There is a kind of consciousness that is uniquely human. Known as reflexive consciousness, it refers to our ability to think about ourselves, ponder our existence, and wonder about our destiny. Most of what we do – getting dressed, preparing breakfast, driving to work, and so on throughout the day – does not require reflective thought. We do these things automatically. But there are also times when we reflect on our lives and make choices based on such reflection. This kind of consciousness seems linked to our equally unique ability to express ourselves in syntaxed language, tensed verbs, and creative art – all of which were in full play from at least 35,000 years ago when the Cro-Magnon people were busy inventing more sophisticated technologies and painting the walls of their caves with representational art. It also seems linked to a heightened awareness of our mortality, a consciously embraced worldview, and the emergence of religious practice at about this same time in our collective history.
Many of these features of reflexive consciousness make their appearance in our individual development during that stage (age 4-7) that I have called The Curious Explorer. It is also the stage during which, according to developmental psychologist Jean Piaget, the young child attributes conscious intention to objects and events in the natural world – or what is known as animism.
According to the animistic worldview that developed during humanity’s migratory era and that still prevails today in many indigenous hunter-gatherer cultures, the entire universe is alive and interconnected. Everything is animated by spirits. They exist in humans, animals, plants, rocks, natural phenomena such as thunder, and geographic features such as mountains and rivers – and everything that happens is under their control. They can be influenced, however, by rituals, often with sacrificial aspects, designed to win their favour or to keep malevolent spirits at bay.
The spirit that indwells all animals and humans survives physical death. In the case of humans, it may pass on to an easier world of abundant game, or it may remain on earth as a malignant ghost. Those who die a violent death may become malignant spirits that, intent on avenging their death, endanger those who come near the haunted spot. Many traditional Native American religions are fundamentally animistic. In some, such as the Navajo, the departed soul embarks on a journey to the spirit world that requires certain rituals to be performed by the survivors if it is not to become lost and wander forever as a ghost. Only in later cultures did the simple practice of offering food or lighting fires at the grave become elaborated to include the sacrifice of wives, slaves, and animals to provide the departed with such necessities in the future life.
In the animistic worldview, humans are very much a part of nature rather than separate from or superior to it. And because they are on a roughly equal footing with other animals, it is imperative to treat them with respect – especially since an animal may be the spiritual abode of one of your dead ancestors. Animal worship was sometimes intertwined with hunting rites. Archaeological evidence from both cave paintings and animal remains suggests that the bear cult involved a sacrificial ritual in which a bear was shot with arrows and then ritualistically buried near a clay bear statue covered by a bear fur with the skull and the body of the bear buried separately. Other rituals and taboos were designed to please the souls of slain animals so that they would tell other still-living animals that they need not resist being caught and killed.
The practice of shamanism is closely linked to the animistic worldview. A shaman is an intermediary between the human and spirit worlds, capable of leaving his or her body to travel throughout a layered cosmos - flying above the earth to the spirit world or descending into the underworld – to negotiate with good and evil spirits on behalf of the tribe. By entering a trance, the soul of the shaman ventures into other worlds to seek out the underlying causes of mundane earthly events – and then fights, begs, or cajoles the spirits to offer guidance, ameliorate illness, or otherwise intervene in human affairs down here on the ground. It’s a risky business. The spirits themselves may be less than happy with the shaman’s interference; the plant materials used to induce the trance can be toxic or fatal if misused; and failure to return from an out-of-body journey can lead to death. To assist in the work, therefore, the shaman may have “spirit helpers” (usually the spirits of powerful or agile animals) who enable him or her to fly high like a hawk or dive deep like a fish into the spirit world.
Shamans perform a variety of functions – healing the sick, delivering solutions to community problems, predicting the future, leading sacrifices, and guiding the souls of the dead to their proper abode. Healing is accomplished by retrieving lost parts of the person’s soul or by cleansing the soul of the negative energies polluting it. The shaman’s spirit may enter the body of the patient to confront the spiritual infirmity and banish the infectious spirit. Sometimes medicinal herbs may be prescribed. And in the case of an infertile woman, the problem can be cured by contacting the soul of the wished-for child.
Given the value of these functions and the risks involved in performing them, the shaman usually enjoyed great power and prestige in his or her community – as evidenced by a 12,000 year old shaman burial site in a cave in Galilee. The elderly woman’s body had been arranged with ten large stones placed on her head, pelvis and arms. Among her unusual grave goods were 50 complete tortoise shells, a human foot, and body parts of assorted animals with whose spirits the woman had been in close relationship.
It seems clear that shamanism was practiced as early as 30,000 years ago – the date assigned to the earliest known undisputed shaman burial site in what is now the Czech Republic. Many of the cave paintings from this time – such as the half-human half-animal images, and images of humans wearing animal masks – are suggestive of shamanic practices. And the discovery of bone flutes and drums made of animal skins found in the graves of shamans from this time are in keeping with the use of music to induce shamanic trances.
To this day, shamanism is strongest in societies that still rely on hunting and gathering. It is only when agricultural societies became established that shamanism evolved into a priestly class and animism gave way to more institutionalised forms of religion.
One final feature of the worldview prevalent at this time is the emergence of the first goddesses. Along with the cave paintings of the Cro-Magnon people, we find an abundance of female figurines, naked and unadorned, carved of stone or of mammoth bone or ivory. She was far and away the chief object of sculpture for these cave dwellers. Although some anthropologists have suggested that they may depict actual women, or represent a kind of stone-age pornography, the wider consensus is that they point towards the mythic role of woman as a mother-goddess, experienced as the source and giver of life. Many of these figurines have been found pressed into the earth in sacred settings in household shrines. One, known as the Venus of Hohle Fels, was found in Germany and dated to 35,000 BCE. Made of mammoth tusk, it so emphasizes the vulva and breasts as to make it clear that this was a fertility amulet, almost certainly used in rituals of sympathetic magic to ensure the fertility of women and the land.
To the people of this time, nature was not only animated by spirits but clearly female – a fruitful mother-goddess who gave them life and all that was needed to sustain them, She would more and more come to be symbolised as the Great Goddess of whom these early Venus figurines were the forerunner – the Magna Mater who would become central in the worldviews still to emerge in the civilizations of ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Crete.
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