© 2004, Frances Billinghurst (Published in "Insight" magazine, August 2004)

Today we take much of our knowledge about the world in which we live for granted. We are fully aware that each morning the Sun will rise, just as each evening it will set. We are aware of the changing seasons, that after the long cold months of Winter, Spring and Summer will eventually return. We are even aware of the migrational patterns of wild animals, even if this is learned from books or television documentaries. Thanks to science, we understand what causes a solar eclipse and even why volcanoes erupt. For those of us who follow some form of spiritual path we may have encountered experiences that while science may not be able to explain, someone else can. But this has not always been so. Where today science has been able to prove many things about the world in which we live, to our ancestors, the unknown was very much a mystery. Coupled with this mystery was also fear.

It was from the humble beginnings of awareness from our ancient ancestors that the concept of spirituality emerged. Despite the variety of religious and spiritual practices we know today, they have all stemmed from a common source - the religio-magickal experiences and practices of the ancient tribal shaman. In order to understand how all this came about, we need to return to the past and look at the archaeological evidence that has been discovered. So let us then turn back the clock some 125,000 years to the Palaeolithic, or Old Stone Age, era, the time of our earliest ancestors, the Neanderthals, and discover the dawning of man's belief in spiritual practices.

NEANDERTHAL SPIRITUALITY

Very little is actually known about our Neanderthal ancestors, however from what has been discovered, our general impression is that they lacked the intelligence of later species such as being able to communicate and to conceptualise visually. They were ape like who lived in the hazardous conditions of the Ice Age who seemed to make little or no attempt to modify the world in which they lived. This had led to the belief that our Neanderthal ancestors had not yet began to understand the concept of spirituality, of death and of the soul. Or did they?

Buried in a cave at Le Moustier in south west France the body of a teenage Neanderthal boy was discovered in 1909. He was lying on his side with a pile of flints under his head and a beautiful stone axe placed near his hands. It was, as if, these items were placed in his grave to assist him in his journey into a new life - one that followed his death. The discovery of this burial is important because it showed that Neanderthal man was forming some kind of spiritual belief system by starting to question not only the environment in which he lived, but also his position within it. But this was not an isolated case for other similar burials dating back to this era have also been found. In Shanidar (Iraq) the body of a 30 year old woman was discovered in a pit with the remnants of pollen, indicating that she was possibly buried with flowers, while at Teshik Tash in the Himalayas, a child's body surrounded with goat horns was found. Further, in Qazfeh, Israel, the body of a child was found with its left hand being placed on a deer skull and antlers positioned on the child's neck. Indeed, these discoveries of deliberately positioned bodies have lead archaeologists to reconsider their original opinion of our earliest ancestors.

Over the millennium our ancestors' awareness of their environment steadily increased, as did spiritual concepts. From the later stages of the Palaeolithic era, homosapians left numerous evidence of the fact that they were becoming more conscious about the world and all life within it. Not only did they express a higher degree of intelligence than earlier man, they began to fashion jewellery which archaeologists have considered to relate to an acknowledgment of a spiritual belief. Also from the evidence found, there seems to be increasing evidence that within the various tribes and clans there were certain individuals who were able to attune themselves to the spirits of the animals herds through the practice of fasting and by taking hallucinogenic plants. Knowledge of such plants was vitally important as most of them were in fact poisonous and would therefore cause death if the wrong dosage was taken. Therefore only someone who was specially trained in such knowledge could become the tribal shaman.

BELIEF IN DEITY

It was through such journeying and discovering which involved placing one's own life at death's doorstep that these early shamans, over time, became aware of the pulsating rhythm that infuses all life. These visions were then transformed into physical images - the most important of which being that of the Great Mother Goddess, who brought into existence all living things.

From the Upper Palaeolithic era (around 35,000 BCE - before common era) onwards, our ancestors' concept of spirituality evolved as he started to honoured the Great Mother Goddess. Nearly 200 figurines, all bearing female characteristics, have been found at dwelling sites stretching right across Europe, from the French Pyrenees in the West through to the shores of Lake Baikal in central Siberia. The oldest of these figurines is the "Venus of Willendorf" that was found in Austria carved out of limestone and marked with red orche. Considered to be a fertility goddess of some description due to her swollen stomach, large pendulum breasts and over emphasised buttocks. Another such figurine that holds notable interest is that of the "Venus of Laussel", where the image of a pregnant woman holds a bison horn that has notches in it. The general consensus is that the notched bison horn is some early form of calendar that was based on the changing cycles of the Moon, and a woman's menstrual cycle.

Belief in a male deity seemed to have come through more directly in the people's lives in connection to the hunt. From 18,000 BCE, nomadic hunters following the migrating herds across Europe left evidence of a belief in a male deity as well. Amongst the paintings of bison, bulls and other horned animals a strange image was found in Caverne des Trois Freres in the French Pyrenees. Named "The Sorcerer" this strange God has owl-like eyes, the ears and antlers of a stag, a bushy tail, and male genitalia. The legs and feet, together with the posture of the figure, are the only human details.

While the actual nature of this God will never be truly understood, it is considered that the image represented the tribal shaman who dressed in the skins of the hunted animal, and who then acted out the success of the hunt as a form of sympathetic magick. In doing so, it is believed that the tribal shaman would align himself with the spirits of the soon to be hunted animal, or even invoke these spirits, possibly giving thanks to acknowledging the soul of the animals that would soon lose their lives. It was very much the role of the tribal shaman to lead the hunt and he did this through communion with the natural forces around him.

From the various cave paintings from this era various archaeologists have formed the conclusion that our ancestors perceived themselves as one with the animals that they lived with, and not a separate species as we do now. After all both humans and animals are, like rock and trees, nurtured by the life force that emanates from the earth itself. Man appeared to be aware of his own soul so why not the soul of the animals he encountered and depended largely upon? After all, if the hunt was not successful, the tribe would not only be left hungry, but no new tools could be made from the bones or clothing made from the skins to protect them against the colder months.

The early tribal shaman was also developing ways of predicting to unknown and therefore gradually suppressing the fear which it brought. From simple techniques that were largely based on observing the local environment, the tribal shaman could predetermine where the hunt would be more successful by understanding the migrational pattern of the animals the tribe hunted. Later other systems began to evolve including understanding the patterns and the energies of nature. Foreseeing techniques also developed which included the use of physical objects such as the casting of bones or different sized pebbles.

These practices by these early tribal shamans were based on the observation of nature and reasoning through the natural patterns. It was rational and a reasoned working, and not merely a cluster of superstitions and spiritual hallucinations as some people might believe. For example, to wear the claws of an animal that was capable of tearing a man's flesh, such as a bear, was to take on the strengths and virtues of that animal.

NEOLITHIC MAN'S SPIRITUALITY

During the Neolithic, or New Stone Age era (about 9,000 to 5,500 BCE), our ancestors' understanding about the environment in which he lived gradually changed as his life changed. The development of agriculture and animal husbandry resulted in seeds no longer being gathered, but now planted, husked, ground and made into bread. As man's life changed, so did his perception on deity, as is evident from the discoveries found in Catal Huyuk, southern Turkey, which is believed to be one of the first known urban centres.

To the people who lived in Catal Huyuk from around 7,000 BCE, the Great Mother Goddess lived amongst them. Her shrines were built in their dwelling houses. While this Goddess still oversaw the fertility of all life, this now included the crops which were grown. Because the tribe had settled from its nomadic life, further observances of the natural world became to light, including the realisation of the effects that the Moon had on the gestation of seeds, the planting cycles and even women.

To Neolithic man, the year naturally fell into two halves. In the warmer months crops could be grown and the Great Mother Goddess was seen as predominant. In the colder months, the tribe reverted to hunting, the domain of the Horned Hunting God. As the tribe's knowledge of agriculture progressed and they learned how to store food, hunting became less important. The Horned Hunting God became associated with the grain and crops where he became to Lord of the Grain as well as death, being sacrificed at each harvest and buried deep into the earth to be reborn again during the warmer months. This change in attitude is event in the change of burial customs.

Burial customs became more elaborate, such as those of the Gravettian period (2,200 to 1,700 BCE) as the dead were buried fully clothed with weapons, food, tools and even at times animals to take with them into the Otherworld. Life and death were a continuous stream. From these burials individual skulls and longer bones were heavily ochred and separately buried from the rest of the body. No actual explanation can be found as to why our ancestors did this.

From the Bronze Age (3,000 to 1,200 BCE) onwards, newcomers began to sweep across Europe, and one of these peoples were the Indo-Europeans. These newcomers brought with them the concept of a dual God - one who was not only associated with life and crops, but also associated with death and war. In time, the religious ideas of the Neolithic and Bronze Age people fused in many parts of Europe. Representatives of the Great Mother Goddess became "married" to the new Gods, or were depicted as being evil and overthrown by the new God. One example of this can be found in the legend of Tiamat (the Great Mother Goddess of the Babylonian people) who was, according to later legends, killed by Marduk, the God of the conquering Hittites in around 1750 BCE.

Over the following millennia our spiritual beliefs have evolved further and some even changed, but remnants of the belief in the Great Mother Goddess and the Horned Hunting God can still be found, even if under different guises. There is still the belief of another world after death in most religions, and even religio-magickal practices are carried out today as various Christian priests regularly turn simple waffers and wine into the blood and body of their saviour, Jesus Christ, before their congregation.

Despite the many differences, if we trace the development of spirituality further enough back, we soon realise that regardless how we view it today, our spiritual practices have largely evolved from the same source.

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