Mircea Eliade’s Legacy – the Survival of the Sacred

“For those to whom a stone reveals itself as sacred, its immediate reality is transmuted into supernatural reality. In other words, for those who have a religious experience all nature is capable of revealing itself as cosmic sacrality.” (Mircea Eliade, ”The Sacred and the Profane”)

The survival of the sacred within an (apparently) profane world ruled by technology is not only the biggest spiritual challenge of our time, but at the same time it is the spring by means of which the overall phenomenology of religion must be redefined. At the same time, the sacred itself, as a fundamental element in the structure of human consciousness as well as the human condition, already developed by Eliade, should be raised for discussion again. Survival of the sacred is therefore identical, to some extent, with survival of the man as self-aware entity and, implicitly, his survival as a species. In this context, the concept of the sacred f is worth being further re-valorised and reinterpreted from the totalising viewpoint of a Homo Galacticus who is about to integrate the Homo Religiosus, at the dawn of a millennium in which the religious consciousness will be strongly influenced by ecology, cinematography, science and technology, science fiction mythology, global economy, the beginning of exploration of the outer space along with the dialogue, already started as of the 19th century, between civilisations, cultures, religions.

 

In this article I shall only draft some general concepts and ideas that bear an important impact upon the present understanding of the religious and the sacred and the related human behaviours. My intention is to continue with a series of articles, should this topic raise some interest in my readers.

 

Our age can be defined in terms of religious survival and, ultimately, survival given the fact that, although the official (i.e. recognized as such) religious institutions and rituals have unofficially ceased to play the vital role in the religious life of the individual, the sacrality itself and the mythological thinking have continued to exist. They still survive, concealed in various mundane objects and events, most obviously in sport competitions and other public manifestations, which despite lacking any explicitly-declared ritualistic and mythological pattern, play such ritualistic and mythological roles and functions nonetheless. Although non-obvious, the survival of the sacred trough mythological functions implied by our apparently profane activities is indeed a true fact. It’s very important to reflect on how the myth has managed to maintain an unrecognizable, yet vital role in our everyday life. The fact that movie pictures, sport competitions and other public events which have undertaken the functions and roles of ancient mythological-ritual structures, have been approached by Eliade himself in his book “Myths, Dreams and Mysteries”, where the myths of the contemporary world have been analyzed, unfortunately too briefly. The concept of the sacred concealed in mundane behaviours, events, objects and activities is worth having a new in-depth analysis, especially with a view to identification of sacred-oriented behaviours in the most ordinary, commonplace events of our day-to-day life. I will come back to this topic again, in another article.

 

While the “official”, canonical and ritual religiosity is more and more marginalised in the daily life of the ordinary contemporary man, this so-called “de-sacralised”, ”secularised” man tends to create his own ritualistic behaviour and sacred symbols, his own mythology based on the same perennial mythological patterns (e.g. the creation and destruction of the world, which is a very common theme for movie pictures, the myth of the exemplary hero, the whole imagery illustrating the ancient symbolism of the centre and the initiation, the condensed time and space of the public events – concerts, anniversaries, sport competitions, national days etc.). Thus, the interest in religious and in fact in spiritual, while still very vivid, yet is presently concealing itself in mundane activities of the “ordinary” life of the individual. Monotheistic institutions and paradigms thus ”regain” after millennia, the features of so-called exotic and heterodox religions whom the churches have blamed for centuries. We found out without much difficulty that the patterns of the religious life seem to be in accordance with the implacable laws of any other social or political institution created by man under the imperative of the historical time. From this perspective of an evolution from the initial status of religio ilicita, which seem to constitute the momentum necessary for any religion to accede to the universal, to the present state close to that of a deus otiosus, God of the Judeo-Christian monotheism risks to be simply expelled from the deep spiritual life of the individual, remaining just a simple social institution. The thing that is usually not understood is that is not the man who has become less religious or less spiritual. On the contrary, it should be stressed that the forms by which the religiosity, the sacred, are manifesting themselves, in one word hierophanies, as historically conditioned phenomena, were those that couldn't be replaced when going obsolete. This hiatus came about partly because the churches have failed in their attempt to understand the new inner life, noisy and fast, of the contemporary individual. This fundamental error has been brought about by the confusion that is being made between the unknowable God (and any other transcendent entity) and the form through which He manifests Himself in time, in a given historical moment. The transcendent essence of sacred and the hierophany are not one and the same thing. The hierophany is only the manifestation of the sacred in time in history and not the sacred itself. And, all that exists in time and history must evolve or, in case of religious systems, vanish into the night of oblivion.

 

This crisis of the Western contemporary man, his in-depth sense of a nietzschean «dead God», consciously or not, refers to the forms and formulas by which the traditional religious life used to express itself. This crisis will eventually encompass, probably, as a last resort when all else has failed, either an integrating, synthesizing and pan-religious doctrine or belief system or maybe a simple message - just like the message of the initial years of Christianity or Buddhism. This syncretistic doctrine, or, as the case might be, this simple message, must be able to incorporate all knowledge that could be perceived as being universally sacred, in which the viable essence, whether canonical or not, of the traditional religions, will also be found.

 

More and more individuals migrate towards Eastern philosophies and mysticisms, not by fondness for the exotic, but instinctively feeling that by erasing all boundaries and differences (in a moment when one’s own tradition and official culture are no longer able to bring about the inner peace), could make them capable of staying close to the spiritual, even if in no „classical” religious circumstances. In this context and given my interest in Indian philosophy, I should add that my main concern, no matter what further comments I will write down on the Bible, or on the Upanishads or the Bhagavad Gītā, is to point out by which particular elements the miscellaneous religious phenomena, as manifestations of the sacred and therefore of the human consciousness, can find a common ground. It’s about understanding the differences and empathetically integrating the apparent opposites.

 

I must underline that neither the differences, which in any case can’t stand as the ”biggest realisation” of our times or as an answer to such questions as Where are we going? - or the particular aspects of the ancient rituals, already obsolete, or the peculiarities of the various belief systems that still survive, are of main concern. My main idea is that a common understanding of the sacred must be reached. Not in phenomenological, doctrinarian sense, but in terms of a humanised intelligence, that is by coming to understand that you and the one who differs from you are alike.

 

The tremendous variety of forms by which the sacred has emerged in time and history has been studied so thoroughly, systematically and competently by notorious historians of religions and interpreters in comparative mythology, to the extent that my additions would go in the best case scenario as simply unnoticed. Although I must admit that I owe these scholars much of my conceptual “luggage” and most of my phenomenological views that, as already seen in my previous articles, point out towards the unity of the human spirit and the idea of belonging to the same unique consciousness, at the same time I am very much aware of the general limits of the language, concepts and thinking. None of all these beautiful doctrines, concepts and paradigms that represent the legacy of the great scholars of the 20th century will convey too much value to nowadays people if they do not lead at the same time to a particular state of mind – to an unprecedented openness. In order to reach that end we must first ask the right questions: Is that possible, after all these long millennia of terror and madness in the human history, to depart from those elements of our traditions, historically and politically conditioned and eventually brought about by system of thoughts, events, peoples, social transformations that only interfered with the basic and trans-historic meaning of the sacred? Is there such a possibility - as a counter-weight to the schizoid perception of the others, viz. of what the so-called normal human consciousness has considered as being different for millennia (i.e. “other tribes”, “other nations”, “other religious beliefs”), or at least perceived until recently as normal, have we now got the tools and such depth, such universal a thinking to become able to understand why and how these so called others are not in fact enemies, or that the concept itself of the other is but a deceptive projection of our egotistic frustrations and bear its own destruction within? This could be the turning point in the contemporary history; while unable to recognize the irreducible characteristic of the sacred in some other people’ religious behaviours, beliefs, rituals or myths, yet one could be able to empathetically honour them, as expressing creativity facts of human consciousness. And this is not quite an easy enterprise. As Bryan S.Rennie noted, “for Eliade sacrality is a category that is apprehended by some people in some experiences while simultaneously remaining unrecognized by others in what is empirically the same experience.” (“Mircea Eliade and the Perception of the Sacred in the Profane: Intention, Reduction, and Cognitive Theory” in “Temenos” Vol. 43 No. 1 (2007), xx-xx © The Finnish Society for the Study of Religion, p. 186)

 

Personally, I don’t think that any kind of empirical representation emerging in time and thought can offer deliverance to MAN, I don’t put too much trust in the conceptual truth either and I don’t believe that the old religious ideas as propagated by traditions like Christian or Hindu orthodoxies or any other well-established religions or official theologies, can ever provide the answer to any of the FUNDAMENTAL questions. Instead, I only think they can only help to ask oneself the right question or even go beyond questions and thoughts altogether - this is their basic purpose.

 

The discriminative ability of the human intelligence has had a very well defined function, but nevertheless an integral and integrated consciousness represents the finality. No sort of logical approach could stand for this particular state of mind, since the mysterium tremendum and the mysterium fascinans are but states of consciousness that we only try to describe and conceptualize, without having the ability to control them, too. Humans do not consciously act towards or choose to be in line with their deepest sense of the sacred, but the sacred emerges from the very depth of their consciousness, as a distinctive, underlying and a priori category, whether or not recognized as such.

 

Therefore, after all these millennia of religious quarrel, the difficulty of figuring out where the common ground stands is the major challenge. The oppositions and contradictions, the various conflicts and separations have always led to hatred and frustration. The human species has now come to a stage where it can only die or integrate. The basic ideas of the traditions must be reconsidered, by distinguishing and understanding and leaving behind the religious facts strongly influenced by mere historical circumstances.

 

I think that Eliade’s ideas and concepts should be further developed, as in this vast context it’s not only about culture and history of religions, it’s a matter of whether or not we want to survive as a species. The importance of the study of the sacred should be strongly emphasised, not as a mere matter of scientific research, but also with a view to its political and economical implications. Such too long lasting painful conflicts as the Middle East wars could be, if not put to an end, at least managed in a more intelligent manner, should a proper understanding of sense of belonging to the same idea of the sacred be stressed, understanding to which the study itself of the history of religions can lead. And this is only one of its possible, noble functions.

 

We must understand and accept the fact that a clear and complete picture of the particularities, down to the last detail, of each religious system, as well as of the cultural boundaries, is quite impossible, since such an endeavour has been already proved itself as both unproductive and virtually futile. But the sense of spiritual belonging to the same religious self-aware species, along with the underlying idea of the unity of the religious consciousness represent Eliade’s legacy, which I think is the most important message a Romanian has ever conveyed. (Cf. also his own words in ”The Quest: History and Meaning in Religion"- “The history of religions will inevitably attain to a deeper knowledge of man. It is on the basis of such knowledge that a new humanism, on a world-wide scale, could develop.”)

 

Should the humankind last for another thousands of years and the Man populate the whole solar system and the galaxy, the truths expressed by Eliade will be considered as more and more valid, for the simple reason that the sky becomes larger as the time passes by and universal spirits like Eliade bloom only in such contexts as astronomical dimensions, only there do they feel at home…