Ritual and Religious Experience -Part 1

Ritual and Religious Experience -Part 1 1400 610 SIL_NE_Admin

Ritual and Religious Experience -Part 1

Charles Seymour

History as a hobby appeals to many people. It is a science, but, unlike most of the sciences, it does not require of the student a long and arduous training in order that he may become efficient. To be an efficient writer on historical subjects requires years of research work, as well as the possession of certain specialised mental gifts, of which a faculty for sifting evidence is not the least. But, for a student to read history with both pleasure and profit to himself, average brain power and perhaps a trifle more than average perseverance only are required.

The law of efficiency in historical reading is the law of limitation. In history, just as in other subjects, if one wants to be efficient one must specialise. As a specialised subject the comparative study of religious history can be not only delightful but also very instructive reading. For example, how many realise that today, at the opening of the twentieth century, there are many factors working to produce a world-wide religious situation which resembles closely in many ways that which faced the Roman Empire and its rulers at the time when Christianity was being brought to birth.

The comparative study of religious history covers an immense field, so here again the subject matter must be strictly limited, and in these articles it is proposed to concentrate one’s efforts upon the comparative study of certain ancient religious rituals considered as an aid to religious experience.

Usually the comparative study of religion busies itself more with the study of the outward forms, the dogmas, teaching, symbols, and external rites of sects and religions, than with the study of experience of the Unseen World or Worlds.

There are two clear-cut aspects to every religion, the form and the force side, or the spirit and the letter; and usually the comparative study of religion concerns itself chiefly with the form side, feeling perhaps that Mysticism (as the force side is popularly but incorrectly called) is too vague and impalpable to be made a subject for scientific investigation. Actually, one cannot separate the two aspects of ‘Form’ and ‘Force’, for as a matter of fact they are related to each other just as closely as is steam to an engine, and as an engine is to steam. Neither can function in their respective spheres without the other’s aid. Even Quakerism has its form side, and, in the opinion of many, the worship of the Society of Friends is growing steadily more and more formal.

But, just as in studying an engine one can concentrate one’s attention either on the form side of the machinery or on the use of the force side of the driving power; so, too, in studying ‘Religion’, the emphasis can be thrown either on to the form side, that is, onto the public worship and public teachings, or onto the experiences of the individual in the ‘secret chamber’; to put this in another way, one can study the “Schools of the Priests” or the “Schools of the Prophets”.

There apparently always has been, and possibly always will be, friction between the official representatives of these two schools, a friction which existed in Israel long before Amos, the desert shepherd from Tekoa, fell foul of Amaziah, the cultured priest of Bethel, the royal Sanctuary.

Throughout the ages the priest has nearly always distrusted and misunderstood the prophet – the mystic – the unprofessional ‘shower-forth’ of the Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven. “I must continue today and tomorrow, and the next day depart in death; for it cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem” (Luke 13:33 Variorum Teacher’s Bible): must have been a phrase which struck grim and sinister on the ears of those who were listening to Jesus. While
1600 years later, Bishop Butler’s treatment of Wesley and his followers showed that this great Bishop had, in this respect, learned but little from the life of the Master he served with such distinction. Yet both these schools are necessary for the development of a religion. In a religion without the restraining forces of a regularly taught priesthood there can be but confusion, as St Paul found with the Corinthian prophets (1Cor14:29); and again. “where
there is no vision the people perish”.

The ideal teacher is both priest and prophet; a man good at ritual, and equally good at meditation; one who is able to enter into the “silence of the Sanctuary”, and to draw strength and inspiration from the Ritual of Silence.

Greater stress will, then be laid upon religion considered as experience of the ‘Unseen’, than upon religion considered as dogma and rite. For the whole object of these articles is to develop the idea of using a religious ritual in order to induce a certain type of religious experience; and so, by means of first-hand experience, to confirm the two great sayings: “The Kingdom of Heaven is within you”; and, “He made darkness His hiding-place, His pavilion round about Him; darkness of waters, thick clouds of the skies”. (Ps 18:2)

Commentary by Christian Gilson

The continued appeal of history today is clearly evidenced by the plethora of television programmes from academic explorations of ancient Rome to those which delve into the ancestry of minor celebrities. Although as Seymour is trying to say there is a world of difference between the academic historian and the hobby enthusiast. But, despite this
difference history is accessible to us all. It is there on our doorstep waiting to be experienced at the level which is right for us, and we have a fascination with it. We want to know where we came from and to discover the story of the human race.

If as Seymour claims a world-wide religious situation was being created it is yet in some ways to fully manifest. What has occurred is a growing secularisation in some areas, and in others a return to greater demarcation of belief and a call for an intense adherence to religious law, as seen in the fundamentalist movements that are emerging in every faith. The twentieth century saw a decline in membership of conventional Christian institutions in the United Kingdom, and a growth in the fellowship and house church movements. This in itself constitutes a move away from authoritarian power structures, and growing mistrust of them. This has perhaps, been fuelled by the large number of reported and confirmed incidents where this power has been abused, and as a result victims of the misuse of power have come forward to bring it into the light, in the hope of reclaiming their lives.

Some religious historians have argued that rather than a growing secularisation, the move away from all forms of religious belief, what has occurred is a move towards more noninstitutional or spiritual forms of religious worship. One area that has seen such a growth is the neo-pagan movement. This is a new religious movement that through particular figures such as Gerald Gardner and Doreen Valiente have reintroduced pagan worship of the old Gods. This has become one of the fastest growing religious movements in the UK today, and its growth is not only limited to this country. As a form, it is a new expression which seeks to root itself in the myths and beliefs of the pre-Christian era, but brings to it a new understanding. As a movement it is free from dogma and authority, perhaps as the early Christian Church once was.

The work of Seymour and Dion Fortune in many ways paved the way for this resurgence of paganism. Within the Fraternity Dion taught that there were three rays, the devotional, hermetic, and natural. It is this last that lends itself to the pagan sentiment. The nature of the ray is the manifestation of God and Spiritual power through the natural world, which is exactly the underlying idea of the neo-pagan movement. Seeing God as both male and female, permeating and underlying the natural world, celebrated in the cycles of the sun and moon.

Seymour is right to argue that the main work of comparative religion is concerned with the exoteric nature of the phenomena. There is very little of this kind of published work that seeks to understand shared underlying experiences or beliefs, perhaps because such experiences are by nature too subjective.

The definition of religion in terms of force and form is an effective one, seeing the outer practices as the form and the spiritual experience as the force. The problem remains that the spiritual aspects of faith are in the main subjective and come about through the devotion and openness of the individual. Whilst the outer forms can be practiced in a way that is devoid of force, and it can be argued this is exactly why many people have moved away from traditional forms of faith. Because, the forms are being practised without regard to the spiritual power needed to give them life. This results in a form of social lip service that is nothing more than an entertainment, a side show with good intention but no dynamic life of its own. When Christian priests declare their disbelief in God, what else can result. When dogma and rule become more important that communion with God the same is true. The result within Christianity has been a move towards a more celebratory form of worship, and a study of the Bible, rather than an embracing of God in the temple. Whilst the neo-pagan has thrown off religious literature, and dogmatic form in order to find God again in the created world.

The idea that true religious expression is the union of priest and prophet is a powerful and very attractive one. Whatever outward form the religion practiced takes, the individual needs to be able to engage in effective ritual and through it have contact and union with God in whatever form is appropriate. The priest who has no spiritual dimension of prophethood is nothing but an empty vessel, a practitioner of form without force. It is the vital contact with God that brings the ritual to life, and brings with it the potential for change, growth, and the unexpected. It is this that empowers effective ritual in any form, and gives the reason why so many religious rites lack any depth or sincerity. It is only when force and form unite that we encounter God, in whatever form we have approached through.

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