Mystery and Initiation
j. Mystery and Initiation
We have dwelt at some length on the Karadjeri initiation because it is always instructive to study in detail at least one rite of the type under investigation.
Then we need speak only briefly of the other initiations.
But the example of the Karadjeri shows us that things are not as simple as too succinct an account might have led us to believe.
We shall better understand the profound meaning of the Karadjeri initiation when we have examined a few similar ceremonies among other peoples, but even now we can discern certain specific characteristics.
As we have said, the initiation is something more than a simple rite of passage from one age class to another.
The initiation lasts long years and the revelations are of several types. There is, above all, the first and most terrible revelation: that of the sacred as tremendum.
The adolescent is first terrorized by a supernatural reality whose power, autonomy, incommensurability, he experiences for the first
time—and in consequence of this encounter with divine terror, the neophyte dies: he dies to childhood, that is, to ignorance and irresponsibility.
That is why his family weeps and laments for him: when he returns from the forest, he will be another, he will no longer be the child that he was before.
As we have just seen, he passes through a series of initiatic trials which force him to withstand fear, suffering, torture, but which, above all, oblige him to assume a new mode of being, that of the adult, a mode of being conditioned by the almost simultaneous revelation of the holy, of death, and of sexuality.
It should not be supposed that the Australians are conscious of all this, or that they have invented the mystery of initiation consciously and voluntarily as one invents a modern pedagogical system.
Their behavior, like all archaic human behavior, is existential: the Australians reacted in this way when in the depth of their being they felt their special situation in the Universe, that is, when they realized the mystery of human existence.
This mystery, we have just said, attaches to the experience of the sacred, to the revelation of sexuality, and to the consciousness of death.
The child is ignorant of all these experiences: the adult man takes them on himself one after another, and integrates them into his new personality, the personality that he acquires after his ritual death and resurrection.
We shall repeatedly encounter these motifs—tremendum, death, and sexuality—in the course of our investigation.
We may say at the outset that, if the neophyte dies to his infantile, profane, unregenerate life, to be reborn into a new, sanctified
existence, he is also reborn into a mode of being that makes knowledge, consciousness, and wisdom possible.
The initiate is not only newborn: he is a man who knows, who knows the mysteries, who has had metaphysical revelations.
During his period of “training,” he learns the holy secrets: the myths concerning the gods and the origin of the world, the true names
of the gods, the truth about the bull-roarers and the ritual knives, etc.
The initiation is equivalent to spiritual maturation, and in the entire religious history of mankind we encounter the same theme: the initiate, he who has known the mysteries, is he who knows.
But, as we have seen, the initiation of the Karadjeri is only a faithful reproduction of the exemplary deeds of the Bagadjimbiri. And these deeds constitute a cosm
ogony, for it is the Bagadjimbiri who established the world as it is today. By repeating the deeds of these mythical brothers, the Karadjeri periodically re-enact the creation of the world; they repeat the cosmogony.
In short, a new cosmogony occurs with the initiation of each adolescent.
The genesis of the world serves as a model for the “formation” or education of the man.
We find mysteries of initiation everywhere, and everywhere, even in the most archaic societies, they contain the symbolism of a death and a new birth.
Here we cannot undertake a historical analysis of initiation, a study that would have enabled us to clarify the relations between cultural structures and types of initiation, but let us at least point out certain characteristic traits that are common to most of these secret ceremonies.4
- Everywhere the mystery begins with the neophyte’s separation from his family and withdrawal into the woods.
Here there is already a symbol of death: the forest, the jungle, the darkness symbolize the beyond, Hell.
In certain localities it is believed that a tiger appears and bears the candidates into the jungle on his back: the wild beast incarnates the mythical Ancestor, the master of initiation, who leads the youths to Hell.
Elsewhere the neophyte is thought to be swallowed up by a monster, and we shall have more to say of this motif in a little while; for the moment, let us stress the symbolism of the darkness: in the monster’s belly dwells the cosmic Night; this is the embryonic mode of existence, on the cosmic as well as on the human plane.
- In some regions there is an initiation hut in the forest. Here the young candidates undergo a part of their trials and are instructed in the secret traditions of the tribe.
The hut symbolizes the womb.5
The death of the neophyte signifies a regression to the embryonic state, not merely in terms of human physiology but also and, above all, in a cosmological sense: the fetal state signifies a temporary regression to the virtual, precosmic mode, to the state of things before the “dawn of the first day,” as the Karadjeri say.
We shall have occasion to return to this polyvalent symbol of a new birth formulated in terms of gestation. For the moment, we need only say
that the purpose of the candidate’s regression to the prenatal state is to render him contemporaneous with the creation of the world. He dwells no longer in the maternal womb as he did before his biological birth, but in the cosmic Night in expectation of the “dawn,” that is, of the Creation.
To become a new man, he must relive the cosmology. 3. Other rituals cast light on the symbolism of initiatic death.
Among certain peoples, the candidates are buried or laid in freshly dug graves.
Or else they are covered with branches and remain immobile as dead men.
Or else they are rubbed with a white powder to make them resemble ghosts.
The neophytes then imitate the behavior of ghosts: they do not make use of their fingers in eating but take their food directly in their teeth, as the souls of the dead are believed to do.
The tortured, mutilated neophyte is held to be tortured, dismembered, boiled, or roasted by the demons who are the masters of the initiation, that is, by the mythical Ancestors.
His physical sufferings correspond to those of him who is “eaten” by the animaldemon, who is ground to pieces in the maw of the initiatic monster and digested in his belly.
The initiatic mutilations are also charged with a symbolism of death. Most of the mutilations are related to lunar gods.
And the moon vanishes periodically—dies, that is—to be reborn three days later.
The lunar symbolism emphasizes the idea that death is the first condition of all mystical regeneration.
- In addition to the specific operations such as circumcision and subincision, and in addition to the initiatic mutilations (extraction of teeth, amputation of the fingers, etc.), there are other outward signs marking death and resurrection: tattooing, scarification.
As for the symbolism of mystical rebirth, it takes on a number of forms.
The candidates receive other names which will henceforth be their real ones.
Among certain tribes, the young initiates are supposed to have forgotten all about their previous life; immediately after the initiation they are fed like little children, led by the hand, and again taught how to walk and talk.
Usually they learn a new language while in the bush, or at least a secret vocabulary accessible only to the initiate.
As we see, everything begins anew with the initiation. Incipit vita nova. Sometimes the notion of a second birth is symbolized by
concrete actions.
Among certain Bantu peoples, the boy, before circumcision, is subjected to a ceremony known as “being born again.”father sacrifices a ram, and three days later he wraps the child in the stomach membrane and skin of the animal.
But before being wrapped, the child must climb into bed with his mother and cry like a newborn babe.
He remains for three days in the ram’s skin, and on the fourth day the father cohabits with his wife. Among the same people, the dead are buried in a ram’s skin and in the embryonic position. We shall not dwell on the symbolism of mystic rebirth through the ritual donning of an animal’s skin; this symbolism is attested both in ancient Egypt and in India.7
- Lastly, we must say a few words concerning another motif that appears in numerous initiations, although not always in the most primitive societies. I am referring to the injunction to kill a man.
Here, for example, is what happens among the Koko, in Papua.8
The candidate must undergo trials similar to those of any other initiation: prolonged fast, isolation, tortures, revelation of the bull-roarer, traditional instruction.
But at the end he is told: “Now you have seen the Spirit and you are fully a man. To prove yourself, you must kill a man.”
Head-hunting and certain forms of cannibalism form a part of the same initiatic pattern.
Before passing moral judgment on such customs, we should remember this: to kill a man, to eat him or keep his head as a trophy, is to imitate the conduct of the spirits or gods.
Considered in this light, the act is a sacral act, a ritual.
The neophyte must kill a man because the god did so before him; better still, he, the neophyte, has already been killed by the god during the initiation; he has known death.
He must repeat what has been revealed to him: the mystery instituted by the gods in mythical Time.
We have alluded to this type of initiation because it has played a great part in military initiations, particularly in protohistoric Europe.
The warrior hero is not only a killer of dragons and other monsters, he is also a killer of men.
The heroic duel is a sacrifice; war is a degenerated ritual in which innumerable victims are offered up as a holocaust to the gods of victory.
Let us go back to the primitive mysteries of initiation.
Everywhere we encounter the symbolism of death as the foundation of all spiritual birth, that is, of regeneration.
In all these contexts, death signifies the transcend- ing of the profane, unsanctified condition, the condition of the “natural
man,” ignorant of religiosity, blind to the spirit.
The mystery of initiation gradually discloses to the neophyte the true dimensions of existence: by introducing him to the idea of the holy, the mystery obliges him to assume a man’s responsibility. Let us remember this, for it is important: for all archaic peoples, access to spirituality is translated by a symbolism of death. ~Mircea Eliade, Man and Transformation, Page 7-12
