From: David Cake (davidc@cs.uwa.edu.au)
Date: Wed 24 Jul 1996 - 17:19:52 EEST
Thanks to Saravan for his thoughts.
>I completely agree that there is a compelling aura to mystery cults that
>practically demands their inclusion in Glorantha; my point, however, is that
>within the context of religious experience mystery cults and their ilk are
>only one aspect.
I think Pams point (which certainly agrees with what I understand
of aboriginal belief) is that in some places ALL religions are 'mystery
cults', in the sense of having secrets unavailable to the uninitiated. Even
religions that 98% of one sex is initiated into. So just because a religion
has 'mysteries' doesn't mean that it has to be much like classical mystery
cults.
>in thinking about
>pantheon initiation (about religion as opposed to cult?) I'm not sure I find
>mystery cults a good model to work from.
No. But mysteries does not a mystery cult make. On the other hand,
To take another view, though, I think in Glorantha there is an
I don't think every cult should have hidden secrets known to all its
initiates. Probably almost all have cult secrets, but for many it may well
be more restricted. Certainly I think many, even most, have some secret
knowledge, but I think some of the truly large public cults do not have
secret knowledge known to all their initiates. I'm not convinced, for
example, that there is secret knowledge known to all Orlanthi initiates but
not to Ernaldans (though there are certainly mystery sub-cults within the
Orlanthi).
And many religions may have cult 'secrets' that while subtle
mysteries of the religion, are quite open to outsiders to learn about
should they choose. Most Catholic rituals certainly fall in this category -
there is nothing to prevent me learning about any aspect of the Catholic
doctrine. (actually, I have a friend who is studying for a degree in
theology despite being former president of the university atheists society
- - he just got interested in the field, so his knowledge is now quite deep,
yet his faith still entirely absent)
Also, I'm not sure that the cults that have very lax initiate
requirements such as Yelm the Youth (thats lax requirements to remain
initiated, not to get in), many city gods, or Godunya have secrets you
learn to attain that status. Yelm the youth, for example, once admitted
(which is just a matter of birth) you have one initiation ceremony, and
after that point all you have to do is tithe a mere 1% and turn up to a
high holy day ceremony once a year - a ceremony that I can't believe occurs
in much secrecy. I don't think they let you in on any truly secret
knowledge until you progress a little. Sure they tell you lots of stuff, if
you bother to turn up and listen to the sermon every Sunday or attend GRoY
study classes, but that too is hardly secret.
element of the mystery cult to every religion, in that there are parts of
the ceremony that only initiates can properly experience (according to
Gregs current thinking - the intro to the Entekosiad mentions this). So
even if a cult is not a 'mystery cult' in the sense that its worshippers
are forbidden to reveal its secrets to outsiders, they may be actually
unable to truly reveal certain secrets.
An interesting example from the Entekosiad is the finger goddesses
religious ceremony, where it seems that at one stage there were cult
secrets known only to initiates (including the hand gestures), but then
they allow Addi to reveal them to the world, because they are worried their
religion is dieing and wish to spread its knowledge.
Michael Raaterova let slip
>it is after all a game setting and i want to keep it reasonably simple.
heresy! Perhaps we should tar and feather him and run him out of town :-)
Cheers
Dave
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