PAPER 87
THE GHOST CULTS
87:0.1 THE ghost cult evolved as an offset to the
hazards of bad luck; its primitive religious observances were the outgrowth of
anxiety about bad luck and of the inordinate fear of the dead. None of these
early religions had much to do with the recognition of Deity or with reverence
for the superhuman; their rites were mostly negative, designed to avoid,
expel, or coerce ghosts. The ghost cult was nothing more nor less than
insurance against disaster; it had nothing to do with investment for higher
and future returns.
87:0.2 Man has had a long and bitter struggle with
the ghost cult. Nothing in human history is designed to excite more pity than
this picture of man's abject slavery to ghost-spirit fear. With the birth of
this very fear mankind started on the upgrade of religious evolution. Human
imagination cast off from the shores of self and will not again find anchor
until it arrives at the concept of a true Deity, a real God.
1. GHOST FEAR
87:1.1 Death was feared because death meant the
liberation of another ghost from its physical body. The ancients did their
best to prevent death, to avoid the trouble of having to contend with a new
ghost. They were always anxious to induce the ghost to leave the scene of
death, to embark on the journey to deadland. The ghost was feared most of all
during the supposed transition period between its emergence at the time of
death and its later departure for the ghost homeland, a vague and primitive
concept of pseudo heaven.
87:1.2 Though the savage credited ghosts with
supernatural powers, he hardly conceived of them as having supernatural
intelligence. Many tricks and stratagems were practiced in an effort to
hoodwink and deceive the ghosts; civilized man still pins much faith on the
hope that an outward manifestation of piety will in some manner deceive even
an omniscient Deity.
87:1.3 The primitives feared sickness because they
observed it was often a harbinger of death. If the tribal medicine man failed
to cure an afflicted individual, the sick man was usually removed from the
family hut, being taken to a smaller one or left in the open air to die alone.
A house in which death had occurred was usually destroyed; if not, it was
always avoided, and this fear prevented early man from building substantial
dwellings. It also militated against the establishment of permanent villages
and cities.
87:1.4 The savages sat up all night and talked when
a member of the clan died; they feared they too would die if they fell asleep
in the vicinity of a corpse. Contagion from the corpse substantiated the fear
of the dead, and all peoples, at one time or another, have employed elaborate
purification ceremonies designed to cleanse an individual after contact with
the dead. The ancients believed that light must be provided for a corpse; a
dead body was never permitted to remain in the dark. In the twentieth century,
candles are still burned in death chambers, and men still sit up with the
dead. So-called civilized man has hardly yet completely eliminated the fear of
dead bodies from his philosophy of life.
87:1.5 But despite all this fear, men still sought
to trick the ghost. If the death hut was not destroyed, the corpse was removed
through a hole in the wall, never by way of the door. These measures were
taken to confuse the ghost, to prevent its tarrying, and to insure against its
return. Mourners also returned from a funeral by a different road, lest the
ghost follow. Backtracking and scores of other tactics were practiced to
insure that the ghost would not return from the grave. The sexes often
exchanged clothes in order to deceive the ghost. Mourning costumes were
designed to disguise survivors; later on, to show respect for the dead and
thus appease the ghosts.
2. GHOST PLACATION
87:2.1 In religion the negative program of ghost
placation long preceded the positive program of spirit coercion and
supplication. The first acts of human worship were phenomena of defense, not
reverence. Modern man deems it wise to insure against fire; so the savage
thought it the better part of wisdom to provide insurance against ghost bad
luck. The effort to secure this protection constituted the techniques and
rituals of the ghost cult.
87:2.2 It was once thought that the great desire of
a ghost was to be quickly "laid" so that it might proceed undisturbed to
deadland. Any error of commission or omission in the acts of the living in the
ritual of laying the ghost was sure to delay its progress to ghostland. This
was believed to be displeasing to the ghost, and an angered ghost was supposed
to be a source of calamity, misfortune, and unhappiness.
87:2.3 The funeral service originated in man's
effort to induce the ghost soul to depart for its future home, and the funeral
sermon was originally designed to instruct the new ghost how to get there. It
was the custom to provide food and clothes for the ghost's journey, these
articles being placed in or near the grave. The savage believed that it
required from three days to a year to "lay the ghost" -- to get it away from
the vicinity of the grave. The Eskimos still believe that the soul stays with
the body three days.
87:2.4 Silence or mourning was observed after a
death so that the ghost would not be attracted back home. Self-torture --
wounds -- was a common form of mourning. Many advanced teachers tried to stop
this, but they failed. Fasting and other forms of self-denial were thought to
be pleasing to the ghosts, who took pleasure in the discomfort of the living
during the transition period of lurking about before their actual departure
for deadland.
87:2.5 Long and frequent periods of mourning
inactivity were one of the great obstacles to civilization's advancement.
Weeks and even months of each year were literally wasted in this nonproductive
and useless mourning. The fact that professional mourners were hired for
funeral occasions indicates that mourning was a ritual, not an evidence of
sorrow. Moderns may mourn the dead out of respect and because of bereavement,
but the ancients did this because of fear.
87:2.6 The names of the dead were never spoken. In
fact, they were often banished from the language. These names became taboo,
and in this way the languages were constantly impoverished. This eventually
produced a multiplication of symbolic speech and figurative expression, such
as "the name or day one never mentions."
87:2.7 The ancients were so anxious to get rid of a
ghost that they offered it everything which might have been desired during
life. Ghosts wanted wives and servants; a well-to-do savage expected that at
least one slave wife would be buried alive at his death. It later became the
custom for a widow to commit suicide on her husband's grave. When a child
died, the mother, aunt, or grandmother was often strangled in order that an
adult ghost might accompany and care for the child ghost. And those who thus
gave up their lives usually did so willingly; indeed, had they lived in
violation of custom, their fear of ghost wrath would have denuded life of such
few pleasures as the primitives enjoyed.
87:2.8 It was customary to dispatch a large number
of subjects to accompany a dead chief; slaves were killed when their master
died that they might serve him in ghostland. The Borneans still provide a
courier companion; a slave is speared to death to make the ghost journey with
his deceased master. Ghosts of murdered persons were believed to be delighted
to have the ghosts of their murderers as slaves; this notion motivated men to
head hunting.
87:2.9 Ghosts supposedly enjoyed the smell of food;
food offerings at funeral feasts were once universal. The primitive method of
saying grace was, before eating, to throw a bit of food into the fire for the
purpose of appeasing the spirits, while mumbling a magic formula.
87:2.10 The dead were supposed to use the ghosts of
the tools and weapons that were theirs in life. To break an article was to
"kill it," thus releasing its ghost to pass on for service in ghostland.
Property sacrifices were also made by burning or burying. Ancient funeral
wastes were enormous. Later races made paper models and substituted drawings
for real objects and persons in these death sacrifices. It was a great advance
in civilization when the inheritance of kin replaced the burning and burying
of property. The Iroquois Indians made many reforms in funeral waste. And this
conservation of property enabled them to become the most powerful of the
northern red men. Modern man is not supposed to fear ghosts, but custom is
strong, and much terrestrial wealth is still consumed on funeral rituals and
death ceremonies.
3. ANCESTOR WORSHIP
87:3.1 The advancing ghost cult made ancestor
worship inevitable since it became the connecting link between common ghosts
and the higher spirits, the evolving gods. The early gods were simply
glorified departed humans.
87:3.2 Ancestor worship was originally more of a
fear than a worship, but such beliefs did definitely contribute to the further
spread of ghost fear and worship. Devotees of the early ancestor-ghost cults
even feared to yawn lest a malignant ghost enter their bodies at such a
time.
87:3.3 The custom of adopting children was to make
sure that some one would provide offerings after death for the peace and
progress of the soul. The savage lived in fear of the ghosts of his fellows
and spent his spare time planning for the safe conduct of his own ghost after
death.
87:3.4 Most tribes instituted an all-souls' feast at
least once a year. The Romans had twelve ghost feasts and accompanying
ceremonies each year. Half the days of the year were dedicated to some sort of
ceremony associated with these ancient cults. One Roman emperor tried to
reform these practices by reducing the number of feast days to 135 a year.
87:3.5 The ghost cult was in continuous evolution.
As ghosts were envisioned as passing from the incomplete to the higher phase
of existence, so did the cult eventually progress to the worship of spirits,
and even gods. But regardless of varying beliefs in more advanced spirits, all
tribes and races once believed in ghosts.
4. GOOD AND BAD SPIRIT GHOSTS
87:4.1 Ghost fear was the fountainhead of all world
religion; and for ages many tribes clung to the old belief in one class of
ghosts. They taught that man had good luck when the ghost was pleased, bad
luck when he was angered.
87:4.2 As the cult of ghost fear expanded, there
came about the recognition of higher types of spirits, spirits not definitely
identifiable with any individual human. They were graduate or glorified ghosts
who had progressed beyond the domain of ghostland to the higher realms of
spiritland.
87:4.3 The notion of two kinds of spirit ghosts made
slow but sure progress throughout the world. This new dual spiritism did not
have to spread from tribe to tribe; it sprang up independently all over the
world. In influencing the expanding evolutionary mind, the power of an idea
lies not in its reality or reasonableness but rather in its vividness
and the universality of its ready and simple application.
87:4.4 Still later the imagination of man envisioned
the concept of both good and bad supernatural agencies; some ghosts never
evolved to the level of good spirits. The early monospiritism of ghost fear
was gradually evolving into a dual spiritism, a new concept of the invisible
control of earthly affairs. At last good luck and bad luck were pictured as
having their respective controllers. And of the two classes, the group that
brought bad luck were believed to be the more active and numerous.
87:4.5 When the doctrine of good and bad spirits
finally matured, it became the most widespread and persistent of all religious
beliefs. This dualism represented a great religio-philosophic advance because
it enabled man to account for both good luck and bad luck while at the same
time believing in supermortal beings who were to some extent consistent in
their behavior. The spirits could be counted on to be either good or bad; they
were not thought of as being completely temperamental as the early ghosts of
the monospiritism of most primitive religions had been conceived to be. Man
was at last able to conceive of supermortal forces that were consistent in
behavior, and this was one of the most momentous discoveries of truth in the
entire history of the evolution of religion and in the expansion of human
philosophy.
87:4.6 Evolutionary religion has, however, paid a
terrible price for the concept of dual spiritism. Man's early philosophy was
able to reconcile spirit constancy with the vicissitudes of temporal fortune
only by postulating two kinds of spirits, one good and the other bad. And
while this belief did enable man to reconcile the variables of chance with a
concept of unchanging supermortal forces, this doctrine has ever since made it
difficult for religionists to conceive of cosmic unity. The gods of
evolutionary religion have generally been opposed by the forces of
darkness.
87:4.7 The tragedy of all this lies in the fact
that, when these ideas were taking root in the primitive mind of man, there
really were no bad or disharmonious spirits in all the world. Such an
unfortunate situation did not develop until after the Caligastic rebellion and
only persisted until Pentecost. The concept of good and evil as cosmic
co-ordinates is, even in the twentieth century, very much alive in human
philosophy; most of the world's religions still carry this cultural birthmark
of the long-gone days of the emerging ghost cults.
5. THE ADVANCING GHOST CULT
87:5.1 Primitive man viewed the spirits and ghosts
as having almost unlimited rights but no duties; the spirits were thought to
regard man as having manifold duties but no rights. The spirits were believed
to look down upon man as constantly failing in the discharge of his spiritual
duties. It was the general belief of mankind that ghosts levied a continuous
tribute of service as the price of noninterference in human affairs, and the
least mischance was laid to ghost activities. Early humans were so afraid they
might overlook some honor due the gods that, after they had sacrificed to all
known spirits, they did another turn to the "unknown gods," just to be
thoroughly safe.
87:5.2 And now the simple ghost cult is followed by
the practices of the more advanced and relatively complex spirit-ghost cult,
the service and worship of the higher spirits as they evolved in man's
primitive imagination. Religious ceremonial must keep pace with spirit
evolution and progress. The expanded cult was but the art of self-maintenance
practiced in relation to belief in supernatural beings, self-adjustment to
spirit environment. Industrial and military organizations were adjustments to
natural and social environments. And as marriage arose to meet the demands of
bisexuality, so did religious organization evolve in response to the belief in
higher spirit forces and spiritual beings. Religion represents man's
adjustment to his illusions of the mystery of chance. Spirit fear and
subsequent worship were adopted as insurance against misfortune, as prosperity
policies.
87:5.3 The savage visualizes the good spirits as
going about their business, requiring little from human beings. It is the bad
ghosts and spirits who must be kept in good humor. Accordingly, primitive
peoples paid more attention to their malevolent ghosts than to their benign
spirits.
87:5.4 Human prosperity was supposed to be
especially provocative of the envy of evil spirits, and their method of
retaliation was to strike back through a human agency and by the technique of
the evil eye. That phase of the cult which had to do with spirit
avoidance was much concerned with the machinations of the evil eye. The fear
of it became almost world-wide. Pretty women were veiled to protect them from
the evil eye; subsequently many women who desired to be considered beautiful
adopted this practice. Because of this fear of bad spirits, children were
seldom allowed out after dark, and the early prayers always included the
petition, "deliver us from the evil eye."
87:5.5 The Koran contains a whole chapter devoted to
the evil eye and magic spells, and the Jews fully believed in them. The whole
phallic cult grew up as a defense against evil eye. The organs of reproduction
were thought to be the only fetish which could render it powerless. The evil
eye gave origin to the first superstitions respecting prenatal marking of
children, maternal impressions, and the cult was at one time well-nigh
universal.
87:5.6 Envy is a deep-seated human trait; therefore
did primitive man ascribe it to his early gods. And since man had once
practiced deception upon the ghosts, he soon began to deceive the spirits.
Said he, "If the spirits are jealous of our beauty and prosperity, we will
disfigure ourselves and speak lightly of our success." Early humility was not,
therefore, debasement of ego but rather an attempt to foil and deceive the
envious spirits.
87:5.7 The method adopted to prevent the spirits
from becoming jealous of human prosperity was to heap vituperation upon some
lucky or much loved thing or person. The custom of depreciating complimentary
remarks regarding oneself or family had its origin in this way, and it
eventually evolved into civilized modesty, restraint, and courtesy. In keeping
with the same motive, it became the fashion to look ugly. Beauty aroused the
envy of spirits; it betokened sinful human pride. The savage sought for an
ugly name. This feature of the cult was a great handicap to the advancement of
art, and it long kept the world somber and ugly.
87:5.8 Under the spirit cult, life was at best a
gamble, the result of spirit control. One's future was not the result of
effort, industry, or talent except as they might be utilized to influence the
spirits. The ceremonies of spirit propitiation constituted a heavy burden,
rendering life tedious and virtually unendurable. From age to age and from
generation to generation, race after race has sought to improve this
superghost doctrine, but no generation has ever yet dared to wholly reject
it.
87:5.9 The intention and will of the spirits were
studied by means of omens, oracles, and signs. And these spirit messages were
interpreted by divination, soothsaying, magic, ordeals, and astrology. The
whole cult was a scheme designed to placate, satisfy, and buy off the spirits
through this disguised bribery.
87:5.10 And thus there grew up a new and expanded
world philosophy consisting in:
1. Duty -- those things which must be done
to keep the spirits favorably disposed, at least neutral.
2. Right -- the correct conduct and
ceremonies designed to win the spirits actively to one's interests.
3. Truth -- the correct understanding of,
and attitude toward, spirits, and hence toward life and death.
87:5.11 It was not merely out of curiosity that the
ancients sought to know the future; they wanted to dodge ill luck. Divination
was simply an attempt to avoid trouble. During these times, dreams were
regarded as prophetic, while everything out of the ordinary was considered an
omen. And even today the civilized races are cursed with the belief in signs,
tokens, and other superstitious remnants of the advancing ghost cult of old.
Slow, very slow, is man to abandon those methods whereby he so gradually and
painfully ascended the evolutionary scale of life.
6. COERCION AND EXORCISM
87:6.1 When men believed in ghosts only, religious
ritual was more personal, less organized, but the recognition of higher
spirits necessitated the employment of "higher spiritual methods" in dealing
with them. This attempt to improve upon, and to elaborate, the technique of
spirit propitiation led directly to the creation of defenses against the
spirits. Man felt helpless indeed before the uncontrollable forces operating
in terrestrial life, and his feeling of inferiority drove him to attempt to
find some compensating adjustment, some technique for evening the odds in the
one-sided struggle of man versus the cosmos.
87:6.2 In the early days of the cult, man's efforts
to influence ghost action were confined to propitiation, attempts by bribery
to buy off ill luck. As the evolution of the ghost cult progressed to the
concept of good as well as bad spirits, these ceremonies turned toward
attempts of a more positive nature, efforts to win good luck. Man's religion
no longer was completely negativistic, nor did he stop with the effort to win
good luck; he shortly began to devise schemes whereby he could compel spirit
co-operation. No longer does the religionist stand defenseless before the
unceasing demands of the spirit phantasms of his own devising; the savage is
beginning to invent weapons wherewith he may coerce spirit action and compel
spirit assistance.
87:6.3 Man's first efforts at defense were directed
against the ghosts. As the ages passed, the living began to devise methods of
resisting the dead. Many techniques were developed for frightening ghosts and
driving them away, among which may be cited the following:
1. Cutting off the head and tying up the body in
the grave.
2. Stoning the death house.
3. Castration or breaking the legs of the corpse.
4. Burying under stones, one origin of the modern
tombstone.
5. Cremation, a later-day invention to prevent
ghost trouble.
6. Casting the body into the sea.
7. Exposure of the body to be eaten by wild
animals.
87:6.4 Ghosts were supposed to be disturbed and
frightened by noise; shouting, bells, and drums drove them away from the
living; and these ancient methods are still in vogue at "wakes" for the dead.
Foul-smelling concoctions were utilized to banish unwelcome spirits. Hideous
images of the spirits were constructed so that they would flee in haste when
they beheld themselves. It was believed that dogs could detect the approach of
ghosts, and that they gave warning by howling; that cocks would crow when they
were near. The use of a cock as a weather vane is in perpetuation of this
superstition.
87:6.5 Water was regarded as the best protection
against ghosts. Holy water was superior to all other forms, water in which the
priests had washed their feet. Both fire and water were believed to constitute
impassable barriers to ghosts. The Romans carried water three times around the
corpse; in the twentieth century the body is sprinkled with holy water, and
hand washing at the cemetery is still a Jewish ritual. Baptism was a feature
of the later water ritual; primitive bathing was a religious ceremony. Only in
recent times has bathing become a sanitary practice.
87:6.6 But man did not stop with ghost coercion;
through religious ritual and other practices he was soon attempting to compel
spirit action. Exorcism was the employment of one spirit to control or banish
another, and these tactics were also utilized for frightening ghosts and
spirits. The dual-spiritism concept of good and bad forces offered man ample
opportunity to attempt to pit one agency against another, for, if a powerful
man could vanquish a weaker one, then certainly a strong spirit could dominate
an inferior ghost. Primitive cursing was a coercive practice designed to
overawe minor spirits. Later this custom expanded into the pronouncing of
curses upon enemies.
87:6.7 It was long believed that by reverting to the
usages of the more ancient mores the spirits and demigods could be forced into
desirable action. Modern man is guilty of the same procedure. You address one
another in common, everyday language, but when you engage in prayer, you
resort to the older style of another generation, the so-called solemn
style.
87:6.8 This doctrine also explains many
religious-ritual reversions of a sex nature, such as temple prostitution.
These reversions to primitive customs were considered sure guards against many
calamities. And with these simple-minded peoples all such performances were
entirely free from what modern man would term promiscuity.
87:6.9 Next came the practice of ritual vows, soon
to be followed by religious pledges and sacred oaths. Most of these oaths were
accompanied by self-torture and self-mutilation; later on, by fasting and
prayer. Self-denial was subsequently looked upon as being a sure coercive;
this was especially true in the matter of sex suppression. And so primitive
man early developed a decided austerity in his religious practices, a belief
in the efficacy of self-torture and self-denial as rituals capable of coercing
the unwilling spirits to react favorably toward all such suffering and
deprivation.
87:6.10 Modern man no longer attempts openly to
coerce the spirits, though he still evinces a disposition to bargain with
Deity. And he still swears, knocks on wood, crosses his fingers, and follows
expectoration with some trite phrase; once it was a magical formula.
7. NATURE OF CULTISM
87:7.1 The cult type of social organization
persisted because it provided a symbolism for the preservation and stimulation
of moral sentiments and religious loyalties. The cult grew out of the
traditions of "old families" and was perpetuated as an established
institution; all families have a cult of some sort. Every inspiring ideal
grasps for some perpetuating symbolism -- seeks some technique for cultural
manifestation which will insure survival and augment realization -- and the
cult achieves this end by fostering and gratifying emotion.
87:7.2 From the dawn of civilization every appealing
movement in social culture or religious advancement has developed a ritual, a
symbolic ceremonial. The more this ritual has been an unconscious growth, the
stronger it has gripped its devotees. The cult preserved sentiment and
satisfied emotion, but it has always been the greatest obstacle to social
reconstruction and spiritual progress.
87:7.3 Notwithstanding that the cult has always
retarded social progress, it is regrettable that so many modern believers in
moral standards and spiritual ideals have no adequate symbolism -- no cult of
mutual support -- nothing to belong to. But a religious cult cannot be
manufactured; it must grow. And those of no two groups will be identical
unless their rituals are arbitrarily standardized by authority.
87:7.4 The early Christian cult was the most
effective, appealing, and enduring of any ritual ever conceived or devised,
but much of its value has been destroyed in a scientific age by the
destruction of so many of its original underlying tenets. The Christian cult
has been devitalized by the loss of many fundamental ideas.
87:7.5 In the past, truth has grown rapidly and
expanded freely when the cult has been elastic, the symbolism expansile.
Abundant truth and an adjustable cult have favored rapidity of social
progression. A meaningless cult vitiates religion when it attempts to supplant
philosophy and to enslave reason; a genuine cult grows.
87:7.6 Regardless of the drawbacks and handicaps,
every new revelation of truth has given rise to a new cult, and even the
restatement of the religion of Jesus must develop a new and appropriate
symbolism. Modern man must find some adequate symbolism for his new and
expanding ideas, ideals, and loyalties. This enhanced symbol must arise out of
religious living, spiritual experience. And this higher symbolism of a higher
civilization must be predicated on the concept of the Fatherhood of God and be
pregnant with the mighty ideal of the brotherhood of man.
87:7.7 The old cults were too egocentric; the new
must be the outgrowth of applied love. The new cult must, like the old, foster
sentiment, satisfy emotion, and promote loyalty; but it must do more: It must
facilitate spiritual progress, enhance cosmic meanings, augment moral values,
encourage social development, and stimulate a high type of personal religious
living. The new cult must provide supreme goals of living which are both
temporal and eternal -- social and spiritual.
87:7.8 No cult can endure and contribute to the
progress of social civilization and individual spiritual attainment unless it
is based on the biologic, sociologic, and religious significance of the
home. A surviving cult must symbolize that which is permanent in the
presence of unceasing change; it must glorify that which unifies the stream of
ever-changing social metamorphosis. It must recognize true meanings, exalt
beautiful relations, and glorify the good values of real nobility.
87:7.9 But the great difficulty of finding a new and
satisfying symbolism is because modern men, as a group, adhere to the
scientific attitude, eschew superstition, and abhor ignorance, while as
individuals they all crave mystery and venerate the unknown. No cult can
survive unless it embodies some masterful mystery and conceals some worthful
unattainable. Again, the new symbolism must not only be significant for the
group but also meaningful to the individual. The forms of any serviceable
symbolism must be those which the individual can carry out on his own
initiative, and which he can also enjoy with his fellows. If the new cult
could only be dynamic instead of static, it might really contribute something
worth while to the progress of mankind, both temporal and
spiritual.
87:7.10 But a cult -- a symbolism of rituals,
slogans, or goals -- will not function if it is too complex. And there must be
the demand for devotion, the response of loyalty. Every effective religion
unerringly develops a worthy symbolism, and its devotees would do well to
prevent the crystallization of such a ritual into cramping, deforming, and
stifling stereotyped ceremonials which can only handicap and retard all
social, moral, and spiritual progress. No cult can survive if it retards moral
growth and fails to foster spiritual progress. The cult is the skeletal
structure around which grows the living and dynamic body of personal spiritual
experience -- true religion.
87:7.11 Presented
by a Brilliant Evening Star of Nebadon.
