Myth And Ritual In Christianity Part 2

Trinity, is the Logos "by whom all things were made". He is shown in the

act of "setting his compa.s.s upon the face of the deep", since it is by division

and measurement (mays) that distinct "things" are recognized in the

continuum of life.

THE CREATION OF THE WORLD.

This remarkable Christian mandala is a thirteenth century mosaic upon the

vault of the atrium in St. Mark's, Venice. Reading anticlockwise, the

subjects are as follows: Inmost ring, (I) The Spirit upon the face of the

Waters, (2) the Separation of Day and Night, (3) the Creation of the

Firmament, (4) the Division of the Waters, (g) the Trees of Life and

Knowledge. Middle ring, (r) Creation of the luminaries, (2) of fish and

birds, (3) of planu and herbs, (4) of Adam from the dust, (5) the Sabbath,

(6) the Spirit breathed into Adam, (7) Adam brought into Eden where the

Four Rivers, represented as men, flow from the Two Trees. Outer ring,

(r) Adam's Dominion over Nature, (z) the Creation of Eve, (3) the Naming

of Woman, (4) Adam and Eve in the Garden, (5) the Temptation and

Eating of the Fruit, (6) they hide their nakedness with leaves, (7) they hide

from G.o.d, (8) who discovers them, (9) rebukes them, (to) gives them

clothes. and (It) exnells them from Eden.

In the Beginning 39 The Princ.i.p.alities are rather remote, in the sense that they govern such vast spheres as natural laws and great areas of the universe. The Christian tradition names only four of the Archangels-Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, and Uriel-and the general function of the Archangels may be surmised from the respective duties of these four. Michael is the messenger of divine judgement, and Gabriel of divine mercy. In the Last Days at the end of the world, Michael is destined to vanquish the Devil and to drive him down to the bottomless pit of fire. And at the final judgement of the living and the dead, it is Michael who holds the terrible scales in which the souls are to be weighed. Gabriel is the messenger of good news, and was thus the Archangel of the Annunciation, who came to the Virgin Mary with the news that she was to be the mother of Christ. Raphael is the angel of healing, the dispenser of divine mercy to the sick, while Uriel, the Fire of G.o.d, is the minister of prophecy and of the interpretation of G.o.d's will to the minds of men.

The Angels-the generic name for the whole company of spirits being used in particular for the lowest choir-are specially charged with the protection of individual men, each human being having, at birth, a guardian angel a.s.signed to him as minister of divine guidance and guard against the powers of darkness. As the guardian angel is the bearer of divine love and wisdom to each man, so in turn he is the bearer of the individual's prayers to G.o.d.

The angels of every order are winged to designate their spiritual nature, as well as the instantaneous manner in which they discharge all their activities. For an angel is where it thinks, and thus any number of angels ca.n stand on the point of a pin because any number of angels can think of the point 1 Jewish tradition preserves the names of three other Archangels, making seven altogether. These are Chamuel, the Seer of G.o.d, Jophiel, the Beauty of G.o.d, and Zadkiel, the Justice of G.o.d. The names of all seven are Hebrew in form, the final .el being the general Hebrew word for a G.o.d, a divine being, or of something belonging to G.o.d.

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of that pin. As thought can move faster than light, jumping instantaneously from earth to the utmost nebulae, so likewise the angels can move from heaven to earth, and from end to end of the universe in almost no time at all. Furthermore, angelic thought is said to be many times faster than human thought because it does not require the c.u.mbersome instrumentality of material images, which take time and effort to form within the mind 1 In the beginning, in that first moment of created time in which the angelic choirs were made, the whole of G.o.ds creation was perfect in every respect. Because the realm of spirits was, however, finite and created it was naturally not as perfect as G.o.d himself, yet it was nonetheless as perfect, as G.o.dlike, as finite things could possibly be. And in so far as it was G.o.dlike, every created spirit was endowed with that most divine of all properties-autonomy, the power of sel&direction without compulsion, otherwise known as the freedom of will. Lacking this power, created spirits would have been incapable of the one thing which their Creator wanted them to have, the one thing which so intimately const.i.tuted his own essence-the capacity of love. For love exists only when it is given freely, without any duress.

In allowing creatures to possess the divine property of freedom, G.o.d was well aware that he had undertaken an immense risk. For if one is free to love, one is also free to hate.

1 The traditional sources of information about the angels are princ.i.p.ally as follows: The Vision of Ezekiel in Ezekiel r, various parts of Revelation, the Book of Tobit (Raphael), Esdras 2 (Uriel), an eleventh century work ent.i.tled the Hermeneia by the Greek monk Panselinos, and, most important of all, the Celestial Hierarchies of the sixth,century Syrian monk known as St. Dionysius the Areopagite, in Migne's PatroIogia Graeca, vol. iii. Angels, as their name indicates, are the "messengers" between G.o.d and men, though, at the same time, their function is also the contemplation of the Beatific Vision of G.o.d himself. In other words, the angels are the "insights" that come into conscious' ness suddenly, giving intimations of hitherto unsuspected levels of reality. "An angel told me" means that I did not think it out by myself, but rather that it came to me all of a sudden.

In the Beginning 4 1 As soon as freedom is granted, there remains no guarantee of the way in which it may be used. Anything can happen-save the one thing which is impossible by definition, the overthrow of G.o.d himself, without whom even freedom cannot be exercised. The G.o.d who lent this dangerous gift to his angels knew, by his vision of the future, exactly how they would use it. He knew that the gift would be abused to the limit. He understood vividly, to the last hideous detail, the enormities of wickedness which the bestowal of this gift was to involve. But he knew also that, in spite of the worst that was to happen, the final end which he had in mind would be so splendid as to make the risk entirely justified.

Now among the angels which G.o.d had created, there was one so surpa.s.singly beautiful that he was named Lucifer, the Bearer of Light. He is generally thought to have been an Archangel, but some suppose that he must have been much higher in rank-perhaps one of the Cherubim or Seraphim who reflect the immediate and most intense glory of the divine radiance. Since an angel is, like G.o.d, aware of himself, one of the first things that Lucifer noticed was the unbelievable grandeur of the being which G.o.d had given him. He realized that it would really be impossible for the Almighty to create anything more excellent-that he, Lucifer, was really the crowning triumph of G.o.ds handiwork.

He looked again into the heart of the Holy Trinity, and as his gaze went deeper and deeper into that abyss of light he began to share the divine vision of the future. And there, to his complete amazement, he saw that G.o.d was preparing a far higher place in heaven, an honour more glorious than the rank of Cherub and Seraph, for creatures who-by comparison with angels-were coa.r.s.e and crude in the extreme. He saw that he was to be outcla.s.sed in the hierarchy of heaven by beings with fleshly and hairy bodies-almost animals. He saw that, of all things, a woman was to be his Queen. Far worse than this, he saw that Logos-Sophia, G.o.d the Son himself was to become man, and to set one of those "vile bodies upon the very Throne of Heaven.

At all this Lucifer was at once inflamed with a mystery called Malice. Out of his own heart, by his own choice, by the free and unconstrained exercise of his own will, he preferred his own angelic glory to that of the Divine Purpose-which was to corrupt itself with humanity. With all the wisdom and foreknowledge possible to an angel, Lucifer could see at once what his malice would involve. He could see, beyond any power of mortal imagination, the everlasting d.a.m.nation which must inevitably follow from rebellion against G.o.d. He realized quite clearly that such rebellion was, as it were, to throw himself with all his might, for ever and ever, against a wall of adamant. Nevertheless, he considered it more n.o.ble to rebel and rebel for ever than to surrender the pride of his angelic dignity, and to pay homage to a Body less luminous and spiritual than his own. He was convinced that G.o.ds wisdom had gone astray, that the Creator had forgotten himself, and he determined to have no part in such lese majeste, such an undignified aberration in the otherwise beautiful scheme of creation. Certainly he would have to submit to the utmost wrath, to complete rejection from That which was, after all, the Being of his being. But one thing he need not surrender, the one thing which G.o.d had given him as his very own, for all eternity-his own will.

Along with Lucifer, there were many other angels who felt the same way-according to one authority 7,405,998 of them-and all together, with Lucifer at their head, they turned their backs upon the Beatific Vision, flying and falling from the G.o.dhead towards that everreceding twilight where Being borders upon Nothing, to the Outer Darkness. It was thus that they put themselves in the service of Nothing rather than the service of Being, and so became the nihilists who were to do their utmost to frustrate the creative handiwork of G.o.d, and most especially to corrupt the fleshly humanity which he intended to honour. In this manner a whole host of the angels became devils, and their prince became Satan, the Adversary, and Beelzebub, the Lord of Flies.

Yet because G.o.d was infinite, because the shekinab reached out for ever and ever, the devils found no escape from his light. Turning from it they found it facing them. Above and below, and around on every side, they rushed towards darkness and found-always-the inescapable Light, the hated Love which began to burn them like a raging fire, so that the only escape lay inwards, to the solitary, isolated sanctuary of their own wills. Therefore this place of isolation and solitary confinement, where the light of G.o.d torments and gives no gladness, became the place of Satan's dominion, the Kingdom of h.e.l.l. Here he ruled over his own angelic hierarchy with its Powers, Princ.i.p.alities, Archangels, and Angels of Night-Mephisto, pheles, Ashtaroth, Abaddon, Mammon, Asmodeus, and Belphegor.

Something must be said here as to the true nature of angelic evil, since most people are not aware of any greater evils than l.u.s.t, cruelty, murder, drunkenness, greed, and sloth. From the angelic point of view these "sins of the flesh" are as far from real evil as conventional goodness is removed from true sanct.i.ty or holiness. Very few human beings have the courage, the persistence, the very asceticism necessary for the perfect service of Satan-which requires that one perform miracles of darkness, as the saints perform miracles of light. From this standpoint, characters such as Jenghiz an, the Marquis de Sade, Heinrich Himmler, and Jack the Ripper are mere blunderers. The true Satanist must always have the outward aspect of an angel of light, and will never, under any circ.u.mstances, resort to the cruder, violent types of evil. He must be so clever that only an expert in holiness can discern him, for in 1 Anyone wis.h.i.+ng to acquaint himself further with the hierarchy of h.e.l.l might consult de Givey's Witcbcraft, Magic and Alchemy (London, 1931), esp. Chapters 1, 2, and to.

this way he may far more effectively mislead the sons of men and please his infernal Master, whose supreme craft lies in Deception, and subtle confusion of the truth.

In some ways the Devil is the most significant character in this whole story, for nowhere but in Catholic Christianity do we find a real Power of Darkness. The Satan of Judaism and Islam is rather an angel ministering the wrath of G.o.d; the Asuras of Hinduism and Buddhism are simply dark aspects of the divine, which is in itself beyond good and evil. One of the special distinctions of Christianity is that it takes evil more seriously than any other religion. While not allowing the Principle of Evil the rank of equal and opposite to the Principle of Good, as in pure dualism, it insists that evil is in no sense whatsoever of divine origin. It takes its rise exclusively from the finite, created world, but at the same time const.i.tutes an appalling danger of eternal consequence-which G.o.d permits but does not condone. The true Christian is, therefore, unceasingly on his guard against this dread reality, and, for all his faith in G.o.d, walks through life with the sense that living is a real adventure because it contains a real danger of infinite subtlety and horror. "Brethren, be sober, be vigilant, for your Adversary the Devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour; whom resist, steadfast in the faith. These are the opening words of Compline, the regular prayer ofthe Church which, day after day, brings the work ofwors.h.i.+p to its close for the night.

A Christianity without the Devil is, then, lacking in something which is of the essence of the Christian conscious, ness. It is true that in the Middle Ages the Devil of popular mystery plays became a sort of buffoon, and that as time went on his horns and cloven feet, borrowed from Pan, provoked more mirth than terror. But in a more serious mood the Christian mind conceives Lucifer not as an ugly old goat,man but as an angel of dark beauty and deceptive glory-a super, natural, psychic ent.i.ty which plots against our welfare with a cleverness far beyond the range of the most intricate human intellect. Against this Power no amount of purely human effort or goodwill is of the slightest avail, for the most heroic manmade holiness is so easily netted in its own pride, and confused by its self/interested motivation. Against the wiles of an archangel the only protection is the Grace of G.o.d.

This conception, so marvelously peculiar and sinister, brings into sharp contrast the Christian sense of the goodness of G.o.d. For what the Christian consciousness sees in all the trappings of glory, of shekinah, of the blinding radiance of the Trinity, is not so much beauty, or even truth, as goodness. Beauty has seemed a deceptive attribute, shared alike by G.o.d and Satan, who also knows the truth-and trembles. What belongs essentially and exclusively to G.o.d is inflexible righteousness, and historical Christianity simply has not tolerated any notion of G.o.d as an Absolute "beyond good and evil". Thus the Being of being, the Ultimate Reality, has-for the Christian mentality-a definite character, a specific and particular will, such that goodness does not exist merely in relation to evil but is, from everlasting, the very essence of G.o.d. As we shall see, this conception is as monstrous and sinister, in its own way, as that of the Devil. It represents the crucial point at which historical Christianity is "aberrant" among the great traditional doctrines of the world, though the aberration is not so much from any defect of the myth as from the minds of those who have been its official interpreters'

1 To the extent that myth is a figurative expression not only of the very foundations of human life, but also of unconscious contents of a more superficial character, the orthodox conception of the Devil has its own particular significance, which will be discussed in the following chapter. See further, A. K. Coomaraswamy's article "Who is Satan and Where is h.e.l.l?" in Review of Religion, xii,1 (New York, 1947), pp. 76-87, in the course of which he observes, "For anyone who holds that `G.o.d made the world', the question, Why did he permit the existence in it of any evil, or that of the Evil One in whom all evil is personified, is altogether meaningless; one might as well enquire why he did not make a world without dimensions or one without temporal succession."

We must now imagine the purely spiritual light of the Trinity, surrounded by its nine choirs of bright angels, floating over an abyss of dark and formless water-the symbol of the prima materia, the elemental substance out of which everything was to be formed.

In the beginning G.o.d created the heaven and the earth.

And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.

And the Spirit of G.o.d moved upon the face of the waters.

For the "heaven and earth which G.o.d first created was a formless ma.s.s. Before he made anything else he made mattermateria, matrix, mater-as the maternal womb of the universe, for it is a general principle in mythology that material is the feminine component and spirit the masculine, their respective symbols being water or earth and air or fire. In the Christian myth every new creation is from water and the Spirit, for out of this conjunction the world is made, the Christ is born, and man is recreated through Baptism. The sacred texts make this symbolism peculiarly vivid:

The Spirit of G.o.d moved upon the face of the waters.'

Who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary.2

Except a man be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of G.o.d.3