I would like to address Willows statement regarding the garden of Eden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Willows quote," you will NEVER understand until you understand what happened in the Garden of Eden ."
Yes,
Delve more deeply into other ancient societies that also have the tree or axis mundi or sacred pole to understand this more clearly, You state we need to understand the happenings in the Garden of Eden in order to fully understand God.
I say you need to more fully understand the ancients and where this distorted myth comes from.
Also,
Lets say there is a God, this supernatural being or creative force of the universe is above mankind and capable of creating the universe so this supreme being must be beyond our human short comings, yet, the Bible seem to make God human with humans emotions as in,
Anthropomorphism,
In the history of religion, anthropomorphism refers to the depiction of God in a human image, with human bodily form and emotions, such as jealousy, wrath, or love.
I also found something of interest in the book ,"The Sacred And The Profane."
To understand the mind set of ancient man perhaps this will make their view of the world around them more understandable.
One of the outstanding characteristics of tradition in societies is the opposition that they assume between "their "
inhabited territory and the
"unknown space" that surrounds them.
The former is their world, cosmos.
Everything outside it is no longer a cosmos but a sort of "other world" a "foreign chaotic space" peopled by ghosts, demons, and souls of the dead.
The space they occupy becomes sacred in a sense, it fixes the limits and establishes the order of the world.( they) inhabit).
Then we must perform the consecration of a place a cosmic axis, the sacred pole then the territory becomes inhabitable and transformed into a world.
According to the [the Achilpa] stories, their world was created by a deity named Numbakula. He not only made the world; he also created the ancestors of the people and lived with them for a time in order to establish their way of life.
When he had finished his work of creation,
Numbakula made
a pole
from the trunk of a gum
tree.
Upon anointing the pole with blood, he climbed it and disappeared into the sky.
The Achilpa kept the pole as their most sacred possession and it stood at the center of their lives, reminding them of the ways that had been established for them by Numbakula.
They used the pole to direct their nomadic movements.
When they were ready to move to a new location, they consulted the pole and moved in the direction in which it leaned.
It was always taken with them and carefully protected. Baldwin Spencer and F. J. Gillen, who lived among the Achilpa for a time, described what happened once when the sacred pole was broken.
The people were very disturbed and confused and seemed to wander about aimlessly for a time until finally they all lay down on the ground to await the death they thought was to come. . . .
The Achilpa, by carrying their sacred pole with them and by erecting it wherever they camp, are asserting the meaning and order revealed by the deity Numbakula upon the temporary space in which they live.
It is the point from which all their activities gain orientation. It signals the basic distinctions which give them identity and by which they cohere. It is the channel through which they may continue to communicate with Numbakula, who lives in the sky. And through it Numbakula can communicate with the people, telling them, among other things, which way to travel. Even though it moves with them, the pole is the fixed point, the point of origin, the point giving meaning about which their lives are ordered.
Seen in this way it is little wonder the Achilpa were so upset and even submitted to death when their sacred pole was broken.
Symbolically they were
cut off from their deity,
from their heritage, from the order and orientation of their world. Without this center, they were symbolically in a state of chaos. Their aimless wandering and submission to death show the degree to which they found the meaning of their lives and livelihoods linked to their sacred pole. It was no ornament, no vacuous symbol, no superstition. It was the center and source of meaning in their whole way of life.
The axis Mundi or cosmic pillar can be found in other cosmological images and religious beliefs. Holy sites and sanctuaries are believed to be situated at the center of the world, temples are replicas of the cosmic mountain "link" between heaven and earth. Foundations of temples descend deep into lower regions.
The ziggurat was probably not the place of public worship or ceremonies, but rather the house of God. Through the ziggurat, the gods could be close to mankind. The cults performed in the ziggurats were limited to the priests, and their assignments were to provide for all the needs of the gods.
There are several ideas about the symbolic meaning behind the ziggurats. One is that they were reconstruction's of the mountain temples that the new inhabitants to Mesopotamia used to erect while they lived in either the Taurus (now Turkey) or the Zagros Mountains (now Iran).
Another theory tells that the ziggurat was a reconstruction of the cosmic mountain from the creation myths.
A third theory tells us that the ziggurat was built as a bridge between heaven and earth. All three theories can be true at the same time, at least in part.
The same tradition is found among the Hebrews, The rock of the Temple in Jerusalem reaches deep into the "Tehom" the Hebrew equivalent of the Babylonian Apsu. and just as Babylon had the Gate of Absu the temple had the "mouth of the tehom.
"They symbolize chaos of waters, Our world is always situated at the center.
Palestine and Jerusalem all present an imago mundi, the holy place represents the earth, the Holy of Holies, the heavens.
The imagined heavens has its counterpart as this center sacred space on earth, the image of the universe in the center of the world , the religious man sought to live as close to this center as possible, but then where ever that man is then there must be his center.
His living in this center assured his communicating with the gods.
So as the wandering Achilpa carried their sacred pole so where ever they lived there was their center.
A universe comes to birth from its center a core, a central point, like an embryo grows from the navel, so God created the world from the navel, and from there it spread out in all directions. The Hebrew traditions state and "so the world was created beginning with Zion."
I was reading this web page and a thought occurred to me........
Page not found - North Park UniversityKing Shoshenq held tremendous power, and the accounts of his massive invasion represent the first recorded use of cavalry in battle (Sassoon 291, 710). The aggressive attack also resulted in the permanent removal of Jerusalem's sacred temple treasures (including the Ark of the Covenant), which had a tremendous impact on the nation. Notice,
attack also resulted in the permanent removal of Jerusalem's sacred temple treasures (including the Ark of the Covenant)
This reminds me of the story of the Achilpa, by carrying their Sacred pole with them
(not unlike the Hebrews,
who carried there sacred Ark everywhere with them)
. And by erecting it wherever they camp, are asserting the meaning and order revealed by the deity Numbakula upon the temporary space in which they live. It say it had a tremendous impact on the nation, in like manner I remember the impact it had on the Achilpa.
The Achilpa were so upset and even submitted to death when their sacred pole was broken. Symbolically they were cut off from their deity, from their heritage, from the order and orientation of their world. Without this center, they were symbolically in a state of chaos. Their aimless wandering and submission to death show the degree to which they found the meaning of their lives and livelihoods linked to their sacred pole.
I just thought that I saw some similarities here.
The Sun Dance Ceremony
Held annually in the summer the central pole is erected, representing the world axis, atop is a buffalo skull.
Everything is the sacred geography of the sun dance is significant and aligned directionally on an east-west axis. It is based on the concept of sacrifice, not unlike,
Medic
Judaism
and Christianity.
The warrior dancer attached skewers through their chest muscles thus manifesting the link to the heart of the sacred pole or cosmic axis. "The center pole contains all the power of the universe and the dancers are connected to the pole by an invisible cord coming from the tree and penetrating into their heart. "Now it is important to note that their ancient myths represented links to the Celestial world.
This is in response to Willows comment," you will NEVER understand until you understand what happened in the Garden of Eden ."
Exactly, we wont.
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