken. Not only castration but self-castration was at the very heart of dedication to Dionysus.

Central to the Dionysian myth is the tale of the innocent infant who is seduced by toys and who then is torn to pieces by the Titans. Nothing survives by his 'heart', making rebirth possible. The tale of a child who is torn to pieces by his 'nurses' does not lend itself to the portrait of a cult based on nothing more than casual sex... This is another reason why I feel that the contemporary popularity of Dionysus among homosexuals is based on misdirection. The 'god' they admire is not the REAL Dionysus.

Death and rebirth are at the heart of the true mystery and I only wish that something would be unearthed by archaeologists that would speak eloquently of some of the lacunae that we still have not been able to fill with knowledge.

The cult of Dionysus is not the only ancient religion that has been romanticised almost out of recognition by contemporary 'pagans'. The Druids are another. Here as well, the ancient emphasis on blood sacrifice has been disregarded in favour of a 'gentler' philosophy. Yet, death and blood sacrifice are the heart of any mystery religion. Excise the heart and you have nothing but an empty shell. It may be a beautiful shell but it lacks power and signficance.

In my view, though, the gods are not deceived easily and dressing a kid goat in boots to substitute its death for the death of a man cannot be effective. What kind of god would desire the death of an innocent creature in lieu of the human beings who profess to worship him/her? It is not BLOOD that is required but true sacrifice and by all accounts, a voluntary sacrifice. That is where the Christ represents the ultimate mystery sacrifice true to the precepts of every ancient mystery.

Whether bread and wine can be transmuted into flesh and blood is another matter. That would be transformation not substitution, and the motivation would be quite different from that of a devotee who seeks to circumvent the necessity of making his/her own sacrifice by offering an animal instead. In the rite of Communion, the worshippers seek to partake of the flesh and blood of the God, not to pretend that the flesh and blood offered is theirs. It is a vital distinction.

Many Christians would be outraged by any suggestion that Christ followed a path laid down by ancient universal mystery religions but I feel that this link actually makes Christianity more credible. If Christianity is based on a minor cult of a minor group of tribes such as the ancient Hebrews, it cannot be considered 'universal'. If, on the other hand, it is the logical descendant of a profound tradition that stretches back to the dawn of time, it is validated to some extent. I am not alone in making this statement. Joseph Campbell probably is the best known philosopher who declared as much in book after book, although he was not the first either to remark upon the link.

Sympathetic magic, of course, is one of the oldest forms of ritual in every religion and belief system, and the sacrifice of an animal instead of a man is a form of sympathetic magic. I am becoming convinced, however, that it dispenses with the very heart of the purpose of the sacrifice and in doing so, would render the sacrifice worthless.

I am not advocating human sacrifice but what I am beginning to believe is that there is no substitute for it. Moreoever, it must be self-sacrifice, not a ritual that places an unwilling human being at its centre to be butchered by others.

Writers throughout the ages have explored the sacrifice of Ibrahim/Abraham of his son and postulated different theories. In the tale, the sacrifice of the son ultimately is NOT required, but the willingness to make the sacrifice is pivotal to its validity. It therefore is not the blood that creates the power but the Will.
Placing your neck on the block in anticipation of the fall of the blade therefore would generate the greatest power in magical/spiritual terms.

In the case of Christ, following the same logic, it would not be the Crucifixion itself but his Willingness to suffer and die that would empower the rite. According to Islamic belief, Allah took him to Heaven before Death actually occurred. Those who link the death of Christ to ancient Judaic traditions would require his Blood in expiation of OUR sins but I cannot comprehend a true God actually finding any virtue in any creature's blood.

Many scientific as well as pseudo-scientific studies have been done to show that blood actually contains energy and that it therefore would be efficacious in magical and religious rituals. That may be true, but I submit that the vital energy is not contained in the blood itself but in the Terror and in the act of Submission to the prospect of Death.

Actual physical Death therefore is not a requirement. Initiations in most ancient mystery religions involved a ritual wherein the Initiate would prepare for Death, face it and then be 'reborn' without actually dying physically. It was that emotional and spiritual passage between Life and Death that generated Rebirth.

Contemporary rituals of 'Baptism' are intended as a form of Rebirth but too often lack the component of Terror and Submission to Death. Does it matter? I suppose the response would depend on what is being conferred by the Baptism. If it is simply membership in an organised religion, then it would not matter in the least. If it is a 'symbolic' ritual, then it would not signify either. If, however, the initiate desires to become 'one with the God', it would have to be a life-ending, life-changing, heart-stopping ritual in order to be efficacious.

This brings me to my ultimate question. How many of us would be willing to place ourselves at the mercy of Death in order to achieve spiritual Rebirth?

The Tree of Life and the Cross

(From 'Stations of the Cross' by Carl Zimmerman)
(14th century fresco, 'Allegory of the Cross', Santa Croce, Firenze)


As we approach Good Friday, the day when the Crucifixion of Christ is remembered and often in fact re-enacted in Passion dramas, it occurs to me that there are elements in the modern tale that have resulted from misinterpretations of the original event.

It is true that the Romans used crucifixion as a form of execution for criminals and did not ordinarily crucify nobles. On the other hand, the more ancient use for crucifixion was religious and it was the God himself who first had performed the mystery. To hang upon the Tree, therefore is the noblest of destinies.

Osiris floated in his coffin to Byblos where his coffin became one with an evergreen tree. Attis castrated himself beneath a pine and his followers emulated his sacrifice by hanging themselves on evergreen trees. Dionysus was crucified on the 'vine' or evergreen.

The Tree of Life and Death featured in mythologies as ancient as those of Sumer and it is to be found in the old Christian Bible as well in the Garden of Eden. In Sumerian lore, the original tenants of the Tree were Lilith and a Serpent. The Great Queen Inanna wished to obtain sole possession of the Tree and looked for a champion. Gilgamesh responded and drove the serpent and Lilith 'into the wilderness', then created the Sacred Throne and Sacred Bed for Inanna from the wood of the Tree. When asked to share that bed with her, however, he refused, declaring that he knew full well that with that great honour came death. All her 'spouses' were sacrificed and sent in her place to the Underworld...

The Tree therefore as a 'ladder to Heaven' predated the Roman use of the cross for crucifixion of felons. The Tree is not a degrading instrument of death. It is the ultimate symbol of Life and Rebirth. Christ did not make it so; he simply followed the ancient mysteries and made his own ultimate Sacrifice.

Although he preached humility, the Cross is not part of a rite of degradation. It is the Tree that has its roots in the Underworld, its branches on Earth and its top pierces Heaven itself.

An ancient Christian hymn declares that:
'Crux fidelis,
inter omnes
abor una nobilis;
nulla talem silver profert,
flore, fronde, germine.
Dulce lignum, dulci clavo,
dulce pondus sustinens!

Flecte ramos, arbor alta,
tensa laxa viscera,
et rigor lentescat ille,
quem dedit nativitas,
ut superni membra Regis
miti tendas stipite.

Sola digna tu fuisti
ferre saeculi pretium,
atque portum praeparare
nauta mundo naufrago,
quem sacer cruor perunxit,
fusus Agni corpore.'

In English:

'Faithful Cross!
Above all other,
One and only noble Tree!
None in foliage, none in blossom,
None in fruit thy equals be;
Sweetest wood and sweetest iron!
Sweetest weight is hung on thee!

Lofty tree, bend down thy branches
To embrace thy sacred load;
Oh, relax the natural tension
Of that all too rigid wood;
Gently, gently bear the members
Of thy dying King and God.

Tree, the only one found worthy
The world's Sacrifice to sustain.
Harbour from the raging tempest!
Ark that saved the world again!
Tree, with sacred blood anointed
Of the Lamb who for us was slain.'

I confess that I love the ancient Latin rites and could not resist including some of the verses of 'Pange Lingua' here. It is clear, however, that the Cross was destined to be the instrument of Christ's sacrifice not because the Romans used it as a means of execution, but because it was at the centre of the ancient mystery religions.

The Church of England has a more beautiful rendition of the English form of this Passion poem:

'O faithful Cross, thou peerless tree,
No forest yields the like of thee,
Leaf, flower and bud;
Sweet is the wood and sweet the weight,
And sweet the nails that penetrate
Thee, thou sweet wood.'

It is interesting to note that this hymn includes a reference to the Ark. The Tree as Ship that bears the king or god over the waters is part of the ancient mysteries as well. Osiris is borne in his coffin as ship across the waters. Dionysus is carried over the waters. Annual processions to the sea were part of the old rites of Isis and Osiris, inherited later by the Blessed Virgin. Even now in Venice, I believe there is a ritual wherein a ring is cast into the sea to be retrieved thrice, now dedicated to Mary, formerly to the Great Queen Isis.

The dying plants of Adonis are carried to the sea or river to be tossed into the waters. In contemporary Iran, that ritual still prevails when the sabzeh is thrown into running water at the end of Nawroz. In parts of Eastern Europe, the same ritual can be seen each Spring.

The great hero and god Odhinn hanged himself on the World Tree for nine nights and days, 'myself a Sacrifice to My Self'. In the same way as Christ's side was pierced by a spear, Odhinn pierced his own side with the spear Gungnir as part of the ancient ritual.

The reward of Odhinn was the gift of the Runes, a system of magic that contains all the mysteries of life, death and rebirth. The death of Christ brought eternal life to the world.

The Sacrificed God or King by embracing the Tree becomes one with the Tree. In the rites of Attis, worshippers would slash themselves with sharp knives and splatter the Tree with their blood in order to bring rebirth to the god.

The Tree is central to the Mystery. It is no coincidence that Christ was crucified. It is part of a rite that is ancient and universal.

In many parts of the world, from Northern Europe to Japan, trees themselves were considered to be sacred, to house divine or magical spirits. For the pagans of old Europe, a glade in a forest would constitute the most sacred 'Church' or 'Temple'. Charlemagne destroyed forests in his efforts to force Christianity upon the Germanic tribes.

In ancient Canaan and its environs, the Asherah pole was a symbol of the Great Goddess. This was a perfect tree that was felled, stripped of its branches, then 'replanted' in the temple of the Goddess. In the Christian Old Testament, there are tales of Hebrews who worshipped the Asherah pole, as well as those who worshipped and adored the 'Golden Calf'. (The Golden Calf will be discussed later as a symbol of the Apis Bull.) Many examples of magic and divine healing are recounted there as well, involving a tree with a serpent at its top. The 'Tree of Life and Rebirth' can be found in the Asherah, the Staff, the May Pole and the Cross.

In Northern Europe, every shaman would choose a tree in the forest, fell it, strip it of its branches, then place it once more in the ground. The shaman then would construct a platform at the top of the pole and mount the tree to sit on the platform. Here he or she would be able to travel to other realms, to Hell and back if necessary or to Heaven.

The Tree or Cross is the ancient ladder to Heaven. It, like the King or God, must be 'slain' and then replanted in the earth in order to bring forth the miracle of eternal life.

Roman Catholics wear the Crucifix as a symbol of their devotion to Christ, but many Protestants wear nothing more than the symbol of a Cross. It is the Tree of Life and Rebirth and the ultimate act of power and magic is the sacrifice of the King or God upon it. It is no accident that Christ chose to embrace the Cross. In doing so, he validated one of the most ancient mysteries known to humanity.

When we decorate a Christmas tree, we show honour, love and reverence to the Tree of Life and Rebirth. On Good Friday, when the Tree is slain and taken in procession through the streets with the bleeding Lord of All, it is not only the Lord but the Tree as well to which homage should be given. When the Cross is replanted in the Earth and the God embraces it, his blood revitalises it. Together they symbolise the mystery of Life Immortal.

As declared in the Mystery of Faith in the Mass: 'Dying you destroyed our death, Rising you restored our life.'

The mysteries of Spring include the symbol of the Egg, in which life is reborn, but the Tree and its fruit cannot be ignored, even by those who are not Christians. For Christians, the death of Christ on the Cross is the very centre of religious faith. For others, however, the crucifixion of Christ should be recognised as a sacrifice made in order to sustain the cycle of Life, Death and Rebirth. It is one of the ancient universal mysteries of this season.

Ashes to ashes and Dust to Dust

Ash Wednesday is the day that marks the first day of Lent, a forty day period of fasting and prayer. It commemorates the forty-day sojourn of Christ in the desert. While there, he 'wrestled with the Devil'. This struggle is reminiscent of the ancient struggle between Mot and Ba'al and in fact, the entire Christian calendar is predicated upon that of ancient mystery religions.

In Roman Catholic churches, Ash Wednesday was a day on which the devout came to church to be told: 'Thou are dust and to dust shalt thou return'. After this statement, a cross would be drawn on the worshipper's forehead with a mixture of sacred oil and ashes.

The purpose of this actually is to remind the believer that this life is transient at best and that one must focus on the life of the spirit rather than the pleasures (and pains) of the flesh.

In some pagan or nature religions, the idea of 'Dust to dust' represents the ultimate reunion of the body with the Earth Goddess. There is nothing in Christianity to argue against this philosophy or premise. Many Christians, especially Celtic Christians combine respect and love of the Earth with a love of Christ.

In any case, although Ash Wednesday is a sombre day and indeed the entire period of Lent emphasises prayer, fasting and almsgiving, the purpose is not to drive people to despair but in fact to prepare them for the great joy of Easter, when life is reborn and Christ triumphs over Death.

The entire seasonal ritual has its roots in ancient mystery religions like that of Sumer, Babylon and Egypt.
When the goddess Inanna goes down to the entrance to the Underworld, she bids her faithful servitor (and representative) to remember her and to make certain that the gods remember her while she is absent from the earth.

The journey of the God or Goddess to the Underworld is not a 'one-way trip'. It is an ordeal, but one that will end with victory over Death.

The mourning rituals of the ancients as well as contemporary Lenten observations actually are intended to support the energy of life and are not to be perceived as an obsession with death. Like many rites of preparation, the season is supposed to be one of self-assessment and improvement. Like the Islamic month of Ramadhan, Lent is a season for charity and kindness, for prayer and contemplation.

Ancient mourning rituals were a form of sympathetic magic. The actions of the mourners were intended to bring forth a renewal of life. In the ancient tale of Ba'al's death:

Straightway does Kindly El the Compassionate
Come down from his throne
To sit upon his footstool.
He comes down from his footstool
To sit on the ground.
He pours the dust of mourning upon his head,
In the ashes he prostrates himself,
Covers himself with dust.
He paints his forehead with the ashes of mourning,
And covers his loins with sackcloth.
With a stone blade, his skin he cuts,
With a razor of flint does he slice his flesh,
Cutting his chin and his cheeks.
With a reed he rakes his upper arms,
The nose of his heart (his chest) like a garden he plows,
Like a valley he furrows his body.
He lifts his voice to cry: 'Ba'al is dead!'

The agricultural imagery here is deliberate. El ploughs his flesh and the blood wells forth from the furrows like water fertilising a field. In fact, when El has a dream of Ba'al's rebirth: 'the heavens rain oil upon the earth, the wadis run with honey'.

The 'prophets' of the ancient Hebrews railed against these ancient mourning practices but they never were able to stop them. In fact, the act of mourning is a very natural part of the cycle of life. In the same way that we 'water the earth' with our tears, we open our spirits to the other realm when we perform any of these ancient rituals.

It is interesting to reflect upon the image of El plowing the 'nose of his heart' and the old shamanic belief that individuals who were destined to become powerful shamans had their chests opened and their hearts removed, either to be washed and then replaced, or to be replaced entirely by a heart made of crystal or some other precious substance. Many shamans have related experiences of this nature. According to some old tales, the Prophet Muhammad himself had a classical shamanic experience whereby his heart was washed by angels.

In reflecting upon acts of devotion such as those of Ash Wednesday, I realised that faith never can be an intellectual exercise. Intellectual arguments can support faith but they cannot substitute for it. This is something that atheists fail to comprehend. They use 'science' supposedly as a measure for determining the validity of religion without realising that this would be tantamount to an attempt to use a needle and thread to make a gown from clouds. One has no bearing on the other.

What is missing in the life of an atheist is the transcendental experience of the Divine. The closest way to describe this in words is to declare it to be an experience of Love, but it is not like any human experience of love involving another individual.

'In Islam there are many references to a situation wherein an individual prays to Allah to 'expand his breast'. In English, it is similarly said that a person 'opens his heart' to an idea or even emotional response. In the Surah al Sharh', the first verse is a question by Allah to the Prophet Muhammad: 'Have We not expanded your breast?' A very popular Du'a taken from Surah Taha and known as the prayer of Prophet Musa likewise refers to this phenomenon: 'Rabbi Ishrah li Sadri wayassir li amri, wahlul 'uqdatan min lisani, yafqahu Qawli.' In English, 'My Lord, expand my breast, make my task easy, undo the knot in my tongue that my speech will be clear.'

The ultimate religious experience is that 'expansion of the breast' or heart. What occurs can be categorised either as Love or as Ecstacy, but in all truth, it cannot be defined by any words. It is the sudden realisation that one is not alone in this life. It is akin to the moment when the sun breaks through heavy clouds, casting a pure ray of light upon the earth. It seldom lasts, but it is enough to make us realise that this is why we insist that there is a God, whoever or whatever that God may be...

The purpose of the cross drawn in ash on the forehead on Ash Wednesday is to remind human beings of the fact that this is not the sum total of our existence. There is more to any human being than a frail and frustrating container of flesh and even more than a questioning mind. When we experience that 'opening of our hearts', we know for a moment at least that we are connected to something far greater than we even can imagine. It is not so much that the Divine exists, but that we are connected to this Divine Entity through Love.