THI ,SACI,ED,

A,ND

'IH .R,OI:FANE

,,,,. Mircea El_~', r LIBRARY OF THE

?' .. ~ ,C' E····· 'U C'~NTRA:_L: EUROPEAN

• _ .. ' - UNIVERSITY

'. 'BUDAPEST

r,."laIcd' I,-om, ,de Fred 6, "Ulard ,R. frcuk

.4 Harvest/HBI B'oo$

Harcourt Brace }ooan.cwicht Publislutr-& SM\Diego New,t:"ork London

Copyright © 19'57 by Ro'n'Ohlt TaJsehenhuih Veda,g GmbH Copyright © 1'959 by Hsreouet Brace JQ:van(lVi.m, Inc. Copyright :mnewed!. 1987 hy HURoud Braee J O'"V'a~ch, Inc.

'I"hlsb ook 'WM O'cigh:UllllY~l'llIns1latedl from the Fre~cl1 ~nto, Gel"lll.aD and pUbliued in. Gel"lliUl.lIlY under the title D'as HeWse und das P'rqfane.

All rights reserved" No part: of this plllhllication may he reprodueed or lrtlnsmiuedl in any £onn Or by any means" e~ed:ronic or meehamc;ld~ m.cludiDg photocopy, reeerding, 01" any infonnation storage and retrieval 8yatem~ withQutpe.mrlssion in writing from the puhlshe~.

Requests. f'm" pemmsion to make copies '0'£ uoyp,art of the tJiw work s'hould be mailed to :Pe:-nWssions Depa.rtmenll,

Haoooilld. Braee J ovanmich, Publisbel"'a,

Orlliindo~ Florida. 3288'7.

ISBN O .. 15~6792ijhX (Harve.s~B.J: pbk)

LibriJI:ry of Congress Catalog Card Number; 58-:11:0.904 ,Printed in the Ilnited State;s of America

.1N.TROD'UC'flON 8

CHAPTER I Sacred Space and M,aking the ,World SOOTed 20

CHAPTER 11 S'ac.red Time 'flna Mytm ,68

,CHAPTER III TAe Saered'Mu QI NoJUT'e ~ ,Co:l'mic RdigiOR 116

CHAPTER IY Human. Existern:eand Sant'ijied Lile' 162

UVWXYZ

,CHRONOLOGICAL SURJlEY The ~~.H,ic8U)ry 01 ReUgio","'" A Q ,Brrancll,o/ KR-Qwledge

216

..... r-o. --, • ~ _ • ,~ ....

~ I ...

. ,

SEL,BCTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 234

t.;

INDEX. 2"

and Myths

PIU)FANEDURATION AND SACRED rIME

For re1iglous Dum time too, !ike ;spaoo, .is .1iI.eil.tbe:r hemogeneeus Dorcontimlou. On the one hand there are the· .intervals of a, s8€l1ed tim.e" th.e time o,f feSoo tivals (by far the gfeate:r part of which are periodical).; om the ·o,fuerthere .is profane time, ordmary lemporal duration, in which acts withou~ r-eligiiousmeaning have: their setJu[lg. Between. these rna Kinds 0·£ timethere is, of eourse, so,irution 0'£ continuity; but hy means of I.i*es Rligi(llw man. cam pass without dan:ger hom o,rrunary tempor.al d.ma'UoiD to sacred ti:me~

One es:senmiai differenee between these two qualities m time stdk.~s • immediately: b1 itsV6Tr nalurll .sacred time :is reve'r:sibLeiu the sense tbat"prope:dy spewngt it is a primQrdiaZ mrtkic:a~ti.me .m.ade pre.jenJ;. Every reUgl.ou:s festival, .any Utugical time, represeuts die

(is

remctuanza~ion of asaaed. event that took place im .8 m~icalpast,. ''in the .beginning.'" Religious participa,; 'lion illl.a :festival imprliesemergWng from oooinuy rem,; [POIBE dU1:'ationand reintegration o~the mythical time

reaetaalized hy ttlle festival itself. B~noa sacred time is ~~~~y f!QQYUi.bk~_J~~9~f4rll~?t. __ ~y~~~~bne. F~~m. one point oiview it oouldhe said that it doesmot"pass," mal il. does not constilute an inever,sibled.uranmiJ,. It is an ontolo~t'a.l,.Par.menidean. time ~i.talwa:ys remains equalto i!sei£, itt meither changes DOl' isexbaus~ed. Wim 6acb periodical fes~ival, tnepart:ii.ci.pants iIDd the same saeeed tii.m~thre sam.€! that had heen manifested. in the le-stival of the p:rmi.(IlU year or in the £esti.val of a centtu:yearUer; it isilie time mat wascrea~ed. and sa.1U:,tinoo b,- tbegCildsBt the period 01 their ge;!$ta, of wIDcb. the

rfig

festival ie, precisely a reactualization. In otlhM: wo,rds the padicipantcS in mil: festival meet in i,l tlre /ir3'1 appearan.ce oJ sacred time,3S itappear-ed 00' origine~- ,in, ilk, tempore~ F(ilx the sacred time in which the .£es~ival nms,i,ts COUlIse didn.ot exist b~ore the divine ges,tiJ that the f:fls:~hf,al rommemorates. By c.reatingthe vario1J:s l'eaUtieslhat lodayoonstitut6 the world,tn@ gods also fo,uruloo. sacred time, for the time 'oont~mporary witb. a, ereano:n was necessarUy sa:nc~ified bYlhe p'lesenceand 8Cliv.ity ufthe

@;,ods~ -

Hence religious .man lives ill two kinds of'time, ,of wMeh tI1e mere important, sacred time, ,appear-s under the 'p<!n:adodcal aspect afa circnlartim.e, l'ever,s~hle and, reooverab,le" 8 sort of et'Bmalmyiliical plesenttn&1 is periodically reintegrsted by means (!II rites. TMs ,a.ttitwle in rega.rd b) lime suffices to dis~in~ish Jeligio'lmsfrom :nomeUgio1!ls mamfhe former refuses to Uve solely in what, in modern terms, is ealledtlie historical p.resent; heolrrempts to regain. asaered time t11ar"£r-omone point o,f yiew,. em beho:m,olo~ized loe!emity ~

'What dme is f(iir' the nomeUgious man. of modem societieswo.uld. be more difficult 10 p,wl inlo a. few WDl':ds. We do- not intend to discms the modern phllosiOpbies ·01 timeDor the ,ooncepts that mod.em seienee uses in its,OWD

'" iii] ii' '0" 'ill iii

mveSUgatiOus:o_ u aim ist(il' compa.renot sy.stems or

phUosopmes but, existential ,attitudes and heha.vio:r&. N'o,w" what it is po!sible lu oliserve in respect tea nonreliglous man. is, that he too ,experienoosa cenain. dis·

11

cootinmity andbetelogenellty!lli time. Fo,rhim '00 there is th.e compa:ra.tiv,ely m.ono~ono,us time of hiIWOII"~ and the time ·(IIf celelllJ'anons and spedades--:in short, "festal time~'" He teo lives in varying temporal rhythms and is: aware 'O'f' times ·o,:f different ixw!en:sities; whcnhe is 1iS'~en .. fu;g to, 'Iha kind. of music that he likes, or, being :in love, w,aits fo1' ormeets his sweetheart, he obviously espedenoes a. dnIerellit temporal .rh.ythm. from that which he: experienceawhen be is working'll' bnred.

Butt in ,oompariSQill w.i,tb. religious man, there [s aD essential dHIer~ The latter ,experiences .intervals (!If time malt are "sa.cred, H that have no partmthe tremporal dnr.ati(l!.D that p,reoedes, andf:OUow:s them, that. have a wholly ilift.eIent structure and or.igin, for th~f ar-e ·01 a primordial timll3, s ancti6ed by the gods and. espahle o·jf being made present bytb.e£esHval. This translmman quality of ljturgicaltime is inaecessible loa n.oure1igia.tu, mall. This is as mu.ch as to say that, for' him, time: can present neither break nor mystery;. £01 him, time COIlstitu~ecS man's deepest existential dimension; it is linked. to Ms own lUe,nenoo it. has a bBginning and om end" which is dleath,the anmhila.tiom of his life~ However many the temporal rhythms iliat he experlenees, however greatth.eir dUEeren{lel in in~ensity, fJ.onreli.gj,ons mall bo.ws that. they alwaya, up'l'esent a human experienee, in which therels noroeen £'o,r any divine presence,

For reli.,gi.onsma.n, on. the conttary, profane temporal duration can be periodicallyarrested ;:1.1.111' certain,rituals

72

The Sacred and the Pro/ane

Ilave' the power to interrupt it. by periods o,:f a. sacred lime that is nonhisto,rical (im the sense 'that it aoes n'ot belong to. the his~o,rif:al present). lust as ,11 churc:h 001l~ stilules a break in plane in the profane spaee ,of a modem city, the service celebrated .inside it mark'S, a ,break in profane temporal dllration. It is no longer tod.,ay',s hislOol'ical time that is, present-lh.e time that is experienced, for example', in, the adjacent s~reets,.-but the time in whic.h the :his~oricd existence of Jesus Christ oceurred, the time sanctified b,yMspr,eaching, by his passion" death, and resurrection. But we must add that this. example does Dot reveal all the difference between. sacred and profane time,; Christianity jf,ad.icIlUy changed the experience and the eoneept of liturgical time, and this is due to the fact Iha,t oChristi.anity affirms the his~ toricity of the penon of Christ. The Christian liturgy unfolds in a ,h;is,torical time saHctified br the incanMtion of .the So,", 0./ God. The sacred time periodicallyreactu. alized in pr,e-Christian religions "e-specially in the anha.ic rel~gions) is ,mm1thic,cd time, that is,s; primotdial time~, nol to be found in the historical past, an of.ig.i.M1 time, in the sense that it came into existence all at once, that it was. not preceded by another time.beceuse no time could ,exist be/or,B ihe appea;,rance o/Ihe r,ealuy na1Tiated in t,he my,tn..

It is, this archaic concept-ion of mythical time that is of' d~id concern tous, We shall Iatee see how it differs (flam the conceptions held by Judaism and Christianity.

Sacred Time "00 Mrt-hs

13

TEMPLUM~''l'E,MP;US.

We shall hegin our investigation by presenting certain fa:cls ,that have the adyunta.ge of immediately revealing religieus man's behavior in respect to, time. First of all, an observe Don that is net withou~ importanee; .in a number .of North American Indian languages the term '\Torld t= Cosmos) is, alse used in the sense ·01 year. The Yokuts say "the world has passed," meanieg "',8, year has gone by." 'For the Yuki, the year is expressed by the words lor earth or world .• Like the Yokuts" th.ey say "the 'WorM has, passed" when a year has passed, 'This vocabulary reveals the intimate religious connection between the world and. cosmic time. The cosmos Is conceivedas a, living unity that Ishom, deveLops,. and dies Oon the last day .of the year, to, he reborn on New Year's Day. We s.han see that this rebirth is ,8 birth,. that the cosmos is rehom each. year because, at every New Year, time begins ahinitio.,

The intimate conneetionhetweenthe cosmos and time is religious in. nature: the cosmos is homologiaahle to cosmic tim.e 0( ~ the Year) because they are both sacred realities, divine creations, Amon.g some North American peoples 'this eosmic-temperalcenneetlon is revealed even in 'the stm,ctuFe of saered buildings. Since the temple represents the image olllIe world" it can alsoeomprise a. te:mp()ral ,syn:tb olism, We :find this, far example, among the Algonqws and the Sioux. As Wle ,saw"lheir sacred

14, The SooT'd and' tAe Pro/ane

lodge represents the universe ,;, but at the same 'tim,s it symbolizes, the, year, For the yeari:s conceived as a jOIlill"ney through the four cardinal directioml, ;slgnified by the four doers and four windows 0:£ the lodge. The Dakotas say: ''Tbe Year Is a circle, around the world"'lLat is, around their sacred lodge, which is an imago

.. _.rl

mwmJ.

A still clearer example i,sfound in India. We ,saw ilia', !h,e erection uf an, altar is equivalenrll 10 a, repetition of the ,cosmogony . The t,exts add that "lthe fire ,altar is the 'year" and explain its temporal fj,ystem s's£oBows: tbe 360 bricks of the ItmclOISUI'e correspond to the 360 nights of the yearw and '~be 360 yaiusmatibricb to the 360 days, (Slw.tapatha, Bliihmtm.ll,. X, 5" 4" 10; ete.), This, is, as much as to say that. wit'b the building, of each fire altal't oot ,only Is the world remade bl1!lt lh.€! year is built tDO; ,in other words" ,time is r,egenerateil by being ,crealed ,anew. But then, too, the year is assimilated to Pralipau. the cosmicgod, eonseqnently"with each new altar PIa ... ja pad is reanimated-that. i'i,. the sanctity 0'£ the world is s~re:ngt:bened. It is not a matter of pro.fBlneume, of mere temporal dur,atioD, but of' the sam::tifilcation. of cosmic lime. What is s(1l~ht bytheellectio,n. ,of tbe fire altar is to :sanc:tify the world, hence toplaee it in a sacred tlme,

We find a similar temporalsym_b,olism 8S part of the

S . ,.1' '1'" .~_;1' M .1._ QCfl!UI .. : we 'WIUI . :'1,uu

eosmologi}cal sy.mbolism of tbe Temple at Jerue,alem. Acco:rding to Flavius, Josephus (Ant. Iud., III, 7, 7)" the twelve loaves, ,olf bread on the table signifi,ed the twelve months oftbe year an,d the ,candelabrum wi~ :sevenlly branches represented the deeans (the zodiacal division 0.1 the seven planets into tens). TIl.@. Temple was Wl. imago Mundi; being at the Center of the World" at Jerusalem. it sanctified not only the entire ,oosmosbut also, cosmic JjUe-tbat is, time.

Herm,aDl!l Usener has the dislincoo.D of having been the :firs.t to explain the etymological kinship between .t:emplum and te'mpw' by interpreting: the two terms through the oonceptof '"inteISection,~ (S,clmeidung,

- -

Kreuzlmg) .:11 Later studies have refined the discovery:

"tflmplum designates the spatia], tempus the temporal aspect 0'£ the motion of the horizon in. space ,andtime.~

The underlying meaning of' all these facts seems 10 be' the £ollowing: for religious man ofthe archaic cultures" the world is :renewed ,annually; in. olher words, with .!PS~

-~

new rear it reeeeet» i~. ,!?~lgjnal sanmty"ilie sanctity

~-~I"JIII"'~.:t'"..._, ..trJ~-" ............... _ r ... • ' .............. t~ ~1k.iJi

tha,t it,~p,~~~~sed.. \'fileD. i:t (lame from fhe '~a~f?~:~ bands:.

This symbolism. is clearly indieated in the arc._hiieetoii'ic :stmctul'e of sanctuaries. Since the temp,le is at once the holy plaee par ex~nenre and the image of' the world, it sancti&es th.e entire cesmos and also SllllctHies oosmic llie~ This, eosmie life w·a.s, imagined inlhe form of 8.

IH. Usener, GO.Ue'J"RGmeli.. 2nd. ed" Bonn. l~o. ppo 19Iff •.

Ii W~ M;Eiller,. ,Kr,ei~ ,u'id Kr~ BerliD;, 19a8"p, $·9,. '~L .aho pp. sa I.

76

circular course; it was identified with the year. The y,ear was a closed cireleji t had a beginning and an end, bUI, it also ha.o tbepecuUadty that it could h e reborn in th,s form ,o,f a new year. With each New Yeal', a lime:

I:lhat was "new," "pure," "holy"4ecluaenol yet 'W'Dm -cam.e iD~O exisl,ence.

B '.. '-b -b' • . h' ·th' ,L . ut ttme was, re ,om, egan agam, eC8USiB W,l - eacn

New Year the w,orld was, created anew. In the preceding chapter we notedthe considerable importance of the cesmogonie myth as paradigmatic model for 'every kind of c:re'alio:n, and, cons!ru'cnon. We wi]] now add that the cDsm,ogony eqn.aUy implies theereatien of time., Noris Ibis, all For just as 'Ute cosmogony is the ,ar,ehetype of ,aU ,creation, cosmic time, whicb tIt'e cosmog'ony.brings ~orth, is the paradigmatic model f,or all adler timesll1at Is, for the times specifically belonging to, thevarious categories ·of ,existing things •. To explain this fmther:: fOr religious. man 0.£ 'lthea:rehaic ,culltures" everyereation"

.- 1. ••• hJ- .:t·, ••

every eXIstence ue,f5'"s ilnume; .' €.or,e a u,fmg ex!.1lts, Its

particula'f time could not exist. 'Be.fo:m the cosmos came .into exislen,ce', tbere was no ,cosmic time •. Before spartieularsegetable species was, created, the time that n.ow eauses it togrew, bear fruit" and die did not exist, It is. for this reason that everycreation is Imagined as has-

• '100 1 . h- ,I.. .'. ,-. .' +..'

Ingta . n pace at t .... e Qe:gmrunk8 0.' tune:. mprmc'!ip~o'.

Time gushes forth with the first a,ppflarance 'of ,8- new category 0'£ existents, This is, why myth plays sueh D. .imp1fJrtant role ,;. as we ,shaU,sho,w later". 'the way in 'Which. ,8. l'eali~ came into existence :is revealed hy ,its myth.,

Sacred Time and .M,~

77

ANNUAL REPE,Tl'T'IQN OF' 'l'BECREA.1'I€)o!I1'

It .is the:oosmo.g0I1ic myth that tells bow the' co. mos came Into wstence .• At Bahylon, during theeourse of 'the akttu cerem,ony ,which was performed during the last days '0£ the yeariliat was ending and the first days '0·£ the New Year, the Poem of Creation,~ the Enu-ma elish, was, .solemnly recited, This ritual recitatienreactnalised the combat between. Mard.Uk and the marine monster Tiama t, a, combat that took place ab origine' and putan end to chaos by the final ric~~y uf the' god. Mard.ll1k ereated the 'COSDl;OS from Tiamat',s dismembered body ,and. created man from~h,e blood ordJ.,e demon Kingu, Tiamat's chief ,ally. That this eommemeratioa of the Creation was in f&ct a reactua-lizati-o.n of the cosmogeaie act is shown. both by the rituals and in the: f'o'rmulas recitedd uring theceremony,

T,he combat between Tiamat and Miarduk~ that is" was mimed by a battle: between tw,ogtoups ,0£ a'Ci!O]1'S, a eesemenial that w,efind again among the Hiuites (ag,ain in thefrsme of the dramatic scenario Oof tile New Year), among, the Egyptians, and at Bas Shamra, The battle between two groups, of actors repeated the pas8age from. cIuws to cosmos, act1l&,izedthe' cosmogony. The mythical event became pr,esent onee again, "M&y he con~il\l.u.e: to, conquer Tiamat and shorten his days 1" '~epriestcri.ed. 1'Iil,e oomnal,. the victory, and the Creau,oD took place aI !Me ,in.stant, kit: eft nUlW.

Sinoothe New Year is a r-eaotualization of the OO,S-

7,B· The Sacred and the P.rtJ:/ane

mogony, it implies SUtr-ting ti'me ,over tqJam at its berm-· Fling, that is, restoration of tbe primordial time, the "pure" time,lhat existed at, the moment o,{ Creation. This is why the New Year is the occasion fo,r "puri8.catiens," £011' the e:xp;llllsion of sins, of demons, or merely of a scapegoat, For it is not amaner merely ·O£.ll rertam temporel inlerval coming to its end and the heginning of another [asa modem man, for example, thinks); it is also a matter of abolishing the: past year and past timB'. Indeed, this is 'the meaning of ritual pmifications.; there is mor-e thana mere "'purlficalio,n" ; the alnsend .faults of the individual and 01 the commtmity b a whole are annulled, consumed as by fire~

The Nawn5z-. the 'Persian New Year---eommemol'ates the day that witnessed the cr-eation of the world. and man, It was on the day or{ NawnlZ that the ''renewal of the Crea.tion" wasaccempliebed, as the Arabic hisku·ian. al·Birllni expressed. it. The king proclaimed: "Helle is a new day uf' a new month. of a new year; what time Las wommust be renewed," Time had. w,om the lunna:n being, society, the cosmos---and this destructive time was profane time, duration Slrictly speaking; it had to be ah;oli;shed in order tore:~ntegr"te tthe mythical.momeml in wbich the world had come into existence, bathed in a "pure," "strong," and saeredtime, The abolition ofp~ fane past time was aecomplished by rituals that sigJllified a sort of "end ofUie wOl1'ld~" The extinction ·of fu-es, the retarn of the souls ·0£ the dead, social cOMusi'OD oithe

S4C"d Time aM MytM 79

type exemp.li:6ed by tb.e Sahm.alia, erotic license, o,rgies" and so ODt .symh oHz;ed the reb·ogr-e-ssion Q·f' the cosmos inlo cba.os. o.n the last day of tbe year the universe was dissolved in. the primordial waters., 'The marine monster Tiamat~ymbol of darkness" of thefoTmless, the nom'manHes~,ed-revived and onee .again tbreatened~ The wodd that had existed for a whole year really disa~ pealed. Since Tismat was again present, the cosmos was annulled; and. Marduk ",.as obUged. to create: it on,ce again, after having once again conquered Tiamat.:f'

The m,eaning of this pedodicalretl'oJ;l1c-ssion of the world Intoa chaotic modlaJ.itywas this: all the "s,ins'" ·of the year, everything that time had soiled and. 'WO'rD, was annihilated in the physical sense ,of '~be word. By :symbolieally partieipating in the annihilation and re-creation of the w«rid,. man too 'was created anew; he was reborn, for he began a new life, 'Wirh each New Year:, man felt freer and purer, for he was delivered from the burden of his sins and failings •. He had reintegrated the fabulous time of Creedon, heneea sacred and stnl1ng time sacred beca use transfigured by the presence of the gods" strong because it was the time that belonged, and belonged onmy, to til.€! most gj.gantic creation ever accomplished, tbat of th·e universe, Sym'bo'Ucally, man became contemporary with the eosmogony, he was present at the erea tien of the world~ In the ancient Near Eas"

The Sacred and the' Pro Jan,e

he ev,enparudpated, ,adi.vely in its creati,()n. (cf,. tl.e two opposed groups, representing the god and the marine monst.e:r ) ~

I:r is easyt:o understand, why the m.em~ry of thatma,.. 'WeloHs time ba1!W~ed uUgi01lls man, why he permodimlly sDugh~ to return to it., In Ulo tempor,e the~ods had dis. played their greatest, powers, The CO$flUJ{J(}ny is the

J' '. "f· th di . J!

Sl:l:preme aU11ne m.an~e3tatzOnt t • e para.' 19mabc act OJ:

. ~l. !.. d d .'. R' 1" •

slrengW!1t superamm anee, an. cl'IeatlvHy.' 'EtlllgJ.OW! man

Ih,irs~s ,forlhe [1l'at.By every means a.t his disposal" he seeks to r;eside atthe verysouree '0.£ primordial r,eality, when the world was in statu ruu,cendi~

RECENER.ATmN 'T:HROUI,ijI.J RETUR'N TIO' 1',HE,i"IME OF OR.IGINS,

Allthisw,ouid warrant dietaUed, :study., but fOir the moment only two features will oocupy our aHennon: (1) through annual RpeHtionoii the (losmogonry, time

L ~.l .. ," .• •. 'L • d ...:

wasfeg.e:ner'a,l.etl,ma.t I:S" It negan agam as aaese ..~me.

:for' iI. eomeided with the iUud .tempus in which the world ll8)dfin~. come into existenee; (2) by pal1icip!a.~ing rim" aUy in the end of th.eworld and in. its re-erestion, a.n,. mall became contemporaryvd th the .illud te.mp,u's .;. hence!

. . -

hew-as hem anew, he began. Hfe ov,er again with his

reserve u£ vital forces inu;wf,J. as n was at the moment 0'£ bitMrth.

Thesefa~t& ate .impodant;; they l1evc'al the secret o~

relig~o1:l:S man's attitude and behavior in :respect to lime~ Sincelne sacred, and strong time is the time %T,igi.ns, Ihe .smpendous instant in which 81 nl:aH~y 'w,as created, w.as £0'1' the first time fully manifested, man, will seek perledieallyto retum tothat original time,. 'This ritual r,eactualwzil1,g '0,£ the iUuil .tempu.sin which the first epi .. plumy (ilf a reality occurred is the basis :for aU sacred. calendars; the ,festivs] is not mel1ely the eemmemoration ofa mythical (and hencereliglous) event; it ~eactualizes theevenl.

The paramount time of O'rigiTU is the time 0·£ theeesmOg0.ny, theins~ant that saw the apJleara:n,ce 0:£ the most immense of realities, the world. Thi8\~aswe saw in the precedingehaptee, is 'the reasonthe cosmogonyseIVes as the 'par.adigma:tic model for every cma,ti,oD, £or every lUnd of doing,. It is foll' this same reason. that c()sTlWgonic I.ime serves as the m.odel :fo,raH sacred ,t.i'mes; Jf~lr if sacred time :is that in which the gods manifested them.., selves and created, ohvi.ously the most cmnp,~ete divine manHestaHon and we most gigautic creation. is the erea .. lion of the 'W:orld~

Con8eq1J.ell~11 t r:eligi(llus man u&clua.Iiz:es 'the c.wmog:" ony n,ol onIy each time he creates :something (his "own w!2irld"'~1lhe inh,ab,itoo tuerrit~ry~ra city" ,s: house, etc • .), but also when. he w.mm to ensure a. 1ort1ma~e rei,p fora n.ew so"vereign, or to, save ~hrea~ened, CftIopS, ,Ol' :in the esse of ,81 war,. a Ha: voyage, and. so ,on.Bmt, above aU.,tne ritual r«i~ati.on o.f the co.swogonicmyth plays

82 1Ae Sacred' and' IheProJane

an Un:portant role :in healing"wh@D,whstis sought is the l'egeneratioD of the hums.n heing., In. :Fiji, tbe ceremony fOl'insmlling ,aDe'W rwer18 called creation mth.e world" and the same ce.remony is repeated to save threatened crops .. BDt it is perhaps .P'olynes,j,a that emibi!s the wid,est ,a,ppHcanon of theeosmogonic myth .. The words. tha.t 10 spoke ,in illo te'mpor,e to create the world. have: become ritualfomudas. Men repeat them on many occasio ....... to fecundate a st,eril€! womb, to h.eat (m.enta.las weU as physical ailments), to p,upare for w,ar, but also on, the occasion o:fa death or 10' stimulate: poetic inspiration~'

Thus the ecsmegonic myth serves the Polynesians, ,as the ,arch.etypalm,odel :liar aU crea,tionSI, on wha'tever plane , biological" plSycholo'gica], spiritual, Bu.t sm(lerilnal recitation o,l the eosmog~mi,c myth .impJi.ccg, reactualisalion o:fthat primordial event, it JaUow&! that he {Otr whom it Isrecited is. magically projected iniUo W'mp:Qre, into the "beginning ofthe World"; he becomes contemporery with fhe eosmogony, 'What Is involved is, in short, a returnte the original time" the therapeutic purpose ,of whiclt is to. begin lifeonce again, a symboUc rebirth. 'The conception und.erlying theseeurative rituals seems 1-0 he the following:: life cannot be repaired, it ,can only be recreated tiuough symbolic repetiti'C1.n o:fthe eosmog,ony,for, as we have said, the cosmogony is the pa.radig~ mane model for all ereation,

IS Cf.,the,Elj~Mographie:i!ll[tfeJerJjce m. .Myt~., Ill,. 82 i. md: ~1Di Pa"~r~.a. p.41l.

Sacred Time ,and M1t1s 83

The regenerati veIunetion '0£ the return tothetime o! ,ormglns become-s :s~iU moee dear if we make ,8 detailed ,exammation. of an. archaic therapy, such, for example, as that of the Na.khi, a Tibeto-Bur.mese people living in SQUJiliwest China (Yiin .. nan Province}, The therapeutic ritwlprope:r consists :illthe solemn recitation, of 'the myth of' the erea tion .oif the wodd, followed by myths, of the origin. .of maladies from fhe w.r,ath of the snakes and th'e appearance 0'£ the first Shaman- Healer who brought humanity the necessary medicines. Almost aU the ritualls invoke the mythical beginning, the mythical illud tempus, when the world was not yet made: "In the he,ginning; at the lime when. the h_,eave:rJs, suo, moon, stars, planets and tbe, land had not yet appeared, when nothing had yet, come forth,"' etc. Th,en comes, the: cosmo'gony and the appearance of the snakes: "At the time wbeu. n.eaven came forth, the sun" moon" stars and planets,andl the earth was spread out,;, when the mountains, vallef1it trees and rocks came forth. ~ ~ • at that. time there came forth the Ni,gas and dragons," etc. Tb'cbirth o.f the Fir;st Healerand the .8 ppearanee of medicines Isthen narrated. .Mt~ this -it is said; "Unless its origin is, relatedone should 'Dot speak about it.'~

The impotta.ntl,!)ctto be noted iu. 'oomlect,ion widJ these magical healing chants is that ,he myth of the origin 01 the .medi£ines ,employed is always incorporated into tbe

.,. F. Jto.Ct. :rt..e N,a.khi. Nll&Q Cidf (mil' Rd'al~d C~emwdrlo R~ )952. Vol It, lIP- 279' I.

31, The Sacred and ,he Profane

co.snwgQnic myth. It is well blown lliat in aU primitive andtraoditiond therapies a. rem.edy becomes efficacio1l8 omy U its (iI.l'igiD. is rl~uaUy rehearsed in thesiel p:er.san',s presence • .A large: number of Near E:aste1!'n and Eumpean incanta,uonsoontalnthe hIstory of the sacknc'ss or of the ,demon who has provoked it, a~, the same time that they evoke the mythical moment in w hicll a divinity ora saint succeeded in conquering th.e malady. But we oonsider it 'certain that the origin myth was copied. after the cosmagonic myth, £O,JI' the lattler is theparadigmati,c model f:Or all origins. This, moreover, is why "in therapeutic incalID~atio:ns, theo.rigin. myth. is ,o,f~e:n preceded by the eosmogonic myth andeveaineorporated iU:~Q it. An Aisy. t'ian incanr~a,tion ag;a:inst. t:oothache rehearses that "after Ann. mad.€: UU~ beave:ns,tll.e heavens made the earth, the earth made 1i:heriven!tthe rivers made the canals, the canals made the pooh, the pools made the worm~'~ .And the worm goes "(wieeping" to Shamash. and Ea and asks them. what will be give'oit to eat, to destl'oy. 'The ,gods offer it fruits, hut the worm asks them. for human looth •. "Since thou. hast sp(il~en thus, 0 Worm"may Ea. break thee wi~h h:i]s po,wedtd lumd 1"1 Here ar-e p'lresen~ed:: (1) Ihe creation of the warM; (2) the birth. of the worm and of the sickness; (3) the p.rUnordialand paradigmatic g~ tum 0'£ .heaHng fEa's oes!ructi.o.n ·0:1 the wo.rm} ~ 'Tille

, OmpMJI '11Iom!p&oD~ .4'f&Y~ Mediad r:~ts,[.oiIldon. ~9S2. p. 5', C£. ~ E~iade. ML:I~oDi9Cht Mytheu m w~ Heili.m,geD,," Paide.~ 1956"p. 194-2Ool.

SMredTiwe and MythJ 85

therapeutic effi.C3cy ofthe incan~ati.on lies inthe fact that, id~ually uttered, it reectualisesthe mythical time 0'£ eriglns, both the origin of the worM and the odgl ,of to othacheaand the:i.1f treatment,

F.ESTIVAL TIME

AND 'THE STRUCTURE OF FESTIVALS

The time oj ,origin of a r-eca:Hty- that is,. 1Jh,e time inaugurated hy thellrst appearance o:f the r,eality-has a paradigmatic value and function; 'tthat is why man seeks to rea.c~illamize it pedod~cany o'y means of appro.. priale ritnals. But the "ilirst manlfestation" of a reality is equiva.leI1!110 its c.rewion hy divine or semidivine being)3;. henee,recovering thls time '(J't or.ig.inimplies ritual repe~ition '0.£ the g~d.s,t creative a!c~ .. The periodic reacmalizaticn of the creativeacts performed by the divine beings in illo tempore eonstitates the sacred calendar,. the series affesmvals. A festivel alway~ takes p,laoo in. the origjnal time, It is poo~ise~y the reintegration oftbis Q,ri.ginaland sacred time that dlf£eI-eutia~es man's henavior ,duTinfl~e festival fmm his behavior before oe after it. Foll' in many eases du~: same ads ar-e performed during the festival as dl1ring Donfestival periods~ But religjous man believes thal he then livesil1l ano:ther time, that he has succeeded in returning to the .mythkal illud .tempus.

During their annwtltownUc ceremony ,tlJ.e lntiem.uma,

86 The ScreJ':ed' ,and' dte Pro Jane

the Australian Arunta repeal the j;ourney taken by the particular ,dan's divine Anoest,or in the myllii,cal time (.a:lckeringa, literally, the dream time). TIl,ey stop at an the countlese places at which 'the Ances~or stopped ,and repeat the same acts and gesturesthat he performoo .. iUo tempore. During theentire ceremony they fas,t, carry no weapons, and avoid aU contact. with their women and. with members, of other clans. 'They are oompletely immersed in the dream time.,iI

The f:estivals annuslly celebrated in a Polynesian island, Tikopia, reproducethe "worksoi the Godl!l~-that is, the acts by which in the :mythical time the godS fashioned the world as it is teday.,g, The festival tim,e in which the Tikopia live during the eeremenies is, characterised by certain prohlbltlons (tabus): noise'; games, dancing cease. The passage from profane to. sacred time is indicated 'by ritually cutting a piece of wcod in two. The numerous ceremonies that make' up the periodi'cai festlv,als-=-an,d w'hich, once agam, am only the reiter,a-, tion of the para.digmatic aets ·of the god~8ee,m, mot to he difierent :from normal activities,; they comprise ritual repairing, ofbo'als, rites relative tojhe cultivation of food plants (yam, taro, ete.) , repairing of' sanemaries, But in reality all 'these ,ceremoniaia.ctivilies differ from :similar labors performed at ordinary 'times by the £a,el

8 F .. J. GiUe&,. fAe ,NtmR T,t~'s ,rlICi!l1ltr'ill A:Qh'_, ~d ed." ~ II:g~pp.. 110 S.

"Ct Ray-mODd Firth" The fFOJ'k9J thi!!' GMt m TikDPi4.I,,~, I~

Sacred Time ami MytM 8T

tha'ltheyare'perlormed. on, oRly a lew objects (which in some sort oonslitute the archetypes of their r,es,pecti.ve classes) and also, because th,e ceremonies take place in an. atmospheee satarated with the sacred. The na.tives, that is" are OOnsCi.'DUS t.hat 'chey are reprodu.c:i'llg" to the emaUest de~ail,lh€l paradi.g,ma:tic acts of the gods as they' were performed in Ufo tempore.

This is as mneh as, to say that religiouamanperiedi .. eally becomes the contempo,ra'ry of the gods in th'e measUJ1e in 'whi,ch he reactualizes the primor,dial 'lime in which the divine works WCFS accomplished. On tbe level of primi.tive civilizationst whatever man. dses has a ttau" human mode!;, hence', even outside ·of the {estiv;al time', hisacts and gestures imitate the paradigmatic models, established by the gods and the mytirlcalanoosrora. Bat this Imitation Is likely to become less aDd less ,accurate. The moo'el is likely to be distorted or even. forg,otteD~ It is the periodical reactualizations of the divine: acts-in short., the religions :Ees~ivals,-t1Jat lIestorehumanknowl~ edge: of the sacI',ality ofthe models. m.e ritual ,r'epslring; o,i ships and the ritual cultivation. 00£ the yam no, longer resemble the s.imilarope,rations performedoatside ,cd' the saeredperlcds, For one thing, they are more p,recise, closer to the divine modeb; for an.other" th.ey are ritual --dlat is. ,their .intent .is religjous~ A beat is r'epaired eeremonially nat because it :is in need of repair but beC8lUe, in; i'llo, tempore:. 'tBe gods, mowed mrm ha,w to repair' boats. It :~!!l' 8, case not of an empirical operation

but of a. relig,ious act; an imitat,iodei. Toe ,object repair,ed is no, longer one of the many objects, that constitute the ,Class "boats" hut a ntythic:al arch.etype-the very DO,", tlua tke gods mrm;ipulaled in iUQ tempor,e. Hence the time in which the ritu.alrepairin:g of boa is is performed '00" heres with pJrimo'rtiialtime';, :i1 is the same time iu. which, the gods labored,

Obviously." not all varieties of periodical festivals can he reduced to the type j:ust. examined, But it is, not with the mo.rphology 0,:£ the .£es~ival that w,e are concerned; it is with tbe structure uf the sacred um.e actualiaed in felr tivals, It can he said of sacred time that it is ,always the same, that it is '~,tl! succession ofetemities" (Hube:rtand Mauss.). For, how,ey'6r complex a reHgiou.s :festival m.ay lie, it always involvesa sacred event that took place ab origine and that is ritually made present. Thepartici .. pants in the festival become eontemperaries of the mythi. .. cal event. In. oth,e:r wo,rds, they emerge from their his'~orical tim~at is, from the time ,eomtitnt,ed hy the s,mn 101&1 o,:f pro-fane: personal ,and intraper,sonalev,ents, -and recover p,rHnor,dial 'lime, which .is alway.s the same, which, belonge to et-ernity .. Re:ligtou.s, man pedodieany finds his way into mythical and sacred time, re-enters the time ,0/ origin, tbe time that "fl,owelh no,t" because it does. not par~icipate in p'roIWle tempural dura.tiGn, heea use it is romp osed of ,an ,eternal pr:esen·t, which is ind,efinitely :recoveraJ),le.

ReHgiou.s mrul feels th.€! need '10 plunge pelliOOicaUy

89

into this saeredand indestruetible time. FlIlz him it is sacred time that makes possible the other time, ordinary 'time, the profane duration in which ev1fl:ry human. life tak,eg its COUDe. It is the ,eternal presens of the mythi,cal event that makes possible the profane dur,a~ion. of hl~ l.o,xm:cal events, To gw.v,e only one exsmplet it Is the divine hierogamy, wmch took place inillo,temp{)re, that made human sexual union possible. The union between the god. and god.dess occurs in all atemporal instant, in an eternal present; sexual unions between human being~ w:hen th,ey are not ritual unions-take plaee in duration" in piroiane time. Sacred, mythical time also originates and supports exis~eIillial, historical time, for it is the latter' sparadigmatiemodel, In short, it is by virtue of the divine or semidivine heings that, every thing has come into existence, The origin ofrealities sndol life itself :is religious, The y.am ean be ,culHvated and eaten .in the ordinary way because It is :periodically cultivated and ea ten r.itU611y,. And these rituals can be performed hecause the gods revealed them in illQ tempore, .by creating man 8D,d the yam, and, by sho,winS men ]Jowt.o culti.vate awl eat iliat partieularfood plant.

10 the festival the sacred dimension of' li£e is re .. co¥er,ed,We particlpenta experience the sanctity 0,1 human existence as ,R divine creation. At all other nmlC$ ther'e is ,always the da:ng~r of fo'r:getting what Is fundam.en~althat ,existence is notgive:n by what modem men eall Nature hut is-a creation '0'£ O~1u!,T$, the gods 0,1' semi ... ,

90 The Sacred ~M w Pro/(me

divine beings. But. ,in .f:e.s~ivals the p:Bl1ici,pan!ti lOODV,el" Ih.e saelled dim.en.silQD. (!If existence, by learning a,pin h.ow the gods or the .mythjcal anct!i~or,s created man aDd ta ught him the variDu kinds cd sod. Ii behavior ami of pI'3,ctica[ work.

lFlIom one point, ,oi viewtWs periodical ,emergence :FlIom I1b~ori.cam tim~ud e-'Specianythe:eonse~enoea that it has£or ili,etotal existen.ce o(fleligioW!, ma:n:--m4Y a"ppear tohea refusal '0'£ history,~ hence a refusal of' cleaH eve freedom. After all, wbat is involv,ed is an eter-, nel re~umin ,iUotempore" ~o' a. past that i:s mytlUeaJ., eomplemly tmM:stodcaL It conldhe ooncnudedtb~t tlDs etema.ll'e,eti~io'n ofth.e p:a.r,adigmauc acts I!ndgestl!n'e8 reveded by the gDds ah ,origine is opposed 10 ,any human prog~ess andp1ardyzes a.ny ere8.ti,ve, .spontaneity. Ce:~ minly "the concllBi~n is justi.6abie in part.Bmt only in 'paIt. Fb" religio'Us man, even th.€ most pdmi~i'V,~, dDes DI)t muse pmgooss in, :princi.plcl he Boee,pis it but. a.t. the :sam,6~ime hestows on ilt a dIvine origin and d:immmiDn .. Everytl1ing that. frommhe modern poinit of view' seems to us to, have signified pr,ogress, (0:1 'wha~ever kindwhether social, ctdtural" technical, etue.) ill 00mp.mdson with a pl1e\~io'UB' 8;itua tien, aU this tl1.€ v:adoU! pdmitive societies have aceepted :[0 the eousse .of their .lo:ngw8;oo tc,TY as a series o.f new divIDe revelations.Bmt for the moment we shaH leavethii aspect of the p,rob,}em a:8~.de:. What is of prim.ary importance 10 us is '~oun.ders~andJ the reHgious mealilin,g ·of this repeliti(!!:o ,of divine ada

S(J'(Jrf!!a Time aoo Jl,Ih.I 91.

and gestures, Now, it seems obvious that, ifre~i,gjaus man £ools tIIen:eed 0'£ indeMi.rely repvod.u.cin,g:me u:me pSI'a:digma:tic 310m andgestures, .. tJds is becaustilAe desl~es

}.'

,and' attempts'to l~ve do.s'S to hiJ gols.

I

PE:RJOIHCALLY BECOMING. CONTEMPORARY WITH Til E GODS

In tthe p,recedlng chap~e:r,. 'whBl1Iwe sm.died,:ti1Je cosmological symbolism of cities, tem,ple.s, and hOllSe.st, we :sJ1.~wed thal ilis bound up'wi~blhe idea ofa 'Cemter ,o;f tbeW:odd. IThe l1eligious sy.mbolism. implicit intlm sy.mbolism of the center appears to be this: mau desim to nave his ahede ina: space opening upward, 'rua:t :1S, commwdcadnl with the divine w,orld. 1,'0 live nearte a Cen~er (!If the World, is, in shert, eqmva'lent to living as dose as poss~ll~e~o t11.e gods,

We :find the same des in: £or a close approach to the :gods if we amalyze: the meaning of ll'elig~ous £e:stivaIs. To l'eiutcegra~e the sacred, time of oFi;lu is equi,Yalentlo becoming oon~n1,porary with the: gods" heDceto, Hving i:ntneir plIE'sentle---t'l:VeR if t1l.eir p:msen.ee :is, mysterious in the ,sensetbat it is not alw.ays visible. The .intention that can. he re.md in the experience of S8cr,ed spcwe mEl sacred mne reveaJs a desire tQ reintegr.aoo a primolldia1j, rdtmaHon-tl!Ull 1D w,hicb the gods, and the mythical alleesters were pres·ent, that lSt.,ere emgaged in crea,nq tbewor]d, or in organizing it, orin reveaJingthe: f01m-·

92

daU.ons of civilization to man. This prhnordial situation is not historieal, it is not calculablechronologicaUy;, what is. invol ved is a mytltiealanteriodty,. the time of' odgin,. what 10'011:. p,lace"'in the ~jleginningt"'in priru;ipiio'.

Now,wha.t wok. place "In the beginning" was this: the ,divin·e or semidivine beings were active onearth, Hence: 'lhe nostalgia .for origins is equivalent to a re#giou,s nostalgia, Man desir'e.s 'to recover the active presence of the gods; he also desires to live in the world as, it came from the Creator"s hands, fresh, pure, and strong. It is the nostalgia for th.€! perfection oj beg.innings that chiefly explains the pedod:ica.l return in il·lottlmp0'f(I. In eluis" dan le:rms,. it could he called a nostalgia for parculise. although on ·the level of primitise eultuees tbe religj.ous and ideolo.gical context is ,entirely diff'6rent hom that of J udaeo·Cbristianlty.. But the mythical time whose reacma1iza~ion is periodically anempted is a time sanctified hy the divine: presenee, and we may say that the desire 10 live ill .. the divine' presenc« and in 6· perleel wwld (perlect because :newly hom) couesPQIlds to' the nostalgia :for a paradisal.s:iumtion..

As we neted above, this desire on the put of religi'D'US man to travel back pe.riodicaUy ,his eiiort to reintegrate amythologi.cal situation (the situation as itWM, in the beginn,ing) may appear Intolerable and hwnHiatiJn;to modem eyes. Such a nostalgia in.evitably leads to the COrlltmllal Jepe~i~joD. 01 a limi~ed number of gestures a:nd patterns of behavior:. Frum one po.int of viiew it mar even

he said that religiousman---espec.iaIly the r-eli.giousman of primitive societi.es·-:is aboeve all 8. man paralyzed :by the myth ofthe eternal return, A. modem psycholo'sjst would be temptedto interpret such an attitude as anxiety before the (longer o.f the new 1 refusa] to assum .. e l''Csp ansi:bm ty for a .genuine historical existence, nostalgia for a situation that is paradlsal pl'Iooisely because it is embryonlc, insufficiently detached fromnature,

'That problem is too complex to, be discussed here. 'In any case, it lies outside the field. of OUI' investigation" :for, in the last anaJ.ysis,it Implies the problem of the opposition between premodern and .. modem man. Let us r.a tber sa..ytbalit would be wron.g w believe that the religious manof primi~ive and archaic societies refuses 10 .assume the responsih,.iHty for a genuine existenee, On .he contrary" .8$ we have seen and shall see ag;a:i:n; he

~ . ibil . . r

eourageousry aesumes ummenee responSL' lltll~eS-lor

exam ple, that o,f collaberadng in the creation of the 008- mos, or o,i creating his. own worrld; or of ensuring the life of plants and animals, and so Oil. Bul it is ·at diiter·enl: kind. of res.po:nsibility from these tha.t, to us modems, appeal' to be the only genuine and v.alid resp onsibiHties~ It is a re-:spons.ibility on the cosmic plane, in eontradi&w tinction to the m,o,ral, social, orhistorical r-esponsibilities. tba.t are alon.eregarded as valid in modem civilizations. FJrOm the point 0.1 view' of profane existeaee, man feels, 00' responsibility ,except to himself and t~) society. Fo.r

. .

him, the univene does not properl y constitute a: cosmos

"","",that l:l:l, a Jlivingand articulated unity; it. is sim.p,ly the stmlol thematerid reserves and physic1!Il energi,e-s o,f the pl!anet~ and. the gr-eat coneem 0'£ mod,em man is to avoid BtupidIy ,exhausting the €()onomic resources 0'£ the globe. Bu~" exis~enti,ally" llieprimitive ,always pu.ts him~ seU in a. cosmic ,ean~exl. His personal ,ex:p!efieuoe lacks, neither genuineness Dor d,epth; but the .£aet thal it is ,erprnssedin, a language unfrunUiarm us makes it appear

• "E"1 .lII

IpuEJ:O_ 01' IOJl.anu_,c: '10 RlOu,ern eyes.

TO. rev,ert m O'l1f .immediate subjiect: we haVE DD,war~ ra'D/1: for ,iDte:rpmting periomcret:u:mmthesaeredtim.e ,of ,origin,Qs a rejection ,of~e rea.1worM and ml escape intO!lbeam. and. .imagina.ti:oD~ Ouile contra:ry t it seems to WI that;, hMe :s,gain" w,e can discern the (Jnt'Ol:.ogic1J,l ob.sessiO:II 10 whim webav.e referred and wMcll, more .. o,ver:, ean be wnsidef€d. an. essential chaI'ae~edsdc o·f' the man 0'1 the primitive and arrebaiJ.csod.eti.es. For to wish to r-eillIt:egra;~efhe time of o~igin isalse to wish to retum, 10 the p'reJenc'6' of ,Ihe g€}al, to recoverlhe slro.nl" J.resh, pure oorldmhal existed :milia tempore •. It is at once lthb.st for the sacr-ed and WliS~a!gj,1 fbI' be,in;g •. Ont'heex:istential plane this experience finds expmssion in 1tIw: ooItainlythat life can. be peTiodicaUy 11 egM over 8Llaimwi,ma maximum of good {o,rltm,e. Indeed, .it is, Dill onlly an optimistic vision '0·£ existence, but statal cleav ..

• 11.. B '11 L. • 1i,. havi .~ 11" •

Ing to ueJng.. . y SJI. .iI.II~S' De. aVlIQ:I", l'QlglO1& man. pm-

maims that be heUe,Y8S 'Dl'lIIyin. heing, and. that. hie. pmrti,cipation in being; is, 8J6sured Mm . .byth.e primQ:rdial

r~velalion 01 which he Is the guanJian.. The: 81!UD, tol8l of prim,or,diaI lIevelatlo.nsis couls.timtedby his myths.

The my1hrelatM fit sacred history, thatist aprimO!rcdi&l event {ha,t 'look place at the hegi:nn:m.g ·(If 'lnne" ,ab .iRi~io.BUJt to 11.~e a. sacr,edMs~ory is, equi.vale:nt., revealing:li mystery~ For the persons ().{ the myth are DDt human heings.;dIey are gods 0,1: culture 'be:roes"and f~r tMs. reason their f:6Sta co,nstltu.t:e m.y:st.erles; man oo:ulJd not know tneiracts :if th.ey were not revealed ~OI him. Tn.s myth,. then, is, the Ms~ory of what took place in ilk> Ie .... plfJre, the recital of what the gods .or tn.esemidi rine bein~ €Ud a! the beginning of time. To teU a. m)1h is to, proelaim what ha p'pened abor,igine. Once told, dtat is, rev,ealed,~he mytth becomes apQdictic truth;. it esta.blishe~, a 'Uuth!nat is abselute. '·'It is 10' because .iit is saidlhat it is so, '''the Ne~sUik Eskimos declare to justHy the valid~ ity of their sacred bisno'ryaIildreligiorllL'S 'traditions. 'The myth proclaims me ap'pearan.oo of a new cosmic sii.ma,~ tion or of a primordial ,evenrt. Hence it is always, 'IlhB recital o.f a creation; ittells ho,w something was aeecmpUs1ed~ began. 10' be. It is .frorthis reasen that myth is hound u.p with. Ofl,to.~Ogy ;i.t speaks orll~Y 0.1 realities, ,of w.hat .r,eally happen.ed" ·0'£ 'what was, £Ullymanifes.md ..

ObriowIythese! fealitie~s am sacred malitles" :fa,ll' i!t is lb.e sacrerJ.'lliat is p're"'eminoo.tlyllie T€alWiatever

helongs tn the sphere oJ the plIobne does not pamcipate in heing, for the profane was not o'nbll,Gg~.caUy esta:bIished by my:th~ has no perfect model As we :shaU soon see, agricultural work Is a ritual revealed by !h.e gods or eulture heroes. This is why it constitutes an act that is a~, enee real andsignifico.m", Let usthink, byc0mparison, of agricultural work in a desacralizedl society. Here, it has become a profaneact, jl!lstifted hythe economic promt that it brings. The ground is tined to be e:K:pmoi.ted;, the end pursued is. profit and food. Em plied 0.1 r,emig~o11S symbo,~ism~ agrleultural work becomes al once opaque and exhausting; it reveals no meaning, it makes posslble no epening toward the universal" toward the world of spirit. No god" no culture hero ever revealed apnfane act. Everything~at the godsor llie aneestors aid,. hence everything tba~, the myths hav,eto~€Uabom tiheir creative a.etivity, belongs to the sphere 0.1 the sacred and thereIere participates in being. In contrast, what men d.o on their own initiative, what they d!o witheure mylthlcal model, belongs to, the 8 phere ofthe profane; hence it is a vain and illusory a,cdvJity~ and, in the last analysls, unreal, The more re.H.giOU8 man is~ the mere p:uadig:. matic models does he 'possess to guide hisattitades and actions, In other words, the more religieus he is, the more does he enter inW·Ule real and the less is he in ,danger of ffiJecoming Iost in actions that"beingn!,)np,aradigmatie, "subjective," are, finelly, aberrant.

This, is the a:sp eel oM' mydItha t demandspa.rticUJ1.ar ,e:mphas~s here, The m yUt reveals a.~iSol ute sacr,ality, be-

97

cause it relates the €irea tive activity 0,( the gods,. unve-Bs th.e sacredness o£ their work. Inotherwords, the, myth deseriaeathe various and sometimes dramatic ir.rup~io:m of the sacred .lntothe world, Tbis is why" among many primitives, myllis cannot ~ e recited, wi thout regard £01' lime or place, but only during the seasons tnatare zitually .riclles~ (a utumn, w.in~er) or in the course of lieli~ gious ceremcnies-e-in short, during a SacTtUJ, period .oj ,ime~ It is the irruption O.l the sacred into the world,. an irruption narrated in the m:ylhs~ that establishes the world, ass reality. Every myth shows bow a reality came into existence, whe:UleT :wl be me total reaIity.,the C~8mos,. 0]1' only a £I'agment~n island, a speeies of plant, a, human ins:tjm~ion. To tel] how things came intoexistence is to explain them and at the same time indirectly m answer another question: .Why did they come into existence? The why is always implied. in the how~£ol" the s~m ple reason that to tell how a thing was b om is to, uveal an irsuptinn ot the sacred inte the wo'rM,. and the sacred. is~ihe rnlIlti.ma:te M~!HSe of aU real existence,

MQroove:r.t since ,every creation is a divine work. and hence an irruption of the sacred" it atm:e same time represems an irru.ption oicreative en.ergy .illlto th.e w(llrld~ Every creation springs from an. ahnndanee, The gods creete out (!II an excess of p DWell:', an overB.ow of energy .• Creation is aco()omp'lished by a surplus !i)f ontolo,g:~.cal substance. This i:swhy the myth, which narrates this sacred on~opha.ny,.iliis vietorieus manifestation of' a pleni~ude of heing, becomes the paradigmati.c Blodel :for

98

all hwnan activities:. Fo,r it alone reveals the real, thel ,superabundaDlt,the: cl£ec~JUaL "We must do wnttt the Gods did in. the beginning," :says an Indian text (Shampath.a 1J,rah~ VU,,2, 1, 4.) ~ "Thlts the Gods, did; thus men. d~,," the TaUtirira Br,anm.a.na adds, (I, 5" 9,4;) ~, Hence the :suprcemeiunc~ion of the mydl is to "fiX" the paradigmatic models fo,r aU rites and ,aU ,si,gni:ticant human acuvi~ies---ea.~ing" sexuaHly~ woa-k,. edueatien, and so on. Acting as a fully responsible human .being, man .imi~ate8 the para,dlgmalie ges~ures, of the ,gods,. repea,U! their actions" whethe:r in the case ofasimple physiological function sueh as eating or nf a. 600a1, ecena,mi.c" ,eultural, miilitary, or othe.ractivi~.

In New Guinea agrsat man.ymyilhs tell of 1'::1'n!j sea voyages, thusprov.id:ing "exemplars :f~I' the m.od.em voy:~ a,ge.rsta:s, weU as for aU other adiv.ities, ''wbether 0'£ love, Oil' wa.r,. or I'ain.;.making~ 01' fishing, o:rwha.tev~r else, • ~. The narrative givesprecedents j£:orthe :s~ages, of constIucti:on,llie tahuon sexual intefi)OlUSe"e~c..n \V'he.na captain goes to sea he personifiesthe mythical hero Aori. "He wears the costume which Ami is SUP"' posed to have WiiJrtJ., wi~b blackened fare ~ ~ ~ [and] the same kind of .lovBinhis, hair 'wMch. Aod. plucked. from Iviri's head .. He d,ances on the p1latiorm and exteeds his arms like Aori',s wings.. • ~ A mantold me that when he went fish sh.oCl~ing (with bow and anuw) he pr.etended

L. Ki-" h ,. If ,,':ItO H' I JI" dl - - &,1.. ,.,.,.b,'· ~- 11

to JUle ' .. - - IVaVI& unse .' - - I ,e ~l. . Dol praym LU.€ m.rb!.l!lcw

1(1 F.E. wml.a:rG:~, cited .. ~D LliIehm I.evy.BrILhl. l4 rnythfiJiQgieprillliiei'N" Pirls, 1935.pp., ~!5~ 163·164,

hero for aid and. favor; h.e identined, himseH with him.

This symbolism. of mythical precedents is, also found in. other primitive ealtures, W dung onlhe Ka:ruk:, Indians of California, J ~ p ~ Haning~olll. says: "iE,verytllin:g: that the Karuk did was enacted because the IkxaFeya:v.s welle believedto have set the example in. story times. The Ikx:areyavswere the people who were: in Am.erica b~fore the Indians eame .. Modem Karukst in a quandary now 10 render the word, vobmtee.r sucharanslaiions as 'the 'Princes,' "the chiefs.,' "the angels,.' •• A [The [rurey.avs] remaili.lfed] with~heKarrik only long: enQugh to s:tate and start aU msto,mg, telling tneminevery ins~anoo,. "Humans wiU do the same •. ' These dOimgs and. ,sayings are stiUr-e~ated and quoted, il1l,the medicine £orm.tdas of the Karuk}~U

Thl,g faithful repetition of divine models has a tw~ £old result: I( 1): by .imitatinglhe gods, man remainaia the saCl'ed,benoo in reality;. (2) by the eontmuous reactuaUzQ.tiun 0·£ paradigmatic divIne gestures, the world IS sanctified, Men's uligious. behavior contributes to .maiIli~aiwng~he saneti~ of the world~

REA C1'UA.LIZIN G M Yl"HS

It li.s, not witholll.lt interest. to no'temat .religioq man. assumes ahumam.ty that hM a trran:shuman. tr,a. scend,ent model. He does .Dot cO:IlIs.ide-r WmseU ~Ol be

100

trul,y man except in S'O £a.I ashe Imitates the gads, the culture heroes, or the m.ythica.l aneestors, This, is as much as to say that religiousman wishes tobe other than he is on the plane of his profane experience, Religious man is not giv.en; be makes himself, by appro:Bchingtbe divine 'models. Theee models, as w,e seid, arepreserved in myths" in the history ofthe divine ge.sta. Hence religioDa man toe reg,ards himseH as made by history, jluS:t 8'S profane man does; hnl theanly 'history that concerns him is the .sacr'e:d' ,his~Qryr,ev'e:ruledhy the m.y:ilis-that. is, the history of the gods; whereas, profane man insists that lu! is oonstitut,ed only by human history" hence by the sum 0'£ the v'elJ"Qcts, thB't;, for religious man" are, of'DlG importance because: they have no divine models, The: po,int to be em.ph,asized is that, from thebeghming, reli .. gious :man sets the model he is to ,a tt8,in on the transhuman. plane, the plane revealed :by his myMls,. One becomes truly' a mml oRly by oon/o1"1ning to the i'eacmng 0/ the myths, that is, by imitating the gods.

W,e wiU add that, :tor thepl'imitiv'es" sueb an imitatio ,tid sometimes implies a 'very grave l'esponsibility. We have seen. that certain blood sacrifices find th.eir justification in a pdmordial divine af:t; in Ula tempo're the god had slain the marine monsterand dismembered its body in order to create the cosmos. Man repeats thls bloed sae.rifice---somelimes even with human v.ictimS='wh.en he has to build a village, a temple, or simply a house. What the consequences. of this imitati() dei can. be is, clteady shown. by the mytholog~es and rituals of numerous primi-

Sacred Time and Myth;,

101

live peoples. To give only one example: according toO the myths 'of the earliest cultivaI'ton, man became who t he is to day'-mo.rtal, sexualized, and condemned to, work.-in consequence of & primordial murder; in illo tempore a divIne being, qnite e"ften ,R woman or a. malden, sometimes a, child, or ,8 man, allowed himself te be immolated in. orderthat tubers or fruit trees should grow {r-om his, hody .. 'This first murder basically changed the mode of hein,g of human lif~ The Immolatlon 01 the divine being inaugurated nut only theneed to eat, but abo the doom 'of deailiandt in consequence, sexuality, the only way 10 ensure th,e continuity of life, The body of the immolated di,vinity lV,as changed in;tQ food; its soul 'descended. under ground, where it established, the Land, 0'£ the Dead, A~ E. Jensen, who has devoted an important hook 10 this type u{ divinities-which he calls dema diviniries-ha,s com. elusively ,s,hoMl. ilia t in ea ling and in dying man partici" pates in. the life of the d'emas~ u

For all these palaeo-agrieultnral peop,l~stwhat is essential is periodically to evoke 'the primoIdlal event that established the present condition of humanity. Their whote religious Hfe is a commemoration, a. remembermg, The memo:ry reaetaalised by tbe riles (hence .byr,eire:ra~ing the primordial mu:riie,r) plays a d.ecisive role; what happened in iUo tempore must never be fo~g,ouen. 'The true sin is forgetting, Tbe girl who at

12 A", lEo J eQ$eIil" [J,~: r;:.li.ci&,e "d~bUd ein~,. friilHf.n. K'ulu.tr" S:l.uUg:llft, 1948. J en.seaho,~d the word dema, from, the MariDd·anim of New' Glili!.ea.

102

her first menstruation spends three days ina. dark hut without speaking to anyone does so because the mur .. dered maiden" having, hecome the moon, re,mains thr-ee days in darkness; i£' the menstruating girl breaks the tabu of silence and sp eaks she is guilty of forgetting a primordial event. Personal memory is not involved; wh,at mailers is to remember the mythical evenl,the only event worth ecnsidering bee-a use dJ.'eoruy c:ooative event. It ,la118to the primordial myth topreserve true hisw.rf,' tbe history of the human condition; it is in the myth that the pirindples and paradigms, for all conduct must be: sou,ght and recovered,

It isat this stage o,i culture that we eneounter ritual cannibalism. The cannibal's chief concern would seem, to be essentially metaphysical;, ne must not forget what happened in illo tempore, V'omhar-dt, and Jensen have shown this very clearly; the killing, and devouring: of sows at festivals, ea ling' the Dlst fruits "ben tuben are harvested, are ,an eating of .the d'ivine' body, exactly as it u eaten ,at caJm.ibal te,ast8~ Sacrifice of "s'ows, head .. hunting, eaunibalism are symbolically the same as, harvesting tuben or cocomns, It is VolhaIdt's acoomplish. mentto have demcnstrated the religleue meaning a,i anth:ropophagy and at the same ti.methe human respon .. sihiUty assumed by the cannibal. HI The food p'lant is Do.l

18 E. VoJhardt,. K!iJ1nibalismru" Stutt,gart, 193~ Cf. Eliade. "1.e D.1Jlhe da, :0011 Hll'illg,e QU, lea PI$ti.gu de :ltl)ri~" In, id, M,,:Mf,. ~ .. IB"Jltiru.Parir&,; 1951, lip. 86ft

103

gitJeJI in 'nature; iI, is the" product 01£ a ,slaying, fo,r it was thus that ,it w,as created in the dawn of time. Head,· hunting" human ,s,acrifi,ees, ,cauniba1ismw,ere aU .scoop,ted by man. 10 ensure the: Iife of plants, VoUmrdt's insistence onthis p'oint is .fu1ly j,nsti:fie,d. The cannibal assumes his res,p,unsi1:lUii.ty mUlewo,dd;. cannibalism is not a "natural" behavior in primitive man (m.or@over, it is not found 00. the oldest lev-,eIs of cultme); it is cultural behavior; based on 8. religious vision of Iife, For' the veg,etahle world to co,nlmue, man must kUI and be killed; in addition" he must assume sexuality to its extreme limit~I}It~ orgy. An Abyssinian song declares dds: "She who, has not yet engendered, let h.er ,eng:end,er,;, he who has not yet killed" let himkilll" This is a way ·0'£ saying 'that the tw.o sexes are doomed. 'to assume their destiny ~

Before passing judgment on cannihallsm, we, must always rememberthat it was instituted by divine belugs, But th.ey instituted it '10 give human. beings the 0PpDJr" tunity to assume a responsibility in the cosmos, to enable them. to provid.e forthe continuity 0'£ vegetable life. The responsibility ,then, is, religious in nature, The Uito cannibals affirm it: "'Our traditio:nsa:re alway.s alive among us" even when we are not (lancing; but we work only that we .may dance," Theil' dances consist in repeating an the mythical events, hence also the lint slayingl followed by aathropophagy,

We lmv,e cited this example in order to show that,. among prim:ii.tivesas In the pabeo~o,rien~alciviliz&tions.,

1M

the imltatio dei is not conceived. MylUcaUy, that, on. the ci()n~r.ary, it l.mpiies an awesome human. !,espo.nsibility~ In judgi.nga".sa.vage'" soeie~y,. we must not lose sight ,of thefaet that even the mos~ harharousact and lhe mOiSt aberrant hehavio,r:have divlne~ transhllman m.odels. To inqui1l8 why and in consequence (lif what degrada.tion! and m:i:stmderstandings certain re1i.gj.(!Ius activities deteri·, orale ana. beeome aberrant is an entirely different problem, in~o whi.ch we shan not enter here. For o,nr purpose, what dema.nds emphasis Is the fact that :religious MaD :601!l.gh.t 10 :imitate, and he:lieved. that be w,as imi~ati.ng~ his gods even. WIU1lD heallowed himself 10 be led inte ,a;.c18 that verged Cln madrn.es$,dep:ravity, and. crime,

SACR.EDBISTORY,. 'lIIS'FORY, UISTORIC:IS,M Let us tecapitulale:

Religiollllsman experleneestwo kinds of umeprofane and sacred, The one .isan evanescent dUFation, tbe other a "succession. 0,1 eternities,,'" P€I.lodicaUy l'.eeov· erable d lU.ing the festivals that made up fhe savored calender, The Uturg;kaltim.e oflliecalendar flom .in a closed cb:oc]e; it is the eosmi e time (ilf the year, sancti:ied by the works of the gods . .And. since the m.!IJIst stupendous divine work WRsthe cualiolD. of the world, commemora.tion ·ofthe cosmDg(my p~ay8 an tmportantpa.rtill many reHgioru!~ Tb.e New Y,ear coinddes willi the first da.y of Creation. The y1ear is tIerempo!fal dimension .of the

105

cosmos. ''The world .bas, pa:ssed'~ expresses that a yea.r has run it;s",olU1le~

At each N,ew Year the cosm,ogon!Y isreir.erated., the W'oddFe.crlea~ed, andto do this Is also, to create tim,e---thatis, to regenerate it by begjnn.ing it anew. 'This, IS why the eesmogonie myth serves as paradigma!i.c model fiOr ,every creation 0,1' construction.;, it Iseven used ass. ritual mesne of heding~ By symholicca,Uy becoming eon~ tempora:ry wl.th the CTeation, one reintegrates the pri. mordial plenit.u.d.e~ The sick man. beeomeswell because be .beg~ns his life .a.gam wilh its, sum ·of ooeIg'y intact.

The religious festival is thereaetuallsation ,oil! pdmordial event, ofa ,saCl'ed.nistoryin which the eetors are the godso.r· semi.divIne he~ngs .. But sacred hi~tory is reeounted In the my~hs. .Henceth.epar~ieipant8 in the :Festi.val b eeome eonternpereries 0.:1 the gods, and the semidivine .beings. They live In. the primordial 'lime that is sanctified hy the presence and a.e~ivity of the! gods~ Th.es.act'ed. cdenda:rperio d.icaUy regenera tea time, beeauss It makes it ,coincide with the time OfOT.igfn., the :str,ong,. pure time. The leH.gious exp,erien.oo of the festi .. val-that is" participation in. the seored-e-enebles man pel'iomcaUyw, live in the presence of the .goOds. Tmsis the reason £0[' the fund.amentd im portanee of myths in an pre~M,osaic reHgi«m,tor the myths narra~e the, gesttJ of fhe gods aodtb.ese gesta constitu~e paradigma.tic m.odels far ,aU human. ac~iviti.es,. In so far as he imim~es bis gods, reHgious man lives inthe timeal Qrigin, the

106 TAt S~relaoo .the Pro/aMi

time of th.e myllis. In o.e:r waiMs, he emerges. from profane duration to recover an. tmnlovin.g tim~ etenUty ~

Since" for religieas man of tbep.rbnitiv,e societies, mydls cons~i~ute his, sacred hisrory,.he must not forget them ;.by reactuali:zing the mythst he lLpprosllb.es his g(lds and plBrticipa,tes In sanctity.. :But there are alsotragle dilvineb:ii;s,tories, and man assumes a gr-eat resp onsihility 'a,ward. himself and toward nature by periodicaJ.ly r,ea.cmalizlng them. Ritual camnibaUsm,Eor example,. is theoom;eq~enoo uf a b1l!g~cllelig~ollg coneeptlon,

In: sboxt,tllrough thereacluruizatioD IIlfhis m.ytbs~ .m1igious manatt:empls lOB P'Proa.eh th.egodsand. t.o pamcipart.!!in being; the .imita.tiOD. oil plsradigmatic divine mode.Is expresses Bit oneehis desire fo.r ,sanctity alldMs ont:ologjcal n.OiS'taJgja.~

In the primitive and archaic religions the eternal repetition of the div.ine: explijli~s is j;usti&ed aa an. imitat,w €let The :sacred calendar allJ!nuaUYl1epea~s 1lhe same :fes~h!'a.~s, that is, thec0mmemoraltioo of the samemytbi. cal eveats, S~rictly speaking" the sacred cdendar prov,es to be the "etema] return" a,fa Hmi~edntm1ber o£ divine i,eslta-8.ndthn, is tru.e not only ftlI primi~iver-digj.o[l8 but. f,orill others. The :festal ,calendar evlerywnelle0OU" stitntes a periodic&lreturn of the same primordial :sirua· tioas and .h.ence: a reBlctualizatiou of the sam.e sacred lime. P,or l'eIig:i.~us man, uactua1izatioD. of ilie same :mytbic.al events constimtes his greatest hop e;fol' wi,th eaeh reac:tuaUza.tio'llhe agsinhea the opp ormmtym'

SllCl'fld Time, aM Mytb 107

transfigure iiisex:iistence, ~Ol mlli~e it like its divine m.odel. In short,. £01" religious mao. of the primitive and .archaic SGcieties,.the eternal re.peti~i!iln efpatadfgmatie gestures and the etemalreoo",ery i,J( the same mythical time of ori.gjn, sanctified. b!y the gods, ml1l.O sense .implies a pessimisti1c vision of Hfe. Onthecontrery ~ for him it is by virtue of this etemal retuID to the sources of the sac fed and the real thact human existence a ppean ~o' be saved from nothirnsness and. death.

IThe perspective d~arnges eomple~e1y when the sense of .t118 religww.rres:Jt>:1 the COSmQ5 becQ.mes lost. Thlsis wba.t OOClDS whent in certain more bighTy e:v~lv'oo soeleties, the intellectual elites pl"ogressiv,ely detach them,. selves fmmthe paUerns 0·£ the trad:iJtionalreMgi.on •. The perioJUcal santtinca.uon efeosrnie time then prcres useless and without meaning •. The gods, are no longer accessible through the cosmi.c rhythms. The religj.ous .mean .. . ing of the repetition of pal1'adigma.ti.c gestures is 1mgotren~ But 1~pelilion emptied'of .its religio.us. ,oomm .nece..ssarily leadsloa pessimisticvisiun oj existence~ Wb.en it is no 1.onger 8.. vehide {or reilW~egraHDg a. prj. manUal ,situa.tioD,and hence foxll'etla,verin_g the mystl3:r .. OU' pmsen.ce ,of the gods, that ls, when it isdesaeralu,el" eyclictime becomes terrifying; il is seen as a circle :forever fuming on itseU, repeating itself to inMity~

This is what ha.ppflned In Indiat where the doctrine 01 ,cosml!c cycles (yugasl w",s elaba,r&t,ely developed. A

108 The Sacl'oeJ or1(1 the' ProJa'Mt

complete cycle, a mahiirug'(l, comprises, 12,000 years. It ends, with ,8, dissolution, a pralaya, ,,,hiclt is repeated more drastically (maha:pral6'ya,~ the Great Dissolution), at the end, of the thousandth cycle, For the par,adigmatic schema ""creation·destruetion~crea:l:ion-e~c.." is repro. dneed ad infinitum. The 12:~OOO years ,of a maMyuga were regarded as divine years, each with a duratienof ,0160 years, wMicb gives a total of 4,3,2.0,,000 yeanEnr a single cosmic cycle. A thousand, such, maJiayugas make, up a kalpa, (form); 14 kalpas make up a manvantara [so named because ea.chmanvantd-ra is supposed to 'be ruled by Manut the mythical An,ces;~or.King.) A kaJpa is equivalent '00. day in the life of Brahma;a second kalpa to a, night. One hundred of these "years" of Brahma, in other words g'}l~OOO milHards ·o:f human yesr-s., censtitute the life of Brahma. But even this duration of the god's Iife does not exhaust time, for the gods are 'Rot eternal and th-e cosmic creations and destructions :sncceed one another forever .1'

This istlle true eternalr'etuIO,. theeternal repetition of the fllndamental rhythm 'Oif the cos:mos~its periodical destruction and re-creation, In short, it is the primitive conception of the r:eaJ"alCOS11WS, but emptied at .its relj. gh~_~~ntenl. Obviously, the d~orrugliS"was elaborated by Intellectual elites!; and if it became a pan~ Indian doctrine, we must not suppose that it revealed its

It 'Cf. Eliaile"Myth. pp. lUff. t see ,WSi!i w.., Im.q~$ d qrnbole$. PIlda. 1952, pp. 801 :I.,

SOO7:e~' Time and MylM 109,

terrifying aspect to, all the peoples of India .. It was, chieDy' tb'e religioue andphilosophical elites lvho' £·elt despair lin the, presenee -0'£ cyclic time repeatingitself ad infinitum,. For to Indian th.ought, this eternal return implied eternal return to existence by force 'of karma, the law of Wliversal causality, Then" too, time wa:s, homologized te the eosmi,c illusion (maya) t and the eternal rerum toexistence signified indefinite prolongation '0£ suffering and slavery, In the v.iew ofthese religious and philosophical elites, the only hope was noneetum-to-existencev the abolition of karma; in other wmtis, final deliverance (m.oksha), implying a transcendence o£ the cosmos.15

Greece 100 knew the my til of the eternal retum, and the, Greek philosophers ofthe late period carried the eonceptlen o,{ circular time to' its, furthest limits. TOI quotethe perceptive WOlds of B., C., Pueehs "'A~o'Ji'ding to the celebrated Platonic definition, 'lime, which is deter:mined and measured by th'e revolution ofthe celes~ial ,spheres. is the mov.ing image 0'£ unmoving e~e:rnity, wJ1ichit im:i.tates hy rev,oIvlng in a elrcle, Conseqnenmly aU cosmic becoming" and, in the same manner, the duraDon of tbiswodd of generation and. corruption in which Woe live, will prcgress in a circle ,01' in accordance with an indefinite succession of cycles In the cour-se of which fhe same reality is made unmade, and remade in con-

111 Thl,s uanBOlmd~ll.C:e U:. acb~eved th'rollJg'b .tfu, OIf.ortunale in$tant" (~) I' w.IMc,h implies a !KIrt of nm 1'im,G; that ~e:rmit& emu'ge~ B'Gm, tii'me: 8ee I~Q d&ym601t'J' pp. iliO if.

no

.formity wU'b an immutable law and immutab,le altemati yes. Not only .is the: same sum of existence preserved in it, witb nothing h eing lost and nothing created, but in addition certain thinkers of declining antiquity Pythagoreans, Stoies,Platonis.ts-:reached the po·W! of admit'ling tnatw.i~hin each. of these cydes of duration, of these a.iones, these a.eva.. the same situations are reprodneed that have already heen produced in previous cycles and 'Will berepreduced in s,ub,sequ,ent cycles~ in:!in:uum .. No event is, unique, occur'S once and for all (lor example, the' eondemnatlon and d.ea.:ili of' S ocrates), l)'Nl it has oceurud,oocurstand wiUoocu.r, pe:rpetu.aUy; the same ._.;m" "'d I '1l.._. ..I d '''111 t iJrulVl us S IWlv,e app eareu,appear:,. ,an' Wli '. reappear a. _

e\T·ery return o,I'libe ,cycle upon itself. Cosmic· duration is

.. ' . d . k~ k~'l- '. 'Ic - - - - -- ;;18

repennon anc ,aJ'ur·~u·. 031St etema return.

Compared with the arehaie and palaeo-oriental religions, as, well as with the mythi:c.phi~osophjca] conceptions of the, eternal retum, as th.ey were· elaborated in India and 'Greece" J udaism presentsan mnovalion 'of the fust importance, FOir Judaism, tim.€: has a beginninG: and win have an end, Theid,ea of c.y,clic time is len. D. hind.. Yahweh no long,er manifests .bimseH in ,eo:smk time {like the ;gods o.f other religions) but in a Aiseo.rieDI' .,i1M" which is irreversW,le. Each new manifestation of Yahweh in bist4ilry is no longer reducible to an earlier manifestation. The fall ef Jerusalem expresses Yahw,eh"s,

16He:l'lri Charl9i PU;~ ~.lagD.O-9:e ,et I.e tem:P8:t;'; Er'!mo""1ah.r6~h.. :xx. 195~ p:p. 100-61.

HI

'Wrath against 'his people, but it is 'DO longer the same w.rath that Y ahwehexpressed by the faU of Samaria, His gestures are personal Interventions in hlsrory and reveal their deep meaning onlr 10" his· people, the people that Yahweh had chosen: Hence, the historical eYlc'mt acquires a new dimen:sion; itheeomes a .the,opkany}'l

'Christianity 'goes €lv,en further in valorizing .histo.r.ica' time .. Since Cod wasm-carnaeedj ·that is;. since be took on a Msto'ri.cally cond.inuned h'.uman existence, hista,IY acquires the pos~;,ibility of being sanctified, Theillud "eJnpus evoked bythe Gospels is a clearly defined his. torieal time-=die time in whi.ch Pontius Pilste was Governor (IIf ludaea-:but it w:as Stlncli{ied by t:~~_p!~en.ce

.-,______...,.---- ... __...- ............. ~..............,-........... -.... ......

o _J;,ir:~~Wh,en a Ouislian of our day pa.rticipates in

litur.giical time, he recover-s the illud 'em-pus in which Christ lived,. sutIered., and rose .again-but it .is, no longer a mythical time, it is. the time when Pontius. Pilate governed Judaea~ For tbeChristian, too, the sacred calenda.r inde:linjtely rehearses the same events of the: existence of Christ-but these events took place "i~.~l.s:_:_. wry; iheyarie no: longer fac,ts U1iat happened at the .origin

-,-. • . ". &1. be .. - • . '" (B . h uld dd .1l. .. f.

.0' tlm,B,. lD u:we, . gmJnng. '. ut we s . '0 w: ct' . t.uat" .or

th Chr"' • -h· . ~ t, tho, b-' rth f' CC -h . .-

. ,e· •... : n Istian, time _ e,g~ns anew WlUJ tn e '1 ~ 0' '. __ nst,

Z th· I···· ... . &_.1!.}' hes . .'~~. 1: +

tor . ie. neamanon estan isnes a. new snuanon 0,:" man In

the cosmos}. This is· as much as to say that history reveals, ilseU 10. he a new dimension of the presence of' God.

~.7 Cl. Ellail.e,. Myti.pp.. 102: '",OD ·the ¥~tig (lIMe-tOIl in Judillilllllll,. u;perulill, by the PUlipJ:Uilll.

112 TAe SacreiJ and ,me ProJarre

:in t'he world. Hbtorybeoom,es sacr,ea history once more: -as it wasecneeived, bUl in Q\ my~ieal per,sp,ective,. in. :primi.tive and 8ftba.ic re~igions.,18

Chris!lmni ty ,an"lv,es, not art a p1iiluSQph,.. ,but ata .the .. olog)' ,o,f history. :For God's blbenrentions, in hist'Ory~ and abeve slIMs IacamationInthe his~orical person of lesul\l Christ, haves. tra.nsMslodcdpurpolse-th.€ salvalioll:!; of' man.

Heg:el takes (lrv,er tb.e lucla~oo·Christian ideology and 8ppUes it t01.ilnivers,1l Ms.tory in i'ts, to~an t1': the universal spirit c.oneinuaUY manifests, itself in histodcal events and, msni:Eests i,tseU onlrin hist()rieal cveuls. Thus the :w,h(J~e of .history becomes a theo:phany.; every~hing 'lthathas ,kap,pened in history 1w.d to ,iappenas it aid"bec3!1!lse the uiv'e.r.sal :s,pim'i:t SIO wined ,it. The read is thus opened to, the:varioills forms. of twenHe~,·oonlmy .MslO\dci!~ic phi. los0p'Mes.~ Heire om: pI'ese~t inrvestiS8.tion ends, for aU these: new vBllorizartio,ns '0£ time andbisbJ,ry belong to the .bisl(llry of phUosophy •. Yet w,e mast add that his~oric-ism arisesae a deoom.position pi~oduct af 'Ch[i:stiani~; U accords dec:isiv'B importanee to the his~o,:dcal ev,ent I( whi.ch.is an. idea whose ,origin is Christi an) but to the kist,oriool event as su-ci,tilat is, by ~enying: it srny po!Ssi.bilty of re,vealhlg ah'anshis~oll'ital" sotedologital in~· lent.Ii

As forthe ecncepdons of time on. wMc'b certain MIi"

18 Cf. :Eliade. 'millie"" ~~: ~m~;Oi!llrt~'" 222 I.

t;. 'O.nthe diflicuhiea of hi$l@Jii(l~." i,oeMy~ pp. 14.' 8.

Sm.:red Time' and .MytM U3

todclsticand eocistentidisl p'hnoso'p,b~!es, have insisted., lb.€! £oUomng observ.a~ion is 11I.ot with.o:ult in~e:rest: al~ 'llimlghno .Ionger coneeived ali a circle, lime mthese modem phiJmosophies enee again wean, theteuifylng asp ee~. that it 'w,or,e in the Indian and. 'Greek :phiJlosop,h:~es, of the etemal return. Definitil"ely de&cra1izedJ,. lime p,:re" .8en:~sitself as a preeadeus and evaaeseent d!ura~i()in" leadins irr,emediably to ,death.