Cult Practice
I have always been fascinated by cult practice. A cult in my own understanding is a belief or ritual which is accepted and practiced by a group of people and it can be either religious or non-religious. Since young I have always believed in everything that is worth my belief, I would say that my religion could be categorize as polytheism. Polytheism means that you believe in the existence of many gods (wiktionary). However, I would say that I do believe in only one God and everything on earth that we believe including religion is just a reminder of the existence of God. I prefer cult practices compared to religion due to its flexibility and also it could undergo transformation and reformation to suit an individual’s preferences. In fact every religion could have its own cult practice but it will be viewed as a deviation from the original practice.
Cult practice does not always mean something negative or a practice that is done to harm others. A good example would be the cult of the 12 Olympians which are also famously known as Greek mythology. Personally I worship Aphrodite who is known as the goddess of love, marriage and procreation. Another god of love, desire and procreation is Eros which many of us are familiar with as he is the one that shoots arrows into our hearts and is better known as Cupid in the modern day. It is obviously seen that the practice of ancient cults dating back to 2000 BCE still fascinates people of the current world. One of the main reasons I admire the ancient Greek religion is their value on freedom as quoted by Kostas Stathopoulos1 "We do not believe in dogmas and decrees, as the other religions do, we believe in freedom of thought”. The influences of these believes were so strong that even the Greek Culture Ministry of Athens had to lift away the law banning any worship of ancient Greek gods due to demands of the believers. The reasons for banning these practices were due to a shift in the country’s religion to Christianity. Emperor Theodosius was responsible for wiping out the influences of the Olympian gods when he abolished the Olympic Games in 394 A.D.
Another country’s whose cult practice is worthy of mention is Egypt. The Egyptians are very sensitive towards their surrounding environment as it is from their surroundings that they interact with their gods. Starting from the sun god which they call Ra to the earth god which they call Geb and then to the god of the Nile river whom was known as Hapi. Egyptians also value animals especially cats as they believe cats to be sacred. It reminds me of a poster which I came across during a visit to the zoo which shows that ancient Egyptians actually worshipped Servals – a type of wild cat whose name is of Portuguese origin meaning “wolf deer”. Due to the ability of the cat to kill harmful pests such as snakes, the cat is said to symbolize grace and poise. Today’s Egypt still have great respect for cats but the cult of the cat have somehow subsided due to a ban of the cat cult in 390AD.
Both ancient Greek and Egypt have a common belief which involves the sphinx - a mythological creature having a feline body and a human head. However there is a difference in the beliefs of both civilizations. For the Greeks the sphinx was modified into a female monster which is believed to be sent down by gods to punish the people belonging to the town of Thebes for they have displease the gods by committing crimes. It was said that the sphinx have an affinity for the youth and whoever fails to solve riddles from the sphinx will be devoured. The first drawing of the sphinx is believed to exist since 2,500BC in Egypt. Here, the sphinx is not a monstrous celestial creature but instead it is a monumental symbol of ancient Egyptian kingship. Other than that, it was said that the main function of the great sphinx was to ward off evil spirits and to guard the entrance of the sacred tomb situated at the necropolis of Giza. Today the great sphinx still exists near the banks of the Nile but much of its structure is lost due to natural corrosion and also by men2.
Most of us have at least grown up listening to fairytales and in these stories there will always be witches and wizards in which most of them are portrayed as someone who is evil and sinister, how far is this true? Tracing back to 2000BC the Hammurabi Code3 of the Babylonian era did support the evidence of the existence of witchcraft. The reason why witchcraft was not well accepted could be probably due to the Christian movement as the Bible often condemns witches. Although the intention of practicing witchcraft varies in different people, modern day witchcraft better known as Wicca has the central purpose of strengthening the will of a person without doing harm to nature and therefore their movement is considered as good. The followers of Wiccan often call themselves as priest, priestess or witch. They often meet in secrecy due to the misunderstanding of the society which associates them with satanic practices due to the common use of the pentagram in both practices. Instead of celebrating Halloween which is the sacred celebration for witches, Wiccans celebrates Beltane which falls on the 30th April of every year. At the dusk of the final night of April, Wiccans gather together in a circle to carry out their ritual in which they show appreciation for the arrival of summer and also for renewal. They could also ask for gifts from their gods such as wisdom, strength, fertility etc. Wiccans believe in the Law of Threefold which states that whatever done to others, either good or bad will come back to you in threefold.
Moving on to Benin, a nation in West Africa, voodoo is widely practiced as it is the official religion of the country. Voodoo is actually a mixture of ancestral worship and animism, it is similar to Taoism which is a popular believe in South-East Asia. Just like Taoism, Voodoo worshipers could also go into trance if they are chosen by the deity. Since they believe in spirits, a celebration known as festival of the death is celebrated by the followers to honour their ancestors or to get in touch with deceased family members in order to guide them through their life. This celebration is similar to the hungry ghost festival that we usually witness in Malaysia. One interesting fact is that most African religious (including voodoo) story describes death as a mistake or stupidity of a devious messenger who mistook God’s message thus announcing death on men. In my opinion, I find this believe to be much comforting than the usual reasons for death. Like most religion, voodoo has been condemned by people due to a misunderstanding towards voodoo practice. Being one of the oldest religious practices on earth it is not about devil worship, blood sacrifices or implanting curses via a cloth-made doll, in fact current day practice is to seek for ancient roots and also wisdom. Moreover a few parts of the world now recognize voodoo as an ancient practice and allow the believers to be baptised and married according to their rituals.
Is Malaysia a country that allows a freedom to religion? In my opinion there is only partial freedom to religion as Sky Kingdom which is founded by Arrifin Mohammed was banned by the government. Sky Kingdom is a commune and sect that believe in reincarnation and angels which clearly oppose Muslim teachings. Moreover since Arrifin Mohammed, also known as “Ayah Pin” was originally born a Muslim, his declaration of being able to make direct contact to the heavens and embracing and uniting the practices of several religions have caused the group to get into trouble with the Shariah court. Some symbols used in Sky Kingdom are teapot, yellow umbrella, an ornamental fishing boat and a crescent moon icon. The teapot being the most prominent symbol means purity as it is “love pouring from heaven” and the yellow umbrella means protection or “a place for people to take shelter beneath God". They actually spent Ringgit Malaysia 45 million to build a commune in the shape of a teapot which later on in August 2005 was demolished by officials of the Besut Land Office. If we look deeply into the Sky Kingdom cult it is actually a good cult as it brings harmony and unity among people regardless of religion, race or customs. They even had a boat to symbolize Noah’s Ark! Even their human rights lawyer Harris Ibrahim thinks that the action of pulling down the entire commune has violated article 11 of the federal constitution which guarantees that everyone have the right to choose, to practice and to profess. He also added that Islam does not allow this type of hardship being impacted on an individual. All of this only tells us one thing – Malaysia is still not open to accept variable practices especially if it contradicts with the official religion of the country, therefore discretion should be observed when practicing any cult in Malaysia.
Looking into most of the cult practices I notice how distorted the world is in order to disprove ones practice. I do agree that there are cults in the world that exist for rotten purposes, but there are also many cults that exist with a good intention. Although there is no quantifiable tool to measure whether a cult is good or bad, I do believe by relying on our own consciences we could at least differentiate a good cult from a bad cult. Regardless, I do hope cults that are widely accepted as “good” could be maintained as it is only from these practices will we be able to find our roots.
1 Kostas Stathopoulos, one of three high priests involved in the revival of ancient Greek religion at the temple of Zeus, Athens on 22nd January 2007
References
http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2007/01/zeus_worship_re.html
http://paganismwicca.suite101.com/article.cfm/misconceptions_of_wicca
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sky_Kingdom
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