The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic & Religion. Study Course 01.11. The Perils of the Soul
Notes:
*Blue text is my added commentary not part of the original book
What is the primitive conception of death?
Being that strict observances were undertaken for the life of sacred kings in many old world systems, that these strict observances were taken to save his life, how does the observance of these customs supposed to affect his end, and so we must understand the nature of the danger from which he is guarded against. What does early man understand of death, and how does he think he may be guarded against it?
This led to fear-based thinking and indoctrination, that everything must act as a safeguard to ensure security rather than the meaning and purpose that true spiritual initiation brings with it.
The soul as a mannikin.
It is commonly explained that inanimate nature being controlled by beings living within or behind the phenomena. If animal lives and moves, it is because it has a little animal being inside it. If Human, a little human inside it. Since the animation of the soul is the living body, the repose of sleep and death being noted by its absence. Sleep being the temporary absence each night, death being the permanent absence.
Only way to guard against death is to prevent the soul from leaving the body, or if it does depart, to ensure that it shall return.
Many thought that the soul is also a body within a body. But the definitive answer as to where it went after death was various, where some do not know.
The Hurons, say that the soul body was an exact replica of the physical body but of an ethereal nature. That there are fat souls, skinny souls, long (long life) souls, and short (short life) souls.
The people of Nias think that every man, before born, is asked how long or short or heavy or light they would like their soul to be, and given out accordingly. They also say that the heaviest soul ever given out weighs about 10 grams. The length of life was determined by the length of his soul.
In the observance to strict customs and taboos, the fear of losing the soul would be the problem and the reaction would be the formation of strict taboos by the society as a way to bring the solution of security to any given culture.
Half-truths mixed falsehoods or superstition run amok were probably to blame for the vast distortions of the truth, and one could say similar distortions of truth run ever true today, though perhaps more obscure are the levels of truth and the intricate weaving of lies does a good job to ensure this by controlling both sides of most arguments.
Attempts to prevent the soul from leaving the body.
The soul is thought by some to escape the body through orifices and openings, like the mouth and nose.
The Celebes tie fish hooks to a man's nose, navel, and feet so that should his soul try to escape it may be hooked and held fast.
For the Haida medicine man one of his instruments is a hollows bone which he bottles up departing souls and restores them to their owners.
When anyone yawns in their presence the Hindu always snap their thumbs believing this will hinder the soul from leaving through the mouth.
The Itonamas of South America seal up the eyes, nose, and mouth of a dying person and in case a ghost get out and carry off others.
In southern Calebes, to hinder the soul of a woman giving childbirth the nurse ties a band around the woman as tightly as possible.
For the Alfoors of Calebes, when a birth is about to take place, the place where it is born they shut the window and seal up tightly the house where it is taking place, keyhole, nook and cranny and all in case the child were to die at birth. They also tie up the mouths of any animal in the house lest it swallow the child's soul.
Often the soul is conceived as a bird ready to take flight. This conception has probably left traces in most languages and ligers as a metaphor in poetry.
The Malays carry that if the soul is like a bird about to take flight it might be lured back with rice.
In Java, when a child is placed on the ground for the first time, which is a place thought especially dangerous, they place the child in a hen-coop and the mother makes a clucking sound as if she were calling hens.
In Sintang, a district in Borneo, when a person, whether man, woman, or child, has fallen out of a house or tree, and brought home, the wife or family goes out to the site where the accident occured and strews rice saying 'Cluck! Cluck! soul!' numerous times thinking that it will decoy back the loitering bird-soul and replace it in the head of its owner.
The soul of a sleeper is said to wander away from his body and actually to visit the places, to see the persons, and to perform the acts of which he dreams.
Said that the absence of the soul in the body during sleep has its dangers. For if the soul were detained away from the return to body its vital principle must perish and die.
there is a German belief that the human soul escapes each night through the mouth after asleep in the form of a white mouse or little bird and to prevent the return of the mouse or bird would be fatal to the sleeper.
It is often worried that the soul wandering off from a sleeping person could be carried off from a newly dead person and thus in the Aru islands the inmates of a house will not sleep for the night after a death has taken place in it, because they fear that the soul is still in the house and they might meet it in a dream.
When a Dyak dreams of falling into water he takes it as it has really befallen his spirit, and sends for a wizard, who fishes for the spirit with a hand-net in a river until he catches it and restores it to its owner.
The Santals thought the spirit can be trapped in places leaving as a lizard, and the body can die if it gets trapped while out, and told the story of a time when a man was considered dead and about to be burned, but came back to life shortly before about to be burned. Awaking to his friends crying he asked why they were crying and they said they thought he was dead and about to burn his body, but the man said that he went out to fetch some water to drink and went to a well to fetch some but found it hard to get out.
It was a common rule not to waken a sleeper because his soul was out and feared that it might not have time to return fast enough to get back to the person before being awoken.
it is thought that if a person awakens before his soul returns he will fall sick.
In Bombay it is it is thought equivalent to murder to change the aspect of a sleeper by painting his face in fantastic colors or painting a mustache on a sleeping woman, and is treated like murder, as they say when the person awakens and sees themselves the soul might not recognize their body and die.
Sometimes it is thought the soul can even depart from a man in the waking state without him dying, but it is said that if such happens, he will soon fall prey to illness, disease, or dementia.
Some of the Congo believe that when a man is ill his soul is wandering at large, and aid of a sorcerer can bring it back to him, it is thought to lodge itself into the branch of a tree, and the sorcerer along with many villagers go and break the branch off and carry it back and through prayers and enchantments can restore the soul to its owner.
Perhaps at least some truth to the power that the sorcerer has, and even more may be acquired if they believe he is powerful. Perhaps there is some level of placebo effect, but also these are mere influence.
The astral realm still existing there are some levels of truth to the soul leaving the body during sleep and obviously at death. To what extent its mysteries were known in times of Ancient past we can only speculate, but here too, some truth trickles down through the ages and takes on a life of its own, as do the languages. The fact that languages do this speaks also to the distortion of history and misconception.
The wandering souls may be detained by ghosts.
The departure of the soul from body is not always voluntary, and may be extracted from the body by ghosts, demons, and black sorcerers.
the Karens tie their children by a special kind of string to a house when the dead is passing lest their souls decide to leave and reanimate the dead. After the corpse is placed in the grave, each with a bamboo stick split lengthwise thrust the stick into the dirt of the grave so the soul can climb up and out of the tomb. the ones who put the stick in the grave, tie hooks to themselves and walking back they make motions to wave in their direction in case their soul has decided to go with the dead, and so the hooks serve to lure their own souls back with them so that it stays with them and not go with the dead.
Often the abduction of a man's soul set to demons, thus fits and convulsions often said among the Chinese to be the agency of certain mischevious spirits who are said to be attempting to be pulling man's spirit out of him while still alive.
In the Moluccas when a man is unwell it is thought that some Devil carried away his soul and carried it to the tree, mountain, or hill where he (the Devil) resides. A sorcerer then points out the Devil's abode and they bring cooked rice, fruit, fish, raw eggs, a hen, a chicken, a silken robe, gold, armlets, and so forth. They attempt to buy the soul back with goods and offerings or sacrifices.
Said that not only ghosts, devils, ghouls, and demons steal souls away, but also other sorcerers.
They would setup traps to snare the souls of men. This is done against people whom the sorcerers have grudge, and will even do this for ransom to extort money out of people.
Some sorcerers are said to keep "asylums" of lost souls and set traps for passing souls, and anyone who has mislaid his soul or lost it can always have another from this sorcerer's asylum, and the sorcerer's work in catching passing souls or keeping the asylum has no harsh or unkindly feelings with it.
Others, are wretches who set up these traps out of pure spite and for ill-will set traps to catch souls of particular persons. with a pot and hidden under he holds sharp knives and hooks and it is said that when the particular person comes by and the soul is caught these other instruments can inure and maul his soul, killing it outright.
Every problem has its reaction and solution and through fear much of the care that each person holds himself to would be freed in return for more security against danger.
The customs being the cohesion of the rulership of man over other men and woman and children, because it states that 'this is taboo" "this is not" "do this" "don't do that" based on a spiritual science that a majority came to accept and use against the minority of individuals who might think for themselves, and treated this as an authority, as distorted as some of the physical science is today, so we should understand that we too, are not all that much better off than they, even though we today act as though it is the case.
A person’s soul conceived as the shadow.
Danger of losing one's soul also attributed to the shadow and any harm done to the shadow is said to be done also to the person. Some thought that if the shadow is fully separated from a person the person will die, and many were often afraid of death by being separated by their shadow.
The grand Lama of Nepal, is said to have killed a man by stabbing his shadow after the man attempted to demonstrate his supernatural powers, launching into the air at him and the Grand Lama stabbed his shadow and made him fall right to the ground and break his neck.
In the Banks islands, there are long rocks called 'eating ghosts' which ghosts are thought to inhabit and lodge themselves into. It is thought that if a man's shadow falls upon one of these stones he will die. Such stones, therefore are set in a house to guard it.
In China, when a coffin lid is about to be placed on the top the men step a few steps back or retreat to another room, for a person's health is believed to be endangered when he allows his shadow to fall enclosed in a coffin. When about to be buried a similar reaction is done, lest their shadows fall into the grave and be trapped with the dead.
Dangerous persons are said to have their shadow shunned by others.
The shadow of a person in mourning has been thought to make some sick.
Some in South Wales found it grounds for divorce if a mother-in-law's shadow were to fall on them.
In Greece it was sometimes custom to sacrifice animals upon the foundation of new buildings that would be erected, to help give them a strong foundation after it was killed and its blood was poured in the area to be built, and buried in the foundation of the new building, but sometimes they did the same for a human and had the person's soul in the foundation to scare away enemies, but it was sometimes that they also buried the corpse in the walls for a similar purpose.
Perhaps the losing of the shadow really is the losing of the subconscious mind, or the understanding of its faculties, because in being unaware and detached from it, we are as good as zombies to those who do have their connection to it.
Sympathetic magic forms merely influence and it is likely that this was lost over the ages and took on superstitions of the most unusual kinds, and what was once probably somewhat of an art of talent, similar to how being clever and deceptive to get what one wants can be an art, it is mere influence and persuasion, but this art perhaps was worked through the subconscious mind rather than direct means.
The soul sometimes supposed to be in the reflection.
While some took the shadow to be the abode of the soul, others thought it the reflection, whether in water or mirrors, or glass or elsewhere.
The Zulus will not look into a dark pool of water because they think a dark beast will steal away their reflection and they will die.
The Basutos thought crocodiles had the power to kill a man by dragging his reflection underwater.
It was an established maxim in ancient Greece and India that one should not look at his reflection in water. The Greeks regarded it as an omen of death. They feared that the water spirits would drag his spirit or soul underwater. This was probably the origin of the classical story of the beautiful Narcissus, who languished and died through seeing his reflection in the water.
The custom of covering up mirrors or turning them over after a death in the house, worried that their souls might be carried off by ghosts in the mirror's reflection, because it is thought that the ghost will wander about the house until the person's burial.
For sick persons, the mirror in their rooms were often removed or covered up because it is thought that their soul was at risk for easy flight through the reflection. They are told not to project out of their bodies by looking in the mirror and some customs observe that the sick shall not sleep because their souls may be taken away and not return at that time.
As with reflections and shadows, a similar rule is identified with portraits as they are said to contain the soul of the person portrayed. Said that whoever has the portrait is able to influence a significant influence over it.
Many did not want their likeness put on paper or copied by photograph because they thought their souls could be taken off or influenced for ill by the beholder of it.
Cameras were sometimes referred to the camera as the "evil eye of the box" in some villages of the Sikham.
The soul is said to be in the reflection of the eye, that is to say when you peer through someone's eyes you are looking through the windows of their soul, though the soul is said to be in the heart. The two actually share pathways through the blood vessels within them that link the two.
If one became known of the subconscious mind, the language of symbolism, the mechanics in which these mere influences work, there would be no need for superstition because the control would be in the hands of the initiate, and they could safeguard themselves from the insanity of superstition and be a Creator rather than the controlled.
The chapter is a study on the deeper meanings of life and death and the spirit world, the basic substance behind the the enigma and mystery of death, and the superstitions and perhaps partial truths that formed the basis of many taboos which were created to guard themselves against. This fear-based lifestyle centered around sorcery and the influence of demonic spirits or those of the dead and the restless dead, it studies the deeper meaning of death in various ancient kingdoms, establishing customs and traditions around the world, the similarities between them, the differences between them, the symbolism and superstitions therein
For more complete understanding of this course, please start from the beginning and work in progression, as this is the study of the book chapter by chapter.
Notes:
*Blue text is my added commentary not part of the original book
What is the primitive conception of death?
Being that strict observances were undertaken for the life of sacred kings in many old world systems, that these strict observances were taken to save his life, how does the observance of these customs supposed to affect his end, and so we must understand the nature of the danger from which he is guarded against. What does early man understand of death, and how does he think he may be guarded against it?
This led to fear-based thinking and indoctrination, that everything must act as a safeguard to ensure security rather than the meaning and purpose that true spiritual initiation brings with it.
The soul as a mannikin.
It is commonly explained that inanimate nature being controlled by beings living within or behind the phenomena. If animal lives and moves, it is because it has a little animal being inside it. If Human, a little human inside it. Since the animation of the soul is the living body, the repose of sleep and death being noted by its absence. Sleep being the temporary absence each night, death being the permanent absence.
Only way to guard against death is to prevent the soul from leaving the body, or if it does depart, to ensure that it shall return.
Many thought that the soul is also a body within a body. But the definitive answer as to where it went after death was various, where some do not know.
The Hurons, say that the soul body was an exact replica of the physical body but of an ethereal nature. That there are fat souls, skinny souls, long (long life) souls, and short (short life) souls.
The people of Nias think that every man, before born, is asked how long or short or heavy or light they would like their soul to be, and given out accordingly. They also say that the heaviest soul ever given out weighs about 10 grams. The length of life was determined by the length of his soul.
In the observance to strict customs and taboos, the fear of losing the soul would be the problem and the reaction would be the formation of strict taboos by the society as a way to bring the solution of security to any given culture.
Half-truths mixed falsehoods or superstition run amok were probably to blame for the vast distortions of the truth, and one could say similar distortions of truth run ever true today, though perhaps more obscure are the levels of truth and the intricate weaving of lies does a good job to ensure this by controlling both sides of most arguments.
Attempts to prevent the soul from leaving the body.
The soul is thought by some to escape the body through orifices and openings, like the mouth and nose.
The Celebes tie fish hooks to a man's nose, navel, and feet so that should his soul try to escape it may be hooked and held fast.
For the Haida medicine man one of his instruments is a hollows bone which he bottles up departing souls and restores them to their owners.
When anyone yawns in their presence the Hindu always snap their thumbs believing this will hinder the soul from leaving through the mouth.
The Itonamas of South America seal up the eyes, nose, and mouth of a dying person and in case a ghost get out and carry off others.
In southern Calebes, to hinder the soul of a woman giving childbirth the nurse ties a band around the woman as tightly as possible.
For the Alfoors of Calebes, when a birth is about to take place, the place where it is born they shut the window and seal up tightly the house where it is taking place, keyhole, nook and cranny and all in case the child were to die at birth. They also tie up the mouths of any animal in the house lest it swallow the child's soul.
Often the soul is conceived as a bird ready to take flight. This conception has probably left traces in most languages and ligers as a metaphor in poetry.
The Malays carry that if the soul is like a bird about to take flight it might be lured back with rice.
In Java, when a child is placed on the ground for the first time, which is a place thought especially dangerous, they place the child in a hen-coop and the mother makes a clucking sound as if she were calling hens.
In Sintang, a district in Borneo, when a person, whether man, woman, or child, has fallen out of a house or tree, and brought home, the wife or family goes out to the site where the accident occured and strews rice saying 'Cluck! Cluck! soul!' numerous times thinking that it will decoy back the loitering bird-soul and replace it in the head of its owner.
The soul of a sleeper is said to wander away from his body and actually to visit the places, to see the persons, and to perform the acts of which he dreams.
Said that the absence of the soul in the body during sleep has its dangers. For if the soul were detained away from the return to body its vital principle must perish and die.
there is a German belief that the human soul escapes each night through the mouth after asleep in the form of a white mouse or little bird and to prevent the return of the mouse or bird would be fatal to the sleeper.
It is often worried that the soul wandering off from a sleeping person could be carried off from a newly dead person and thus in the Aru islands the inmates of a house will not sleep for the night after a death has taken place in it, because they fear that the soul is still in the house and they might meet it in a dream.
When a Dyak dreams of falling into water he takes it as it has really befallen his spirit, and sends for a wizard, who fishes for the spirit with a hand-net in a river until he catches it and restores it to its owner.
The Santals thought the spirit can be trapped in places leaving as a lizard, and the body can die if it gets trapped while out, and told the story of a time when a man was considered dead and about to be burned, but came back to life shortly before about to be burned. Awaking to his friends crying he asked why they were crying and they said they thought he was dead and about to burn his body, but the man said that he went out to fetch some water to drink and went to a well to fetch some but found it hard to get out.
It was a common rule not to waken a sleeper because his soul was out and feared that it might not have time to return fast enough to get back to the person before being awoken.
it is thought that if a person awakens before his soul returns he will fall sick.
In Bombay it is it is thought equivalent to murder to change the aspect of a sleeper by painting his face in fantastic colors or painting a mustache on a sleeping woman, and is treated like murder, as they say when the person awakens and sees themselves the soul might not recognize their body and die.
Sometimes it is thought the soul can even depart from a man in the waking state without him dying, but it is said that if such happens, he will soon fall prey to illness, disease, or dementia.
Some of the Congo believe that when a man is ill his soul is wandering at large, and aid of a sorcerer can bring it back to him, it is thought to lodge itself into the branch of a tree, and the sorcerer along with many villagers go and break the branch off and carry it back and through prayers and enchantments can restore the soul to its owner.
Perhaps at least some truth to the power that the sorcerer has, and even more may be acquired if they believe he is powerful. Perhaps there is some level of placebo effect, but also these are mere influence.
The astral realm still existing there are some levels of truth to the soul leaving the body during sleep and obviously at death. To what extent its mysteries were known in times of Ancient past we can only speculate, but here too, some truth trickles down through the ages and takes on a life of its own, as do the languages. The fact that languages do this speaks also to the distortion of history and misconception.
The wandering souls may be detained by ghosts.
The departure of the soul from body is not always voluntary, and may be extracted from the body by ghosts, demons, and black sorcerers.
the Karens tie their children by a special kind of string to a house when the dead is passing lest their souls decide to leave and reanimate the dead. After the corpse is placed in the grave, each with a bamboo stick split lengthwise thrust the stick into the dirt of the grave so the soul can climb up and out of the tomb. the ones who put the stick in the grave, tie hooks to themselves and walking back they make motions to wave in their direction in case their soul has decided to go with the dead, and so the hooks serve to lure their own souls back with them so that it stays with them and not go with the dead.
Often the abduction of a man's soul set to demons, thus fits and convulsions often said among the Chinese to be the agency of certain mischevious spirits who are said to be attempting to be pulling man's spirit out of him while still alive.
In the Moluccas when a man is unwell it is thought that some Devil carried away his soul and carried it to the tree, mountain, or hill where he (the Devil) resides. A sorcerer then points out the Devil's abode and they bring cooked rice, fruit, fish, raw eggs, a hen, a chicken, a silken robe, gold, armlets, and so forth. They attempt to buy the soul back with goods and offerings or sacrifices.
Said that not only ghosts, devils, ghouls, and demons steal souls away, but also other sorcerers.
They would setup traps to snare the souls of men. This is done against people whom the sorcerers have grudge, and will even do this for ransom to extort money out of people.
Some sorcerers are said to keep "asylums" of lost souls and set traps for passing souls, and anyone who has mislaid his soul or lost it can always have another from this sorcerer's asylum, and the sorcerer's work in catching passing souls or keeping the asylum has no harsh or unkindly feelings with it.
Others, are wretches who set up these traps out of pure spite and for ill-will set traps to catch souls of particular persons. with a pot and hidden under he holds sharp knives and hooks and it is said that when the particular person comes by and the soul is caught these other instruments can inure and maul his soul, killing it outright.
Every problem has its reaction and solution and through fear much of the care that each person holds himself to would be freed in return for more security against danger.
The customs being the cohesion of the rulership of man over other men and woman and children, because it states that 'this is taboo" "this is not" "do this" "don't do that" based on a spiritual science that a majority came to accept and use against the minority of individuals who might think for themselves, and treated this as an authority, as distorted as some of the physical science is today, so we should understand that we too, are not all that much better off than they, even though we today act as though it is the case.
A person’s soul conceived as the shadow.
Danger of losing one's soul also attributed to the shadow and any harm done to the shadow is said to be done also to the person. Some thought that if the shadow is fully separated from a person the person will die, and many were often afraid of death by being separated by their shadow.
The grand Lama of Nepal, is said to have killed a man by stabbing his shadow after the man attempted to demonstrate his supernatural powers, launching into the air at him and the Grand Lama stabbed his shadow and made him fall right to the ground and break his neck.
In the Banks islands, there are long rocks called 'eating ghosts' which ghosts are thought to inhabit and lodge themselves into. It is thought that if a man's shadow falls upon one of these stones he will die. Such stones, therefore are set in a house to guard it.
In China, when a coffin lid is about to be placed on the top the men step a few steps back or retreat to another room, for a person's health is believed to be endangered when he allows his shadow to fall enclosed in a coffin. When about to be buried a similar reaction is done, lest their shadows fall into the grave and be trapped with the dead.
Dangerous persons are said to have their shadow shunned by others.
The shadow of a person in mourning has been thought to make some sick.
Some in South Wales found it grounds for divorce if a mother-in-law's shadow were to fall on them.
In Greece it was sometimes custom to sacrifice animals upon the foundation of new buildings that would be erected, to help give them a strong foundation after it was killed and its blood was poured in the area to be built, and buried in the foundation of the new building, but sometimes they did the same for a human and had the person's soul in the foundation to scare away enemies, but it was sometimes that they also buried the corpse in the walls for a similar purpose.
Perhaps the losing of the shadow really is the losing of the subconscious mind, or the understanding of its faculties, because in being unaware and detached from it, we are as good as zombies to those who do have their connection to it.
Sympathetic magic forms merely influence and it is likely that this was lost over the ages and took on superstitions of the most unusual kinds, and what was once probably somewhat of an art of talent, similar to how being clever and deceptive to get what one wants can be an art, it is mere influence and persuasion, but this art perhaps was worked through the subconscious mind rather than direct means.
The soul sometimes supposed to be in the reflection.
While some took the shadow to be the abode of the soul, others thought it the reflection, whether in water or mirrors, or glass or elsewhere.
The Zulus will not look into a dark pool of water because they think a dark beast will steal away their reflection and they will die.
The Basutos thought crocodiles had the power to kill a man by dragging his reflection underwater.
It was an established maxim in ancient Greece and India that one should not look at his reflection in water. The Greeks regarded it as an omen of death. They feared that the water spirits would drag his spirit or soul underwater. This was probably the origin of the classical story of the beautiful Narcissus, who languished and died through seeing his reflection in the water.
The custom of covering up mirrors or turning them over after a death in the house, worried that their souls might be carried off by ghosts in the mirror's reflection, because it is thought that the ghost will wander about the house until the person's burial.
For sick persons, the mirror in their rooms were often removed or covered up because it is thought that their soul was at risk for easy flight through the reflection. They are told not to project out of their bodies by looking in the mirror and some customs observe that the sick shall not sleep because their souls may be taken away and not return at that time.
As with reflections and shadows, a similar rule is identified with portraits as they are said to contain the soul of the person portrayed. Said that whoever has the portrait is able to influence a significant influence over it.
Many did not want their likeness put on paper or copied by photograph because they thought their souls could be taken off or influenced for ill by the beholder of it.
Cameras were sometimes referred to the camera as the "evil eye of the box" in some villages of the Sikham.
The soul is said to be in the reflection of the eye, that is to say when you peer through someone's eyes you are looking through the windows of their soul, though the soul is said to be in the heart. The two actually share pathways through the blood vessels within them that link the two.
If one became known of the subconscious mind, the language of symbolism, the mechanics in which these mere influences work, there would be no need for superstition because the control would be in the hands of the initiate, and they could safeguard themselves from the insanity of superstition and be a Creator rather than the controlled.