The following references is not a complete list of all the sources I used to create this blog series. To include all the reference material I’ve looked at over the past few years would be an exceedingly long list of about a thousand entries. Rather, this reference list is designed more to give a general indication of where others can look if they want to look up some of the key themes that I’ve mentioned. I’ve also listed the sources of images that I used, which are mostly from Wikipedia because that is a reliable source for non copyrighted pictures; I have not relied upon Wikipedia for content.
Akar, M. E., Taskin, O., Yucel, I., & Akar, Y. (2004). The effect of the menstrual cycle on optic nerve head analysis in healthy women. Acta Ophthalmologica Scandinavica, 82(6), 741–745. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0420.2004.00351.x
Borrowman, S. (2008). The Islamization of Rhetoric : Ibn Rushd and the Reintroduction of Aristotle into Medieval Europe. Rhetoric Review, 27(4), 341–360. https://www.jstor.org/stable/25655914
Burns, W. E. (2003). Science in the Enlightenment : an encyclopedia. Abc-Clio.
Cartwright, M. (2018, October 24). Aphrodite. Ancient History Encyclopedia; Ancient History Encyclopedia. https://www.ancient.eu/Aphrodite/
Christopoulos, M. (1991). The spell of Orpheus [Orpheus and the orphic religious movement]. Mètis. Anthropologie Des Mondes Grecs Anciens, 6(1), 205–222. https://doi.org/10.3406/metis.1991.969
Deacon, T. W. (2007). The symbolic species : the co-evolution of language and the brain. International Society For Science And Religion.
Duke, G. (2020). Sophists | Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. https://iep.utm.edu/sophists/
Dyble, M., Salali, G. D., Chaudhary, N., Page, A., Smith, D., Thompson, J., Vinicius, L., Mace, R., & Migliano, A. B. (2015). Sex equality can explain the unique social structure of hunter-gatherer bands. Science, 348(6236), 796–798. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aaa5139
Eisner, A., Burke, S. N., & Toomey, M. D. (2004). Visual sensitivity across the menstrual cycle. Visual Neuroscience, 21(4), 513–531. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0952523804214031
Gomme, A. W. (1925). The Position of Women in Athens in the Fifth and Fourth Centuries. Classical Philology, 20(1), 1–25. https://www.jstor.org/stable/262574
Grams, L. (2020). Hipparchia | Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. https://iep.utm.edu/hipparch/
Hill, L. (2001). THE FIRST WAVE OF FEMINISM: WERE THE STOICS FEMINISTS? History of Political Thought, 22(1), 13–40. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26219818
Jackson, L. (1995). Witches, wives and mothers: witchcraft persecution and women’s confessions in seventeenth-century England. Women’s History Review, 4(1), 63–84. https://doi.org/10.1080/09612029500200075
Jordan, C. (1983). Feminism and the Humanists: The Case of Sir Thomas Elyot’s Defence of Good Women. Renaissance Quarterly, 36(2), 181–201. https://doi.org/10.2307/2860868
Kimball, J. (1987). From Eve to Helen: Stages of the Anima-Figure in Joyce’s “Ulysses.” Mosaic: A Journal for the Interdisciplinary Study of Literature, 20(2), 29–40. https://www.jstor.org/stable/24777609
Lupo, K. D., & Schmitt, D. N. (2002). Upper Paleolithic Net-Hunting, Small Prey Exploitation, and Women’s Work Effort: A View from the Ethnographic and Ethnoarchaeological Record of the Congo Basin. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory, 9(2), 147–179. https://www.jstor.org/stable/20177458
Martín-VelascoM. J. (2016). Greek philosophy and mystery cults (BlancoM. J. G., Ed.). Newcastle Upon Tyne Cambridge Scholars Publis.
Nilsson, M. P. (1935). Early Orphism and Kindred Religious Movements. The Harvard Theological Review, 28(3), 181–230. https://www.jstor.org/stable/1508326
Piering, J. (2020). Cynics | Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. https://iep.utm.edu/cynics/
Schiebinger, L. (1986). Skeletons in the Closet: The First Illustrations of the Female Skeleton in Eighteenth-Century Anatomy. Representations, 14, 42–82. https://doi.org/10.2307/2928435
Skoglund, P., Malmström, H., Raghavan, M., Storå, J., Hall, P., Willerslev, E., Gilbert, M. T. P., Götherström, A., & Jakobsson, M. (2012). Origins and Genetic Legacy of Neolithic Farmers and Hunter-Gatherers in Europe. Science, 336(6080), 466–469. https://www.jstor.org/stable/41584659
Tralau, J. (2017). Cannibalism, Vegetarianism, and the Community of Sacrifice: Rediscovering Euripides’ Cretans and the Beginnings of Political Philosophy. Classical Philology, 112(4), 435–455. https://doi.org/10.1086/694569
What I have written in this series is true and accurate to the best of my current knowledge. As I learn more, my opinions and viewpoints may change. Others are welcome to disagree with my conclusions. In such cases, I’m interested in hearing information from additional sources that may help to improve and/or expand my understandings.
As many have said, knowledge is power. I feel empowered by what I have learned through my research into occult symbols. Like my interpretation of Durer’s Melancholia, I once felt overwhelmed and crowded by symbols that I thought I *ought* to know. Now, life feels more like a journey of in which I’m free to create my own path opposed to feeling like I need to discover set milestones and met a specific destination. Feelings. They are important.
For many people, my realisation that teachings of love are at the heart of Christianity will be of no surprise. For thousands of years, people have gathered together, praying, given thanks, and practiced Love. For me the journey has been different. I had to dissect ancient symbols from the Bible and elsewhere. I had to pull them all apart, examine their shape, form, colour, texture, and tone, and see what was inside. I needed to check my psychology books and the latest neuroscience studies. I was convinced that I needed to use my mind to work out the riddles and intellectualise the symbols before coming to a firm conclusion of their meaning. But I finally get it, some symbols can only being understood by emotional experience. Love needs to be felt, not intellectualised.
I’ve come to the conclusion that blending Love with the Creative impulse is what matters most in life. The Bible says God is our Creator and that our Creator greatest gift is Love. The Bible also says we are made in his image. Love and Creation. I think my mind could ponder upon these concepts for a lifetime, maybe more.
Throughout my posts, I have been very critical of the Roman Catholic Church. I have used it as the centre piece to explain patriarchal dominance and the damage it can create (especially if blended with religious ideology), but it is by no means the only cult that encourages misogyny that has become a culture. But it is my culture. It was the cult I was raised in. It is what I can speak about with authenticity. (Scholars of other faiths are better positioned to speak authenticity about their experiences and insights, e.g., Sachiko Murata, author of The Tao of Islam.)
Do I feel like my “parents” lied to me about some of the meanings of symbolic gestures, just like my son felt lied to when he found out Santa Claus was not real? Yes, I do feel lied to. Can the Catholic Church ever be trusted? Yes, I think it can. To explain, I need to first tell of an experience I had when working in a government school over ten years ago.
I was required to teach a woodwork class. This was fine, I have university level training in woodwork (which I was required to show the school’s technology coordinator; note, this is the only school in which I have every been asked to prove my qualifications, and I suspect this coordinator never asked the same of male teachers … in fact I know some of the male teachers in the technology department did not have qualifications in woodwork). The class was all boys, 15-16 years olds. In the second lesson, one of them said: “Shouldn’t we be teaching you woodwork?”
“Why?” I asked him. I knew what he was implying but I wanted to see how brazen he was.
“Because you’re a woman and we are males!” He said with confidence, and the whole class burst into laughter.
I was shocked that he could be so blatantly sexist.
The student was reprimanded by the female vice principal. But the problem didn’t stop there. Sexism never stops at just one comment. The boys refused to listen to me. To them, the fact that I had female genitals seemed to equal no brain or skills in woodwork. It was the toughest semester of teaching I’ve ever endured. I began to question my identity and self worth. Was I being true to my femininity by teaching woodwork? I’d asked myself this question while doing my teacher training but seeing as I was within an environment of twenty or so other female woodwork teachers, it was a no brainer. Further, on my teaching rounds and in other brief wood working teaching roles, my gender had not been an issue. Now, however, I would walk into classes almost shaking because I knew if I made any slip ups, like using the drill without pre-checking the last person hadn’t left in reverse then it would not be seen as simple error that anyone could make, it would be seen as an excuse to ridicule me for being female. I had some support from a few male colleagues, but there were also a couple of staff members who were closet chauvinists who sided with the boys.
A few years later, I was offered a position teaching woodwork at a Catholic boys school. I wanted to take it because it was closer to home than my current position (which was at an Islamic school; I loved teaching at the Islamic school but it was 1.5 hours away from my home), but I feared being subjected to the same abuse I’d encountered at the government school, so I told the agency who offered me the position that I didn’t think I could take the position. I was encouraged to go to the interview anyway before completely rejecting the offer. As soon as I entered the school, which was the first time I’d entered a Catholic school since being a teenage student (I left half way through year nine due to bullying issues), I felt a since of warmth that I was not expecting. The vice principal met me with a grin and said: “I heard you’re worried about teaching woodwork to boys. Don’t worry they are used to it, the woodwork teacher you’re filling for is female. If you have any issues, we’ll deal with it.”
I took the position and I’m glad I did. It was one of the most amazing teaching experiences I’ve ever had. All the staff were supportive, not just to me, but to each other. People listened to each other with compassion and every effort was made to ensure I did not experience any sexist attitudes from the students. I was made to feel welcome every day I entered the buildings. Full truth be told, while I was teaching at the school, I was also dealing with an uterine tumour. A few weeks before the end of my contract I was told the tumour might be cancerous. I contemplated keeping the news from my colleagues, but I didn’t. The technology coordinator on more than one occasion had openly mentioned that himself and many members of his immediate family had faced the challenge of overcoming cancerous tumours. He’d also freely said that a workplace was a person’s main social outlet, therefore, if people weren’t able to open with those they worked with, then most of lives were lived in a state of pretentiousness. When I told him of my predicament, he gave me one of the most sincere hugs I’ve ever experienced. Gone were the hierarchal titles of coordinator and teacher, contract worker and permanent staff. It was a human to human interaction of compassion. I’d finished my contact by the time I’d found out the tumour was benign but he was on the list of people I had to tell my good news to. I learned a valuable lesson: love requires openness, authenticity, and vulnerability in order to be shared. (My studies of trauma confirm this to be true, namely, due to Brené Brown work on shame and vulnerability.)
I loved the experience of teaching at an all boys school so much that I looked for more opportunities to do so. For my second time employed at a Catholic boys school I was required to teach art, however, the school did have a female teacher in their technology department. Once again, I felt like I was in a supportive environment. Likewise, in other Catholic schools I’ve worked at that have been co-educational or all girls, I have been met with what my technical mind would describe as trauma-informed environments, albeit they did not call themselves that. Some of the examples of charity and care that I’ve witnessed in Catholic education are so moving they’ll stay with me forever. For example, I witnessed another staff member having a break down to which the leadership went above and beyond to support them, and at a school with a high number of refuges, we were given professional development about the war and Sudanese culture so as us we could better understand the children we were teaching. None of these schools expected or demanded that the students be Catholic, it was all done in the name of love.
If by chance, my writings reach the Vatican, then I hope that the Pope responds with the word “sorry”. The issues I have brought up, such the hidden sexist Aristotelian influence in theology, not allowing women access to an education, and not being forthright about the meaning of symbols, are all things done in the past but the repercussions are still felt today. Forgiveness is an aspect of love. Forgiveness comes after confessions of transgressions. The Catholic Church knows this. Perhaps the Pope has been waiting for someone to confront the Church about its transgressions before apologising?
As most people know, Catholic schools have had a bad wrap because of historical sexual abuse allegations. In my observations this has been taken very seriously, and great efforts to protect children have been implemented. Specifically, in both boys schools that I worked at I saw explicit and implicit efforts made to ensure history did not repeat itself and that, if necessary, those affected were provided support to heal. In other words, learning from the past has occurred. The Catholic Church is not perfect, nor is it a single person or bunch of doctrines, like all religions, it a group of people.
In 2008, Pope Benedict XVI apologised in Australia for historical sexual abuse by priests and clergymen, and in do so, contributed to the improved culture within Catholic schools which I have been privy to observing. In a similar vein, the Australian government has apologised for the abusive treatment of First Nation People; this did not change the past but it has helped to redirect the future in such away that active measures are being to taken to ensure support is offered to heal the collective trauma. The anecdotal evidence is clear, apologies from leadership help set the tone for followers to re-evaluate their own beliefs, attitudes, assumptions, and behaviours, and prevent further abuses.
Until the atrocities of the Church’s past are recognised and apologised for, moving ahead is challenging. However, it must be made clear that Christianity and/or the Catholic Church are not necessarily the adverse influence. If an “enemy” must be identified, then that entity is Roman culture, a culture that began as a small cult of people who occupied a very small region of Italy, Rome, in 500BC. Most of Ancient Italy was dominated by the Etruscans; a culture that had values that emulated gender egalitarian. In fact Ancient Greeks of the Classical era were shocked that Etruscan women had as many freedoms as Etruscan men. The Etruscans were a fun loving culture with sincere family values that can still be found amongst contemporary Italians. (My research suggests Greeks adopted patriarchy along with many other beliefs from the Persians; the Mesopotamian region has a long history of patriarchal leadership that stems back to the Sumerian era.)
Over the span of a few hundred years, Roman’s took control of western civilisations by rebranding and reinventing many facets of other cultures. A pinnacle point was when they seized a Phoenician boat (Hebrew’s called the Phoenicians Canaanites), took it apart, then rebuilt it with improved engineering. By doing so they were to able to win water battles against the Phoenicians and decimate Carthage. Winning the wars (called the Punic wars, 264 – 146 BC) gave the Romans leverage and paved the way for them to dominate the Mediterranean region. I’m not sure how to feel about this. The people of Carthage were sacrificing children to their Gods, a practice despised by Romans, Greeks, Hebrews, and many others, including myself. But was it necessary to wipe out a culture that demanded human sacrifices? Or was it possible to persuaded the Carthaginians to stop murdering their babies by another means? Anyway, that’s not what happened, and Roman’s went on to slaughter thousands of people, including Etruscans, Druids, Celts, Gauls, and others who may or may not have practiced human sacrifices.
Whenever the Roman’s took over a populated region, they would take apart all that they considered to be of value. Basically, they’d reverse engineer then put things back together with a Roman touch. They did this to physical objects (like Phoenician boats and Greek architecture) and to conceptual objects, like Greek literature, hence, Zeus became Jupiter, Hera became Juno, Poseidon became Neptune, Aphrodite became Venus, and so forth. The Roman versions are not completely equivalent to the Greek; the Greek concepts took on Roman attributes and values, but history doesn’t always make that distinction clear (for example, the myth of Narcissus is often referred to a a Greek myth but it was written by a Roman, Ovid, who studied Greek literature then emulated the style in Latin). Likewise, when Emperor Constantine took over Christianity, the attributes and values of Early Christianity became Romanised.
It is not always easy to pierce through the Roman coating of Christianity; it’s armour is thick but not completely impenetrable. By the way, the tradition of knights, as in Christian knights, with armour and all that stuff, began with Roman equestrian cavalry. Likewise, contemporary ideals of romance also stem from Roman culture, i.e., courting rituals of the Romans were regarded as being perfect, hence, to be “roman”-tic was to behave like a Roman. And, Romance languages (French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, etc.), you guessed it, evolved from the Roman language of Latin.
Roman culture has its merits. Hence, it has endured for over two thousand years. Romans had a knack for reworking the best of cultures, albeit, by adapting and readapting the ideas of others they could be considered professional plagiarisers. Or they could be considered to be innovators, artists or creators who built upon existing knowledge to form new ideas, inventions, and ways of doing things. Whether or not all Roman versions of things are better than the original may come down to matter of opinions and/or a realisation that history is made up of people, and people do not fit into neat categories of absolutes.
The Roman Empire has been crumbling into a slow demise for a very long time – the Western Roman Empire began to fall in 395, sparked by battles with the Visigoths, and Eastern Roman Empire fell in 1453, due to battles with Muslims. The Latin language is a dead but Rome lives on in many other forms
Is it fair of me to lump the majority of patriarchal sins and Christianity’s transgressions upon a a group of people and a culture that has diminished? Maybe, maybe not. Or maybe the Roman Empire has finally fallen because the majority of people, people of all genders who have access to education, no longer support Roman values?
It is very difficult for one to leave the cult that they are born into, moreover, the culture that is most familiar to them. About ten years ago, I was fortunate to be able to do a couple of brief visits to Europe as a tourist. High on my priority list was visiting Catholic sites of significance, like the Vatican and various cathedrals. I wanted to see these places even though I’d officially left my Catholicism behind in 1993 when I stopped attending regular mass services. One of the things that stood out for me while traveling was how at “home” I felt in Italy. I have no Italian relatives and apart from a few Italian words that I learned in primary school, technically I have no connection to the country. Therefore, I suspect my bond had something to do with my of awe of the artworks, artefacts, and architecture that I’d appreciated from a far for a very long time. Then and now, I have an uneasy feeling about how they were funded (indulgence revenue), nonetheless, I cannot imagine a world without the masterpieces of Michelangelo, Da Vinci, Raphael, Tintoretto, Botticelli, Caravaggio, Donatello, Titian, and many more. When push comes to shove, I do not wish to see the destruction of Catholicism, but I do hope the Church has the courage to look back upon its past and take steps away from hierarchical doctrines and move towards embracing the core principle of Early Christianity: Love.
At the start of this series of blogs I described my passion for art, history, and psychology that drove me to conduct in-depth research. Now, I must make a final confession. I have had an alternate motive. I have a loved one who is ensnared in a destructive cult. They have been told many lies. Amidst the cult leader’s claims, is that they are teaching the doctrines of Early Christians. The cult does not affiliate themselves with any organised order, however, the characteristics of their leader are recognisable in many Christian cults across time and cultures. This particular cult leader claims their interpretation of Biblical symbolism is more true than any others. I can see how they got it all wrong. History is full of examples of people who have done likewise.
How can this cult leader be judged as a false prophet, a wolf in sheep’s clothings? Simple, their theology and associated doctrines cause harm. They do not put love and healing in the forefront of their teachings. Specifically, they interpret symbols too literally, like blood and disease. They think that to honour God, real blood ties must be broken, and they overlook the role of the nervous system in healing. Further, they interpret the Book of Revelation to be about the end of the world because they do not see that the horseman with a cloak dipped in blood is a cloak dipped in love. The Book of Revelation is not an apocalypse, despite the face value of some of the symbols. When the space between the objects are seen then the Book of Revelation is a document of hope, it prophecies love conquering evil.
Loosing my loved one from my life has turned my world upside down and inside out. In my desire to understand how it happened, I was compelled to reexamine things I thought knew but as it turned out, I did not know as much as I thought I did. Above all, I’ve had to re-examine my beliefs and my faith; moreover, where these came from.
To say one must drink blood the blood of Jesus in order to have salvation, is a curious thing. But when I silence my mind and sit in quiet contemplation, I become consciously aware of the sensation of blood circulating through my body and the functioning of my heart, and then I get this feeling that makes me wonder, how else is one supposed to describe the complexities of love?
A human seeing love is saved and their victory that lasts forever.
Appropriation of Isaiah 45:17 by Renée
To my dear loved one, I dedicate all my research and these writings.
As psychologist Terrence William Deacon says, humans are a symbolic species. Across communication forms we use symbols to convey complex meanings. At an iconic level, symbols are easy to interpret, however, at an advanced level, they are difficult and cannot be understood without education.
Woodcut illustration from an edition of Pliny the Elder’s Naturalis Historia, 1582
Source: Wikipedia
For most of human history, education has been a privilege only few have had access to. Mostly, but not always, it has been men who have dominated systems of learning. Knowledge was hidden from most of the population, and virtually all women, hence it is no surprise that once literacy levels began to increase there was a surge of interest in what was unknown, forgotten, or occult. The learning of hidden symbols has a mystical quality to it, especially when considered in relation to religious examples.
All religions use symbols to explain theology, perform rituals, and express faith; that is simply human nature. At face value, the term occult is benign, as it reflects the notion that complex symbolism is hidden until an initiate is educated to knowledge; however, over the years the word has picked up negative connotations. The Catholic Church has been one of the main players in contributing to the idea that religious practices that use symbols with hidden meanings are evil; although, this appears to be biased because hidden Church symbols are considered to be Holy.
Ultimately, whether or not a religious group, that is a cult, is destructive or beneficial needs to be assessed in accordance with whether or not practitioners are harmed or healed, not the symbols that they use.
It is only in very recent history (the past few decades) that things have really begun to change, especially in terms of most people of all genders having access to basic education. As time progresses, there is probably going to be a lot of hidden knowledge that is unearthed. For example, a lost city of Egypt has recently been discovered near Luxor and new Greek treasures found at the temple of Artemis. Advanced research technologies and access to information via the internet are facilitating a new form of Renaissance, the likes of which we probably cannot fully fathom until several more years into the future.
Humans have a long history of being fascinated with the supernatural, the unseen, the spiritual. The tenants of such beliefs need to be viewed alongside and intertwined with examinations of symbolism. Contemporary psychology research supports the hypothesis that the meaning of any symbol is only as powerful as that which humans give it. And how much power a person attributes to a symbol needs to be assessed in conjunction with their personal beliefs, cultural influences, and historical context.
Trying to interpret symbols out of the historical and cultural context of their makers is to re-tell a new story. Sometimes it is fine to do so, other times it can lead to great error, like mistakingly thinking that Cleopatra really wore a corset (reference: Giambattista Tiepolo The Banquet of Cleopatra, 1743-1744). In modern media studies, awareness of visual communication often comes under the discipline of Codes and Conventions. To put it briefly, these are written and symbolic devices used to convey meaning. Mass media work by specified codes; artists can use mass media codes and conversations or they may invent their own symbolism.
Symbols have the capacity to unite people and evoke a sense of belonging through their shared meanings. Symbols can also confuse and isolate people if they are not privy to the visual code that others are using. On this note, there is an element of fun and intrigue in cracking so-called occult symbolism.
And lastly, sometimes, the meanings of symbols can appear hidden but really, it could just be a question of Can You See the Turtles?
Up until this point, religious institutions had dominated education, with the exception of Germany which mandated some form of state education be provided to boys from the late sixteenth century. In other places around Europe and Australia, state run education was introduced in a piecemeal fashion throughout the 1800s, albeit, initially boys were expected to attend and girls were not. By roughly the beginning of the 1900s education was mostly mandatory for both genders, however, some subjects (like woodwork and advanced sciences) were solely for boys and other subjects (like needlework and cooking) were solely for girls. As for women entering universities, to do so was still an exception thwarted with challenges. Certain fields of study, like medicine, were specifically off limits. For example, in 1900 Italy, Maria Montessori (1870 – 1952) had to get written permission from the Pope in order to study to become a doctor.
Montessori was Italy’s first female physician. Her speciality area was children with disabilities and in addition to caring for their physical health, she observed that practical craft and art activities helped them. She went on to study philosophy and psychology, then developed an education system based on her scientific-based observations of child development. Montessori believed that lack of support for children was the cause of delinquency. Further, when children were placed in environments appropriate for their age, they developed as individuals with reduced personality issues and a healthy social conscience. Montessori education continues today and is considered to be a holistic approach that recognises a child’s whole being, physically, mentally, and emotionally. Montessori was nominated for a Nobel prize in three consecutive years prior to her death.
It strikes me as odd that women have long been typecast as natural mother’s and experts in raising children, but when a woman trained professionally in that area, her scientific skills and observations went unrecognised by academia. I wonder if that is because universities have a tradition of being boys clubs?
By the 1900s Aristotle based education had mostly been abandoned, however, not entirely. An ex-priest by the name of Franz Brentano (1839-1917) became a Doctor of Philosophy on account of his thesis about Aristotle. Why is Brentano significant? Because amongst his many students who went on to become renowned in the psychology field was Sigmund Freud. Brentano introduced Aristotle to Freud. Freud then went on to appropriate many of Aristotle’s ideas (see Is Aristotle Overrated?).
In Freud, we potentially see the most obscure and outrageous claims of symbols having hidden meanings. Freud, however, was not creative nor did he demonstrate higher order critical thinking skills when it came to giving new meaning to symbols. Instead, he insisted that all elongated objects were references to penises and all objects with an opening were references to vaginas. Needless to say, his interpretations totally lack research into historical and cultural contexts in which symbols were made. To put it mildly, he was equivalent to an art therapist insisting that a small figure in a corner of the page was indicative of low self esteem without giving regard to the art maker’s intentions of wanting room to move.
Despite obvious flaws in his theories, Freud went on to be the founding cult leader of psychoanalysis. Many of his followers were also interested in occultism and viewed Freud’s explanations of hidden meanings in art, dreams, literature, and other creative expressions to be truisms that had been lost in time. Personally, if Freud was a student in one of my Art history classes, I would fail him.
Food for though: In my casual observations as a teacher, I have noted that people seem to view Montessori as being some airy-fairy, new age education system, and conversely, they view Freud as being a man of science. However, when the theories of child development are compared, there is a lot more evidence to suggest Freud was the ungrounded, airy-fairy one, and Montessori was a practical minded scientist.
The industrial revolution brought new challenges to humans. As machines gradually replaced the work once done by village artisans and commercial agricultural methods reduced the need for small farm crops, both genders became displaced. At the same time, middle class men began objecting to not being able to have a say in political matters. In England, in 1780 only 3% of the population were on the electoral roll. Inspired by the French Revolution (1789), men’s suffrage began, however, it was not successful till late in the nineteenth century, and women over thirty were only given voting privileges in 1918. Comparatively, Australia was more advanced with all men having voting rights in the 1850s and women in 1902.
Alongside occupational and political changes was the phenomenon of more and more people moving from rural areas to the cities. In turn, literacy became an issue, especially if a person wanted a blue collar job. By the end of the nineteenth century, about 60% of the population were literate. Within all the social changes, was the Age of Enlightenment (1715 – 1789), a period marked by a cultural shift from superstitions to rationalisations based on scientific evidence. Thus, feminism emerged.
In the art world, Renaissance standards had given way to Mannerism, Barque, Rocco, and Neoclassicism had started. During this time female artists became more accepted. France led the way, namely through Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun (1755-1842) and Rosa Bonheur (1822-1899).
Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun
Le Brun was the daughter of a portraitist painter, Louis Vigée. By the time she was in her early teens, Le Brun was painting portraits professionally, however, she got into trouble at one stage for practicing as an artist without a license, and consequently her studio was seized by authorities. Not realising that they had exhibited the work of a woman, the Académie de Saint-Luc, felt obliged to give her a license.
Le Brun created a name for herself by serving as the portrait painter to Marie Antoinette – The last queen of France before the revolution. She created 660 portraits and 200 landscapes.
In 1787, Le Brun created a social scandal with her painting of Self Portrait with Daughter, Julia.
Le Brun, Self Portrait with Daughter, Julia, 1787
Source: Wikipedia Commons
How could such a seemingly harmless painting create a scandal? Answer: a smile. Le Brun’s rendering of her teeth was perceived as an insult to art’s long standing tradition of not showing teeth in a portrait. One critic claimed: “An affectation which artists, art-lovers and persons of taste have been united in condemning, and which finds no precedent among the Ancients, is that in smiling, [Madame Vigée LeBrun] shows her teeth.”
Seemingly unperturbed, Le Brun continued to paint portraits with teeth.
The Le Brun scandal highlights the notion that art history has many unspoken rules. Given that such rules are unspoken, they are difficult to identify.
Rosa Bonheur
Bonheur’s family background may be described as alternative. Her father was a Saint-Simonian Socialist and he believed all wealth should be shared because all people were equal – except personal property – this was mainly directed to hereditary systems such as royalty. He also believed girls were worth as much value as boys and should be raised the same way. They wanted a society based on love, with no war or class distinctions. The Saint-Simonian philosophy also included the belief that a new saviour would come in the form of a woman.
Like Le Brun, Bonheur’s father was a painter and he taught his daughter. Her favourite subject matter were horses and other animals. In order to work in comfort, Bonheur preferred wearing trousers instead of dresses; to do so required getting a permit or else she would be fined.
Enforcing ideals of femininity and beauty through policed dress codes has a long history. For instance, the hiding of women’s faces with veils became vague in Roman times (before Mohammad established Islam). A thousand or so years later, garments of peasant men and women were very similar, however, when witch-hunt mania took hold pockets were taken out of women’s clothing so as they couldn’t carry around their magic potions.
Some patriarchs assert that male dominance occurred due competence not tyranny, but as illustrated by the case of Rosa Venerini (1656 – 1728), it was tyranny not competence.
Venerini made a profound impact on developing education for women and girls in Italy. She was inspired to teach at a young age when she realised that many young women were ignorant, particularly on matters regarding Christianity. After the death of several family members she spent some time at a convent, however, only stayed a few months. A Jesuit priest, who was her spiritual adviser, convinced Venerini that her calling was to be a teacher not a nun. Venerini first opened a preschool for girls and by the end of her life had established forty schools and was the founder of the fraternity of Religious Teachers of Venerini. Initially, she faced a lot of opposition from clergy who believed it was their job to teach Church doctrine but when they saw the positive effects that educating females was having, they gave her support. Other antagonists weren’t so easy to win over and some teachers got shot at with bows and their houses set on fire. Venerini was canonised by Pope Benedict XVI on October 15, 2006.
Venerini’s story is one of great bravery. I wonder how many other women were too afraid to get involved with education because they saw their peers getting shot at with bows and their houses burned? Of course, it was not all men, but the ringleaders most certainly were male.
Source: Catholic Online
In Venice, a woman named Elena Piscopia (1646 – 1684) became the first woman to receive an academic degree from a university, and the first woman to receive a Doctor of Philosophy. Piscopia was bilingual in Greek, Latin, French, Spanish, Arabic, and Hebrew, and she knew how to write music, play the harpsichord, clavichord, harp, and violin, and she was a mathematician. Initially, Piscopia attempted to complete a degree in theology, however, when Cardinal Gregorio Barbarigo, the bishop of Padua, learned of this he refused on the grounds that she was a woman and would only allow for her to get a degree in philosophy. Her oral examination required her to speak for an hour in Classical Latin on random topics selected by her assessors from the works of Aristotle; she spoke on Posterior Analytics and Physics. Piscopia was a devout christian and she divided her time between caring for the poor and in education pursuits, either learning or teaching.
It is important to pause upon Piscopia for a moment. Theology is the study of the nature of God. Catholic theology from the time of Constantine onwards was based on Aristotle’s model of men being more spiritually advance, more god-like, than women, who were considered to have a spiritual substance like that of animals (in other words, no intellect). Because of this theology, women were shut out of the discussion about theology. How could women possibly rise up to a rank of equality when there was a potent belief of their so-call inferiority hidden behind an educational glass ceiling? Then again, glass can be seen through, whereas the Aristotelian theology of gender was more like a steel wall that only men were privileged a key to access and see what was on the other side.
Maria Kirch (1670-1720) was a German astronomer who discovered a comet. Approximately 14 percent of German astronomers in the early eighteenth-century were women, however, they were not able to publish their work due to being female.
The second woman in the world to earn the degree of Doctor of Philosophy was Laura Bassi (1711 – 1778). She was an Italian physicist and, therefore, she was also the first woman to have a doctorate in science. At times, she was recognised and depicted as Minerva, the goddess of wisdom. Bassi worked at the University of Bologna where she was the first salaried woman teacher in a university, eventually becoming the first female university professor in the world. When she joined the Academy of Sciences of the Institute of Bologna in 1732 she became the first female member of a scientific establishment. Bassi was the mother of twelve children and she published yearly reports on subjects like air pressure. She was an upper class woman, therefore, childcare was more available to her than poorer people.
Maria Gaetana Agnesi (1718-1799) was a Italian mathematician and philosopher of natural science. In 1738 she produced a text on calculus that made her famous.
Cristina Roccati (1732 – 1797) was an Italian physicist and poet who earned a degree at the University of Bologna (1751).
In the mid 1450s, about 30% of the population (mostly males) were literate (it was only around 5-10% who received formal education; some learned to read by other means). This figure was a small increase on previous populations.
The cultivating of new ideas via printed material during the Renaissance birthed a movement called Humanism, an outlook that gave appreciation of what it means to be human based on observations and inquiry, as opposed to looking at religion or theology for answers. Its focus on ancient philosophy centred on human ingenuity and creativity, therefore provided a basis for rejecting the rigidity of scholastic (and Aristotelian) education protocols.
Martin Luther (1483–1546) was an older member of the Humanist movement, nonetheless, he made an impact in regards to rejecting Aristotle’s ethics and challenged the Catholic church’s values, like the exchange of payment for the forgiveness of sins in indulgences and the creation of lavish architecture that housed expensive paintings and artefacts. Luther pinned a thesis outlining all his grievances against the Catholic Church to the door of a little church in Germany and in doing so gave rise to the Reformation of the Church. For over a thousand years the Roman Catholic Church had been the only denomination of Christianity, now slowly at first, many people began rejecting the Pope’s authority. After Lutherism came Church of England, Protestants, Anglicans, Presbyterians, and more.
Luther’s impact on the Church was mammoth, he did not, however, push the envelope on gender equality. A Humanist who did speak up for the plights of so-called inferior women was Sir Thomas Elyot (1490-1546). Elyot challenged the Aristotelian attitude of the feminine in a publication titled: In Defence of Good Women.
Holbein, Portrait of Sir Thomas Elyot, 1532–34
Source: Wikipedia
Within this melting pot of change were alterations to the Bible (for full details see History of Christian Bible Publications with References to Media Codes and Conventions). From the 400s through to the 1500s, the Bible was primarily available was the Latin, the Vulgate. The first English translation is credited to William Tyndale (1494 – 1536). Because English , as language, was still forming Tyndale had to invent some words to express ideas, like scapegoat and passover.
By the time the Kind James version of the Bible was printed in 1611, many aspects of the Bible had changed. For example, Moses lost his horns.
The image of Moses coming down from the Mount Sinai with horns on his head, was immortalised by Michaelangelo’s sculpture that was commissioned for the Tomb of Pope Julius II. For thousands of years, most Christians and Jews believed that speaking to God created this fascinating physical transformation, as per the description in the Vulgate that was written by Jerome (c.345 – 420 CE) in the fourth century. However, when renaissance scholars referenced Hebrew manuscripts, they decided this was a mistranslation. Rather than horns, it was concluded Moses came down from Mount Sinai with radiance (Exodus 34:29). The cause of this apparent error was the that in Hebrew word for “horn” was similar to the word for “radiant”.
Michelangelo, Moses, Tomb, 1505-1545
Source: Wikipedia
With the benefit of hindsight, the bigger picture of occultism emerging while the Christianity was moving the goal posts of Biblical language is an interesting thing to contemplate. The environment was ripe for wanna be gurus to declare their translations were right and all others wrong, however, it was not that simple. The Roman Catholics (as they became known in order to differentiate them from newer denominations) still held a significant seat of power, and through laws and inquisitions, so-called heretical beliefs could result in a person being imprisoned or put to death. Given this reality of the consequences of disagreeing with the Pope, it’s not surprising that if anyone wanted to explore an alternative belief system they had to do so in secret. Occultism’s tentacles stretched out far into realms of Christian mysticism, the Jewish Kabbalah, the Islamic Sufism, Ancient Religions, Alchemy, and more. Were there groups who turned the Christian cross upside down and prayed to Lucifer? Yes, there probably were. Were there groups who venerated Christ as a being of love and prayed for world peace? Yes, there probably were.
There is little doubt cults of all sorts emerged, led by charismatic leaders, who claimed their interpretations of symbolism, or knowledge of the ancients, or whatever angle they chose to take, was more correct than others. We have plenty of examples of such cults from antiquity through to today. The nuances of human nature include a hardwire desire to belong, and cults achieve this very well.
There is also very little doubt in my mind that one of the approaches the Catholic Church used to suppress more splintering of the Church was to label alternative philosophies as evil or heretical, thus occultism became derogatory. In my opinion, the degree to which any of these were truly evil or true, cannot be measured by doctrines alone. As described in part 2: My personal view is that if a cult prescribes any form of abusive, controlling, or trauma-inducing practices (physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually), then it can rightly be defined as a destructive cult. Alternatively, if a group of people who prescribe to a shared belief system encourage positive behaviours like love, non-judgment, kindness, inclusiveness, and trauma-formed healing practices, then it is a positive cult. Within this definition is the capacity for varying degrees of negative and positive traits within cults.
A casual observation of Christianity between about 1450 and 1650 is that men were more likely to be demonised by the Church for their thoughts and beliefs, whereas women more likely to be accused of being witches.
Allegations of witchcraft basically consisted of someone being accused of being involved with supernatural activities that were not approved of by the Church. Ironically, Church history is full of stories about brave men who fought demons and dragons (like St George). But if a woman used their knowledge of herbs to heal, then they were demonised, especially if there was a tragedy like a death in childbirth. Heck, all a woman had to do was give a look of distain and they could be accused of murder, because, you know, a woman eyesight can tarnish mirrors so it’s only logical that their glance could kill someone (see Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, Who is the Fairest Gender of Them All?). In order to avoid being accused of giving an evil eye, all women needed to do was stay in a perpetual state of happiness and be content in knowledge that their souls were innately inferior to men. To achieve this aim, aspiring to the impossible perfection of the Virgin Mary was encouraged.
By the end of the 1600s, the percentage of people who were literate had risen to about 47% (still mostly males).
The third category, people who explored the potential for Aristotle’s truth without giving defiant allegiance, includes people like Durer, who studied Ancient Greeks with the desire to apply their theories in practical means. His desire to explore mystical symbolism was quite overt, as already mentioned in reference to Melancholia. His representation of Biblical scenes has had profound influence on how the symbolism is interpreted (I touch upon this in Did the Whitehorseman Have a Bow, Bow, or Bow?) Durer is also an often unrecognised pioneer of contemporary iconography, with achievements including the designing of the Times New Roman font which he based upon the mathematical principles of balance and beauty as prescribed by Elucid.
Da Vinci was also driven by a desire to process and conceptualise ancient wisdom, as evidenced in the many sketchbooks he left behind. Further, in his final years, Da Vinci spent hours conversing with the King of France sharing his life time of insights. Michaelangelo also appears to have explored occult wisdom; a small indication of this comes from an entry in one of Da Vinci’s sketchbooks that records a clash the two artists had over how one should interpret Dante’s poetry. In his artworks, Michaelangelo is also reported to have subtly challenged the Church’s refusal to accept scientific knowledge by hiding images of the human brain in some of his works on the Sistine Chapel ceiling, such as Separation of Light from Darkness and The Creation of Adam. Another artist known to be familiar with ancient philosophy, is Raphael, who immortalised the atmosphere of the Renaissance era’s preoccupation with with Ancient Greek in his painting the School of Athens which was commissioned by the Vatican.
Raphael, School of Athens, 1509-11
Source: Wikipedia
In addition to deliberately incorporating “hidden” messages into paintings, some artists simply appropriated ancient themes. For example, in Tintoretto’s Bacchus, Venus and Ariadne, we see the depiction of of Ariadne blessing a marriage between Venus and Bacchus.
Jacopo Tintoretto, Bacchus, Venus and Ariadne, 1576-7
Source: Wikipedia
From a contemporary viewpoint, we may believe that Tintoretto was trying to portray an authentic rendition of the ancient stories (note: the Roman’s appropriated Greek stories left, right, and centre – the number of authentic Roman stories is minute once copies of Greek stories that had the character’s names changed to Roman deities have been accounted for). However, when it is understood that Renaissance artists were sometimes simply drawing upon ancient stories for inspiration, not imitation, the significance of storylines alters.
I suspect, Tintoretto did not necessarily give a hoot about the theological significance of ancient symbols. Rather, he was a contemporary man of his era who worked with colloquial interpretations of symbols. In Bacchus, Venus and Ariadne, it can be speculated that the average Venetian knew that Bacchus was the God of wine (Dionysus in Greek) and Venus was the Goddess of beauty (Aphrodite in Greek; Plato tells us there are two Aphrodites but that’s besides the point at the moment; see Psychoanalysis and Castration for tongue in cheek interpretation of Venus’ birth). However, the average Venetian did not necessarily understand that Bacchus/Dionysus and Venus/Aphrodite were personifications of spiritual concepts (see The Four Elements in Theology and Ancient Texts). Rather, Tintoretto, and his contemporaries, potentially had a very shallow understanding of these deities. As such, in an almost mocking fashion, the God and Goddess were appropriated to suit their own culture; Venus symbolised the beautiful Venetian waters and Bacchus symbolised the Venetian culture of festivity – the their annual masquerade carnivals included a lot of drinking! In other words, the painting is a cartuniture, albeit executed with refined artistic skill to create the illusion of perspective and reality. In other words, the colloquial symbolism of the waters of Venice being married to culture of Venice has been personified by Venice and Bacchus.
The personification of nations and bodies of water has links to figurative speech. For instance, homelands being known as motherlands or fatherlands - the masculinisation or feminisation of territories can vary according to historical contexts. Similarly, bodies of water have a mixed history of being referred to by male and female phrases and/or deities.
Another example of the personification of groups of people is that of the Hochgurtel Fountain at the Melbourne’s Exhibition Building (1880). The young boys in the sculpture symbolise Melbourne being a young colony.
Tintoretto’s approach to artistic subjects matters, exemplifies human qualities of humour, irony, and repurposing symbols. To appreciate art, one needs more than a serious stiff upper lip.
Psychoanalysts might view paintings like Bacchus, Venus and Ariadne as being representative of so-called universal symbolism that reoccur across time and cultures. Conversely, an occultist might view the representations of deities as being some sort of “proof” of their enduring significance. However, such mindsets do not capture the creative impulse of appropriation, irony, and playfulness. Two quotes from Picasso aptly wrap up the situation. Firstly, Picasso said “Art lies then tries to convince you its telling the truth”, and “Bad artists imitate, the great artists steal”. Thanks Banksy!
Source: Quote Master
As a final point for consideration on the topic of artists not always creating images with a complete seriousness, Raphael is championed with having painted the face of Heraclitus (centre, foreground figure writing on a piece of paper) to be a likeness to Michaelangelo in The School of Athens. Artists of refined skill and intellectual temperaments can be very witty and sometimes insert secretive elements into their compositions just because they can.
When I began my research by pinning notes along my hallway, I did so with an open mind, therefore, it surprised me when I observed that so many of my paths of inquiry lead back to Aristotle.
Volumes upon volumes could be written about influential men in religion, medicine, politics, and other positions of power being guided or repelled by Aristotle’s so-called wisdom. Like a child who does not want to part with their teddy bear at night, western cultures seem to have clung to that which they have known and is familiar to them for so long.
The tides began to change when Aristotle’s ideas were disseminated beyond the few during the 1500s. In this era three broad categories of people emerged. One being those who continued to support Aristotle’s authority, others who rejected Aristotle’s authority, and then those who explored the potential for Aristotle’s truth without giving defiant allegiance. The first category includes countless academics who followed traditions they’d been taught in places like at the University of Paris (Side note: the first university that resembles today’s structure was established in Spain by an Islamic woman, Fatima Al-Fihri). The second category includes people like Galileo Galilei, René Descartes, and Isaac Newton.
Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) is most well known for his mathematical skills and his improvements to telescope lenses that enabled him to discover new stars, three moons on Jupiter, the rings on Saturn, and phases that Venus went through. Galileo’s observations supported Copernicus’ theory that the earth rotated around the sun, thereby discrediting Aristotle’s cosmology that claimed the sun and the planets rotated around earth.
From a theological perspective, Aristotle’s cosmology was arguably never meant to be a model of the actual universe. Rather, it was an occult representation of the human being that fell in line with the classical elements. According to Aristotle’s cosmology the earth (the physical body) is the centre, followed by layers of water (life-force or ether), air (soul; can be divided into further layers), fire (spirit or intellect; can be divided into further layers), and celestial fire (aesther or spirit of God). The theology, in its more expanded form, references astrology symbols (see below).
Depiction of Aristotle’s Geocentric Model.
(It’s possible that looking at Aristotle’s model as a human being is what inspired Sömmerring to look for the twelve cranial nerves.)
Source: Achilies and Aritstotle
On many levels, the situation with Galileo is curious. Did he know and understand Aristotle’s model was a theology, not literal? Is that why he put it aside and worked on observing real outer space instead? Or did Galileo, ignorant of Aristotle’s symbolism, just look out into the sky and try to learn more about it because that’s what his passion was? Why did Church leaders insist Aristotle’s model was correct, even when scientific evidence said else wise? Why was maintaining Aristotle’s authority so important to them? Was the Church committed to maintaining Aristotle authority because of its long tradition of doing so through scholastism and works by people like Aquinas that it did not want to loose face? Who in the Church knew that Aristotle’s model was a theology of the human body and who did not? The questioning could go on longer than a Catholic inquisition. However, it was the Church who ran the inquisitions, not the other way around. The bottom line was that the Church disapproved of Galileo’s work and in 1633 he was brought before an inquisition charged with heresy; to spare his life Galileo claimed he didn’t believe his own findings.
René Descartes (1596-1650) demonstrated a sound knowledge of ancient theology in relation to the classical elements:
… we consider, in particular, the nature of the earth, and of all the bodies that are most generally found upon it, as air, water, fire, the loadstone and other minerals.
Rene Descartes, The Principles of Philosophy, 1644, p.15
Hence, it was with a full understanding of Aristotle’s theories and that of the four elements, Descartes broke away from the commonly held assumptions of earth, water, air, and fire. In doing so he came up with apparently new theories of the body, mind, and soul. Then again, upon closer inspection Descartes theorises of different types of thinking, still resonate with some ancient ideas. Plato tells us that the nature of the soul was the most debated topic among philosophers, so perhaps Descartes was just siding with theologies that differed to the Church’s appropriation of Aristotle?
Descartes famously remarked: “[if] I’m thinking, so I exist”, which isn’t too far removed from Plato’s ideas of man’s nous being a conduit that can connect him to celestial forces.
As previously mentioned, both Galileo’s and Descartes’ works were put on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum.
Isaac Newton (1643-1727) respected Descartes rejection of Aristotle and embraced Galileo’s focus on mathematics. In addition to the many scientific studies Newton did, he also had an interest in Biblical symbols. Newton took a scientific approach to the Bible and analysed scripture to identify language patterns, allegory systems, and symbols that he believed were known and applied by all prophets:
The Rule I have followed has been to compare the several mystical places of scripture where the same prophetic phrase or type is used, and to fix such a signification to that phrase as agrees best with all the places . . . and, when I had found the necessary significations, to reject all others as the offspring of luxuriant fancy, for no more significations are to be admitted for true ones than can be proved.
Isaac Newton, Royal Society, 2015, p. 524
Examples of the codes Newton worked out were: Sun = King; Moon = groups of common people referred to as wife; Darkening of celestial bodies = doom for political groups; and Dens and rocks in mountains = temples. Where Biblical texts referred to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Newton claimed it meant Spirit, Water, and Blood. Newton also theorised that somewhere early in Christianity, the writings of prophets had been forged. Specifically, he blamed Arianism and Saint Athanasius of Alexandria.
In his own lifetime, Newton did not make a grand public display of his learnings about biblical symbolism and his research into the early Church. He did, however, do his best to avoid taking priesthood vows, as was expected of men who completed a Masters degree. It could be conjectured that Newton was fortunate to have been witness to the beginnings of the unraveling of religious and educational entanglement.
Freud’s protege, Jung, was a lot more thorough in his research of symbols, their history, and their meaning. At the risk of sounding condescending, I am impressed with how well he understood some symbology, like in the following:
The meaning of the “ministering wind” is probably the same as the procreative pneuma, which streams from the sun-god into the soul and fructifies it. The association of sun and wind frequently occurs in ancient symbolism.
Carl Jung, The Concept of the Collective Unconscious, p.102
In the above quote, Jung’s commentary on air (ministering wind and pneuma) and fire (sun-god) shows an understanding of theologies related to concepts found in the classical elements (see The Four Elements in Theology and Ancient Texts). However, his conclusion that this occurred because of a “collective consciousness” is a mystical explanation that overlooks two obvious points. Firstly, as any gardener knows, the sun and the air (or wind) are significance factors (along with water and earth) that effect life on earth, therefore, the ancients’ use of these principles to symbolise esoteric phenomena is not surprising. The fructification of the air by the sun is a natural phenomenon everywhere around the earth. Secondly, besides over looking the indexical level of the symbolism (see The connection between symbolism and mental wellbeing: The basics), Jung overlooked the fact that Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, and Christians shared symbols and concepts (hence the similarities. (The writings of Iamblicus demonstrates this point well in regards to Egypt and Greece ideologies). Jung’s marvelling of crossovers between ancient civilisations is a bit like marvelling over the similarities in culture between England, Australia, and America without identifying historical links.
The greatest point on which Jung’s theories can be falsified is on account of symbols being universal. He overlooked symbols’ ability to adapt and be appropriated by skilled artisans, like Tintoretto, Michaelangelo, Da Vinci, Raphael, and many others. He also overlooked artistic traditions (unspoken rules) and the history of art as a series of progressive movements. Arguably, Jung was so focused on trying to work out the mysteries of the so-called occult that he overlooked education and personal experiences as being foundational aspects of man-made symbolism.
It is also possible that Jung, and his supporters, are so indoctrinated into cultures that support Plato’s theory of so-called universality (i.e., the theory of forms) that their “shadow” prevents them from appreciating the infinite capabilities of human creativity. (Jung claimed the Shadow was the unconscious aspect of the ego that could prevent one from seeing the realities before then; in a nut shell, Jung’s theory of the shadow is an appropriation of spiritual concepts found in Ancient Egyptian theology).
Psychoanalysis neglects recognition that creativity is an activity often blended with humour, wit, irony, puns, and various other quaint qualities. The so-called science of psychoanalysis is based on outdated framework of the mind in which creativity is perceived as being a function located in a specific part of the brain, whilst contemporary findings support it is actually a whole brain activity.
Essentially, creativity is a process in which prior knowledge is deconstructed then reconstructed in a new way. In other words, it is a problem solving process. Depending upon the message one wants to convey, the manner in which symbols, words, and gestures are put together will differ. Contemporary neuroscience explanations of creativity is well presented in the Netflix documentary, The Creative Brain.
Photo Source: Nonnaci
Diagram of Jung’s theory of consciousness : all of Jung’s concepts are appropriations of ancient traditions. For example, the terms Anima and Animus are Latin for soul and spirit (Anima = feminine noun and Animus = masculine noun). Therefore, the original Latin meanings are not the same as Jung’s. Similarly, Jung claims the Shadow is the unconscious aspect of the ego, a concept derived but different to the Ancient Egyptian concept of Shuyet, the shadow self.
There is a strong element of irony in the manner in which Jung took concepts, names, and symbols from a variety of ancient traditions and effectively created a new religion.
Jung’s theories are not without worth, however, they need to be viewed in the context in which they were made: a summary and harmonisation of ancient theology. Moreover, his archetypes are stereotypes of symbology created by our patriarchal forefathers.
A genuine archetype, in the ancient Greek sense of the word, is a prototype; a model that can be built upon and diversified. For example, the first bicycle ever invented has similarities to today’s models but there have been many alterations and improvements. From wooden frames with no peddles through to penny-farthings and motorised e-bikes. Most bikes have some similar features in so much as they have two wheels (some have more) and they enable people to move from place to place at a quicker pace than walking. The point is, there is no universal bike, over the years there has been much diversity and improvements. Further, one also needs to question if a bike can be called an “archetype” in the first place. What did a bike evolve from? A carriage? A chariot? The invention of the wheel? A rock rolling down a hill? Or is a bike more like the evolution of horse? That is the way archetypes (prototypes) are supposed to be; they change. Jung’s theory that archetypes don’t change goes against the grain of human nature, namely, the creative spirit. (I explore this concept in The Big Bang Theory in Egyptian Mythology.)
Continuing on a theology level, Abrahamic religions present the symbolic image of the first human as being male (Adam) but elsewhere, like the First Nations people of New Zealand, creation stories depict the first human as female (Hineahuone). If there’s an except to the rule, there is no rule.
People are diverse and our species is constantly evolving. If one wants to dip their toe into Darwinism, one could even ask, what were humans before being human?
My research suggests many of our ancestors perceived a dualistic approach to evolution, i.e., as the physical body ascended from “earth” and “water” and our ethereal essence descended from “air” and “fire” substances. That, however, is a simplistic way to describe and harmonise ancient theology.
To not throw the baby out with the bath water, Jung’s categorisations of archetypes such as ruler, creator, sage, outlaw, explorer, caregiver, and so forth can be of value in certain circumstances. They are relatable, easy to read symbols that have a shared tradition across westernised cultures. They are a language of symbolism that can be used to open up conversations and tease out ideas. The great danger is in taking them to be finite. Moreover, there is the risk that if they are taken as universal truths then they can be used to promote sexism and misogyny, as Jordan Peterson (1962 – ) does.
I do not disagree with everything Peterson says but his conclusions about the meanings of mythological symbolism is a perfect example of how psychoanalytic theories can be detrimental to understanding true history and genders issues. Peterson asserts Jung’s theories of archetypes to be correct and therefore are a means of justifying patriarchal values. I call out some of Peterson’s shallow research practices in No Peterson, Chaos is not a universal feminine trait found across mythology. Even more alarming is Peterson’s mis-telling of myths to support his sexist agenda of promoting the idea that men are naturally supposed to dominate women.
In a YouTube clip in which Peterson is giving a lecture to university students about Egyptian mythology (Jordan Peterson Tells An Old Story About Gods), he states that Osiris ruled Egypt and his partner, Isis, was the Queen of the underworld. He even goes so far as to say Isis is the archetype of a hyena and compares her to the hyenas in Walt Disney’s The Lion King. (FYI, studying ancient theology by watching children’s movies is not an endorsed form of academia.) I suspect, Ancient Egyptians would turn in their graves if they had heard what he was saying. To them, Isis was their much beloved Queen of Heavens and a woman who possessed profound magic and healing powers. She was affiliated with the Pharaoh’s throne, namely because she helped her son, Horus, be a great leader. Conversely, Osiris was Prince of the underworld where he judged the souls of the dead with Anubis, a jackal-headed god who ate the hearts of deceased if they were heavier than a feather.
Throughout the video, Peterson states many eyebrow raising comments which, to my detailed understandings of symbolism through art, indicate a very biased and incomplete view of history and ancient theology. Further, his over emphasis on hierarchies diminishes other life principles, like harmony; at no point does Peterson acknowledge how much the Ancient Egyptians prided themselves on maintaining harmony. While nations rose and fell around them, the Egyptian culture remained stable for about three thousand years. In fact, the Egyptians believed their civilisation was robust and superior to others because they honoured harmony. Peterson’s projection of patriarchal values onto Egyptians symbolism does not reflect what most scholars understand, through the study of hieroglyphs, to be a culture that embraced gender egalitarianism. The further one explores back into the history of Egypt, the more harmony between gender’s can be identified. Conversely, as Egypt became more influenced by other cultures, like Greece, the less gender equality that can be identified (Egypt became Hellenistic following Alexander the Great’s conquering of Alexandria, previously known as Rhakotis or Râ-Kedet).
Peterson’s oversights of theology and history can be further identified by reviewing the writings of Iamblichus of the third century, an Egyptian priest and Neoplatonist. When speaking to a Greek philosopher, Iamblichus explains that the Egyptians understood the Greek’s classical elements, however, where the Greeks arranged the elements of earth, water, air, and fire, into a hierarchy, the Egyptians believed the elements worked in equal proportions, in harmony.
In sum, my assessment of Jungian psychoanalysis is that Jung conducted some thorough research, but he dismissed variables that disproved his hypothesises. Often Jung’s supporters, like Peterson, miss the subtleties of Jung’s research, and in doing so create a situation in which misinformation is shared as being factual. The misinterpretations of Jung’s theories are more alarming than Jung’s theories themselves, ie., Peterson is seen by many to be an authority feature and he has a cult following.
As a final note on psychoanalytic theory, I propose that the “Joseph-Gigolo complex” be brought into formal psychology discussions. It is a condition in which the person believes in the validity of psychoanalytical interpretations of symbolism despite being shown scientific and historical evidence to the contrary. Another key feature of someone, usually a man, with the Joseph Gigolo complex is that they tend to polarise men between the binary qualities of being fundamentally noble and worthy of being selected by God to partner the perfect woman, and father a perfect child, whilst at the same time being entitled to have sex and attention from multiple women at the same time. Men with the Joseph Gigolo complex have misogynistic tendencies; they tend to view women as objects not human beings, ie., they expect females to be like Mary’s or whores.
Perhaps universities could set aside a few hundred thousand dollars to prove the validity of the Joseph-Gigolo complex. Of course, such research groups would have to be run by women because, as we all know, men can get overly emotional and testostical whenever proof of their gender fitting into a Joseph or gigolo category arise.
(Note: this is a satirical commentary inspired by the social media avatar ManWhoHasItAll.)
I have a very dear male friend whom I consider to be aware and sensitive to injustices in society. We often engage in discussions about social issues like patriarchy and other controversial topics. On one occasion, he decided to play the devil’s advocate and suggested that history was male dominated because that was the natural order of things. I then pounced into teacher mode and tried to demonstrate that male dominated leadership was not an inherent trait to humans: “But that’s not the way things were in the Egyptian Old Kingdom” I said, and promptly made sure he was aware that the Old Kingdom was less patriarchal than the New Kingdom.
“But where’s the proof?” he asked.
“What do mean?” I replied.
“Well they had Pharaohs, the Valley of Kings, and a male God-head (Ra), where were all the women?”
“Oh” I said. “You don’t about the power the Pharaoh wive’s had, the women who were Pharaoh’s themselves. And, yes, they had a Valley of Queens, and the Egyptian’s worshipped Isis far more than Ra. Oh, and let’s not forget Ma’at – she was the Goddess of order that all the male Pharaoh’s aspired to be like.”
“They had a Valley of the Queens?”
“Yes”
“Okay then, so who were the female Pharaohs?”
“There were quite a few, like Hatshepsut, Nefertiti, and some others that I can’t recall off the top of my head. And there was Cleopatra, of course.”
“What? Cleopatra was a Pharaoh?”
“Yes. You didn’t know that?”
My friend shock his head, so I continued.
“Cleopatra was forced to marry her brother, so she had him killed and ruled on her own. She then had a son with Julius Caesar which created tensions with the Roman Empire who feared she’d overtake them, so they tried to kill her but she committed suicide first. But before that she had three children with another Roman official, Mark Anthony. One of their children became a powerful Queen of Africa.” I said all this with an eye roll and rude condescending tone, forgetting that not everyone knows historical details like I do.
The conversation changed direction at that point, so I stopped short of explaining the time Cleopatra dissolved a pearl earring, worth a small fortune, into a glass of vinegar then drank the concoction to prove to the men around her how powerful and wealthy she was; Tiepolo’s depiction of this moment in The Banquet of Cleopatra, 1743-1744, is a treasured artwork at the National Gallery of Victoria. It is through Art I have learned history.
A picture tells a thousand words, yet, like Picasso says “Art lies, then tries to convince you it is telling the truth.” Tiepolo’s painting exemplifies this point. He used the finest technical skills of rendering and perspective and the story he is telling really did occur, but Cleopatra would not have been dressed in a tight corset like the one in his painting. Corsets hadn’t been invented in Cleopatra’s day. Tiepolo has done what most artists and media producers do, he superimposed values and symbolic imagery from his own era onto the past. By depicting the image of queen that was familiar to his eighteenth century audience he was increasing the likelihood that they could relate to his masterpiece.
Giambattista Tiepolo The Banquet of Cleopatra, 1743-1744
Source: National Gallery of Victoria
“But what about our brains being different?” my friend asked.
“The brains of males and females are no different to that of other organs like our heart, lungs, and kidneys.” I stated with confidence, quoting one of my favourite researchers, Gina Rippon, author of The Gendered Brain. “Our brains are moulded in accordance with our experiences more than sex differences.”
My friend was not fully convinced, I could tell from the expression on his face that his mind was filled with ideas of what so-called masculine and feminine traits were in accordance with his life experiences. I went on:
“I get it. I have raised both a son and a daughter and they both demonstrated stereotypical behaviours of their gender from a very young age. But I also know that until we have a society in which gender stereotypes are not placed upon children from birth, we won’t really understand how genuine differences between genders is dependent upon physical differences and what is socially imposed.” I then mentioned that at the supermarket a few weeks prior, I had picked up two baby bottles that were on quick sale for $1.20 each. I have no need for the baby bottles but I bought them, perhaps out of intuition that I would need as proof them one day. Both bottles are identical in functionality, however, one is pink with flowers and one blue with trucks. Both were advertised as being for newborns 0-6 months old. It is through items like these, with culturally derived symbolisms of gender, that we consciously and unconsciously teach our child about their gender identity.
I then used another example, inspired by Rippon’s research: “Take maths for example. Regardless of gender (by this stage we’d also discussed and agreed that people could not be confined to binary genders) advanced maths is difficult. Up until early to mid high school, both boys and girls do well with numbers, but once it gets hard a lot want to give up (one of my best friends is a maths teacher and we have discussed this to on a few occasions). Now imagine, if you’ve been raised as a girl and told all your life that boys are better at maths than you, then, mathematics gets difficult you are more likely to give it up. But if you’re a boy whose been raised to believe you have some innate ability to do advanced maths, then you are more likely to tackle the challenges. Now, if you were to study the brains of adults then you may find the areas used most for mathematics is more active in males than females, but that is not because of their gender, its is because how their brains have been trained.”
“Yep, I get it.” My friend said (it was one of those discussions in which there was never any real disagreement in the first place but we were both enjoying going through the paces of exploring perspectives). We both agreed that gender traits were learned, not generic, and pondered on whether what was best for the human race as a whole.
While we were talking, my friend shared that while he was growing up, he felt like feminist messages left him feeling ashamed to a man, at least on some levels. He said he had heard and absorbed so many negative messages about male dominance that he’d gotten the impression his gender was horrible. “Welcome to the club” I replied, and remarked that women had been given that message about their gender for thousands of years. We both agreed that the situation was not fair on anyone. We both wished that no person, of any gender, had to feel like they were better or worst than others. Personally, I believe the solution is education.
Taking a profound philosophical stance, my friend then said: “I think maybe the scales do need to tip in favour of women, at least for a while, until things even out and no person, of any gender, needs to feel ashamed of who they are.”
In the following series about occult symbolism, I have taken the liberty of using my friend’s philosophy and I have unashamedly focused on herstory more than history.
I’m not sure which came first, my love of art, my love of psychology, or my love of trying to interpret symbols. For as long as I can remember, I have also had a fascination in supernatural phenomena without committing to any dogma. I’ve kept an open mind to various theories, beliefs, and practices. In many respects, the research I am about to present is the accumulation of over twenty years of teaching Art, during which time I have learned more about symbolism from every student I have every taught than anything I’ve ever read in books or on the internet. However, it all started really coming together around the same time as the Covid pandemic began.
I had a rough start to 2020 with financial problems and no job security. I also wanted to study a Diploma of Psychology (I’d completed my Masters in Mental Health a few years prior but my thirst for understanding the human mind had not been quenched). I understand that for many people, Covid and lockdowns have been a distressing experience, however, for me, they enabled the possibility of doing the study that I had wanted to do and would not have been possible if it were not for the lockdowns.
As I set up my home learning space, I realised that I needed to make the environment as conducive to learning as possible. I was fortunate to be renting a house that had a long hallway, so I decided to make the most of this by using the space to put up study aids. What can I say? I’m a teacher, putting learning aids on the wall is what we do.
I had two primary aims, one, I wanted to develop an appreciation of psychology history, not just the newest and greatest theories. Two, I wanted to test a theory I’d learned in a teaching professional development several years before hand; that being that the development of human beings as a collective, mirrors that of a child. For example, prehistoric people drew like toddlers, in antiquity their skills were like that of primary school, and from about the Gothic period onwards, artworks begin resembling teenage capabilities. The same theory can be applied to the evolution of language, mathematical skills, and other subjects. Below are photos of what my hallway looked like.
The starting point for my timeline were images of artworks from each era, mainly western, because that is what I have been required to teach for most of my career. I then wrote notes about key features of each epoch, movement, discoveries, and religion, and stuck them in their respective places. When I was sitting at my desk watching online lectures, I had a separate note pad that I could jot down the names of important figures that were mentioned, like Neisser, the father of cognitive psychology, Skinner, who founded behaviouralism, and Spearman, who developed the classical test theory. I’d later do more research to find out who they were in more depth, specifically, what their influences were, and added notes about them too.
Part of the art appreciation process is to examine artist’s influences, so doing the same to scientists seemed natural. By the end of they year, I’d spent a small fortune on stationary and my notes had extended beyond the hallway into other rooms of the house. A example of what I learned through this process was that Samuel Sömmerring (1755 – 1830) did not just make the discoveries of twelve cranial nerves (like we were taught in neuroscience), his investigation into the nervous system also lead him to the belief that the brain’s ventricles were the organ of the soul (he dedicated his paper to one of his best friends, Immanuel Kant). Disappointingly, I could not find a copy of this paper online that had been translated from German into English.
Reading between the lines of Sömmerring’s influences, it’s obvious he hand an interest in occult topics. This lead me to wonder if his occult research alerted him to there being twelve cranial nerves, hence, he did not discover them by chance, rather, he’d gone looking for evidence to support information he’d come across in some mystical format. Twelve cranial nerves, twelve zodiac signs, twelve tribes of Israel, twelve apostles, twelve months of the year, twelve hours in a day … could it be that we’ve misunderstood our ancestors science as being mythology? I keep an open to that being a possibility, as I suspect Sömmerring did too.
If I were to write a list of all great scientists who have made significant contributions to contemporary understanding of life, the universe, and everything, and then subdivide this into two groups, one being for scientists who had an fascination with the occult and the other who did not, to put it mildly, the first list would be exceptionally longer than the latter.
During 2020 I apologised for the seemingly crazy display of study notes throughout my house to the small handful of guests who were allowed to visit. But no one thought I was crazy, most thought it was a good idea. I loved it. When I was having “break time” I’d wander up and down my hall looking at the spaces between the notes, trying to work out how they all linked. Much to my surprise, a lot of the flows of influence came from antiquity, specifically Greece, and specifically, Aristotle. When I first saw this, I thought I must wrong. So I did more research, and it turns out that there others who have seen this pattern but they didn’t piece things together exactly the same way as I was.
Experiments using eye movement monitoring technology suggests that people who are trained in the visual arts look at images differently to those who have no training. Essentially, artists don't just look at objects, their eyes dart back and forth assessing the spaces between the artworks. I hypothesis that if artists do this often enough, we begin to do it constantly, like a habit, in all life situations. Therefore, when I say I wandered up and down my hallway pondering on the spaces, I mean it metaphorically and literally.
Well before any such tests were conducted, the artist Joseph Kosuth developed a whole approach to art based on this idea of looking between spaces. Kosuth is considered to be a master of postmodernism with pieces like One and Three Chairs, 1965, an artwork consisting of a photograph of a chair, the actual chair, and a dictionary definition of a chair. He was not trying to met standardised expectations of beauty in art, rather, he was interested in the conversation that could be had about presenting a chair in three different forms as an artwork. Kosuth believed that was where "art" really was, in the spaces between what viewers saw in front of them. The “thing” between artwork objects can be summarised as being a conversation; Kosuth suggested that the true essence of art is the ideas that images provoke, not the objects themselves. He continued down further down this line as his work matured.
As a young person, I could not stand abstract or conceptual art, I wanted to see pictures that made sense to me, pictures that I could instantly related to. However, as I have matured, the concept behind artworks has become more important to me that classical standards of beauty. When I teach higher levels of secondary art, I love teaching about people like Kosuth. As it slowly dawns on them the significance of what such people were saying, it's like an invisible veil is lifted. To me, watching how art can change people is absolutely beautiful.
I no longer live in a house with a long hall, but that hallway is now etched inside my mind. It is like a room that I can go into and mentally place more postit notes when I discover something new about history. The following blogs are pretty much a summary of that hallway.
One final thing I’d like to mention before I share my hallway journey, is that in February 2020, I had an epiphany. I could dress up the experience and tell it like it was some mystical experience but that would not give it justice. Basically, what happened was, I realised I’d been living with cognitive dissonance; I was holding onto two beliefs that I thought to be true even though they contradicted each other. On one hand, through my appreciation of surrealist art and my training in art therapy, I was under the impression that psychoanalytic theory had merit, that the mind did have pre-set symbols inside it, but at the same time, my experiences as a teacher and therapist had shown me that the human mind is infinity creative, albeit, what it could make was dependent upon the skills a person had (see Reflections on learning how to hold a pencil inspired by Quilty’s work with Syrian refugee children). In that moment of my epiphany, I let go of many preconceived ideas and embraced the notion that people were infinity creative, end of story.
I formulated a metaphor to help me remember this new wisdom that went like this: the human brain is like an art studio. It comes equiped with basic equipment like colour, tone, balance, contrast, texture, movement, pattern, etc. In other words, the elements and principles of art (if you’ve forgotten what your art teacher taught you, look “here” for a quick revision). The elements and principles of art can also be considered the elements and principles of life (two-dimensional life predominantly relies on the visual arts, if you want to consider three-dimensional life you need to add music, poetry, dance, drama, and the elements and principles of other art forms). As a child develops, they learn to use these elements and principles. In my art therapy experiences, I had noted insights into how clients worked was dependent upon their art education that stemmed back to their primary years, for example, how they drew faces or if they had an interest in manga. The differences were subtle but I’ve worked in enough schools to be able to pick up on some of these clues. Conversely, while I could pick educational trends in clients work, I also noted from my teaching experience that no matter how precisely I gave instructions on how to create an artwork, every child created something different, something unique. Metaphorically, there are many different types of trees, but no two leaves on a tree are ever identical.
I contemplated my art studio theory further. Perhaps differences between people’s brain is due to some people, metaphorically, preferring to mix colours with chalk pastels but others liked rendering with pencils? Perhaps neuroplasticity is like if a person’s pencils are broken then they are forced to use chalk pastels instead? Even though everyone’s “art studio” comes equipped with the basic equipment, some variations were possible, as is the case with people who have colour blindness or trichromats (people with extra cones in their retina that results in seeing colours more vividly). I also considered the symptomatology of psychosis being like a creative mind in overdrive; that is the mind creating images that extend beyond the edges of a canvas. Perception is the mind’s canvas. Perception has two sides, one being what is real and the other being what one imagines. In a neuro-typical brain they are present and in someone experiencing a psychosis the boundaries of what is real and what is imagined are blurred; it is as though two sides of the mind’s “perception canvas” are operating as one, hence, symptoms of hallucinatory sounds, visions, smell, and other sensory cues, feel like they are real.
None of my contemplation about the brain being like an art studio provided an easy answer for curing mental health conditions, but if researchers aren’t using the right paradigm then the solutions may never be found. A lot of psychology paradigms assume the brain works like a computer. I suspect this may be accurate for some functions, however, it has limitations. Modern art studios typically have a computer to perform some tasks, hence, the mind’s studio could have some computer-like functions for elements of perception but these need to be viewed in conjunction with overachieving understanding of creative activities.
In my art therapy training, I learned that a healthy mind was a mind had multiple synaptic networks across different regions, likewise, MRIs indicate that when a person is engaged in a creative activity, their whole brain is active. Creativity was not just defined as Art. The creative process could be applied to cooking, writing an essay, and a myriad of other human activities. The inference is clear, to have mental wellbeing, is to be creative. Creativity is life, in each and every moment, humans are constantly creating, nothing is ever an exact replication, unless it is computer generated. Humans are not machines.
Throughout my psychology training, I held this new found wisdom in the forefront of my mind. As each topic was covered, and findings presented, I tested it against my hypothesis. Time and time again, it appeared to be true, moreover, it seemed provable. For example, there is no part of the brain assigned to numbers, as provable by cultures like the Munduruku and Pirahã in Amazonia who do not have names for numbers. They do not count objects with digits in the same way as westerners, instead, they rely upon the elements and principles of scale and proportion, e.g., few, some, or more. Similarly, different cultures name colours differently, albeit, a pattern can be found in how this generally evolves, and much to my fascination, the differences in naming colours across cultures can be identified in brainwaves. (This short documentary introduces the phenomenon well: The Surprising Pattern Behind the Names of Colors Around the World). The names we give colours literal affects how our internal art studio operates; it’s like the brain creates stencils that it can use over and over again in its creative process (kind of like how Banksy reuses stencils to create different artworks; all artists have their schemas that they fall back on.)
My life has been greatly enriched by viewing my mind and the minds of my fellow human beings, as being like a creative art studio. It is through this paradigm that my research is best understood.
I find it very easy to believe that a man wandered around the region of Nazareth 2000 years ago telling people that all they needed to do to achieve bliss on the earth and in heaven was to love one another. However, I find it extremely difficult to believe that such a man was born of a woman who was literally a virgin.
To my understanding, the story of Jesus is somewhat similar to the story of St George. Records indicate there was a man called George who did some marvellous deeds for others, he did not, however, literally slay a dragon. St George was a Christian who lived in the third century, in Lydia (modern day Turkey). He refused to worship pagan Gods, so he was killed. By the tenth century, St George’s story had morphed into him being a knight that slayed a fire breathing dragon. Both of these symbols (knight and dragon) are storytelling devices that people could easily relate to. The use of symbolism to portray themes and evoke emotional responses are classic storytelling devices.
Tintoretto, Saint George Killing the Dragon c.1557
Source: Wikiwand
Note: In the above painting of St George killing a dragon by Tintoretto, he was included a depiction of the crucified Jesus lying between himself and the woman who is running away; all elements of the picture are symbolic of theological concepts.
Somewhere, somehow, the simple message of loving one another got mixed up in human traits of confusion, desire for power, jumping to the wrong conclusions, and/or over complicating matters. In other words, some people did not heal their internal wounds, some continued to act out of trauma responses. When I say some, I really mean many. And when many people are acting out of a place of hurt, abusive behaviours can become normalised. We still are not at a point in history in which the majority of people have recalibrated their nervous systems so as a new normal can be set.
As a child growing up under the influence of Catholicism, I never understood how to connect the symbology of the bible with Christian teachings about love. To my mind, phrases like “He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God” (Revelations 19:13) have a grotesque imagery. Why would the Word of God need to be dipped in blood? It has been a journey of intellectual inquiry for me to understand that a person to be wearing a robe dipped in blood is not a symbol of violence and death. I’ve needed to put aside my subject reactions in order to come to the realisation that is not how the ancients viewed blood. Rather, they saw it as a symbol of life (see What most Christians don’t know: Christian Faith is Based on Jewish Blood Magic (Extended version)). Therefore, to be wearing a garment covered in blood, in this instance, is to be cloaked in the life-force of God. To drink Jesus’ blood (John 6:54) is to be filled with that life. The heart pumps blood throughout the body, and the heart is a symbol of love, therefore, the association of God’s life force, love, flowing around the body, like blood, makes perfect sense.
If Newton’s analysis of the bible is correct, then the Holy Spirit is another symbol for blood. Therefore, understanding the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, in which God, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, are One, takes on a new perspective: God, the Son, and Love. (Newton took the Arian perspective God, the Son and Holy Spirit were separate. To me, the whole argument is arbitrary and non consequential to the message of love; it’s like arguing over if the chicken or egg came first.)
When I was a child at a Catholic primary school, long before I could read the Bible for myself, we were taught that we were all sons and daughters of God. We were also taught that we were to strive to be like Jesus, and embody love, just like He did. So it is, I am still left wondering: Is the mystical version of Jesus Christ, as expressed in numerous artworks, a real man who walked upon the earth? If so, was he a young man who carried a wand? Or was he older man with a beard? Or was there a more human version, a man who embodied the Holy Trinity and taught other men (and women) about God’s Holy Spirit? At this point in time, I cannot give a defiant opinion.
My mind wanders upon many paths of inquiry. If the Holy Spirit is love, then that would explain the story of pentecost and how when the apostles received the gift of the Holy Spirit they were able to communicate with all others: “All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them” (Acts 2:4). Love crosses all boundaries, love is a universal language.
Follow the way of love and eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy. For anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to people but to God. Indeed, no one understands them; they utter mysteries by the Spirit.
1 Corinthians 14:1-2
At the simplest level, prophecy simply means the will of the Gods, not predictions of the future. Hence, God’s will, as given by the gift of the Holy Spirit, is for all people to speak the language of love. It’s a simple principle. Why then do so many people struggle with it? There are many variables, namely: There is often the look of an angel on the Devil himself (Old Irish proverb).
When people have been abused or traumatised, it often very difficult to hear, feel, and give love. Love heals, but sometimes it takes time.
When I was doing my art therapy training, we were taught the importance of hearing our client's stories, of being witnesses to their pain. To be heard, to be validated, and to be respected, are key principles of any psychotherapy. However, such healing experiences do not need to be clinical. Every person on this planet has the capacity to be that safe space that others may need. Love is simple, yet being loving can be complex. There are guidelines, but there are no definite rules. Sometimes, when a person is sharing their grievance, they need to have their views challenged, other times, they just simply need to be heard and they will work out the rest on their own. As a therapists in training, we were introduced to numerous theories and approaches so as we could build up resource kits that were large enough for us to have an array of options to choice from in the face of unknown circumstances that may arise with our clients. We also needed to learn that not everything that looked like nail needed a hammer to fix it, sometimes, the role of therapist just means holding a safe space.
Ultimately, we are all therapists, to each other.
Personally, I feel very lucky to be surrounded by so many people who may not understand the symbology of the Bible or the principles of trauma-informed care, but they show me the love that I need, when I need it. Like the friend I mentioned in the epilogue, we have known each other for nearly ten years. He has seen me at my best of times and at my worst of times, and vice versa. We've known each other long enough to detect whether the other needs tenderness or loving toughness in which boundaries are acknowledged.
I am tempted to list all the wonderful people in my life and use this opportunity to thank them, but to do so risks accidentally missing some people. I like to think the people who are currently close to me or have been close in the past know who they are. There are also those whose interactions have been brief but nonetheless, they have impacted me and shown me what love is by being their genuine loving selves; I suspect many of these people do not know who they are.
As I look through the Bible with my increased understanding of ancient symbolism, all my past surface level interpretations fade. The book of Revelation that once looked like a horror story, now appears to a book of hope, and the obscure references to virgins make a lot more sense if they are understood to be a colloquial way of saying “daughters”, which in turn means groups of people. Therefore, verses like below is a reference to groups of people who follow love.
All of these are pure virgins, and they follow the Lamb wherever he leads.
Book of Revelations 14:4
My search for understanding ancient symbols is ongoing, but my search for understanding the significance of Jesus, as I imagine the Early Christians saw him, is complete. I do not believe the apostles literally left their families, wives, or children to follow Christ. Rather, they left the metaphorical households of religions that did not put love in the centre of their doctrines. Hence, they preached to not call any man on earth their father (Matthew 23:9).
To me, a lot of Christian symbols have become as tarnished as the Swastika, but love is a doctrine I can commit to.
In my research of so-called occult symbols, it never ceases to amaze me that unlocking hidden codes is as simple as looking up the etymology of words. In many instances, the “hidden” meanings are not hidden at all, rather, it is simply a case of when contemporary mindsets are used to interpret phrases that need to be understood within the time and context in which they were written, confusion arises.
Once literacy issues are accounted for, the synthesis of my research on Early Christianity concludes that it began as a fringe group who opposed other religious orders. Unlike other cults of the time, Christianity did not demand followers had to perform difficult acts of initiation, like the Eleusian, Bacchus, Mithras, Cybele, or Jewish cults (Dr Richard Carrier makes this point well). One simply needed to hear the Word and they could be healed (Luke 6:18-19):
[a large crowd] had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. Those troubled by impure spirits were cured, and the people all tried to touch him, because power was coming from him and healing them all.
In contemporary speech, “disease” suggests ailments like cancer, eczema, Covid, etc. However, the word was not always a reference to physical symptoms. Originally, to be dis-eased meant to be ill at ease, as in stressed, worried, anxious, or depressed.
disease (n.)
early 14c., "discomfort, inconvenience, distress, trouble," from Old French desaise "lack, want; discomfort, distress; trouble, misfortune; disease, sickness," from des- "without, away" (see dis-) + aise "ease" (see ease (n.)). Restricted pathological sense of "sickness, illness" in English emerged by late 14c.; the word still sometimes was used in its literal sense early 17c., and was somewhat revived 20c., usually with a hyphen (dis-ease).
disease (v.)
mid-14c., disesen, "to make uneasy, trouble; inflict pain," a sense now obsolete; late 14c. as "to have an illness or infection;" late 15c. in the transitive sense of "to infect with a disease, make ill;" from disease (n.). Tyndale (1526) has Thy doughter is deed, disease not the master where KJV has trouble not (Luke viii.49).
Note: The aforemented William Tyndale (1494 - 1536) translated the Bible into English.
In light of this understanding it is apparent that Jesus Christ healed what we would now call mental health conditions. How did he do this with his magic wand? I’ll cut to the chase: Jesus cured people with Love. Love puts people at ease; Love cures troubled spirits.
Yet the news about him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses.
The more people heard the news that love cures, the more crowds came to hear Jesus. Whether or not Mary was a real person is irrelevant in the bigger scheme of the message of love: “Love that was rekindled in Thy womb” (Dante).
If I were to extrapolate upon the premise of Jesus Christ being a figure who preached love as a means of healing, then I would do so through the lens of a contemporary mental health practitioner. Disease begins in the nervous system. If a person is stressed, anxious, or depressed, it correlates with a disruption to their breathing, heat rate, and blood pressure. If sustained, then their parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous systems become at odds with each other, and in turn can affect digestion, thinking, behaviour, and other variables. Trauma-informed research is increasingly demonstrating that a failure to return to a state of homeostasis can, consequently, lead to physical ailments. Hence, I hypothesise Jesus Christ’s healing capacity relates to curing disease at its core, through a resetting of the nervous system. Trauma-informed care means giving people unconditional positive regard and allowing them the space, resources, and support to process whatever issues they have (this process can vary from situation to situation). In order words, trauma-informed care requires being loving.
Love does not mean an acceptance of non-loving behaviours of others. Love, through a trauma-informed lens means having healthy boundaries. and being prepared to have open discussions - often difficult discussions - with others within a compassionate framework. Further, the practice of self care strategies for therapists and consumers of therapy is paramount to achieving healthy nervous system regulation. My top five favourite trauma gurus are: Brene Brown, Gabour Mate, Peter Levine, Bessel van der Kolk, and Irene Lyons.
In 1216, a Spanish priest called Saint Dominic, set up an order in France that originally was called Order of Preachers, however, is now known as the Dominican order. A key feature of the order is that it is known for its Aristotelian based theology. And it is from the Dominican order in which one of Catholics most well-known theologians and Doctor of the Church was trained, Thomas Aquinas .
Aquinas is credited with cultivating western thoughts, which he did so by embracing Aristotle’s ideas and bringing them into a new era. Aquinas wrote extensively and gave public lectures. Apparently Aquinas could levitate, which, if true, suggests he was not just interested in intellectual philosophies but also the magical arts and/or occultism.
It is through Aquinas that we have clear indications of Christianity’s incorporation of Aristotle’s world views being accepted as fact, right through to his theories of the classical elements (for background information see The Four Elements in Theology and Ancient Texts):
“ … there is order in the use of natural things; thus the imperfect are for the use of the perfect; as the plants make use of the earth for their nourishment, and animals make use of plants, and man makes use of both plants and animals. Therefore it is in keeping with the order of nature, that man should be master over animals”
Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, c.1270, p. 800
Aquinas’ understanding of the classical elements (or principles) can be further identify when he references a familial system to symbolically describe concepts:
Now the father is principle in a more excellent way than the mother, because he is the active principle, while the mother is a passive and material principle.
Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, c.1270, p. 1734
And (italic emphasis provided by myself):
Otherwise; I have come to set a man against his father; for he renounces the Devil who was his son; the daughter against her mother, that is, the people of God against the city of the world, that is, the wicked society of mankind, which is spoken of in Scripture under the names of Babylon, Egypt, Sodom, and other names. The daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, that is, the Church against the Synagogue, which according to the flesh, brought forth Christ the spouse of the Church. They are severed by the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And a man’s foes are they of his household, those, that is, with whom he before lived as intimates.
When Constantine legalised Christianity, beliefs pretty much became Romanised. Women were no longer permitted to have leadership roles (like evidence suggests they did in Christianity’s beginnings) and a hierarchical structure like the Roman military emerged., e.g., allegiance to a Pope, Archbishops, Bishops, Deacons, and priests being consolidated; all of these titles were “Father” positions. Amongst the changes, Constantine outlawed male castration, which some priests were doing to help them refrain from sexually immorality (this practice can also be found in other ancients cults that mandated priests had to be eunuchs, such as the Cybele cult).
Other reforms to Christianity brought about by Constantine included the definitive stance on Mary being a Virgin, and discouraging men from marrying (but this was not enforced; that came much later). There was also a lot of debate about the doctrine of the trinity, i.e., whether or not God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit were One or if they were three entities. After several decades/centuries of arguing, council meetings organised by Constantine (the Nicaea council) to put an end to the debate. Consequently, it became canonised law that the Trinity as One was the only acceptable Christian belief. From then on, anyone who disagreed was an outcast, moreover, a heretics who would burn in hell (less dramatically, these people were also called Arians). The “us” and “them” mentality of Romanised Christianity was strong.
Outside of the rigid formal Christian structure were monks, friars, brothers, nuns, and mothers. Unlike men, nuns were not permitted to pledge a lifelong commitment to Christ and become “Mothers” until they were over forty. In other words, when they were beyond child rearing age; it was presumed that if a woman was still unmarried at that age then no man wanted her, therefore, they could be Christ’s brides. (Loose connections between Christian covenants and the Roman cult of Vestal Virgins can be made, e.g., higher social status compared to other women.)
Coinciding with the fall of Rome, was the destruction of Alexandria’s library, several pandemics, and other factors. Formal education across Europe dwindled. Throughout the period, often referred to as the Dark Ages (c.476 – 1000CE), education took a back seat. The emergence of the feudal system created a clear divide between the minority who were of noble status, who ruled over the majority, the peasants. Nobility were viewed as having superior status in an almost God-like fashion that is comparable to the Ancient Greek beliefs that people with education deserved to have control over others (as described by Aristotle). The prospect that if everyone was educated, then everyone would be God-like doesn’t appear to have registered being as a possible reality.
In my imagination, a peasant’s life was one of hard labour, every day. Both men and women had to toil the land and work hard just to ensure food supplies were sufficient to stay alive. Education, for both males and females was done at home and/or community setting. Aside from learning a livelihood, learning consisted of things like songs recitals, dancing, herbal remedies, and hearing Bible stories at Sunday church services, albeit the latter were told in Latin and the congregation may have no idea what was being said, but if they were in a Cathedral or their humble village church had pictures on the wall, then their minds could absorb religious iconography like impressions of heaven and hell. Failure to attend Sunday services could result in being imprisoned. There was zero tolerance on missing Church. Even if an emergency arose like cattle giving birth needing assistance, attendance at Church was mandatory; if the cattle and/or foul died then it was considered God’s will.
It is during this period that images of Jesus as a youthful healer waving a wand disappeared. Instead, we start to see a middle aged man with a beard. As shown below, the Byzantine depiction of Jesus was grand and domineering, more like Zeus (or Jupiter) than Apollo.
Byzantine depiction of Jesus, created with mosaics
Source: Wikipedia
Formal education, that was required to become a doctor, statesman, or clergyman was only within the reach of 5% of the population (in regions like modern day Italy it was closer to 10%). From the 5-10% of the population who were educated, most were male. And like in antiquity, education was intertwined with religion.
For most of human history, formal education means to be initiated into some form of theology. It is only in very recent times that attempts have been made to make education non-secular.
Boys who were judged to be too weak, vague, indifferent, or other to be of use in the fields or military, may have been sent to monasteries. Beginning as an altar boy, a priest’s assistant, young males could rise through the ranks of Church-based education/indoctrination. It is also from monasteries that the cliched image of monks meticulously and painstakingly created copies of the Bible with illuminated letters emerges. This practice of being in a semi-meditative state while contemplating the “Word of God” through artistry was a form of education. In some cases, women also copied the bible in covenants. (Stay tuned for a blog dedicated to the history of Bible reproductions.)
Example of handwritten Bible, c.1410
Source: Wikipedia
Some people who entered Christian orders did so of their own free will, while others had other pressures that forced them. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) is amongst the category who entered of his own accord. In fact Aquinas’ family were highly alarmed about him joining what they considered to be a cult. They tried, but failed, to convince him to live a “normal life”. (More about Aquinas soon).
From about the Middle Ages onwards, Church education became more formalised through a system called scholasticism (from the Latin schola which means school). It was a dogmatic, rote-based approach in which students were educated under the guidance of their teacher who was presumed to be authority on all matters. In contrast, ancient Greek schools, like Plato’s Academy, included lively debates about topics and learning was published in dialogues to demonstrate various points of view had been explored. It is almost as though a belief had been formed that there was no longer a need to debate issues because the so-called truth of all matters had been settled, primarily by Aristotle. That is to say, almost all teachings were based upon Aristotle’s lecture notes. (See Is Aristotle Overrated? for more details.) Scholastic education dominated from the Middle Ages through to the scientific revolution of the late Renaissance.
Exactly what peasants and people without a formal education believed is difficult to form conjecture about. It could be speculated that much wisdom about nature, the rhythm of the seasons, and pagan superstitions continued. If so, then this knowledge could be viewed as being hidden from official historical records and accounts for yet another aspect of occultism.
Following Aquinas, Dante Alighieri (1285-1325) is another example of a learned man educated under the influence of Aristotelian ideas. Specifically, he supported Aristotle’s concepts of some men being superior and therefore having divine right to rule:
I am referring to actions, which are regulated by political judgment, and to products, which are shaped by practical skill; all of these are subordinate to thinking as the best activity for which the Primal Goodness brought mankind into existence. This sheds light on that statement in the Politics that “men of vigorous intellect naturally rule over others”.
Dante Alighieri, Monarchy, Book 1, part 3, lines 10-15
Dante’s education history is not well documented. However, it may be presumed he studied at least one scholastic or scholastic-like institution attached to a monastery. He was politically minded and so to hold a political office he had to join a Guild, so he became a pharmacist and joined the pharmacy Guild. Like many men, Dante was also involved with physical battles due to conflict with other powers.
Florence, Dante’s home town, experienced many conflicts relating to politics, religion, and territory. As destiny would have it, Dante finished up on the losing side. Consequently, when he was in his fifties, he was banished and separated from his family. Dante was angry, very angry, especially towards the Church.
Being an intellectual, Dante took pen to paper to express his views through the art of satirical poetry. Dante’s work, like the Divine Comedy, reveals he was well versed in Ancient Greek philosophy. The epic piece contains a myriad of references to characters such as Apollo, Aphrodite, and Hellen of Troy which demonstrate an understanding of the ancient theology behind their namesakes.
Above all, The Divine Comedy, was just that, a comedy. Dante did not use highly sophisticated language to express his views, rather, he wrote in a crude vernacular of Latin, the language of commoners. His aim was to mock the Church’s stance on a number of issues, hence, his books were banned. The fact that the Church later (long after Dante’s death) retracted their objections and embraced him as a golden boy of Christianity is a curious thing.
I am not an expert on Dante, but looking over his work I found one particular verse in The Divine Comedy that struck me as being profound. The line reads: “O virgin mother, daughter of thy Son”.
“O virgin mother, daughter of thy Son,
humble beyond all creatures and more exalted;
predestined turning point of God's intention;
Thy merit so ennobled human nature
that its divine Creator did not scorn
to make Himself the creature of His creature.
The Love that was rekindled in Thy womb
sends for the warmth of the eternal peace
within whose ray this flower has come to bloom.
Here to us, thou art the noon and scope
of Love revealed; and among mortal men,
the living fountain of eternal hope.”
The line is a confusing mixture of symbolic language; “mother” and “daughter” are both described in relation to the “Son”. How could the biblical Mary be both Jesus’ mother and daughter? While pondering this question, I remembered Justin Martyr and his explanation the Jewish custom of using a family structure to represent groups of people (see: Theology of Early Christianity as described by Justin Martyr). Could this really be? If Leah and Rachel were symbolic of synagogue and church … ? Was Mary … a symbol of the Christian church? Not a church in the modern sense of a physical building but a church in the ancient sense of it being a reference to the soul of a congregation or group of people. I needed more evidence to be sure.
Model of Jewish symbolism using family structure: Father = Godhead, Mother = Church or Synagogue, Daughter = congregation or groups of people, And Son = human beings or individuals.
As I have stated many times throughout my blogs, I do not believe in universal symbolism, however, a reoccurring pattern that I have identified across some theologies (namely, Jewish, Ancient Greek, Christian, and Islam) is that Spiritual realms are commonly referred to as masculine (father), and Soul realms are commonly referred to as feminine (mother). This pattern is tied into gendered languages and does not equate to literal men and women - just as a chair, table, key, dog, cat, boat, etc., are not literally male or female in many languages (e.g., Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and Arabic) they can be personified in expressive speech as though they are. Thus, Spirit and Soul aspects in theologies are not literally male or female. Therefore, the Virgin Mary, when viewed as a personification of Soul is not literally a woman, rather, her characteristics are human attributes that anyone can have.
When the Mother of God is understood to be Soul, then it can further be understood why so many Christian theologians (such as Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Jerome, and Augustine)
referred to Mary as the new Eve. Likewise, Jesus is the new (or last) Adam. Finding
Jewish sources that confirm the allegorical nature of Adam and Eve as personifications of Spirit and Soul is relatively easy. Hence, seeing as Christianity is an offshoot of Judaism, it’s not surprising to see the pattern continued.
The other shoe dropped when I learned in bygone eras, daughters were referred to as “virgins” because, you know, according to patriarchal values, a female’s sexual activity is more important than anything else. Therefore, Virgin Mary = Daughter Mother. It is a play on symbology = Mother and daughter are one, i.e., the soul of a church that sheaths its members.
When Dante wrote The Divine Comedy he was an outcast and rebel of the Church. Could it be that through the creative mocking of satirical poetry Dante was revealing a symbolic secret? If so, it may explain why the Church, in a corrupted state that wanted to maintain power over the masses deemed his work heretical. Who should one believe? A man who rose the ranks of politics and was educated in theology, and was subsequently outcast and angry? Or an institution that claimed poor people could enter heaven if they paid the Church enough money?
(The Catholic Church of Dante’s era practiced indulgences – if a Christian sinned (murder, rape, thief, etc.) they could give money to the Church which would supposedly reduce time in purgatory. The practice of indulgences was one of the fundamental issues that caused rifts in the Church and led to the Reformation a few centuries after Dante’s lifetime.)
It has taken many hours of reflection and further research for me to make the final assessment. My conclusion, to put it bluntly, the Virgin Mother belongs in the same realm of possibility as Santa Clause, the tooth fairy, and Mary Poppins.
There is outstanding scientific evidence that stipulates a woman’s ova cannot produce a child without a man’s sperm. Conversely, there is outstanding evidence from multiple sources that both the words “virgin” and “mother” have purely symbolic meanings that have been used in religious text before, during, and after the formation of Christianity.
It’s plausible that two thousand years ago, without knowledge of DNA, X and Y chromosomes, and other practical elements of reproduction, some people believed it was possible for a woman to fall pregnant without intercourse. To justify that belief today is not so easy.
This is my opinion. It is up to each and every individual to decide for themselves if they believe the the Virgin Mother is real or if her appearance has been made to be as grand as the Emperor’s new clothes.
When considering the Virgin Mary’s symbolic status, it’s also prudent to consider Jewish traditions. Judaism honours the “mother” both symbolically and literally as carrying the bloodline of their religion. If a woman is a Jew, then all her children will be considered Jews (in an ethnical sense), regardless of personal beliefs and/or their father’s religious status. Conversely, if a Jewish father marries a non-Jewish woman, then none of their children will be considered to be of the Jewish race, although they could still be Jewish by way of religious practice.
Understanding the Jewish perspective of succession being a matriarchal continuum passed down from mother to daughter explains why the symbolism for their spiritual hierarchy was father-mother-daughter-son. Further, the personification of Biblical characters as being symbolic representations of concepts and/or groups people is evidential in the Bible itself. (Isaac Newton’s commentaries on this topic are particularly noteworthy, see Reading the Symbols of the Apocalypse According to Isaac Newton.)
The first Christians were Jews. Therefore, they it’s reasonable to assume they honoured the spiritual lineage of father, mother, daughter, and son = God (father), Virgin Mary (mother-daughter), and Jesus (son). How then did this symbolism get buried beneath other ideas?
Early Christian sects argued between with each other over many things. One such conflict was whether or not gentiles had to convert to Judaism before they could become Christians. Those who supported the mandatory requirement emphasised Jewish beliefs and values in the Jesus narrative, while those who believed anyone could be a Christian did not. Thus, over time the significance of Jewish symbolism used by Early Christians subsided. Of note, Greco-Roman influences overlayed the Jewish (see Did Romans Kill Jesus Twice?: The Beardless Versus the Bearded Jesus).
Speculatively, there have always been leaders within the Christian Church who have known and understood the symbolism of the Virgin Mary through a Jewish lens. Dante appears to have been one of those few.
Symbols are complex, therefore the Virgin Mary was not only a reference to a synthesis of mother-daughter being a reference to a group of people, it transcends to the notion of purity and youthfulness. Inferences which I imagine would have felt most fitting to the the founders of the establishing Christian church.
Painting of the Virgin Mother with Child; original dated to the 5th or 6th century, overpainted in the 13th century
Source: Wikipedia
In contemplation of the nuances of the Virgin Mary being the personification of a soul that sheaths Christianity, I am reminded of a time when my son was nearly ten. It was a day in February, an ordinary school day, but we got home in the afternoon he was not his usual cheerful self. Solemnly, he took himself to his bedroom and shut the door. When I went to check on him, I found him sitting on his bed, tears streaming down his face. My immediate thought was that something bad had happened at school, perhaps he’d been bullied. At first he refused to speak and just shock his head in response to my questioning that was along the lines “did you and so and so have a fight?” I then moved into a semi-lecturing mode of the need to express emotions. I told him that I could not help him if I did know what was wrong. I made stabs in the dark about how he might be feeling about his father and I breaking up three months early. He shook his head to all again. I took a deep breath and said “Is it something I have done? If so, please tell me so I can make right.” Amid bursts of sobbing, he let out what was disturbing him:
“I know Santa Claus is not real! Don’t lie to me, I know he’s not real!”
Of all the things my son could have told me, I was not expecting that. I queried if a conversation had come up in the school yard that day which prompted the topic, but my son, once calmer, said that was not the case. For whatever reason, that day, he was ready to confront me. As we talked, my son did an exceptionally good job of articulating exactly how he felt. He told me of the clues he’d picked up on, like conversations he’d over heard and poorly hidden presents he’d spotted under my bed that later appeared as Santa gifts. My son made it overwhelming clear that he was not sad because he knew Santa was not real, he distressed because he didn’t know if he could trust anything I said.
I was caught off guard. My elder daughter had breezed through finding out and accepting there was no Santa Clause. She had a different temperament. She was more dreamy, loved to play make believe. My son, on the other hand, was astute, inquisitive, like an mini-engineer who wanted to know how everything worked. I found myself fumbling as I tried to explain that “everybody” lies to their children about Santa but no harm is meant by it. It was supposed to be fun, a game of sorts, a pretend kind of magic. I told him the lie was done with love, not to hurt him with deception. My son said he did not think it was fun to be lied to. I was in a corner. How could I raise my son to be an honest man if I also taught him it was acceptable to sometimes lie?
I started paying extra close attention to my son and what I said to him from then on. Our relationship had been ruptured. I had to rebuild trust. I succeeded.
The following Christmas, we still went through the tradition of Santa but as my son unwrapped the gifts, he said “Thanks, mum! That’s just what I wanted!” Later the same Christmas Day, he did a better job of pretending Santa was real so as to keep the “magic” alive for his younger cousins. To my surprise, I felt a sense of unease. Without conscious effort, ever so subtly, it dawned on me that I’d indoctrinated my son into the cult of Santa Clause. I tried to convince myself that it was important for children to have the opportunity to have fun, use their imaginations, and believe there were magical beings in the world. To this day, I’m not sure if that’s fitting to contemporary times. I imagine in the past, when the tradition of Santa began (around the fourth century, Turkey), the experience of children waking on Christmas morning to find simple gifts of a handmade nature was quite different to the experience children now have of sacks filled with plastic toys and digital devices.
I was born and raised a Catholic. I was always told the Virgin Mary was a real person. Can I trust anything the Church says if she is not real?
Post edit 9/12/21: The following quote from Vatican News supports the notion that Catholicism has a long tradition of viewing the Virgin Mary as the symbolic “Mother of the Church”.
In 1964 […] Pope Paul VI “declared the Blessed Virgin Mary as ‘Mother of the Church, that is to say of all Christian people, the faithful as well as the pastors, who call her the most loving Mother’ …
In the humble beginnings of education, people who engaged in active learning were called philosophers (a word that means lover of wisdom). All genders had access to education, albeit men outnumbered women and one usually had to come from a family of status and wealth in order to enjoy the perks of formal tuition from a philosophy master.
Records indicate Pythagoras had at least seventeen women in his cult, and at Plato’s academy there were two. One does not have to be a master mathematician to see that the number of female learners decreased as time progressed. In turn, it is no surprise that a few decades later, there were no female students taught under Aristotle (see Is Aristotle Overrated?)
Ancient Greece was a mixed bag of philosophical beliefs, however, the dominant group (cult) of the Classical era were men who supported patriarchal values. As told by Aristotle, this was mostly based on the belief that men’s souls were more evolved than women’s (see below).
“… the male rules over the female, or the man over the child; although the parts of the soul are present in any of them, they are present in different degrees. For the slave has no deliberative faculty at all; the woman has, but it is without authority, and the child has, but it is immature”
Aristotle, c.350, Politics, Book 1, part 8.
Neoplatonism
Neoplatonist's (c.300BCE - c.400CE) follow a harmonisation of Plato and Aristotle’s philosophies. In regards to gender, this is presents as a belief that males have more intellectual spirit and females have more emotional soul. However, it was not an absolute distinction like it appears to be in Aristotle’s thought - but I'm also mindful that perhaps Aristotle did not strictly see all men as being superior and it is only via interpretations and translations (or mistranslations) that it appears he was blatantly sexist.
When Neoplatonist, Iamblichus (c.245 - 325 CE), describes gender he states that some men are more like women and some women are more like men. From this, we can extrapolate two things, firstly, to be described as being like a women had a derogatory inference (i.e., overly emotional, inclined to hysteria, and weakness of mind), conversely, to be described as being like a man inferred positive cognitive traits (i.e., rational, intellectual, and strong). Secondly, the human population has never fit nearly into strict binary gender stereotypes, there has always been variations.
An additional third consideration, is that patriarchal societies that degrade females’ value and treat them as though they are an inferior species is a form of trauma. Contemporary trauma-informed psychological research confirms that all genders are susceptible to PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). Historically, PTSD was called hysteria and considered to be solely a woman’s disease. It is therefore possible that the patriarchal traditional of viewing women as “hysterics” is proof of constant trauma. Further, it could be possible that all women today carry generational trauma dating back to the beginnings of patriarchal cults. If correct, then it will take several more generations of consciousness healing for the true qualities of “femininity” to be known.
Prior to this time, during the Greek Dark Ages (c.1100 – 750BCE), evidence suggests women had more influence and freedoms. How and why patriarchy flourished throughout the Mediterranean region, is a controversial topic I’ll skim over; suffice to say, a woman’s role became typecast to that of a mother, and records of female philosophers like Themistoclea (c.600s BCE), Theano (c.600s BCE), Myia (c.500s BCE), Aspasia (c.400s BCE), Diotima (c.400s BCE), Hipparchia (c.300s BCE), and Leontion (c.200s BCE) almost disappear completely for hundreds of years. Did female philosophers not exist? Or were records of them not kept by patriarchal historians? Perhaps we’ll never know.
From about the third century BCE through to the third century CE there are almost no accounts of women philosophers. Then, at this point, we have Hypatia of Alexandria who was killed by a mob of Christians in c.415. Evidence suggests Early Christians believed in gender equality but after Constantine this attitude changed. More about this shortly.
The different schools of philosophy that operated in Classical Greece could be thought of as cults. Each one had its particular approach to learning that stemmed from a belief system. These included Platonism, Stoicism, Epicureans, Cynics, and many more. Further, each ideology can be traced back to an initiator, a charismatic leader who defined a belief system that followers demonstrated devotion to. By the way, each of those four examples went against mainstream cultural attitudes by believing, to some greater or lesser degree, that women and men were of equal standing in intelligence and/or soul qualities.
Vignette of women and Ancient Greek schools of philosophy
Hipparchia of Maroneia (c.350 - c.280bce) was a Cynic. Being a Cynic meant giving up possessions, wearing simple clothing, and self-sufficiency. They were concerned with ethics and living by virtue which was believed to be achievable by living naturally, adhering to reason, and being critical of conventions such as materialism, politicians, and temples that focused on money. One of the most famous anecdotes about Hipparchia is that of when she was antagonised by being asked why she was not partaking in the usual female activity of weaving, she confidently gave a reply that inferred she knew her own mind and did not submit to social expectations: ‘do you suppose that I have been ill advised about myself, if instead of wasting further time upon the loom I spent it in education?’
The Cynic’s were the forerunners to the Stoics who also believed in living naturally, although they were not as extreme. The founder of the Stoics, Zeno of Citium, advocated for equality of the sexes, which included coeducational public exercise and training.The Cynic’s historical precedence of equality and denouncing standard conventions for women has been used by feminists to demonstrated that patriarchy is not a ‘natural’ state that women have historically accepted.
According to standardised history lessons, under Hellenistic (c.323 – 32 BCE) and Roman (c.31 BCE – 476 CE) rulership women were almost entirely (often literally) confined to the kitchen and were expected to cook, look after children, and do needlework. Meanwhile, boys could be taught trades, agriculture, and statemenships skills of law, politics, and rhetoric. There is truth in this depiction of history, however, a history recorded solely by patriarchs cannot be viewed as accurate or complete.
For the most part, it was men who had the most access to education in the ancient worlds. Male academics were often also religious leaders and they congregated together in places like the Library of Alexandria to share wisdom (the ancient world’s Harvard or Oxford). This library was created by Alexander the Great (Aristotle’s student) and it was a hub of intellectual activity for Greeks, Jewish, Egyptians, and later, the Romans. Influential men like Euclid, Ptolemy, and Philo are affiliated with the library.
Cleopatra (c.69 – 30 BCE), the Queen and Pharaoh of Egypt, is reported to have frequented the Great Library as well. Further, she wrote several manuscripts that were housed there; sadly, these have not survived.
The previously mentioned Hypatia was a much loved teacher at the library until her untimely murder. Through the example of Hypatia it can be inferred that it was not impossible for a woman to be educated. Hypatia had a lot of support from some males, like her father; however, to achieve such academic heights meant overcoming prejudices that her male counterparts did not encounter. In the end, Hypatia paid the ultimate price for making a stand against patriarchy.
A poignant difference between humans and other animals is our capacity to learn, moreover, our species evolves through collective education; when one human makes a discovery or invents something new, all humans are propelled into new territory. For example, somewhere in the distant past, a single person observed that seeds made plants grow and from that learning, conceived the idea of collecting seeds so as to control the growth of plants. Thus, agriculture gradually developed as more learning occurred through trial and error. The nomadic lifestyle of human beings decreased simultaneously with humans increased learning about the land, weather patterns, and other agriculture issues (like which Gods or Goddesses one should pray to in order to have successful crops). From the development of agriculture came cities, then, political organisation, and so forth. Nomadic clans in which everyone knew each other and survival was based upon harmonious cooperation, became communities in which social interactions became complicated by issues pertaining to authority. With this diversification, education that was once done within a family, clan, or small community, could be outsourced. To put it crudely, education began as a cult activity then moved on to become a commercial commodity.
In regards to the contemporary western world, Pythagoras’ cult is a significant starting point (it operated in southern Italy, which was then a Greek Provence). Pythagoras lived from about 570-490BCE and, as just about any 14-15 year old who knows how to measure the perimeter of triangles could tell you, he was really good at mathematics. What they probably are not aware of, is that Pythagoras also believed knowledge of numbers could help a person connect with the divine. (Apparently, Pythagoras also believed that eating beans were bad for you because they make you fart, and farting took away the “breath of life”, but that aspect of his teachings have not been maintained in mathematical curriculums.) It is widely recognised that Pythagoras received training in Egyptian cults prior to establishing his own cult and he potentially learnt mathematics off them, however, Egyptian beliefs and practices are still largely an enigma so it is not clear how much was borrowed and how much Pythagoras came up with on his own.
About a hundred or so years later, Plato opened a school called The Academy. The fact that educational institutions are still referred to as academies says volumes about how much Ancient Greek traditions still influence western education.
Plato was somewhat of a perfectionist, which is suiting considering he belongs to the Classical Period (c.510-323) of Greece which is known for striving for Truth, Beauty, Justice, and Wisdom in all realms of life. Like Pythagoras, Plato loved mathematics, although while Pythagoras is renowned for working with two dimensional shapes, Plato is better known for his interest in three dimensional geometry. If some accounts of history are correct (which they may not be) then you could even say he was even a little obsessed with geometry to a point in which a sign over the entrance to The Academy read: “Let no one ignorant of geometry enter”. What is known for certain is that Plato was fascinated by geometric forms in which all the faces were equal; we call these Platonic solids (see below). Plato also assigned a classic element to each one.
Five Platonic solids: top left to bottom right – tetrahedron (or pyramid; fire), cube (earth), octahedron (water), dodecahedron (unnamed; or Aristotle’s aether), and icosahedron (air).
Source: Wikimedia Commons
Plato’s love of forms extended from the intellectual/mathematical to into the realms of spirit. To Plato, certain types of thinking were a spiritual experience which, with practice, one could connect their individual mind to a universal mind, in Greek this was called the nous (nous in Ancient Greek more-a-less means the same as what it does in contemporary English; see below).
nous (n.)
college slang for "intelligence, wit, cleverness, common sense," 1706, from Greek nous, Attic form of noos "mind, intelligence, perception, intellect," which was taken in English in philosophy 1670s as "the perceptive and intelligent faculty."
Source: Etymology online
Plato believed in a spiritual realm of perfect ideas; we now refer to these as the theory of Platonic forms. In theory, Platonic solids are the building building blocks of the spiritual realm and Platonic forms are the building blocks of all the universe. Such ideas have fascinated many philosophers both now and then. After 2500 years of contemplation, Plato’s hypothesis remains a theory that has not been proven, but nor has it been falsified. (Arguably, Jung’s “collective consciousness” is an attempt to prove Plato’s theory of forms correct.)
When Christianity emerged there were a lot of tensions in the Roman Empire. In previous posts (here, here, and here), I go into detail about Christianity’s development from Greek, Jewish, and other influences so I won’t repeat myself. (It amuses me no end that some people perceive Christianity to have suddenly sprung from nowhere; it’s like thinking flowers naturally appear in vases without consideration given to the environment in which they were grown.) Perhaps, the main point to keep in mind when examining Early Christianity is that its followers did not follow the Gospel stories like most churches do today. Early Christian’s did not have any writings that they followed simply because they wrote the New Testament (see below for timeline). Either that, or they were illiterate. How then did people learn? Answer = stories. Verbal stories.
Timeline of when New Testament writings were created
Source: Image created by Renee Spencer from conventional various sources
Now, the next factor to consider, how does one remember stories they want to pass on to others when they cannot read and write? There are several methods one can use, many of which can be described as mnemonic devices. For instance, Australian Aborigines used features of the landscape as cues. Storytelling could literally be a journey in which one wandered around, with landmarks like old trees, mountains, rivers, and so forth being reminders of what was to come next in the tale. When the English colonised and destroyed the landscape, many stories were lost because the First Nation people did not have their “book” anymore.
Back to the cradle of western civilisation in Europe, it can be hypothesised that prior to the invention of writing, people used the heavens as a mnemonic device for recording stories. Unlike the earth’s features, references in the sky are less likely to be destroyed, hence, the stories could be told and retold for hundreds of years. If correct, it provides a logical premise to explain why so many cultures referred to the Sun as creator and the planet and stars as its offspring (see The Big Bang Theory in Egyptian Mythology). There is a rich and dense supply of ancient stories that incorporated both astrological and human characters, e.g., Jupiter is a planet and a God, Venus is a planet and a Goddess, etc. Modern theories of astrology do not accurately capture past beliefs.
Symbols are complex, with layers of references that require consideration (see The Connection between Symbolism and Mental Wellbeing:The Basics ). For example, at the iconic level, a symbol of the Sun means the Sun. At an indexical level, the Sun is a reference to light and warmth. At a symbolic level, the Sun represents a life sustaining object. Using one’s imagination, a Sun could also be a God, or the Son of God, or something else that somehow relates to its iconic and indexical references. To learn what the Sun symbol means, one needs an education. Like trying to interpret Durer, simply looking at symbols does not give all the answers.
In antiquity, the revealing of hidden meanings of symbols took place progressively, in stages of initiation that can be likened to modern education in which children first learn through being told stories, then progress to learning letters, words, sentences, and eventually they can write their own stories. The stories children hear inform and mould their communication style that is carried into adulthood (like an artists building templates that they can reuse again and again; Banksy uses this process in his/her art making). Logically, the more diverse stories a child hears, the more possibilities for interpreting symbolism they will develop (like an artist who is skilled across multiple mediums). However, it is also plausible that a child will fall back on what is most familiar to them, that is, the symbolic language which is used the most frequently in their homes and society. For example, Eastern cultures untouched by WW2 may learn about Nazi association with the Swastika but they are unlikely accept the negative connotations of the symbol on a personal level.
Early Christians were like preteens in later primary school. Collectively, they drew upon symbols that were used by the cultures around them to tell a new story. The story of Jesus Christ in the four canonised Gospels share a lot of the same symbols, however, subtle differences between them can be identified as being congruent with the culture they came from. For example, Matthew’s Gospel was written in Hebrew, whereas Mark, Luke, and John were written in Greek. The different language means Matthew came from slightly different culture (even though all apostles were living in The Roman Empire) and, in turn, the audience he was addressing valued different symbols, hence, the inclusion of the star of Bethlehem, the wise men, and the phrase “kingdom of God” instead of “kingdom of heaven”. All these features tap into Jewish culture in a manner that the Greek versions don’t.
It is also worthy to consider that when the Gospel stories were being repeated by word of mouth, the storytelling would have been slightly different each time. The written product is the result of a perfected version that relayed the most important parts of the Jesus Christ narrative.
Additionally, Early Christians also made artworks that reflected their cultural backgrounds. For example, paintings on the ceiling of Early Christian catacombs followed the design principles of Jewish catacombs:
Early Christians depicted Jesus with a wand to represent his magical powers. This symbolism could be a link to Moses’ staff (that he raised to magically part waters) or it could be linked to Greek accounts of Hermes and Athena who both waved wands to perform magic. Either way, the depiction of Jesus with a wand presented an easy to read symbol to people living in the first century.
Early Christian depiction of Jesus performing magic with a wand
Source: Biblical Archaeology Society
It’s widely recognised that Early Christians pictured Jesus as a young man, cleanly shaven, with a likeness to the Greek God Apollo.
Early Christian relief carving: Jesus is repeated in all the figures holding a wand.
Source: Biblical Archaeology Society
First and foremost, the first Christians taught each other about Christian faith through verbal storytelling, then through Art, and then writing. The indoctrination process into Christianity was presumably like other modes of education, that is, a person progressively learned what the symbols were and then moved onto more complex or finer points of their meanings – these steps could be taught in a myriad of ways that were either implicit or explicit, and included medications, prayers, rituals, creating pictures in sand, discussions, etc.
To explore how symbols may have been gradually introduced in Early Christianity, let’s look at an anchor. Like many symbols, it’s meaning could be discovered in layers.
Anchor in the the Catacomb of Priscilla, Rome, 2nd Century
Source: Persecution Worldwide
On a simple level, an anchor suggests being secured to a location, like a boat whose anchor is tied to the shore. This metaphor could then be used to infer a Christian needs to “anchor” themselves to Jesus Christ, especially when the seas of life are rough and windy. This interpretation is supported by Hebrews 6:19-20 (below) in which “anchor” is specifically referred to as being “hope”:
This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil, where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become High Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.
The comment about Jesus being a High Priest of the order of Melchizedek is curious upon first glance. That is until one learns that Melchizedek is mentioned in Genesis 14:18-19:
Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God Most High, and he blessed Abram, saying, “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth.
Generally, Melchizedek is an archangel associated with atonement. The symbolism is more complex but I’ll leave it at that for now.
By using symbols to describe spiritual concepts, their meaning moves from being purely intellectual, like simply telling someone they need to have hope in Jesus, to evoking emotional responses – an anchor brings to mind visceral associations of water, boats, and security, which add depth to the concept of “hope”.
On another level, hidden within the symbolic representation of christian anchors is the suggestion of a cross, thus, hope is juxtaposed with Jesus’ crucifixion.
Gravestone St. Domitilla catacomb in Rome depicting two fish anchored to the anchor of hope
Source: Early Church History
As per the above two examples of anchors from Christian catacombs, fish were also frequently included. These could be a reference to Jesus being described as a fisherman of men (Matthew 4:19), or it could be speculated that they are a reference to the astrological symbol of Pisces, hence, a reference to time, i.e., the Age of Pisces. The bottom line is that symbols can have multiple meanings.
There were many stories and writings of Jesus Christ circulating in the first two centuries of the common era (see except below). This reality, and the finding of additional gospels in Egypt, 1945, referred to as the Nag Hammadi, leads some to speculate that once Early Christians learned the story of Jesus, they were encouraged (or required) to express their understanding in writing that incorporated learned symbology. (For more details about this theory, see Youtube: Is This Proof That Jesus Christ Never Existed?).
Rejected Gospels and Texts (Written by Hays, 2018)
There were dozens, probably hundreds, of religious texts circulating around at the time the Gospels were written and coming into common usage in the early centuries after the death of Christ. They include The Gospel of Peter , Origins of the World , Gospel of Mary (Magdalene) , Acts of John , Homilies of Truth and The Gospel of Truth . Many were simply written and forgotten. Others were carefully scrutinised by Christian scholars and rejected for one reason or another, in many cases because the doctrines they promoted were regarded as threatening or heretical.
Source: Rejected Gospels of Thomas, Mary, Peter, and Judqs
Early Christianity was not a universal system. Two broad groups emerged: those who interpreted Christian symbols to be mostly literal and those who interpreted them entirely symbolically. Those who viewed Christian symbols entirely symbolically were often called Gnostics and after Constantine, they were declared heretics and their bibles apocrypha, i.e., non genuine. That’s not to say that what became mainstream Christianity was based solely on iconic or indexical understandings of symbols. Rather, it just means one set of interpretations became mandated and others became outlawed. As the heretic interpretations of Gnosticism were suppressed, their ideas slipped into a hidden realm of knowledge that later reappeared in the Renaissance era as a component of occultism.
When Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press, the first full book he published was the Bible. However, did not make a lot of money because most people still could not read, let a lone read Latin, the language of the Bible. Gutenberg died penniless but his invention prospered and revolutionised the world.
Some wealthy Italian families (they weren’t called Italians back then, rather, they were Venetians, Florentines, Romans, etc.,) already had an interest in old manuscripts, especially those of Greek Philosophers, and were in the process of making copies of old ancient text by hand. They saw the potential to speed up the process by printing, hence, Venice, Florence, Rome, and Germany, became the first major epicentres of book publishing. Unlike Gutenberg, who did not have a ready made literate customer base, families, like the Medici’s, had members within the Church, politics, and military who could read and were eager to maintain superiority over others through advanced knowledge.
Early Printing Press
Source: Wikipedia Commons
I sometimes wonder if the Europeans of the late 1400s who were involved in those early days of printing realised what a monumental role they were playing in facilitating social change? Did they realise that the mass production of literature would increase literacy levels that, in turn, spark revolution after revolution? What is known is that when it became apparent that books and learning were encouraging people to challenge authorities and the status quo, the Pope attempted to censor and control what books were and were not allowed to be published. It became canonised law that books, especially those of a religious nature, had to receive an imprimatur which in Latin means “let it be printed”. A person found to be illegally printing books without the Pope’s approval, or any person in possession of non-approved publications, could be fined, brought before a court, and/or integrated by inquisition panels.
As time went on, it also became apparent that brute force could not prevent people from learning non-Church approved literature, so the control tactics became more emotionally driven. That is, Christians were warned that certain reading material was heretical and if the devout wanted to be assured an eternity of bliss in heaven, then they needed to stay clear of some books, if not, they would burn in hell. Between 1560 and 1948, twenty editions of Index Librorum Prohibitorum (List of Prohibited Books) were published by various Popes. Many people today would recognise some of the authors who had work on forbidden list: Rene Descartes, Francis Bacon, John Locke, Immanuel Kant, and Simone de Beauvoir. Nicolaus Copernicus, Galileo Galilei, and Dante Alighieri had their works banned for a period of time and then later Pope’s removed them from the index.
The Church’s totalitarian approach lead to a kind of underbelly of education. It was probably obvious to many that the Church leaders were keeping secrets, but working out was true and what was false was difficult. Like a person who has been in a relationship with a narcissistic partner, it takes some time to realise the depths to which they have been gaslighted. l have no doubt that many secret societies were established; that is, people gathering in groups trying to put pieces together and/or groups led by people who claimed they knew all the answers. Hence the idea of cults and occultism developed alongside each other.
If the Catholic Church’s version of history is correct, then all groups of people who operated outside of mainstream Christianity were involved in cults. Further, if they did not abide by the Pope’s version of Bible interpretation, then they may be called occultists. Making cults and occultism derogatory, was just par and parcel with trying to maintain control. (See below for discussion on cults.)
The word “cult” comes from the Latin, cultus, which was a reference to the attentive agricultural practices of seeds being cultivated. Like almost all aspects of Ancient Roman life, farming involved an element of religious devotion with growing practices tied to the moon and seasonal cues. Hence, a grower didn’t just cultivate seeds, they had knowledge of the earth and its elements, thus, they cultivated themselves via the obtaining of wisdom about nature. Gradually, over time the symbolic gesture of seeds growing was applied to the concept of ideas growing, hence the term cults became known as a reference to groups of people devoted to an ideology, and culture became a reference to masses of people who shared common ideas, customs, beliefs, and attributes.
Initially, the Latin definition of a cultus did not carry any negativity, it simply referred to groups of people who practiced shared worship or homage to deity or doctrine. When the word transferred over to French, as culte, in the sixteenth century, it began to pick up negative connotations of groups of people who adhered to ideologies contrary to social norms, and this association has remained in the English usage of the term of cult.
In a metaphorical sense, a cult is like a seedling, whereas a culture is a crop that has developed from thereof. E.g., Early Christianity began as a cult then grew so big that it became a culture.
Whether or not a cult deserves to be perceived to be negative or benign can be a matter of opinion. If the cult is at odds with an alternative belief system (particularly if that cult has mainstream acceptance) then it may be judged poorly.
My personal view is that if a cult prescribes any form of abusive, controlling, or trauma-inducing practices (physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually), then it can rightly be defined as a destructive cult. Alternatively, if a group of people who prescribe to a shared belief system encourage positive behaviours like love, non-judgment, kindness, inclusiveness, and trauma-formed healing practices, then it is a positive cult. Within this definition is the capacity for varying degrees of negative and positive traits within cults.
Over the years, I’ve read many conspiracy theories about secret brotherhoods (good and bad). The name of some groups pop up more frequently than others, like the Knights Templars, the Freemasons, Rosicrucians, and the alike. (It is my understanding that Judaism and Islam have their equivalent in Kabbalah and Sufism respectively, however, I am not as well versed in their histories.) What I have generally noted is that these theories are not grounded in a deep and sincere appreciation of historical considerations, social constraints, and above all humanness. Suggestions that some groups are associated with supernatural beliefs and practices that extend back to ancient cultures like the Egyptians, don’t capture a very basic life principle: nothing is permanent except change. To modify, reinvent, and appropriate are standard behaviours when the paradigm of humans as creative beings is taken into account.
Movies like The Da Vinci Code romanticise a Holy Grail notion of Christian mysticism (comically, the friend I mentioned in the epilogue recently remarked that they didn’t want to watch The Da Vinci Code with me because they knew I’d constantly be critiquing the misrepresentations of history). Certainly, I would agree there are connections between past and present beliefs, and religious practices, but the weaving of influences and events is a lot more complex and nuanced by various factors than some conspiracy theorists acknowledge.
Personally, I like to take a pragmatic approach that incorporates an understanding of the history religions, blended with contemporary understandings of trauma-formed psychology. Above all, issues relating to cults and the occult are about education.
As an Art teacher and Art therapist understanding visual symbolism is mandatory. Art is a communication form, a visual language; however, unlike written and spoken languages it does not have a concise Webster dictionary that can be used to look up meanings. If, for example, I want to interpret the symbols in Durer’s Melancholia, then I’m faced with the task of contemplating what he’s communicating based on my existing knowledge or I need to do some research.
Albrecht Dürer, Melancholia I (1514)
Source: Wikimedia Commons
The interpretation process begins with identifying symbols on an observation level; there is an angel, cherub, sphere, polyhedron, hourglass, ladder, nails, woodworking plan, saw, numbers in a grid, bell, scales, etc. But what is Durer trying to communicate by bringing all these symbols together? The title of the work gives us a clue: Melancholia = a state of deep contemplation accompanied by a feeling of depression. The theme is reflected in expressions of the heavenly characters. Any number of reasons could be given for Durer’s portrayal of this subject matter, however, in order to fit with the theme of this blog, I am going to suggest that the angel and cherub are depressed because they do not understand the symbolic meanings of all the objects surrounding them.
Did Durer know the significance of all these symbols? Maybe, maybe not. It is relatively safe to infer he had some familiarity with sacred geometry through the presentation of the polyhedron. Likewise, one could assume the ladder is a reference to the Biblical story of Jacob’s ladder, keeping in mind that if I didn’t know Durer was Christian and I was not familiar with biblical stories then I may not make this assumption. One can go on playing the guessing game of identifying individual symbols and marvelling at the refined technical skills Durer applied to create the composition, but doing so does not provide all the answers.
Durer’s personal relationship to these symbols is another matter. Whilst objective, educated guesses of what the symbols meanings can be made, these are not necessarily reflective of how Durer related to them. The interrelationship between symbols and their maker is vitally important in Art therapy contexts. A story one of my lecturers told explains this relationship well. She described a time when a client drew themselves as a small figure on a gigantic piece of paper. Initially, in the role of therapist, the lecturer was concerned their client had a low self esteem, as indicated by how they small they’d drawn themselves. However, the client explained that the reason for doing so was because they desired to have more space around themselves. The client expressed feeling confined by their life experiences and imagining themselves in an open space in the artwork enabled them to envision the freedom to move that they wanted in real life. To extend this train of thought to Durer, perhaps he felt his life was overcrowded with symbols and not knowing what they meant was very overwhelming and depressing?
In sum, symbols can have subjective significance and objective meanings. Objective meanings are not universal, they are informed by the culture in which they are created. For example, a six pointed star in Judaism represents God’s seal of protection, but in Ancient Egypt, Babylon, Zoroastrianism, or more contemporary cults like Wiccan, a six pointed star may be used in ceremonies to conjure spirits that Jews would vehemently object to worshiping. Regardless of context, the common element is a belief that the six pointed star has magical power, unless, of course, you are an atheist, in which case the symbol is just two triangles placed on top of one another.
A Swastika is another classic example of a symbol that has multiple meanings that are dependent upon the time and place in which it is used. Many cultures (mostly eastern) have positive associations with the Swastika but due to the Nazi party’s appropriation of the symbol to represent their group and associated values, most people (in western cultures) have negative associations with the Swastika.
In consideration of the above examples, theories that propose there are universal symbols hard wired in human brains can be easily challenged, if not outrightly falsified. Nonetheless, theories like psychoanalysis are still popular amongst laypeople and academics. There is also no shortage of wannabe gurus, now and in the past, who claim the meanings they give symbols are truer than anybody else’s.
Psychologist, Carl Jung (1875-1961), infamously proposed the idea of a collective consciousness in which so-called universal symbols “lived” in an unseen world that all humans unconsciously tapped into. Jung came to this conclusion by studying ancient religions and noticing similarities between the symbols used across faiths; he called these archetypes (see definition below).
archetype (n.)
"model, first form, original pattern from which copies are made," 1540s [Barnhart] or c. 1600 [OED], from Latin archetypum, from Greek arkhetypon "pattern, model, figure on a seal," neuter of adjective arkhetypos "first-moulded," from arkhē "beginning, origin, first place" (verbal noun of arkhein "to be the first;" see archon) + typos "model, type, blow, mark of a blow" (see type).
The Jungian psychology sense of "pervasive idea or image from the collective unconscious" is from 1919. Jung defined archetypal images as "forms or images of a collective nature which occur practically all over the earth as constituents of myths and at the same time as autochthonous individual products of unconscious origin." ["Psychology and Religion" 1937]
Source: Etymology online
Jung was especially fascinated with the idea of “hidden” meanings within symbols which lead him to exploring occultism. But what does occult mean? Let’s have a look …
The word “occult” can conjure up many associations that can vary from person to person. Frequently, it is viewed as an ominous reference to supernatural beliefs and practices that fall outside of mainstream religions. It has a darkness to it, as though the word “cult” within its lettering is a synonym. Whilst in some instances there is an overlap between cults and occultism, the two concepts are not the same.
The most literal meaning of occult is something that is hidden, for example, occult symbols are symbols that have a hidden meaning. The word evolved from the Latin occultus (past participle of occulere “to hide from view, cover up”) and it began being used during the late Renaissance era of 1520–30. It’s no coincidence that the word emerged at this point in time, a period when scholars were enthralled by ancient writings that had been re-discovered and made available through book publishing. Up until that point, the Catholic Church had held a monopoly on information flow so when alternative explanations to the questions of life, the universe, and everything, became available, there was some backlash. Basically, any meaning given to a symbol that the Church did not approve of was degraded, hence, “occult symbols” were viewed as unholy, and the term occult took on a derogatory inference. This did not deter everyone and the pursuit of uncovering the meaning of symbols can be seen in the emergence of practices like alchemy. On a physical level, alchemists believed that base metals like lead could be turned into gold (forerunner to chemistry), and on a conceptual level, the symbology of ancient astrology was believed to hold formulas that could transform human ills into human vitality.
