Introduction
As
most everyone knows, religion is a very sensitive topic all over the world.
Wars have been fought because of differences in religions. Lovers have not been
allowed to marry due to their differing religious beliefs. And various peoples
have been enslaved because their religious views were different than the
dominant culture’s. But what exactly defines religion? Is it attending church,
being baptized, or is it just having something that gives one hope for a life
beyond this one? I believe that the last option is the one that most accurately
describes the role of religion. And Webster’s definintion tends to agree.
Religion is “the manifestation of such a be3lief in worship, ritual, conduct,
etc” (Webster 617). Religion is a very
encompassing word that has a multitude of different meanings depending on who
is responding to the question. In the eras before strictly organized religions,
such as Christianity, people centered their hopes on the myths about heroes and
gods. Today, we see religion as Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism. Both ways of
thinking are right as the point of religion is to be what the people need it to
be. This is in fact the key point that everything changes as time passes,
including the rituals and meaning of religions. The changeability of religions
cannot be seen by examining current popular religions but by examining the
history of the world’s religions. Another way to examine how religions change
is to study religions within the confines of literature as a measure of standard
of the viewpoints of the time.
Eleusinian Mysteries
In ancient Greece, the most
organized religions were those that centered on the myths of specific gods.
However, instead of being called religion, these organizations were more
commonly referred to as cults or mysteries. Within any of these religious
mysteries, rituals, secret meanings, and stories can be found as the basis of
the entire set of beliefs. It is typical to think of the process of joining
these religions as an initiation. The term initiation throughout the rest of
this paper will in fact refer to individuals choosing to have the experience of
learning about specific rituals and their meanings. There are hundreds of these
types of mysteries throughout the world. They can be found in the histories of
Greece, Egypt, and the Middle East. The most widely known are the cults of
Isis, Demeter, and Dionysus . All three of these religious mysteries still have
their presence known in modernity, especially in academia and literature.
The
Manuscript Found in Saragossa is a
wonderful example of how the ancient mysteries still have a presence literature
and academia. The novel explores not only the ideas behind how all religions
change but more importantly it is an example of someone going through an initiation
process. The initiation process, at least in relation to the Eleusinian
mysteries, is that something must be spoken (legomena), performed (dromena),
and shown (deiknymena) (Meyer 18). The point in these actions is not to
necessarily learn something new but to be in a state of mind to be open to new
ideas (Foley 69). These three tasks are the core of any initiation, no matter
if it is into a class, religion, or political office. One of the most
misunderstood aspects of initiations is that the initiation process is very
common place. Every single person in the world has been initiated into multiple
groups throughout their lifetime. The whole purpose of initiations is not to
educate the initiate but to create an experience that transports them into a different
state of mind (Meyer 12). Two novels that link initiations to the mundane are A Manuscript Found in Saragossa and Little, Big. In both of these literary
works, the main protagonist is an average man in their respective society but
through their personal initiations both men become something greater than they
previously had been or could have been.
In most of the ancient mysteries of
the world, there is very little known about the actual mystery as the initiates
took their vows of silence very seriously. However, there is a decent amount of
information known the on processes of the initiations and background
information. In order to understand how The
Manuscript Found in Saragossa and Little,
Big can be compared to the ancient mysteries, we must first explore the
mysteries themselves. The one that will be focused on in this paper is the
Eleusinian Mysteries. “The Eleusinian Mysteries were the most important of the
widespread Greek mystery cults of antiquity” (Foley 65). These mysteries were
based on the Homeric hymn, the Hymn to Demeter. This hymn centered on the
abduction of the goddess, Persephone, to the underworld and her mother’s quest
to get her back from Hade’s underworld. Their story is symbolic of the eternal
circle of nature and directly states the beginnings of the Eleusinian Mysteries
within its pages. The mother/daughter goddesses are the Greek personifications
of grains that were essential to life. The mother/daughter pair is used to
symbolize the cycle of young and mature grains and how both are important. The
mysteries held the most prominence when the world consisted mainly of an
agricultural economy, which was essential to survival at that time. Within the
rituals of the Eleusinian Mysteries, symbols of Demeter and Persephone were shown
to initiates to strengthen their bonds to the initiates. These symbols included
a serpent, pomegranates, leaves, stalks, poppies, cakes, and a model of a
woman’s genitals (Meyer 19). Just from the list of symbols, it becomes apparent
to anyone that the rituals of the Eleusinian Mysteries centered around the
regenerating cycle of life for nature and the human life cycle.
Not only did having these mysteries
create the belief that humans had some control over natural occurrences but
that they also were able to create a connection between themselves and the
mythological. In the Hymn to Demeter,
the story goes that Demeter herself came down to Eleusis to live with mortals
during her mourning period. After living with the mortals for some time, she
then set about giving them the Eleusinian Mysteries as a gift. Through the
mysteries, “initiates seem to have experienced in some form the sufferings and
reunion of the goddesses” (Foley 68). The importance of this experience is that
it helped to create hope for the afterlife because they will have seen the
cyclical process of the mythological life.
Manuscript Found in Saragossa
In the Manuscript Found in Saragossa, Alphonso goes through the process of
initiation in a grand experience that pulls him away from his regular life as a
Spanish soldier. This grand experience causes him to question his upbringing,
values, and himself. The religion that he is to be initiated into is the Cult
of Gomelez. The cult of Gomelez is a branch of the Islamic religion. The
purpose of this cult to perpetuate the belief in Ali as well as to protect the
gold source that provides money and funds for all of the known initiates. It is
not until the end of the novel that Alphonso is allowed to learn about the
history of the cult. At this point, he has already completed his initiation
rituals. The Sheikh of Gomelez has decided that Alphonso has reached the point
of the rituals that he would be in the right state of mind to accept what he
was being told and not to reveal the meanings to anyone who had not been
approved to know the knowledge.
In order to reach the point where he was
trusted with this new knowledge, Alphonso had to hear, say, and experience the
rituals of Cult of Gomelez. The first thing that sets off his initiation
rituals is the act of listening to the stories of others. None of these stories
are educational, in the traditional sense. Not one of the other characters
specifically tells Alphonso what to believe but instead puts their own stories
into a manner that is subtly compelling Alphonso to change his own beliefs.
Though the manner of stories was intended to be subtle, Alphonso eventually did
catch on to the point of the stories that were presented to him. “I thought I
detected in it the more or less blatant desire to weaken our religious
principles and thereby to abet the plans of those who wanted me to change mine”
(Potocki 365). In this portion of his
transformation, Alphonso is given many examples of stories that cause him to
question his beliefs. These stories include those of the Wandering Jew, the
Gypsy Chief, the Geometer, the cabbalist, and the cabbalist’s sister, Rebecca.
All of these people have different stories with a wide range of viewpoints. But
combined, all of them start to have Alphonso question his Christianity
upbringing. One of the accounts that are available from the Eleusinian
Mysteries tells about his experience as a new initiate. “I came out of the mystery
hall feeling like a stranger to myself” (Foley 69). Throughout the entire book,
there are many many instances when it becomes apparent that Alphonso is shocked
and appalled that he is indeed tempted to forgo his Christian upbringing.
The
next portions of the rituals are more complex. Throughout the entire book,
Alphonso sees amazing things but he is never sure if they are real, tricks of
his mind, or truly magical occurrences. The most prominent example of this is
the scenes of his lovemaking with his “cousins”. In the beginning, after each
night of passion, Alfonso finds himself somewhere else with only remote clues
to what truly happened the night before. This again leads back to the rituals
of Eleusinian Mysteries. Part of the rituals of the Mysteries was to symbolize
death and rebirth of self and nature. In The
Manuscript Found in Saragossa, a part of Alphonso does die through his
supernatural experiences. He becomes able to believe that not everything can be
explained through logic. Some things defy rational explanations but that does
not mean that they still are not true.
The second piece of initiation,
seeing, closely ties to the third, experiencing. Alphonso is not only not sure
of what he saw but he is just as confused about what he experienced. He is
never sure if he truly did make love with his cousins, if they are truly his
cousins, or if this entire experience is somehow an illusion. It seems odd to
us that someone could question something as basic as knowing if one had sex or
not but that is truly how Alphonso feels.
“How can I express in words the horror which filled me then?
The corpses of Zoto’s two brothers were not hanging from it but were lying on
either side of me. I had apparently spent the night with them. I close my eyes
and tried to remember where I had been the night before” (Potocki 24).
In
this single experience, Alphonso experiences many things that are common in the
initiation rituals. The first of which is the association with death. Alphonso
wakes from an “apparent death” with two men who were not fortunate enough to
have escaped true death. The part of this experience is that he has been
touched by the supernatural. Honestly, Alphonso did not know what to believe of
his cousins and their actions. He even begins to refer to the women who have
become his cousins, lovers, and wives as devils (Potocki 25).
After going through all of three
stages of initiation, Alphonso is told that he has passed all of the tests of
his initiations and is allowed to gain the new knowledge that he has been
seeking. The key to how this novel relates back to the ancient mysteries is
apparent now. Alphonso does not learn the secrets to life but is given the
basis to his own life. He learns about his own heritage and how that expands
back so much farther than just the years that he has walked the Earth. Again
the ending of The Manuscript Found in
Saragossa meshes with the Eleusinian Mysteries. One of the perks that are
associated with the Mysteries, beyond eternal hope, is that the initiates were
more likely to prosper economically in their current life. After receiving
access to all of the secrets of the Cult, Alphonso is set up to be financially
stable for the rest of his life. Through his new wealth, he is able to reach
much higher in his military career, politically, and socially.
Little,
Big
Just like in the Manuscript
Found in Saragossa, the natural and supernatural combine to make a type of
religion. The religion found in Little,
Big, is not as specified as it is in the Eleusinian Mysteries or The Manuscript Found in Saragossa. This
religion is more ambiguous and woven into the daily threads of the tapestry of
life in Edgewood. The house at Edgewood has belonged to the same family for
generations and seems to be the center of the power that they all possess in
being able to have extra abilities. For some of the family members, these
abilities are made to be very apparent but for some the reader does not quite
know what their role is in the scheme of world. As with the other two religions
that have been examined in this paper, there are deities that are worshipped.
However, the deities in Little, Big
are not truly specified except through the use of Them. It is up to the reader
to infer who exactly Them is and what their role is in the lives of the humans
of Edgewood. The relationship between the natural and the supernatural blurs
throughout the entire novel in a way that leads the family to know that they
are being used and manipulated by Them for the furthering of the Tale. However,
as with the other two examples, the Tale is how Them and the family are able to
have a connection that is essential to the hope and happiness of the present
and the future for everyone, natural and supernatural.
Smoky
Barnable is an ordinary, forgettable, and a little bit boring character, at
least at the beginning of Little, Big.
However, he does not stay that way! Smoky’s life is after meeting Daily Alice,
one of the main members of the family of Edgewood, is one long initiation
ritual that ends right before he dies. Before marrying Daily Alice, Smoky has
had absolutely no connection to anything that cannot be explained through
rational reasoning. Even upon arriving at Edgewood, he is not in the correct
state of mind to be able to accept that things do exist that he cannot
rationally explain. The wording of this within Little, Big is that similar to a child’s ability to believe in
fairies, monsters, and goblins. Thus in order to start being able to become
immersed in the Tale, Smoky needs to be able to get in touch with his
childhood. As a way to do this, his young wife offered up her own childhood as
a wedding present (Crowley 69). This seems like a unrealistic present but it is
essential that Smoky understand that one does not have to be a child to have a
childhood. Smoky receiving this amazing gift is the start of my approaching the
mindset to be able to believe in Them and understand how his experiences help
create the Tale, or ritual.
Smoky’s rituals start not with
hearing, seeing, and experiencing but with the rituals that even precede those,
even though he does not even realize that they are happening. These rituals are
the journey to the sacred place. In all great religions and rituals, the
initiates must travel to the sacred sights. Smoky has strict instructions about
how and when he is to travel to Edgewood. “On a certain day in June, 19-, a young
man was making his way on foot northward from the great City to a town or place
called Edgewood, that he had been told of but had never visited. His name was
Smoky Barnable…the fact that he walked and didn’t ride was one of the
conditions placed upon his coming there at all” (Crowley 3). These instructions put Smoky, and the reader,
into the mindset that a life changing experience is about to happen.
Smoky’s walk is very much similar to
that of the initiates of Demeter. Throughout the various ceremonies that were
held during the year to honor Demeter and Persephone, there was much traveling
with strict instructions to follow so as to not upset the goddesses. Initiates
“left Athens for Eleusis to escort holy objects (hiera) on the following day to
the Eleusinian at Athens” (Foley 67). This is just one of the many instructions
of that were followed very carefully in order to complete the rituals in the
manner that they were designed. Besides for appeasing the goddess, these strict
rituals has to be followed so that all of the initiates would be “in the proper
mental and ritual state to participate in the final secret rites” (Foley 68).
The mental state of mind for the Eleusinian Mysteries and Little, Big are worlds apart but equally important.
Once Smoky reaches Edgewood, he
immediately starts learning about his new life and how he is to interact with
his new family. It is much more simple,
yet complex, than his previous existence. He must learn how to meld his life
with the lives of so many other people. These new people will become his family
as well as his initiators into the mystical realm that Edgewood is on top of,
beside, and surrounded by. He develops a close bond with these new people in
his life. Again this is one of the goals of initiation. While having hope for
an existence after death was important in the Eleusinian Mysteries, it was not
the only goal of the development of such a religion. The other goal was “that
its blessings came from experiencing and viewing signs, symbols, stories, or dramas
and bonding with fellow initiates” (Foley 70). As with many religions that are
popular today, there is always a social aspect that is present.
The hearing portion of his
experience happens immediately. In his initial conversation with Great-aunt cloud,
Smoky does not understand the later implications of his choice to marry Daily
Alice. “My mother and I felt it far more strongly that my father or my
brothers. Though they suffered from it, perhaps, more than we” (Crowley 27).
This hints towards the existence of the supernatural, or religion, in the land
called Edgewood. Throughout the rest of his life at Edgewood, Smoky will gain
greater and greater clues to the presence of Them and The Tale. Finally towards
the end of his life, he comes to realize that even though he is a part of the
Tale, he will never know or experience the ending.
“He didn’t really mind that there was a long Tale being
told, didn’t even object any longer that he had been put to its uses; he only
wanted it to continue, not to stop to go on being muttered out endlessly by
whatever powers they were who spun it, putting him to sleep with its half-heard
anecdotes and going on still while he slept in his grave” (Crowley 517).
This
realization is explicitly important when in relation to the social aspect of
initiation rituals. Smoky had realized that even though he would not journey
with his family, he had gotten what he needed from the religion of The Tale. He
had found his happiness in the present and hope for the future, just as those who
initiated into the Eleusinian Mysteries had done hundreds of years earlier.
Throughout all of Little, Big, Smoky sees a great many
things that causes him to feel confused but nothing creates the sensation of
confusion more than his wedding trip. The most important part of the book, in
relation to initiation rituals, happens so briefly that it can be overlooked by
the rest of the interesting parts of Little,
Big. After being inexplicably separated from his new bride, Smoky wanders
the forest until he finds a little cottage that he thought was to be his
destination. In some way it was his destination but not the place that he had
sought to seek out. It was here in this little cottage that Smoky would be
granted the sight of ordinary objects that had symbolic of his and his family’s
destiny. He was given a sack to hold the Daily Alice’s gift of her childhood
and a copy of Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Just like the symbol of the grain in the
Eleusinian Mysteries, these symbols show the roles that Smoky plays in The
Tale.
The experience of Smoky’s initiation
was not a single moment or occasion but the rest of his life. All of these
experiences built up until the final day of the Tale. On this final day, the
symbols of his destiny finally made sense to him. Smoky had reached the state
of mind that allowed him to understand the Tale and accept what it meant for
him. He knew that even though he would not go to the land of the initiated, he
was a part of it. Physically he would not be able to rejoin Daily Alice but he was
prepared for the life that would start after his let go of his previous life.
In a moment of clarity that is rare for anyone to have, Smoky figures out that
he did not live his life for himself but to perpetuate The Tale so that others
could live the life that they were meant to. But while he did this
magnificently, Smoky, the boring and forgettable character that we had first
met over five hundred pages earlier, knew that he had created his own tale.
“He had fooled them. No matter what happened now, whether he
reached the place they set out for or didn’t, whether he journeyed or stayed
behind, he had his tale. He had it in his hand. Let it end: let it end: it
couldn’t be taken from him. He couldn’t go where all of the were going, but it
didn’t matter, for he’d been there all along” (Crowley 531)
This
paragraph has to be one of the greatest pieces of literature that has ever been
written. Smoky’s words show the true meaning of religion and the ideals behind
the Eleusinian Mysteries. By realizing that the journey was indeed the
destination, Smoky has shown that one does not have to travel to become a
worldlier person. Instead one just has to pay attention to what they are
hearing, seeing, and experiencing to allow themselves to reach a greater state
of mind that permits the supernatural to become the natural.
Changeability
of Religious Mysteries
In The Manuscript Found in Saragossa, there is a specific story that
directly ties the ideas of religion and mysteries to Alphonso. This amazing
story is that of the Wandering Jew. The story of the Wandering Jew is a
mythical story that goes back into the far distant past. However, it is
reenacted and told for the benefit of Alphonso’s transition into the Gomelez.
The part of the story that begs to be explored more is the teachings of
Chaeremon. Chaeremon is a priest of Isis, which is one of the ancient mysteries
that is on the same level as the Eleusinian Mysteries. Chaeremon is a teacher
of the young Wandering Jew about his religion, as he knows it. The most vital
aspect of his teaching center around the way in which everything changes. No
religion, or mystery, is a static entity. “Religions change like everything
else in this world” (382). This can be seen in both the Eleusinian mysteries as
well as Little, Big. The role of Them
changed throughout the generations of Drinkwaters at Edgewood. When the
Drinkwaters first came to Edgewood, They had direct contact with mortals. By
the time that Smoky came to Edgewood, They were only seen on the periphery of
life until the very end. Everyone knew that They were there but did not
actually talk and interact with them until they were to journey to become part
of Them.
Through the studies that have been
conducted on the Eleusinian Mysteries, the rituals seemed to have changed and
expanded according to what the people needed to gain from the rituals. At the
beginning of the rituals, men were the main participants but as the Mysteries
gained prominence through the world women became more involved as the story of
Demeter and Persephone are more closely linked to their lives.
In Little, Big, it becomes apparent to the reader that big changes are
eminent for the people of Edgewood. Even the characters seem to realize that
their lives are slowly but consistently changing along with Edgewood. However,
it seems that not all of them aware that Edgewood is changing because they need
it to do so.
Conclusion
Through examining Little, Big and The Manuscript in Saragossa with the lens of religion, it is
apparent that ancient religions can still be found in contemporary literature.
Through that travels of Alphonso and Smoky, we are shown the life and path of
an initiate. It is now obvious that the true role of religion is to help create
the means for people to find passion that allows them rituals, ceremonies, and
beliefs that give them hope for life after death. The key elements to any
initiation are to hear, say, and experience something that will create a new
state of mind. It is now proven that religion does not have to be a huge
organized entity to be a valid ideology for life. And always remember that when
one has their personal religion it is their’s for forever.
