The Relations Between the Myths and Sacred Items - Essay Example

The relations between the myths and sacred times We study myths in school and because they are included in the curriculum. However, we rarely wonder why we need them. What can they bring to our life and why are they important? The issue is worth-discussing, thus the given paper will discuss the relations between the myths, sacred space and sacred times. It will try to reveal what it means to us to turn to sacred times and how myths help us appear in scared space. Myth tells us a sacred story about a primary event that happened in sacred times. To tell the sacred story means to reveal the truth as the heroes of myths are not humans, they are gods or heroes, creators of civilization, thus they have many secrets. Humans may reveal these secrets only if myths tell humans about them. Thus, myth is a story about what happened and what was done by gods or divine creatures in sacred times. To tell the myth means to inform what happened before humans appeared on the Earth. The told myth becomes the truth and contains absolute truth. Some people consider something to be true because it was told that it was so. Myth declares about the new situation or primary event. Thus, it is always the story about some creation about the appearance of some thing or event. That is why myths are close to anthology, they tell us only about the real things, about something that really happened. Sacred space and sacred time are the fundamental characters of any religion. Myths provide humans with the information about the origin of the world. Rite or symbol allow us to contact with sacred times and space. When humans fulfill the rite, they enter sacred space. When we turn to ritual or apply some symbol, we leave profane time for a while and appear in sacred time. According to some scientists, sacred space is something that provides the opportunity to contact superhuman power. Sacred time differs much from profane time. The main difference is that profane time has the present and the past. We can’t return in our past, it passes leaving some consequences. Sacred times are like a circle, in the present we always can have something from the past. “The linear feature of profane time is not totally absent from sacred time. Indeed, many religions teach that time starts with the creation and is moving towards a conclusion, often involving divine judgment. Yet, this linear time is different because through myths and rituals we can connect to sacred power at any point along the time line” (p. 76). It is essential to mention that a religious person perceives the humanity as it is represented in divine models. He considers himself to be a real human only if he looks like gods, heroes, mythical ancestors. A religious person forms his personality in accordance with divine samples. And these samples are saved in myths, in the history of divine creatures. Consequently, a religious person considers himself to be a part of history like unreligious, but for the religious one there is only divine history, the one that is revealed by myths. An unreligious personality is formed only by the history of humans, by that totality of events and deeds, which do not represent any interest for religious personality as it is formed only by the divine models, which human’s history usually lacks. It is essential to mention that from the very beginning a religious person chooses his own sample of behavior in the area of superhuman, which is given to him by myths. He becomes a real human only the following the studies of myths and fulfilling the divine rites every of which “involve stylized, symbolic bodily gestures and actions (including verbal actions) usually repeated in specified ways on occasions of significance and in special contexts frequently involving what the participants take to be sacred presences” (p. 83). Certainly, we talk about the divine reality as divine represents the reality. Nothing from the area of mundane participate in the process of Existence, because mundane was not founded by myth and does not have the sample model. For example, agricultural works are the rite discovered by gods or heroes who created the civilization. Thus, they represent the real and significant rite. Agricultural works in the mundane society turned into a plain activity based upon the economic advantage. Such works are implemented only to exploit the ground in order to get food and other benefits. Deprived of symbolism, agricultural work becomes wearisome. There are many symbols in our history and the history in our ancestors, they do not allow us to forget about some events. And this function of symbols came to us from myths. Everything that was done by the gods or ancestors belongs to sacred. On the contrary all humans do according to their own wish without adhering mythical model belongs to mundane. The more religious a person is, the more samples for behavior he has, thus he does not risk to get lost among the actions, which have no samples. When people start believing in myths, they unintentionally reject the conclusion made by scientific research as the content of myths is contradictory to scientific discoveries. If we believe in science, we should reject myths, if we believe in myths, we should reject science. But why do people still prefer to believe in myths if they are contradictory to something that seems proved by scientific research? It can be explained by the fact that many people prefer simply to believe than to be sure about something. When we learn about rituals and symbols, we start to understand religion. Rituals and symbols determine the existence of religion. When people go to church or simply learn to pray, they become cohesive as children at school. Thus, religion unites people if they believe in something sacred and turn to something divine. Religion is something known to everybody: “the proverbial person on the street may know little of the doctrine, history, or theological controversies of their religion, but they know its rites, holy days, festival, pilgrimage sites, and rituals” (p.83). United by religion, we all can turn to sacred times and appear in sacred space by fulfilling symbolic rituals. The myth has one important feature that deserves to be mentioned: it reveals the absolute divinity as it tells about the creative activity of gods, reveals the divinity of their creations. Generally speaking, myth describes different, sometimes dramatic outbursts of divine into the world. Thus, many ancient peoples did not tell myths anywhere and at any time, but only during the seasons, which were full of rituals (autumn-winter) or during the periods of religious ceremonies. This outburst of divine into the world that is told in myth represents the real foundation of the world. According to the phenomenological theory, every myth shows how the reality started to exist telling about the reality in general, about Cosmos or some fragment: an island, a plant, a social institute. Telling us about the origination of things myth explains the essence of these things and explains why they appear. The question “why” is always closely connected with the question “how” and it can be easily explained. Telling us about the origination of different things, myths reveal the outburst of divine into the world that is the primary reason of existence. The conclusion can be made that the strict following divine models leads to the following results: a man may stay in sacred and consequently in the real world; the world becomes more divine if rites are restores and fulfilled. Religious behavior of a person contributes to maintaining divinity in the world. Read More