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Mircea Eliade on Sacred and Cyclical Time

August 12, 2010 in Cosmology by Greg | 2 comments

Sacred time is cyclical in nature.¹ It is reversible because time can move forward or backward. Micea Eliade, perhaps the world’s greatest comparative religionist, showed that to the ancients, returning to the first moments of creation were necessary to learn how to obtain power to create. He termed this concept “the myth of the eternal return… Significantly, ancient temple worship is replete with this pattern of an eternal return to sacred time.”

Brian M. Hauglid wrote the following:

Before discussing what it meant to experience sacred time, it should be noted that sacred time is cyclical in nature and is distinctly different from our more modern conception of linear time. While cyclical time is best represented by an unbroken circle, linear time would be a horizontal line with definite beginnings and endings.

Linear time is a historical, chronological approach, in which what has happened has happened, and there is no going back. It is, in essence, irreversible. The Judeo-Christian tradition of time is also linear with definite historical occurrences and eschatological ramifications, wherein there was a beginning (creation) and there will be an end to the world as we know it, by virtue of the Second Coming, or as in the case with Judaism, a messianic figure. However, inherent even in this thinking is the idea that after death there will be a return to a higher state of existence. Perhaps this concept could best be portrayed by a circle with a horizontal line running through the middle, cutting the circle into two halves. This horizontal line would represent man’s linear move through mortal time, with one end being birth and the other death. Before birth and after death, however, man exists in a cosmological eternal time represented by the circle. Doctrine and Covenants 3:2 and 1 Nephi 10:19 explain that God’s work or time is one eternal round. Doctrine and Covenants 88:13 describes God as living in the “bosom of eternity” or “midst of all things.”

In contrast, sacred time is reversible because the clock can move forward or backward. Why would one try to go backwards in time? Because “the experience of sacred time will make it possible for religious man periodically to experience the cosmos as it was in principio, that is, at the mythical moment of creation.”² In other words, in sacred time it was possible, and to ancient man necessary, to go back to the archetypal beginnings to relive those first moments of creation.

Eliade calls this universal concept “the myth of the eternal return” and defines sacred time in terms of an eternal return, or

Mircea Eliade on Sacred Time »»

For an introduction to this concept, see the post on Hamlet’s Mill.↩
Eliade, Mircea. Willard R. Trask, tr. The Sacred and the Profane: The Nature of Religion. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1959. 65.↩

Who is Giorgio de Santillana and what is the controversy surrounding Hamlet’s Mill?

May 29, 2010 in Cosmology by Greg | 6 comments

Giorgio de Santillana was Professor of History and Philosophy of Science at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.). and co-author with Hertha von Dechend of the controversial book Hamlet’s Mill: An Essay on Myth and the Frame of Time (1969). Recently, I picked up a copy of Hugh W. Nibley’s “magnum opus” One Eternal Round and quickly scanned its contents to find any references to de Santillana’s works. I was pleasantly surprised to find numerous citations.

Previously, Dr. Nibley wrote the following:

In recent years the early myths have acquired a new status and dignity. A steady accumulation of comparative studies tying this to that and these to those now crams the stacks of our libraries. Spread out before the mind’s eye, their myriad pages interweave into a grandiose texture, a vast shadowy tapestry in which we begin to discern the common backdrop of all history and religion. But the books are still sedulously segregated and widely distributed among the floors and alcoves of the library, and to bring them all together into the one organic whole from which they were taken is a task that will yet tax the capacity of the computer. Meanwhile, we must imagine the pieces of this huge jigsaw puzzle as heaped in separate piles, each representing a special field of study or cultural area, from Iceland to Polynesia. To date no one has taken the trouble to integrate the materials in even one of these hundred-odd piles; and as to taking up the whole lot and relating every pile to every other, so far only a few bold suggestions have come from men of genius like G. Santillana, Cyrus Gordon, or Robert Graves, whose proposals get chilly reception from specialized scholars who can only be alarmed by such boldness and appalled by the work entailed in painting the whole picture. But such study as has been done shows us that the old myths are by no means pure fiction, any more than they are all history. As the Muses told Hesiod, “We know both how to fib and how to tell the truth”; and, as Joseph Smith learned of the Apocrypha, “there are many things contained therein that are true, and there are many things contained therein that are not true” (see D&C 91)—all of which means that we must be very careful in accepting and condemning.¹

Born in Rome, Giorgio de Santillana received his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Rome and did graduate work in philosophy in Paris and physics at the University of Milan. He was an assistant to Federigo Enriques² at Rome and was asked to help organise a department for the History of Science.” In the 1930’s, he emigrated from Italy to the United States and joined the faculty at M.I.T in 1941 as Professor of English and History.³ He was the author of numerous works such as:

The Crime of Galileo
Dialogue on the Great World Systems (ed.)
The Renaissance Philosophers – The Age of Adventure
The Development of Rationalism and Empiricism
The Origins of Scientific Thought

Why was – and is – Hamlet’s Mill controversial? In The New York Review of Books, Sir Edmund Ronald Leach, a British social anthropologist, wrote disparagingly:

. . . the murky confusion generated by reading any random twenty pages of Hamlet’s Mill is strongly reminiscent of Frobenius. Indeed, the whole operation is not much more than a gloss on two early works of that extraordinary author, Die Mathematik der Oceaner (1900) and Das Zeitalter des Sonnengottes (1904).

The theme of Hamlet’s Mill is that once upon a time (when or where is not very clear, but 4000 B.C. somewhere in the Middle East seems to be what the authors have in mind) there was an archaic civilization whose members had a sophisticated theory of the relations between time and astronomy. This theory rested on an understanding of the annual cycle of the constellations of the Zodiac and a recognition of the precession of the equinoxes, knowledge of which had been incorporated into a coherent cosmological schema expressed in the language of myth. Later mythological systems whether recorded in Greece in the fourth century B.C., in Scandinavia in the twelfth century A.D., or North Africa, or Guiana, or Polynesia at the present day, are all truncated remnants of this ancient astrological-astronomical mythology, and close attention to these “relics, fragments and allusions that have survived the steep attrition of the ages” will allow part of the ancient knowledge to be reconstructed.⁴

In response, Dr. de Santillana wrote concerning this “specialized scholar”:

Hamlet's Mill »»

“Myths and Scriptures”. Old Testament and Related Studies. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book and The Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 1986. 41. This article was originally published in the October 1971 New Era magazine.↩
An Italian mathematician who is known as “the first to give a classification of algebraic surfaces in birational geometry.” Wikipedia. 29 May 2010.↩
Thompson, Garyd D. “Critics and Criticisms of Hamlet’s Mill”. 29 May 2010.↩
“Bedtime Story”. 29 May 2010. The entire review is not available online. A subscription is necessary to read the whole of the book review.↩

Southeast Cornerstone and the Apostleship

April 26, 2010 in Cosmology by Greg | No comments

The following quote about the southeast cornerstone and the apostleship comes from Brigham Young at the groundbreaking ceremony of the Salt Lake Temple on April 6, 1853. The temple site had been dedicated in February earlier in the year.

The First Presidency proceeded to the south-east corner, to lay the first stone, though it is customary to commence at the north-east corner–that is the beginning point most generally, I believe, in the world. At this side of the equator we commence at the south-east corner. We sometimes look for light, you know, brethren. You old men that have been through the mill pretty well, have been inquiring after light–which way do you go? You will tell me you go to the east for light? So we commence by laying the stone on the south-east corner, because there is the most light…

We will now commence with the Apostleship, where Joseph commenced. Joseph was ordained an Apostle–that you can read and understand. After he was ordained to this office, then he had the right to organize and build up the kingdom of God, for he had committed unto him the keys of the Priesthood, which is after the order of Melchizedek–the High Priesthood, which is after the order of the Son of God. And this, remember, by being ordained an Apostle.

Could he have built up the Kingdom of God, without first being an Apostle? No, he never could. The keys of the eternal Priesthood, which is after the order of the Son of God, are comprehended by being an Apostle. All the Priesthood, all the keys, all the gifts, all the endowments, and everything preparatory to entering into the presence of the Father and of the Son, are in, composed of, circumscribed by, or I might say incorporated within the circumference of, the Apostleship.

Now who do we set, in the first place, to lay the Chief, the South East, Corner Stone–the corner from whence light emanates to illuminate the whole fabric that is to be lighted? We begin with the First Presidency, with the Apostleship, for Joseph commenced, always, with the keys of the Apostleship, and he, by the voice of the people, presiding over the whole community of Latter-day Saints, officiated in the Apostleship, as the first president.¹

President Young’s comments concerning the southeast cornerstone also fit nicely within the framework of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians in which he wrote:

Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God; And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit. (Ephesians 2:19-22.)

Anciently, the four corners of the altar represented the four corners of the Earth while the southeast cornerstones of modern LDS temples represent the Apostleship, “because there is the most light.”

Sources:

Journal of Discourses, 1:133-135.↩

Twitter Moonwatch

October 25, 2009 in Cosmology by Greg | No comments

Thanks to Twitterer azericsheats, I came across the Twitter Moonwatch and Meteorwatch Trailer hosted by the International year of Astronomy 2009 UK and Newbury Astronomical Society.

According to their web site:

To take part in this just follow us on Twitter @astronomy2009uk and @NewburyAS. If you’re not yet on Twitter, you can create an account for free here. www.twitter.com

During Twitter Moonwatch we will be live-tweeting images of the Moon, planets and other astronomical objects, taken by Newbury Astronomical Society. At the same time we’ll be online to answer any questions you might have about the images we’re tweeting, and about astronomy in general.

This Twitter Moonwatch will be a special one, as we will be joined by the Faulkes Telescope Network of professional telescopes, who will be tweeting images [taken] with their 2m telescope situated in New South Wales, Australia.

To find out more, visit Newbury Astronomical Society’s Home page www.newburyas.org.uk or visit www.astronomy2009.co.uk.

It sounds like a lot of fun. Check it out.

Four Corners of the Earth

March 1, 2009 in Cosmology by Greg | 4 comments

A few years ago I came across a number of references to the phrase “four corners of the earth” in Hamlet’s Mill. This is a scriptural term and this exact phrase can be found in Isaiah 11:12 (cf. 2 Nephi 21:12), Revelation 7:1, D&C 124:128, and JST Mark 13:31. Additionally, there are many other scriptures that refer to the “four quarters” of the earth. I thought the following references were insightful, especially regarding the temple liturgy of ancient Israel with the High Priest performing the rites of atonement.

The “Frame” of the Ecliptic

Giorgio de Santillana and Hertha von Dechend wrote that the corners are marked by the four points of the year – the ecliptic:

Meanwhile, it is necessary to explain again what this “earth” is that modern interpreters like to take for a pancake. The mythical earth is, in fact, a plane, but this plane is not our “earth” at all, neither our globe, nor a presupposed homocentrical earth. “Earth” is the implied plane through the four points of the year, marked by the equinoxes and solstices, in other words the ecliptic. And this is why this earth is very frequently said to be quadrangular. The four “corners,” that is, the zodiacal constellations rising heliacally at both the equinoxes and solstices, parts of the “frame” skambha, are the points which determine an “earth.” Every world-age has its own “earth.” It is for this very reason that “ends of the world” are said to take place. A new “earth” arises, when another set of zodiacal constellations brought in by the Precession determines the year points.¹

Skambha is a Sanskrit word and means “pillar”; the Finnish correlative is Sampo—in other words, the tree that holds up the sky. The word solstice comes from the Latin sol which means sun, and sistit which means “stands”:

For several days before and after each solstice, the sun appears to stand still in the sky—that is, its noontime elevation does not seem to change. At the solstices the sun’s apparent position on the celestial sphere reaches its greatest distance above or below the celestial equator, about 23 1/2° of arc. At the time of summer solstice, about June 22, the sun is directly overhead at noon at the Tropic of Cancer. In the Northern Hemisphere the longest day and shortest night of the year occur on this date, marking the beginning of summer. At winter solstice, about December 22, the sun is overhead at noon at the Tropic of Capricorn; this marks the beginning of winter in the Northern Hemisphere. For several days before and after each solstice the sun appears to stand still in the sky, i.e., its noontime elevation does not seem to change from day to day.²

Equinox , either of two points on the celestial sphere where the ecliptic and the celestial equator intersect. The vernal equinox, also known as “the first point of Aries,” is the point at which the sun appears to cross the celestial equator from south to north. This occurs about Mar. 21, marking the beginning of spring in the Northern Hemisphere. At the autumnal equinox, about Sept. 23, the sun again appears to cross the celestial equator, this time from north to south; this marks the beginning of autumn in the Northern Hemisphere. On the date of either equinox, night and day are of equal length (12 hr each) in all parts of the world; the word equinox is often used to refer to either of these dates. The equinoxes are not fixed points on the celestial sphere but move westward along the ecliptic, passing through all the constellations of the zodiac in 26,000 years. This motion is called the precession of the equinoxes. The vernal equinox is a reference point in the equatorial coordinate system.³

Read the rest of this entry »

de Santillana, Giorgio and Hertha von Dechend. Hamlet’s Mill: An Essay Investigating the Origins of Human Knowledge and its Transmission Through Myth. Jaffrey, New Hampshire: Godine, 1977. 235; hereafter Hamlet’s Mill.↩
“Solstice”. Infoplease. 1 March 2009.↩
“Equinox”. Infoplease. 1 March 2009.↩

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