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The 5th Epochal Revelation
-The Urantia Papers
PAPER 88
FETISHES, CHARMS, AND MAGIC
88:0.1
THE concept of a spirit's entering into an inanimate
object, an animal, or a human being, is a very ancient
and honorable belief, having prevailed since the
beginning of the evolution of religion. This doctrine of
spirit possession is nothing more nor less than
fetishism.
The savage does not necessarily worship the fetish; he
very logically worships and reverences the spirit
resident therein.
88:0.2
At first, the spirit of a fetish was believed to be the
ghost of a dead man; later on, the higher spirits were
supposed to reside in fetishes. And so the fetish cult
eventually incorporated all of the primitive ideas of
ghosts, souls, spirits, and demon possession.
1. BELIEF IN FETISHES
88:1.1
Primitive man always wanted to make anything
extraordinary into a fetish; chance therefore gave
origin to many. A man is sick, something happens, and he
gets well. The same thing is true of the reputation of
many medicines and the chance methods of treating
disease. Objects connected with dreams were likely to be
converted into fetishes. Volcanoes, but not mountains,
became fetishes; comets, but not stars. Early man
regarded shooting stars and meteors as indicating the
arrival on earth of special visiting spirits.
88:1.2
The first fetishes were peculiarly marked pebbles, and
"sacred stones" have ever since been sought by man; a
string of beads was once a collection of sacred stones,
a battery of charms. Many tribes had fetish stones, but
few have survived as have the Kaaba and the Stone of
Scone. Fire and water were also among the early
fetishes, and fire worship, together with belief in holy
water, still survives.
88:1.3
Tree fetishes were a later development, but among some
tribes the persistence of nature worship led to belief
in charms indwelt by some sort of nature spirit. When
plants and fruits became fetishes, they were taboo as
food. The apple was among the first to fall into this
category; it was never eaten by the Levantine peoples.
88:1.4
If an animal ate human flesh, it became a fetish. In
this way the dog came to be the sacred animal of the
Parsees. If the fetish is an animal and the ghost is
permanently resident therein, then fetishism may impinge
on reincarnation. In many ways the savages envied the
animals; they did not feel superior to them and were
often named after their favorite beasts.
88:1.5
When animals became fetishes, there ensued the taboos on
eating the flesh of the fetish animal. Apes and monkeys,
because of resemblance to man, early became fetish
animals; later, snakes, birds, and swine were also
similarly regarded. At one time the cow was a fetish,
the milk being taboo while the excreta were highly
esteemed. The serpent was revered in Palestine,
especially by the Phoenicians, who, along with the Jews,
considered it to be the mouthpiece of evil spirits. Even
many moderns believe in the charm powers of reptiles.
From Arabia on through India to the snake dance of the
Moqui tribe of red men the serpent has been revered.
88:1.6
Certain days of the week were fetishes. For ages Friday
has been regarded as an unlucky day and the number
thirteen as an evil numeral. The lucky numbers three and
seven came from later revelations; four was the lucky
number of primitive man and was derived from the early
recognition of the four points of the compass. It was
held unlucky to count cattle or other possessions; the
ancients always opposed the taking of a census,
"numbering the people."
88:1.7
Primitive man did not make an undue fetish out of sex;
the reproductive function received only a limited amount
of attention. The savage was natural minded, not obscene
or prurient.
88:1.8
Saliva was a potent fetish; devils could be driven out
by spitting on a person. For an elder or superior to
spit on one was the highest compliment. Parts of the
human body were looked upon as potential fetishes,
particularly the hair and nails. The long-growing
fingernails of the chiefs were highly prized, and the
trimmings thereof were a powerful fetish. Belief in
skull fetishes accounts for much of later-day
head-hunting. The umbilical cord was a highly prized
fetish; even today it is so regarded in Africa.
Mankind's first toy was a preserved umbilical cord. Set
with pearls, as was often done, it was man's first
necklace.
88:1.9
Hunchbacked and crippled children were regarded as
fetishes; lunatics were believed to be moon-struck.
Primitive man could not distinguish between genius and
insanity; idiots were either beaten to death or revered
as fetish personalities. Hysteria increasingly confirmed
the popular belief in witchcraft; epileptics often were
priests and medicine men. Drunkenness was looked upon as
a form of spirit possession; when a savage went on a
spree, he put a leaf in his hair for the purpose of
disavowing responsibility for his acts. Poisons and
intoxicants became fetishes; they were deemed to be
possessed.
88:1.10
Many people looked upon geniuses as fetish personalities
possessed by a wise spirit. And these talented humans
soon learned to resort to fraud and trickery for the
advancement of their selfish interests. A fetish man was
thought to be more than human; he was divine, even
infallible. Thus did chiefs, kings, priests, prophets,
and church rulers eventually wield great power and
exercise unbounded authority.
2. EVOLUTION OF THE FETISH
88:2.1
It was a supposed preference of ghosts to indwell some
object which had belonged to them when alive in the
flesh. This belief explains the efficacy of many modern
relics. The ancients always revered the bones of their
leaders, and the skeletal remains of saints and heroes
are still regarded with superstitious awe by many. Even
today, pilgrimages are made to the tombs of great men.
88:2.2
Belief in relics is an outgrowth of the ancient fetish
cult. The relics of modern religions represent an
attempt to rationalize the fetish of the savage and thus
elevate it to a place of dignity and respectability in
the modern religious systems. It is heathenish to
believe in fetishes and magic but supposedly all right
to accept relics and miracles.
88:2.3
The hearth -- fireplace -- became more or less of a
fetish, a sacred spot. The shrines and temples were at
first fetish places because the dead were buried there.
The fetish hut of the Hebrews was elevated by Moses to
that place where it harbored a superfetish, the then
existent concept of the law of God. But the Israelites
never gave up the peculiar Canaanite belief in the stone
altar: "And this stone which I have set up as a pillar
shall be God's house." They truly believed that the
spirit of their God dwelt in such stone altars, which
were in reality fetishes.
88:2.4
The earliest images were made to preserve the appearance
and memory of the illustrious dead; they were really
monuments. Idols were a refinement of fetishism. The
primitives believed that a ceremony of consecration
caused the spirit to enter the image; likewise, when
certain objects were blessed, they became charms.
88:2.5
Moses, in the addition of the second commandment to the
ancient Dalamatian moral code, made an effort to control
fetish worship among the Hebrews. He carefully directed
that they should make no sort of image that might become
consecrated as a fetish. He made it plain, "You shall
not make a graven image or any likeness of anything that
is in heaven above, or on the earth beneath, or in the
waters of the earth." While this commandment did much to
retard art among the Jews, it did lessen fetish worship.
But Moses was too wise to attempt suddenly to displace
the olden fetishes, and he therefore consented to the
putting of certain relics alongside the law in the
combined war altar and religious shrine which was the
ark.
88:2.6
Words eventually became fetishes, more especially those
which were regarded as God's words; in this way the
sacred books of many religions have become fetishistic
prisons incarcerating the spiritual imagination of man.
Moses' very effort against fetishes became a supreme
fetish; his commandment was later used to stultify art
and to retard the enjoyment and adoration of the
beautiful.
88:2.7
In olden times the fetish word of authority was a
fear-inspiring doctrine, the most terrible of all
tyrants which enslave men. A doctrinal fetish will lead
mortal man to betray himself into the clutches of
bigotry, fanaticism, superstition, intolerance, and the
most atrocious of barbarous cruelties. Modern respect
for wisdom and truth is but the recent escape from the
fetish-making tendency up to the higher levels of
thinking and reasoning. Concerning the accumulated
fetish writings which various religionists hold as
sacred books,
it is not only believed that what is in the book is
true, but also that every truth is contained in the
book. If one of these sacred books happens to speak of
the earth as being flat, then, for long generations,
otherwise sane men and women will refuse to accept
positive evidence that the planet is round.
88:2.8
The practice of opening one of these sacred books to let
the eye chance upon a passage, the following of which
may determine important life decisions or projects, is
nothing more nor less than arrant fetishism. To take an
oath on a "holy book" or to swear by some object of
supreme veneration is a form of refined fetishism.
88:2.9
But it does represent real evolutionary progress to
advance from the fetish fear of a savage chief's
fingernail trimmings to the adoration of a superb
collection of letters, laws, legends, allegories, myths,
poems, and chronicles which, after all, reflect the
winnowed moral wisdom of many centuries, at least up to
the time and event of their being assembled as a "sacred
book."
88:2.10
To become fetishes, words had to be considered inspired,
and the invocation of supposed divinely inspired
writings led directly to the establishment of the
authority of
the church, while the evolution of civil forms led to
the fruition of the
authority of
the state.
3. TOTEMISM
88:3.1
Fetishism ran through all the primitive cults from the
earliest belief in sacred stones, through idolatry,
cannibalism, and nature worship, to totemism.
88:3.2
Totemism is a combination of social and religious
observances. Originally it was thought that respect for
the totem animal of supposed biologic origin insured the
food supply. Totems were at one and the same time
symbols of the group and their god. Such a god was the
clan personified. Totemism was one phase of the
attempted socialization of otherwise personal religion.
The totem eventually evolved into the flag, or national
symbol, of the various modern peoples.
88:3.3
A fetish bag, a medicine bag, was a pouch containing a
reputable assortment of ghost-impregnated articles, and
the medicine man of old never allowed his bag, the
symbol of his power, to touch the ground. Civilized
peoples in the twentieth century see to it that their
flags, emblems of national consciousness, likewise never
touch the ground.
88:3.4
The insignia of priestly and kingly office were
eventually regarded as fetishes, and the fetish of the
state supreme has passed through many stages of
development, from clans to tribes, from suzerainty to
sovereignty, from totems to flags. Fetish kings have
ruled by "divine right," and many other forms of
government have obtained. Men have also made a fetish of
democracy, the exaltation and adoration of the common
man's ideas when collectively called "public opinion."
One man's opinion, when taken by itself, is not regarded
as worth much, but when many men are collectively
functioning as a democracy, this same mediocre judgment
is held to be the arbiter of justice and the standard of
righteousness.
4. MAGIC
88:4.1
Civilized man attacks the problems of a real environment
through his science; savage man attempted to solve the
real problems of an illusory ghost environment by magic.
Magic was the technique of manipulating the conjectured
spirit environment whose machinations endlessly
explained the inexplicable; it was the art of obtaining
voluntary spirit co-operation and of coercing
involuntary spirit aid through the use of fetishes or
other and more powerful spirits.
88:4.2
The object of magic, sorcery, and necromancy was
twofold:
1. To secure insight into the future.
2. Favorably to influence environment.
88:4.3
The objects of science are identical with those of
magic. Mankind is progressing from magic to science, not
by meditation and reason, but rather through long
experience, gradually and painfully. Man is gradually
backing into the truth, beginning in error, progressing
in error, and finally attaining the threshold of truth.
Only with the arrival of the scientific method has he
faced forward. But primitive man had to experiment or
perish.
88:4.4
The fascination of early superstition was the mother of
the later scientific curiosity. There was progressive
dynamic emotion -- fear plus curiosity -- in these
primitive superstitions; there was progressive driving
power in the olden magic. These superstitions
represented the emergence of the human desire to know
and to control planetary environment.
88:4.5
Magic gained such a strong hold upon the savage because
he could not grasp the concept of natural death. The
later idea of original sin helped much to weaken the
grip of magic on the race in that it accounted for
natural death. It was at one time not at all uncommon
for ten innocent persons to be put to death because of
supposed responsibility for one natural death. This is
one reason why ancient peoples did not increase faster,
and it is still true of some African tribes. The accused
individual usually confessed guilt, even when facing
death.
88:4.6
Magic is natural to a savage. He believes that an enemy
can actually be killed by practicing sorcery on his
shingled hair or fingernail trimmings. The fatality of
snake bites was attributed to the magic of the sorcerer.
The difficulty in combating magic arises from the fact
that fear can kill. Primitive peoples so feared magic
that it did actually kill, and such results were
sufficient to substantiate this erroneous belief. In
case of failure there was always some plausible
explanation; the cure for defective magic was more
magic.
5. MAGICAL CHARMS
88:5.1
Since anything connected with the body could become a
fetish, the earliest magic had to do with hair and
nails. Secrecy attendant upon body elimination grew up
out of fear that an enemy might get possession of
something derived from the body and employ it in
detrimental magic; all excreta of the body were
therefore carefully buried. Public spitting was
refrained from because of the fear that saliva would be
used in deleterious magic; spittle was always covered.
Even food remnants, clothing, and ornaments could become
instruments of magic. The savage never left any remnants
of his meal on the table. And all this was done through
fear that one's enemies might use these things in
magical rites, not from any appreciation of the hygienic
value of such practices.
88:5.2
Magical charms were concocted from a great variety of
things: human flesh, tiger claws, crocodile teeth,
poison plant seeds, snake venom, and human hair. The
bones of the dead were very magical. Even the dust from
footprints could be used in magic. The ancients were
great believers in love charms. Blood and other forms of
bodily secretions were able to insure the magic
influence of love.
88:5.3
Images were supposed to be effective in magic. Effigies
were made, and when treated ill or well, the same
effects were believed to rest upon the real person. When
making purchases, superstitious persons would chew a bit
of hard wood in order to soften the heart of the seller.
88:5.4
The milk of a black cow was highly magical; so also were
black cats. The staff or wand was magical, along with
drums, bells, and knots. All ancient objects were
magical charms. The practices of a new or higher
civilization were looked upon with disfavor because of
their supposedly evil magical nature. Writing, printing,
and pictures were long so regarded.
88:5.5
Primitive man believed that names must be treated with
respect, especially names of the gods. The name was
regarded as an entity, an influence distinct from the
physical personality; it was esteemed equally with the
soul and the shadow. Names were pawned for loans; a man
could not use his name until it had been redeemed by
payment of the loan. Nowadays one signs his name to a
note. An individual's name soon became important in
magic. The savage had two names; the important one was
regarded as too sacred to use on ordinary occasions,
hence the second or everyday name -- a nickname. He
never told his real name to strangers. Any experience of
an unusual nature caused him to change his name;
sometimes it was in an effort to cure disease or to stop
bad luck. The savage could get a new name by buying it
from the tribal chief; men still invest in titles and
degrees. But among the most primitive tribes, such as
the African Bushmen, individual names do not exist.
6. THE PRACTICE OF MAGIC
88:6.1
Magic was practiced through the use of wands, "medicine"
ritual, and incantations, and it was customary for the
practitioner to work unclothed. Women outnumbered the
men among primitive magicians. In magic, "medicine"
means mystery, not treatment. The savage never doctored
himself; he never used medicines except on the advice of
the specialists in magic. And the voodoo doctors of the
twentieth century are typical of the magicians of old.
88:6.2
There was both a public and a private phase to magic.
That performed by the medicine man, shaman, or priest
was supposed to be for the good of the whole tribe.
Witches, sorcerers, and wizards dispensed private magic,
personal and selfish magic which was employed as a
coercive method of bringing evil on one's enemies. The
concept of dual spiritism, good and bad spirits, gave
rise to the later beliefs in white and black magic. And
as religion evolved, magic was the term applied to
spirit operations outside one's own cult, and it also
referred to older ghost beliefs.
88:6.3
Word combinations, the ritual of chants and
incantations, were highly magical. Some early
incantations finally evolved into prayers. Presently,
imitative magic was practiced; prayers were acted out;
magical dances were nothing but dramatic prayers. Prayer
gradually displaced magic as the associate of sacrifice.
88:6.4
Gesture, being older than speech, was the more holy and
magical, and mimicry was believed to have strong magical
power. The red men often staged a buffalo dance in which
one of their number would play the part of a buffalo
and, in being caught, would insure the success of the
impending hunt. The sex festivities of May Day were
simply imitative magic, a suggestive appeal to the sex
passions of the plant world. The doll was first employed
as a magic talisman by the barren wife.
88:6.5
Magic was the branch off the evolutionary religious tree
which eventually bore the fruit of a scientific age.
Belief in astrology led to the development of astronomy;
belief in a philosopher's stone led to the mastery of
metals, while belief in magic numbers founded the
science of mathematics.
88:6.6
But a world so filled with charms did much to destroy
all personal ambition and initiative. The fruits of
extra labor or of diligence were looked upon as magical.
If a man had more grain in his field than his neighbor,
he might be haled before the chief and charged with
enticing this extra grain from the indolent neighbor's
field. Indeed, in the days of barbarism it was dangerous
to know very much; there was always the chance of being
executed as a black artist.
88:6.7
Gradually science is removing the gambling element from
life. But if modern methods of education should fail,
there would be an almost immediate reversion to the
primitive beliefs in magic. These superstitions still
linger in the minds of many so-called civilized people.
Language contains many fossils which testify that the
race has long been steeped in magical superstition, such
words as spellbound, ill-starred, possessions,
inspiration, spirit away, ingenuity, entrancing,
thunderstruck, and astonished. And intelligent human
beings still believe in good luck, evil eye, and
astrology.
88:6.8
Ancient magic was the cocoon of modern science,
indispensable in its time but now no longer useful. And
so the phantasms of ignorant superstition agitated the
primitive minds of men until the concepts of science
could be born. Today, Urantia is in the twilight zone of
this intellectual evolution. One half the world is
grasping eagerly for the light of truth and the facts of
scientific discovery, while the other half languishes in
the arms of ancient superstition and but thinly
disguised magic.
88:6.9
Presented by a Brilliant Evening Star of Nebadon.
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