The Ancients Covered all their Bases

Long before recorded time, man decided that he was not alone in this vast and beautiful, cosmic wilderness. From graves to wall paintings, archaeologists continually unearth hard evidence of gods and goddesses worship- ped for their feared powers over life on this planet.

Our ancestors saw deities in trees, mountains and thunderstorms.  They saw wonder in the stars and bewilderment at death.  They buried their fallen with weapons and food for the great journey awaiting them. 

They did not practice religion, as we know it, but rather magic, which dominated life.  In this system, man held the power of the universe.  Their leaders were shamans, people who developed the rituals and incantations to mandate obedience from the heavens. With the correct ritual performed at the proper time, transcendent beings could be forced to perform to meet human needs.  The right word, the right gesture, even the right sacrifice, would guarantee success.

Plains Indians in the American West were sure that correct dances could induce rain in the dry season.  Another dance would force the buffalo, upon whom their lives depended, to fall before their arrows and spears. Early residents of the Middle East created small idols of pregnant women, certain the images would guarantee fertility. 

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Such idols were widespread throughout ancient cultures.  Early cave dwellers in France left pictures depicting hunts.  The animals were slain in paint; real animals were then expected to obediently meet similar fates.

Wars were won when rituals induced the deities to provide support.

Some people ennobled the beasts by turning them into gods.  The god of wisdom in Egypt, for example, received the head of an ibis.  Dog-headed gods, like Annubis, abound. The idea behind that imagery was that the human should share in the attributes perceived in the chosen creature.  Meat from the animals were eaten in great rituals for the same reason.  Cannibalism developed as a way of gaining the strength of the fallen opponent.

Magical methods work in two ways: sympathetic (or imitative) and contagious.  Voodoo dolls fall into the sympathetic category; so do cave paintings.  The idea is that "like follows like."  A person whose likeness has been stabbed with a pin will feel pain.  An animal slain in a hunt painted on the wall will fall in real life. 

Contagious magic assumes that people can affect each other without actual contact.  So, a person can cast an "evil eye" or place a spell on another.  In that vein, people used to write curses against opponents on ceramic, then break the pieces.  By doing so, they were sure the curse would "break" the offending party.

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