Feasts are Rituals for Personal and Social Evolution

The Power of Feasting

Feasts are probably one of the oldest and most important rituals used throughout the world for the evolution of individuals and society. The chief attribute of feasts that almost everyone is aware of is the increased union and faith of the participants. There are many different types of feasts but all are based upon using the pleasure of food and drink as an initiator or stepping stone to attain some particular group result. The most common is to use a feast to obtain increased union, trust and reliance among the attendees. Another is to find or increase a common state of mind such as finding an increased sense of security from a feast of thanksgiving. The power of a feast can be controlled and directed to utilize the higher powers within individuals to solve a problem, define and explain some phenomenon or to explore possibilities of the future, such a feast must be called a sacred feast.

Everyone has experienced a bit of the directed sacred power of people eating and drinking together. Dating couples use it to learn intimacies about each other. Leaders feast together to resolve differences. Leaders also use it to unify and to inspire their followers. People have used feasts to prepare themselves for meeting some challenge or threat. Mothers use it to unify and bring families closer together. Sacred feasting requires the increased union of the participants such that their minds are able to function as one in seeking a goal and then utilizing a collective gnosis from a higher power to manifest that goal. There is the even sacred feast that can be found with one’s self and body as one feeds or comforts the body while uniting with what is often described as a higher mind or minds.

An explanation for the power found in the sacred feast needs to start with the ancient Greek description of the meaning of sacred and holy. Briefly the sacred (agios) is the dedication for or the union (henosis from enosis meaning combining into one) with a higher power, while the holy (theios) is the dedication for the perceiving or manifesting of the higher power. The full union with a feast is therefore sacred and the full response to the feast is holy. It also needs to be known that the ancient writers were unanimous that the holy resulting from the sacred has always been of the supreme good, both for the individuals as well as the world.

One problem today is that the sacred has been confused with the holy hence the full power of the sacred feast is largely unknown. This confusion has also resulted because modern individuals are not taught that as individuals they have the inner powers to become sacred or that the holy can be found within themselves or the mundane.

Another problem is that individuals are taught that the body, mind and soul are strictly physical and inseparable. Many scientists are attempting to explain individuality and consciousness as a physical process of the brain that can someday be duplicated by a computer. Many religions on the other hand cite that the ancient beliefs in the separation of soul and body are pagan and superstitious and continue to teach of individuals sleeping in their graves.

In the Western world, a great change occurred sometime after the 4^th century. A view of the earlier rituals and beliefs can be found within three sources, the Christian Catacombs (dug under Rome and long forgotten), the remaining artifacts of the followers of Mithra or Sol Invictus and the original Greek writings of Plato. The Catacombs offer several surprises for modern visitors. The first is the depiction of sacred feasting and the small dug out rooms for observing it. Secondly the paintings on the walls depict joy instead of sorrow with the freeing and rising of the soul or Psyche from the body. Thirdly, instead of symbols of crucifixion or suffering there are symbols of union depicted with the ancient vesica pisces which is the junction between two circles looking like a fish and hence further symbolized by the astrological Pisces.

The explanation for the depicted sacred feast, union and the freed souls can only be found by looking further backwards into time beginning with the belief in a radiant ruling god symbolized by the sun god which was the State religion of Rome immortalized upon its coinage and paintings. The paintings can still be observed which depict the emanating aureole or halo of the sun around the heads of inspired or powerful individuals.

One of the prominent religions of Rome honored Mithra as a sun god and originated the underground sacred feasts for obtaining union with the participants as well as increased knowledge strength. They explained the resulting increased powers from the sacred meals by the introduction of a fluid called haoma into the bodies which was the explanation also offered by the earlier Greeks and the Indians. The Greeks and Indians however, called the transformational fluid respectively ambrosia and amrita, both with the literal meaning of being immortalizing.

The mentioning of this fluid considered by many historians as some unknown imbibed psychedelic drug is of great importance today. This is because we can relate the heroic or immortalizing traits to the generation of inner fluids such as dopamine, serotonin, endorphins, anandamide and cannabinoids. Modern science has also obtained knowledge of how these natural inner drugs can be generated by such things as the pleasures of eating, the emotions of yearning as well as the drive to experience henosis with others. These inner biochemical drugs are known to produce a reduction in the noxious stimuli of the body and mind, as well as a sense of comfort and euphoria that minimizes such inner distractions as worries and judgments. Perhaps because of the reduction of outer demands and worries, the drugs are credited with enhancing the creative nature of the mind, regulation of mood, increased memory, appetite, and pain perception as well as a better control of cognition and emotion.

Plato several centuries earlier explained the requirements for fully experiencing a sacred meal in his Phaedrus. Phaedrus describes four basic inner powers that are essential if the full power of a feast is to be obtained. He used indwelling gods as allegories to explain the various inner powers (which are similar to the external mythical powers which were ascribed to them in heaven). The first was the sun god Apollo who was the symbol for harmony and getting things to move together. This requirement is well known today as people are well aware of how their expectations can affect their response to the gathering. Someone who is fully opening to others and the feast can be described as being radiant and warm like a cheerful sun.

The second was the god Dionysus who was the mediator between heaven and individuals. Dionysus allowed people to forget their self identity and worth and join in the group activities or as might be described today as becoming intoxicated with joy and abandonment. The power of Dionysus overcomes societal conditioning in order to unlock the inner powers and hence is credited with helping people to let their hair down, to forget themselves and become intoxicated with the power of the ensuing feast.

Since discussions at a feast must go beyond the daily news and sports to higher concepts, the goddesses known as the Muses must be called upon. The Muses provide that inspiration that allows individuals to speak clearly and to understand complex concepts or descriptions that normal daily language has trouble with. The power of the Muses can be exemplified with those people who find that if they have to explain something complex and then ‘wing it’ or let the words flow on their own accord, that the result is far better than obtained by thinking, judging and controlling.

The next power is a goddess called Aphrodite which can be introduced as being the good inner ‘me’. Aphrodite is the allegorizing of the earlier word egemonikon which is the force that leads the way or directs the individual. This was perhaps better expressed in Sanskrit with the word ahaµk?ra. The word ahaµ means ‘I’ and k?ra means a creator, so the ahaµk?ra is the indwelling power that creates the self. The Greek experienced this inner leader or creator as being pure and filled with truth and beauty whose yearning brought evolution to the individual. They consequently allegorized this force with the goddess Aphrodite known later as Psyche and later as the Soul. It is of interest that Aphrodite can be correlated with the heart or what is in the heart which determines the basic nature of a person as stated in Proverbs of the Bible.

The hardest inner power to explain is that allegorized by the indwelling god Eros. Perhaps the easiest method of presenting Eros as an inner god is to consider the original concepts of Eros as first outlined by Hesiod in his Theogony. Hesiod describes the original Creator, Zeus, who was without physical form and power, but able to envision what was to be. In order for the non-physical Zeus to physically manifest his vision, he had to create the masculine god Eros who was able to mediate between or connect the hidden world of Zeus and the physical world. Therefore, Eros can be described as connecting a metaphysical cause with a physical effect. (This connection is a nearly forbidden subject among both modern scientists and theologians who attempt to equate the two.) Eros, therefore, was the power that connected idea or yearning with a manifested reality; physical law with physical phenomena or gods to their physical creations which no one has explained to this date.

The early Greeks and Romans considered that individuals were reflections, reproductions, or the offspring of Zeus and hence in describing the gods in heaven, they were also describing themselves, hence, the allegories and myths. In terms of individuals, Eros was described as the inner power of a hero (Greek heros from the root of Eros) and being filled with or manifesting divine power (Greek ieros from the root of eros). We would describe the power of Eros today as the power behind dreams that makes them come true.

(The reaction of most readers to the word Eros as erotic is an example of how the ancient secrets were lost since Eros was deliberately denigrated to being the driving power of sexual lust. That power was gradually renamed as Cupid and finally is known today as love or the power behind falling in love with the original power of Eros being delegated to heavenly gods or forces.)

Plato’s Symposium is perhaps one of the best documents describing a sacred feast. The title itself is a good introduction. The Greek word Symposium has two very related but quite different meanings depending upon whether the Greek letter ‘ο’ or ‘ω’ is used in its Greek spelling. Symposium spelt with an ‘o’ (συμποσια) means group drinking, but when spelt with an ‘ω’ (συμπωσια) it means to engage in dialogue and ask clarification for what was said. Both meanings are clearly manifested in Plato’s text.

Plato begins his Symposium discussing group drinking which starts with a umneo (υμνεω) or hymn, which had the meaning of offering a descant or discourse in song or speech that could assist in the setting of a group unity and purpose. This step can be compared to the modern tradition of offering a toast or dedicating the meal to some common goal or object. The Symposium then proceeds to discussing how much wine to drink ending with the conclusion that too much wine is very bad and a maximum amount needs to be set with the option of not indulging. This is not difficult to follow with modern drinking experiences where some people find that a certain amount of alcohol can initiate an open response such that they are able to engage in a sharing dialogue rather than remaining self-centered in a debate or argument.

The remainder of the manuscript is about the second meaning of Symposium, συμπωσια, dedicated to a discussion of Eros (English translations may substitute the word love for Eros and greatly diminish the meanings.) Several interesting aspects of the feast are brought up in the following dialogues. One is that a feast is not limited to those who are present and another is that disagreement and doubt may be quite necessary (as described by the word erotuo which Plato pointed out is derived from Eros and is a heroic trait). The Symposium, for example has Socrates as a debating discussion member even though he had been dead for about forty years.

Another criterion for a feast is that it must take place under the auspices or roof of Agathon or Goodness. Goodness is a basic trait associated with Eros as well as with Aphrodite and the Proverb’s or lower heart in the loins.

The unfolding of the dialogues and discussions of the Symposium about Eros are also illustrative of the power of Eros. When the group finds union or henosis (from the Greek ενωσις, combining into one) it also opens an interconnection between the ‘inner’ minds of others that when subjected to query yield information or gnosis that was not known before. As a quick example, consider how a group of people may get together to solve someone’s problem and arrive at some solution totally unrecognized by anyone before.

It would seem right to close this discussion with Proverbs 16:9 which certainly applies to sacred feasts. Proverbs states that an individual can set the path to be trod, but a higher power directs each step. Any individual sitting at a sacred feast with himself or a roomful of people must first clarify as well as know where the feast will lead and then become so intoxicated with desire and eagerness that what occurs during the feast further directs the feast.