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They have mouths, but cannot speak.
So wrote a dyspeptic 7th century Hebrew poet concerning the so-called “idols” of the pagans.
But of course (as anyone who has ever actually lived with one for very long can tell you), he was wrong.
It's a terrible dilemma.
These holy images body forth Those that we love and honor.
And the Breakers are coming: those who hate and fear the beauty that we love.
So what do you do?
The archaeological record makes it clear. Time and again the old pagans chose to lay their holy images in the womb of all-protecting Earth.
Hoping, perhaps, as they did so that a time might come when the power of the breakers would itself be broken.
Hoping that some day, once again, as of old, the Mother of Gods would bring forth.
They have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do not see.
So wrote an anonymous Hebrew poet, probably in the 7th c. BCE, speaking of what he would have called 'elilim, “idols.”
Of course he misses the point.
As anyone who actually lives with idols (for want of a better word) can tell you, they actually do speak and they do see; their interaction with their—um, worshipers—is subtle but undeniable. But perhaps that's a little too conceptually non-literal for your average dyspeptic 7th century Yahwist.
Likewise beyond his comprehension was the fact that the idol's obvious limitations are precisely part of the shining truth that it embodies.
You could say idolatry is in my blood.
I was raised Catholic, which included attending Catholic school from kindergarten through freshman year of high school, and mass every week (plus the high holy days). Which meant I spent a lot of time studying the art and architecture of the churches we attended – my grandparents' church in South Philadelphia, the incredibly ornate from floor to ceiling St. Mary Magdalen de Pazzi (the first Italian parish in the US) to our home base St. Charles Borromeo in South Jersey which was very mid-century modern, clean yet with very colorful, large stained glass windows.
Growing up in an environment where Catholicism was the majority, I wasn't exactly prepared at age when we moved to South Carolina (3% Catholic at the time), and discovered that Protestants considered Catholics idol-worshipers and not “true Christians.”
From the spiritual technology of the ancestors, let us consider the hallows—in Latin, the sacra—those holy objects of presence, in which a god is. If the work of religion is the making-present of the gods, this work the hallows accomplish, for the hallows are points of communication, articulating radical immanence. The genius of the paganisms has always been to understand that we best touch the universal through the specific.
To say “idol” implies a statue, but hallows take many forms.
One thing to remember about hallows is that in them, by them, through them, we look upon a god.
It was my first time in a Hindu temple.
Five in the morning: quiet, dark. We're standing together facing the altar curtains, which are closed. Drums begin to play. Slowly the rhythm builds. Soon we're clapping and swaying. When the energy peaks, conch shells blow; the room echoes with them. We throw ourselves to the floor.
When we stand back up, the altar curtains have opened. The altar itself, three marble steps covered with lights, flowers, and food offerings, is sumptuous and brightly lit. But all our eyes are on the gods.
Paganicon 2014 will open this year with the (in)famous Rite of the Golden Calf.
The Rite was first created for a private festival in 1996 by Twin Cities liturgist Steven Posch. He recalls: “I'll never forget the faces as the procession with the Calf came through. At first, incredulity: Is this for real? Then dawning: This is it: the big one, the sin of sins. And then, abandon: Ohmigods, lemme at it! And they all came rushing in. It was wild, ecstatic: there were actually couples off in the woods afterward, just the way there should be.”
During the Rite, the Calf will be borne in festive Procession and Installed in a shrine in the Art Gallery. He will be accessible for acts of private devotion during Gallery Hours. A brief rite of public worship will take place daily at 12 noon.
