UTOPÍA Y PRAXIS LATINOAMERICANA. AÑO: 23 , n° 82 (JULIO-SEPTIEMBRE), 2018, pp . 122-134 REVISTA INTERNACIONAL DE FILOSOFÍA Y TEORÍA SOCIAL
CESA-FCES-UNIVERSIDAD DEL ZULIA. MARACAIBO-VENEZUELA. ISSN 1315-5216 / ISSN-e: 2477-9555
Los desafíos espirituales de lo sagrado
Talgat T. SEISEMBAY
ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1033-8916 seisenbai_69@mail.ru
Department of Kazakh Literature, L.N.Gumilyov Eurasian National University, Astana, Republic of Kazakhstan
Seit A. KASKABASSOV
Department of Kazakh Literature, L.N.Gumilyov Eurasian National University, Astana, Republic of Kazakhstan
Zhanbay T. KADYROV
Department of Kazakh Philology, M. Kozybayev North Kazakhstan State University, Petropavlovsk, Republic of Kazakhstan
Bereke D. ZHUMAKAEVA
Department of Kazakh Literature, Kazakh State Women's Teacher Training University, Almaty, Republic of Kazakhstan
Bakhytkul O. MAMIYEVA
Department of Kazakh Literature, Kostanay State Pedagogical University, Kostanay, Republic of Kazakhstan
This paper is filed in Zenodo:
DOI: http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1495810
The article defines conceptual boundaries of the holy, the typology of the holy, created on the basis of notorious and obscure aspects of the holy that are considered well- known aesthetic categories. It is established that an urge for the sacred is the revolt against chaos. Authors analyzed methods of destruction of the sacred that intended an exclusion of fraud (deceit) and cult of images. Having analyzed the works M. Zhumabayev it was established that he creates his own mythological worldview, an original mystical reality that has its own mythopoetic coordinates and evolves according to unique "magical" laws.
Keywords: Mythological worldview; postmodernity; Renaissance; symbolism.
El artículo define los límites conceptuales de lo sagrado, la tipología de lo sagrado, creada sobre la base de aspectos notorios y oscuros de lo sagrado que se consideran categorías estéticas bien conocidas. Se establece que un impulso por lo sagrado es la revuelta contra el caos. Los autores analizaron los métodos de destrucción de lo sagrado que pretendían una exclusión del fraude (engaño) y el culto a las imágenes. Habiendo analizado las obras M. Zhumabayev se estableció que él crea su propia visión mitológica del mundo, una realidad mística original que tiene sus propias coordenadas mitopoéticas y evoluciona de acuerdo con las únicas leyes "mágicas".
Palabras clave: cosmovisión mitológica; postmodernidad; renacimiento; simbolismo.
Recibido: 03-07-2018 ● Aceptado: 15-08-2018
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The concept of "sacred" in science first appeared in the 80th of the last century. At the same time conceptual explanatory descriptions of this concept also existed in science. This definition of the concept still provokes debates. The article considers conceptual basis of sanctity, and also its typology, widely recognized by their notorious processes, boundaries and aesthetic categories. In modern society the notion of spiritual perspective is widely accepted and new characteristics are being investigated. The concept of sacred in Kazakh poetry is perfectly refined in the poetry of Magzhan Zhumabayev.
From the times of ancient Rome the concept of sacred went beyond the standard ceremonial actions. Sacred began to define a certain sacred area of time, space and spiritual life. A special emotional attitude. A special attitude towards reality. A special way of mind-work.
Sacred to daily routine in such impressive manner is so intrinsic to humans (and only them), that since the old days we define the most egregious falling using the phrase: "he has nothing sacred in him!" That is true. You can be cruel, mischievous, renounced by all, but if there is a sacred soul-domain inside you, lit by at least a slight flicker of a candle – you are still human, there is still hope for you.
It is hard to give an exhaustive definition of sacred. But it has some consistent elements. They can aid us in distinguishing this area of our lives from everything routine and familiar.
First, sacred is useless with regard to benefits for the physical life. No money, no glory, no power, no pleasures, Second, it is intangible. It does not exist in the physical realm. By which elements you can distinguish between a stone taken from the shrine and a simple rock. People themselves endow objects, regions and text fragments with sacred meaning and name them. Statue. Banner. Prayer. All of them consist from the same molecules, atoms, sound vibrations as any other ordinary thing. Only our imagination makes it all high and holy. Sacred is not formed by nature, but by a human will and imagination. And also (essentially!) by some mysterious content of our spirit, which is not accessible to mind. German protestant theologian Rudolf Otto talks of a sacred as an independent hidden source of beliefs and emotions that dwell in a soul regardless of sensible experience. Third, it does not tell anything about "the only possible Truth" or "the only right faith". Sacred on a scale of the whole humanity, cannot be universal. From the Muslim point of view a Christian icon is not only pointless, it is blasphemous. The same is, for example, a lingam for a Christian believer. Or – a heathen shrine showered with sacrificial blood for a Buddhist.
Reluctantly we come to a conclusion that searches of a special, exact and definitive "object" are pointless in the sacred domain. It elude our sight. Then why everyone needs "it", why we consider sacred a fundamental human quality in humans? Was it always like that?
Imagine life of the first people in the Garden of Eden, there were likely no need for a special place and a special time for the high and sacred to people who witnessed God with their own eyes. In the first two chapters of the book of Genesis we find no indications of such holy places, altars or prayer words. Sanctifying of the seventh day of creation is an exception that forestalls the role and place of sacred throughout human history. In any case, the entire Garden of Eden up to its boundaries was a complete sacred space, the same as every moment spent lived in there. This situation, without a doubt, assumes a special state of consciousness that prevailed among the first men: a continual fascination with existence!
The Fall – which is an attempt by a human to uncover the reason of their rapture, to peek behind a curtain of genesis, to see its underside, to enter the Divine through the back door – led to the cataclysm. Anyway, there was a price – loss of a sacred meaning of existence, because sacred always presupposes a secret. The metaphor for this sad fact was the exile of the first people from Eden.
With exile came anti-sacred underside of life: hard labor for life's necessities, tyranny of passions and desires, reign of habits, fear and death – in other words, what we call everyday routine. A direct link to God was lost. For the generations that followed Cain – in everything observable and perceivable – God did not seem to exist. Only the chosen, like Noah and Abraham, could hear His voice. So what was left for others, non-chosen, "as numerous as sand"? There must have been some thread left that connects people with the Divine, invisible bonds connecting with the archetype of Good, allowing people to gradually nourish their undying soul. For this it was necessary to dedicate at least limited space and some time at weekdays, when people could reinvigorate in themselves some sober attention and capability – even if only by imagination – to receive Heaven's light... These spaces were: shrine, sacred grove, temple, altar, tomb, hermit's Skete. Actions – solemn rites Time – any, that was dedicated to the ritual, prayer, meditation.
Notably, there was no compelling motive. In was originally determined that people could not live without devoting some of their effort and time to a fruitless (from a utilitarian standpoint) and pointless (from a rational standpoint) occupation. Moreover, that occupation was not easy. Humans had to win a livelihood not only for the body, but for the soul too. The difference was that the spiritual livelihood he could do without – only if they were indifferent to the state of their souls.
So the time of men became divided in two parts: sacred, where they tried to remember about their celestial origin, to restore once broken bond with the Source of life – and routine, which is weaved from vanity and trouble of living. Hunger and thirst insisted on the necessity of the first, and on the second – some special spiritual instinct given to humans.
In time it was clear that the role and place of people in their mortal life is determined, in essence, by the size of the sacred time on Earth.
Here it should be established: do only religious zeal, religious service and cult trance mark the limit of
sacred? Of course not. In spiritual practice sacred stories and motives that do not have any direct relation to the religious cult. This is the case, for example, with thoughts and actions driven by the love for nature, children and art. Upwards intention is a direction, which can be caused by a blooming cherry, a ski trip, a tea ceremony... It is, therefore, not surprising that the sacred has so many dimensions – from the Light of Tabor to a lightbulb on a New Year tree garland. The feeling of sacred is not reserved only to believers. Even atheists are able to sense forces that arise to the Divine (of which they are< of course, not aware). War banner, mother's photos, child's first smile can have a sacred meaning even to them. Master's labor and philosopher's reflections are sacred in their own manner. Different kinds of sanctities to different degrees are connected to the Divine. Religious belongs to the strongest of them, which is the reason for the place religion occupies.
The sacred is a bridge connecting an invisible coast of an abyss with the other, visible place of our exile.
Notably, our great spiritual teachers gave major attention to the sacred rituals. Buddha taught meditation. Christ delivered the canonical prayer text. Muhammad established an order of all sacred rituals, including their time and nature. If we look closely at the Ten Commandments delivered by Moses, we will find that two out of ten commandments are dedicated to the idea of the sacred. "Remember the Sabbath day" – it is none other than a command to keep sacred at least the seventh part of your mortal life. And what is "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain"? A command for the sanctity of the name, which should be uttered with attention and vigilance, meaning in a sacred state of consciousness!
Spiritual teachers cared about the sacred time on other occasions, made every effort to solidify it in ceremonial practices and, if possible, to broaden it. Additionally, the amount of sacred texts, sacred names, sacred items (amulets, rings, potions, bracelets, images of gods and spirits...). Living water of the sacred
leaked through everyday routine, sacred items turned into houseware and clothes, sacred words filled speech, while losing the meaning of definitive "information transfer". Every person tormented by a spiritual thirst tried to expand their sacred space in their existence... It led to ascetic hermitage of dervish, monk's cell, anchoret's skete, Himalayan hermit's cave. But these people were few and far between! For the general populace religion was "the machine" generating sacred time and sacred space.
Any religion is essentially nothing but a systematic package of the sacred. The history of religions
shows that along with their evolution the quality of the p sacred they provide improved.
But today's reality is, unfortunately, rather different. We cannot find a single county or nation whose member, being an ordinary person, would devote every step of his life with sacred effort. It is beyond the ability of a "modern" Earth's inhabitant, which is enabled by a primal woe of humankind: the pursuit of complacency and comfort. From stressful routine of overcrowded cities, from stress and frequent involuntary interactions – there is no other escape for people. To move away, to escape, to fall asleep, to lie down in anabiosis... Or to simply distract himself with anything; as a way to push away spiritual labor.
Sacred meaning always prefers a vigil effort. An effort of self-improvement. It has nothing in common with false comfort of civil life. Within the sacred a person is "elevated" above themselves! He is mobilized not for a greater "purpose", but for the Invisible, intuitively knowing that the Invisible – is the central meaning of living. He also intuitively knows that throughout every moment of his life there will be his main adversary beside him, hostile to any life in a world of God's will: chaos.
A thirst for the sacred – is a revolt against chaos. The highest manifestation of an instinct to live.
Without an urge fro sacred it is impossible to plant a tree, to build a house. Maintaining the house a person erects for themselves and their family some sacred residence; without this instinctive feeling he would only be capable of building a shed. That is why we cannot be surprised that many people occupied with routine tasks are capable of sustaining a distinct tonus deep inside themselves – a certain thread of sacred awe, which is especially noticeable in the behavior of "otherworldly people", anchorets, artists, bards, lovers... However, there are people who are entirely deprived of sacred origin in them. Such person is hollow, no matter how complex was "the information" their memory gained. Interaction with them is always colorless and joyless.
If there is a sacred scent, it is a scent of miracle! A miracle is always festive. However, it is not contained in anything external. It is internal. A time for prayer – is only a sign to start anew a revolt against the fortress that was constructed by routine life inside our souls. This fortress is called mundane life; it will not concede to those who do not constantly assault it.
There are three powers that are hostile to the sacred: habit, mockery, command. Prescribed piety cannot be sacred by itself: its meaning is confined to obedience. It is safe to say that a slavish action cannot be sacred. Freedom is required to allow a blooming from within. No one demands spiritual work from a slave. They themselves will no demand it: they only require what sustains their physical life.
A sacred rite performed without attention quickly develops into a habit. After that it becomes part of a routine, meaning it falls entirely outside sacred space.
Mockery is a weapon that certainly destroys the meaning of a sacred action to its core. Believers understand it well. War of priest against "jesters" (in Russia and in the West) is not someone's fanatical whim, but an unavoidable fact, ontologically justified. Beelzebub's humor is a unique one. It holds the joy of destruction. Cynical, ironic, mocking laughter is always connected with inversion, distortion and substitution – meaning a mind game where you put a jester's crown on the head of an idol which places all
values upside down. In the hands of someone who intents to behead the holy thing irony is an appropriate executioner's axe.
Having decided that pursuit, which is rooted at the bottom of a soul, is "the perpetrator" of inner turmoils
we should not accept that the sacred is an area under imagination's total power. Humans can, of course, "declare" sacred any object and any place on an inhabited Earth... But after that a miracle of epiphany happens: the sacred answers back with a genuine depth, breath and sense. God speaks anywhere where people make any serious attempt to heed Him. Such Answer tend to sound akin to an appeal, though it is always more powerful and profound than an appeal. You cannot call it a simple echo, nor an illusion of the desired... Many telltale omens and significant events, even personal visits by higher entities – all of it happened multiple times in the sacred "places of power", of which we have multiple records.
The sacred territory is always a space brimmed with signs. Servitude leaves a mark. Sacred effort gives
exit to spiritual energy of a special nature that soaks the walls of mausoleums, mosques, temples, altar stones, icons, pictures, books. Psychic energy is able to create "places of power" that connect people with the Higher Invisible. A stone where Seraphim of Sarov prayed for 6 years was pulled apart by believers because of its healing power. Enigmatic psychic power reside within the pyramids of Egypt to this day. The philosopher's stone was able to transmute chemical elements because spiritual energy of its creator was concentrated inside it for years.
Thus, there is this attribute of existence that is not given to a person from birth, but is able to be uncovered, reached and grasped... In general, it is understood as a closeness to the Absolute. As a result, the sacred is palpable by a person as some spiritual altitude, something more joyous and inspiring than the world of visibility.
Everywhere in the world, in the past as well as present, a step to the sacred is a step beyond the routine. The routine consciousnesses only records, registers and observes. The modified consciousnesses is always a motion from within, an attempt to grasp and penetrate... A creative act. "To register" – is not a matter of the creative Spirit. It needs to seek, rise and admire. Just as an effort to move supports muscles in proper shape and prevents them from atrophy, – an attempt to reach the sacred prevents a soul from corruption. A great importance – for society as well as for a single person – is placed on the sacred time and space.
Sacred traditions require special care which was at all times culture's job. The meaning of the sacred is restoration of a connection with the Archetype of original integrity, realization of the higher instinct given to men. This instrument, having been damaged by the times of urban paganism, was "sharpened" anew by world religions. The experience of the last two millenia indicates that culture, which pays maximum attention to the sacred – is the most resilient, and woe unto those civilizations where the sacred deteriorates on all levels of society! The family who does not venerate traditions of their ancestors stops existing. Government that is not able to make homeland a sacred concept will not be able to defend itself. Blasphemy is followed by moral (and ofter physical) collapse of society that allowed it.
Reaching of the sacred assumes, at the very minimum, three conditions: mobilization, attention and perseverance. The sacred is not "relished in", – it is accumulated, ascended to, on the way of total reconstruction of perception. The sacred – is exactly what, under no circumstances, does not happen "on its own"... Sacred space must be actively expanded – that is the spiritual labor! It is the place where people do not leave the boundaries of life, but live, constantly including into work higher layers of unconsciousness. Everyday stripped of routine give them minutes of new discoveries.
In other words, keeping and multiplying of the sacred requires from people active internal exertion and unending efforts of external nature (concerning ritual practicies). So how does a person that strives more for conservation of energy and relaxation than for an "needless" labor, happen to be able to regularly support itself during activities, which do not bring any material benefit? Two reasons govern this mysterious phenomenon: spiritual instinct (a call from the Archetype of original integrity) and the imperative of culture. Spiritual instinct is indispensable, this is God's matter. But cultural prescriptions are formed by human history, they can encourage this instinct, as well as hamper and prevent it.
There is an inverse process to the expansion of sacred. Today. in the west, we are quite familiar with it. This process got a name secularization.
It is a well-known phenomenon. Regarding the its starting point researchers are virtually unanimous: that was two coincidental spiritual overturns in histiry: Renaissance on the south and Reformation on the north of the Western Europe. They came to the same result from different sides. Renaissance – through the restoration of antique paganism (anthropocentrism, rationalism, cult of naked body, aestheticization of sacred symbols, the return of classical mythology). Reformation – through dethronement of priesthood and church constitutions, abolishment of sacraments, "justification by faith", detraction of humans as sinful creatures, whose salvation is only in the hands of God.
So in what ways do these two movements collide and why did they happened to be so remarkably complementary to each other?
In our opinion, the common essence of these two movements was an attack on the sacred, which was foreseen by Christian and Muslim teachings (therefore, it was an attack on Christianity and Islam). In Italy church fresco becomes an object of aesthetic delight, icon becomes a secular portrait, where "the model" for Holy Mother could have been a maid or a prostitute. Aestheticization of the sacred reduces it to the art of a particular master, consequently breaking the link with The Higher Invisible. It is not accidental that during the Renaissance painters started to sign their works. The colossal personality of a "titan", Earth's creator, with his impressive mastery, his magnificent view of the world, its undying ambitions steps forward – how a voice of the Invisible can be heard through all that! Sacred images become more psychological and less symbolic; more effective and less holy. Their place is not in temples, but in museums and private collection (after all – that was their fate). The same was happening with church music. Even in the church it started to turn into a self-purposed game... Having obtained freedom in the XVI century, outside church walls, it turned into the means of secular entertainment.
An attack on the sacred was undertaken by the leaders of Reformation, and it was more ferocious, but from another angle. What brought the so called "cheapening" of the church undertaken by protestants? First, it is the figure of a priest that lost a sacred status: priests of protestant churches looked as servants and not as servitors; they were only functionaries in the matters of divine service, and not a holy figure endowed with a gift of grace. By the way, the sacraments – a quintessence of sacred in Christian religion – were abolished in general, only baptism and communion were left because they were mentioned in the Gospels. Protestants could not imagine that sacred labor is a culture of occult; they applied rational logic to an irrational sense. As was expected, it resulted in them viewing sacraments as nonsense. The truth of visibility – "common sense" – devoured the Truth of sacraments.
Dismantlement of monkhood, image worship, the sign of the cross and the cult of Saints – all of this is also the destruction of the sacred, rationalistic principle of substitution of symbolic to obvious. The prevailing significance given to sermons in protestant, calvinistic divine service means that a person doesn't need to listen to the voice of God through sensing a silent light and a speechless image of the sacred – instead they
should listen to a sensibly structured sermon that explains in words and details all pros and cons of a discussed topic.
Next, protestants' advance on Church is not limited to a direct cavalry charge on the sacred relics. Sacred is not just being destroyed, it is being perverted, and the latter, by the virtue of its consequences, is more ruinous than all other cardinal reforms. This is the matter of labor, first and foremost.
To declare labor as a sacred human duty – is, at the first glance, a great boon and an undeniable achievement of Protestantism. Beforehand, it seems as a higher spiritual position than the one that declares all human labors and troubles a curse brought upon the descendants of Adam for his original sin. Ultimately, God Himself commanded men to cultivate the Garden of Eden even before the Fall, didn't he? He labored for six days creating the Universe, didn't he?
Yes, he did. But God created light, heavens and earth for glory and life, and cultivating of the Garden of
Eden was, for Adam, a direct service to Him. The fact that this labor is not connected to the idea of entrepreneurship and pragmatism is trivial and does not require any proof. Adam labored not for the bank account.
And what labor is favored and honored by protestant ideology? Exactly – labor for accumulation. Labor
in the name of profit. The more profit you get, the more it becomes evident that God favors hard work, and the entrepreneur's wealth becomes a direct evidence of God's benevolence.
This is where the substitution happens... But it does not become evident immediately. Ages of industrial
development and improvement of commercial machine needed for it to become clear: the worship of Mammon in Protestantism is the fact that overthrows "justification by faith alone", Gospel's proclamations and the fabled protestant asceticism, inevitably substituted by the love for pleasures (otherwise what money are useful for?)
The perversion of the sacred was practiced even in the Middle Ages: as such during rampant Brocken orgies, according to mythes, there was a custom to kiss a black goat's anus as some kind of anti-sacred symbol (anti-image!). And what are profits revered as God's benevolence? They are no more better than a goat's anus.
Southern Renaissance also emerged through commerce: Venetian and Genoese merchantry, alongside
Florentine bankers, paid for, along with personal pleasures, all the luxury of architectural, sculptural and pictural prosperity of neo-heathen culture of Renaissance Italy. At the start of thirteenth century rich popolo were strong enough to provoke and defray the plunder of Constantinople, but with the rise of sea trade the significance of merchant funds in Italian port cities has greatly increased.
Thus, commercial recreational (entertainment) principle, which had no place in medieval Christianity and even more so in Islam – was the genie released from the Renaissance bottle! It is about time to point it our. Because commerce is the thing, the part of human life, where there is no place left for the sacred, no matter the finessing of protestant ideologues. "Justification by faith alone"? A direct communion of a faithful with Allah, God, bypassing all mediators? But how can such hopelessly fallen (according to Calvin) creatures as humans conduct such a communion? Only through sacraments – but that is what Protestantism outright destroys. So what is instead of it? Business, of course. And only it.
Civilization built on the principles of commercial success clearly does not understand "labor" as cultivating the Garden of Eden... When labor becomes only as a means of sustaining themselves (and that is how it was before Renaissance times), then no matter how hard it gets it does not need all the strength, at least not spiritual. A person always has at least a minute for contemplation and prayer, for a gulp of sacred ozone, especially if that labor is blessed as necessary and righteous. But when commercial genius invents
another combination with the aim to trick their competitors, and thousands of his employees drudge in order to help this endeavor and to justify their boss' trust (otherwise they will end up on the street) – such labor, for the most people is akin to a curse, and anathema. It turns the soul inside out. And in the minute of rest a person has no strength for spiritual labor, they have a need "to chill", which is handed by the "Entertainment industry", another commercial monster that has not an inch of sacred space... A trap, whose iron jaws have tightly clenched. You need to become a homeless vagrant to willingly go against society, to escape from this godless depth.
Let us not forget about the energy of sacred space – this, usually, is the result of work of many people (excluding the giants of spirit, like Khawaja Ahmad Yasawi). Sacred places silently attest to the spiritual work of mass, council principle. But the transition to the New times – is an increase and reign of another principle – individual. Northern protestant, without mediators, "communing" with God in their own manner, as well as a Florentine master that knows all the secrets of his trade – both are individuals who do not need any "council". They create a sacred place by themselves, where nobody was before them, and where the communion with God is entirely up to their imagination... Does it need to be said that the bridge to the Invisible created only by one man, regardless of their talent, – is quite an ephemeral and unreliable construction?
The pole of spiritual energy is exactly opposite to God and collectively called "dark powers", which are capable of using everything there is, including religion and the Church itself, for its own benefit, – of course, could not resist to make an impact on the soul of a man, which is achieved through the magic of sacred symbols! In the eyes of these dark powers these means can (and therefore should) be used for their own benefit. A certain method emerged, which we would call the inversion of the sacred: sanctifying what is, by itself, cannot be sacred. It is here where the blending of top and bottom happens, depraved becomes sacred, further called otherworldly, Prince of Darkness receives godly honors.
Let us highlight: we are not talking about jesters with all their carnival games, it is not a matter of a conscious perversion of the sacred. We are talking about a deeper, more dangerous and widely accepted phenomenon: attribution of the most sacred status to anti-god, anti-human deeds, events and individuals.
Our analysis of the works of M. Jumabayev revealed artistic mythology that is lies in recreating "deep mythological syncretistic structures of thinking", which uncover "archetypical constant of human and nature existence"; in saturating specific historical images with universal meanings and analogs, which was determined by an author's search for cultural historical correspondence. Bard, while seeing cultural parallels with the plot of ancient myths, uses them as prototypes. We determined that M. Jumabayev, while creating parallels with narrative structures and charming formulas of magic rituals and myths, uses them as models (in may cases subconsciously) of lyrical situations in his poetry.
М.M. Jumabayev creates his own mythological worldview, distinct from mystical reality, which has its own mythopoetic coordinates and develops according to its own magic laws. In other words, all works of M. Jumabayev is a global artistic myth, that possesses its own qualities and functions of ancient mythological complexes.
The distinctness of mythological is connected to introduction of magic elements into "myth about poets", into the concept of word and poetics. Phenomen of a word composes a whole, cohesive thematic line through most of M. Jumabayev's poetry collections, is their continuous semantic core and presents, in our view, the necessary key to comprehending his life's philosophy. Word as a poetic image, included into different paradigms, is a necessary connection between isolated, at the first glance, elements of his poetics that forms its centerpiece.
The search of the sacred, universal philological culturological concept of the word by the poet preconditions his interest to occult doctrines. At the heart of the occult lies faith in a principal possibility by using the mind (reason) to understand the world and to reach the celestial (otherworldly). In this process one of the main roles is assigned to the word, because the word in many occult lores is accepted as as a secret potent power and a holy treasure. It receives magic capabilities and a potential for transubstantiation of itself and the world around.
Antiquity for M. Jumabayev is not only a source of images and prototypes. In the poet's model of the world classical antiquity is an orderly and harmonious times that overcame chaos, an embodiment of hope for return ("All that was will come again"). In the center of this whirlwind – a point beyond time, "where time does not flow", a place of desired peace and equilibrium.
However, M. Jumabayev's interest with the topics of occult and magical did not have utilitarian purpose, but rather an aesthetic one, which was motivated by, above all else, his unique philosophy of the word. The word is simultaneously a material and spiritual medium of esoteric functions in M. Jumabayev's poetics.
This happens on the basis of a new understanding of functions and a purpose of the word, different
methods of its processing. The word-symbol (in symbolical sense) was perceived by symbolist Jumabayev as some kind of case, a shell for other meanings, a sign with no referent, a tool to "peek" into the "other world". Such approach causes an appropriate opposition of M. Jumabayev, logical consequence of which is the new concept of the Word-Logos. It is not accidental that the philosophical platform of symbolism and asceticism became the new Russian religious philosophy (P. Florensky, S. Bulgakov, N.O. Lossky, V.N. Lossky, S. Frank et al.), which propagated ideas of logocentrism and onomatodoxy.
М. M. Jumabayev tries to reach the sacred Word not on the level of its sounding guise, as was
attempted by traditional symbolists (A. Blok, K. Balmont, A. Bely et al.), but on the level of meanings. One of the methods to reach this goal becomes synthesis, because the original Word was an embodiment of synthesis, which initially had a sacred and magical meaning in it. Philosophical and poetical concept of the word in its final form found its reflection on poems "Kobyz Koylybaya" and "Korkut". Graphic fabric of these poems is one whole, undivided unity, a mould of consciousness, thoughts, images of one man (Abyz Korkut), as a microcosm that reflects global processes taking place in macrocosm. Memory is that focus, which can connect poem "Kobyz Koylybaya" in one cycle. Understanding of memory gradually widens from the memory of a single person to the memory of an ethnoses, nations, mythological memory. Consciousness of lyrical heroes appears as a storage of plots, ideas, mitives, historical events, which regardless of the authors will start to work.
Consequently, a word realizes its potential established by its previous cultural historical and
mythological contexts. Moreover, a word is not only a repository of the past, it can presage the future, because "such is the nature of poetic word dismissing time".
М. M. Jumabayev thinks of himself as a mediator and translator that controls vibrations and correlations
of existence (as "the abyss of time") and the word. He sees his main goal – a goal of the narrator – as a function of mediator. He must collect lost knowledge, find the Word (to revive it) and to preserve it for the following generations. Thus, Jumabayev comes close to forming "the myth about a poet" and his prophetic mission. "The myth about a poet" appears as a correlative of historical and culturological myth, that is being projected unto an entirely new model of space-time continuum, structured by the principle of "boomerang".
Thus, we have unveiled that the word possesses synthesizing potentials, and its sacred-effective power
is traced by the poet to several sources: religious and heathen teachings, occult doctrines and Tengrism. He refers to those mythopoetic traditions that preserved disposition towards the ward as a sacred treasure. But because the word is a common core, the religious-heathen traditions in M. Jumabayev's works intersect and overlap each other. Occult, Islam and Tengrian mythology merge on the level of poetics.
As a result Jumabayev defines artistic process as a creation of its own semio-sphere (coined by Y. Lotman), established according to mythological and magical laws. In semiotic space of author's myth
diachronic and semantic paradigms that allow one semiotic (mythological, cultural, historical) complexes to shine through other.
In poetics this appears on the level of contamination of plots, motives, synthesis and interference
images. Due to this, the text of verses gains universal understanding, as if embodying poet's thoughts about the significance of memory (according to C. Jung) in the life of a person, ethnos, humanity. Lyrical hero from any Jumabayev's work is connected to the past, represents a specific archetype, has its own mythological, magical destiny. Aesthetic projection of lyrical heroes' destinies on their own life symbolizes creative and dialogical impact of art on their own personality.
This way all of poet's art represents global artistic myth, possessing qualities and functions of ancient mythological complexes, which determines the expansion of magistral plot of M. Jumabayev's lyrics, building principles of his image system, where the Word becomes a connecting element between different countries and epochs.
M. Jumabayev's work is deeply national in its spirit and is connatural to the folkloretype of artistic thinking. He combines "shamanistic" and "Scythian" consciousness, revolutionary Messianism and "idea of Alash-Orda", pedological and extraterrestrial concepts, coexist Christianity and paganism, occult and pastoral, utopia and myth, prayer and prophesy.
The world of the poet is an area of organic convergence of pedologic origins of national consciousness and deep structures of national culture.
Combination of these mental factors ultimately determines the phenomenon of Magjan Jumabayev as Kazakh national genius in its ethnological and ontological understanding...
Inversion of the sacred, first and foremost, is connected to the idea of secular government. Secular ruler, who divinifies themselves – ancient tradition (that became trite long ago), prevalent in ancient times far beyond the Babylon, Egyptian Thebes and the Roman Empire. Any person, whose self-assertion found a footing in their own reign, from a Chinese bureaucrat to an Aztec priest, surrounded themselves with a whole cloud of sacred symbols and entirely hollow ritualistic rules, necessary for their subjects. Up until Contemporary history this tradition had been neighboring with the genuine sacred, the latter even suppressing and fueling the former (let us recall, for example, a ritual of anointment for rulership).
Twentieth century brought major amendments into this tradition: here secular rulership did not desire to divide Olympus with the priesthood; they on their own laid a claim to the power of God's laws, and the right to create their own religion, and, of course, to the ability to use all features of the sacred for their own interest, which has turned into the most efficient tool of manipulating people's consciousness.
Totalitarian governance has demonstrated what a colossal power can come to life by the focus of the
sacred "lens" that form a united psychic vector among the great number of people anywhere in the world. In famous movies of Leni Riefenstahl, who captured the triumph of Adolf Hitler, we feel the strength of that power, able in the shortest time to create economic and military power unseen in the history of Europe. In USSR a similar effect contributed to the agricultural industrialization of the country in the shortest time span, total liquidation of illiteracy, restoration of a war-ravaged economy.
Eurasia suffered through the totalitarian epidemic for the whole century. Nearly the whole twentieth century was marked by the inversion of the sacred. It has shown its power. But it has also shown its illusiveness, instability, fragility. The sacred, directed at the earth's rulership, at the basis of which was human-god origin, turned to ashes as soon as the authority of the human-god themselves crumbled.
Disavowal of Nazi myth, after Nuremberg, led to total collapse of this doctrine throughout the whole world. After Khrushchev's report on the twentieth Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union,
after a condemnation of a bunch of dissidents, "marauders of morality", the idea of Bolshevism collapsed. It is interesting to note that in USSR the process of desecration was accompanied by an increasing ridicule of revolutionary relics It all started with anti-Khrushchev anecdotes and a series of anecdotes about Chapaev (which indicate a rising disillusionment with "heroic" epic of Civil War). The mockery continued with massive tide of anecdotes about Brezhnev (idiocy of Party authority was mocked), Stierlitz (competence of our glorious security agency was challenged) and finally, through Perestroika, the ridicule reached its peak with anecdotes about Lenin, which became more and more vicious (the holy of holies of Bolshevism myth!). False holiness of totalitarian ideas happened to be defenseless against the deadly power of laughter.
An era of the inverted sacred ended with the collapse of USSR. A relic of this social phenomenon survived to our days perhaps only in North Korea. China, which tried to combine communism with commerce, is slowly, but surely, losing its power of the inversed sacred... The era of totalitarian relics has irrevocably gone.
But what is next? Is it the return to the true sanctities? Or can it possibly be something worse, even more destructive to the spiritual core of existence for a great number of people?
It is likely. It became clear when the false sacred was succeeded by an ideology and practice of postmodernity. About this phenomenon (global by now) in the history of human culture a fair amount of qualified researches was conducted. Postmodernity, like an exotic beast that appeared out of nowhere, with no philosophical prognosis, no prototypical ideas and evolutionary transitions, – has been studied quite thoughtfully and extensively. Many clever, accurate words were spent on its description by sociologists... But in truth only a particle "" would be enough. It reflects an essence of this phenomenon more extensively and accurately.
Non-center. Non-consistency. Non-importance. Non-meaning. Non-embeddedness. Non-holiness. (In a more general term: NON-EXISTENCE).
The whole postmodernity is built on a denial of the sacred. Because the sacred suggests some Higher Origin, on which, at the end, the entire human belief system is built, and its attitude towards life and the intricate world of human relations... The sacred is impossible without a vector of motivation! But there is no vector here, because the real world, according to postmodernity, is ontologically empty.
Some postmodern ideas that were expressed in print:
"Denial of general principles and ideas in postmodern culture presents a bright display of deepening secularization that causes division, when a person that asserts his individuality, a distinction from other people, loses an ability to identify with any community, therefore people become elementary and lonely" (Bogdanova, 2001). "For people postmodern culture is characterized by a simultaneous convergence of several worldviews, and not a single one is disprovable, but also does not embody truth. Therefore, it is equally possible to state that a person in postmodern culture believes in everything and nothing" (Bogdanova, 2001). "Concerning the search of truth postmodern position states: "The only solid truth – we need to dispose of the search of truth" (Bogdanova, 2001). "Interpretive mind redirected the search of the basis of knowledge to everyday ordinary life." (Bogdanova, 2001). "Pathos of postmodern culture is composed of the idea of liberation from any traditions and authorities, be they religious dogmas or mind's dictate" (Bogdanova, 2001). "Modern world – is the world of simulacra. People do not experience God, equality of subject or substance. All equalities were simulated, emerging as an optical "effect" of a deeper game – game of difference and repetition. We want to comprehend the different in itself and the relation of the different to another different regardless of presentation forms, which convert them into uniformity..." (Deleuze, 1998). "Simulacrum is a system, where the different corresponds to the different through difference itself" (Deleuze, 1998). "There is only one principle that can be defended under any circumstances and on all stages of human development. This principle is –
everything is permitted" (Motroshilova, 1999 p.369). "The new mind sought the basis of knowledge not in metaphysics, but in communication, a conversation between here and now existing empirical individuals" (Matyash, 1978). "... erratic emergence of multiplicity, movement that does not have a prevailing direction, but expands irregularly, giving a possibility to foretell the next movement" (Orlova, 1994). Postmodernity is a history of creation and interpretation of text. Then where does reality come from? There is no reality. There are various virtual realities..." (Rudnev, 1997). "Everything we take for reality is in fact nothing more than an idea about it, which depends on the point of view chosen by an observer, and the substitution of which leads to a drastic change of the idea itself. Thus, human perception is declared doomed to "multiperspectivism"; doomed to a constantly and quickly changing number of angles on reality, which in their flashing do not allow to understand its essence" (Rudnev, 1997).
As we can see, particle "non" appeared in postmodern culture and is all-encompassing, all-powerful! It is possible to say that this culture has totally replaced real existence for its proponents. Even the parody has gone into the past, alongside the modern history. Instead of it there is some kind of a laughable bastard that obtained a dummy name "pastiche": "The difference between pastiche and parody is that there is nothing to parody, there is no serious subject that could have been ridiculed. You can parody only that, what is alive and holy. In the postmodernist age nothing is alive and holy" (Rudnev, 1997).
Even the most general collective view on the given characteristics of postmodernity spawns a sense of
horror. If the modern world is really this way, then it is useless to wait for some mythical end of the world: Armageddon has already happened before our eyes... This is what Merab Mamardashvili compared to an "anthropological catastrophe", when "a metamorphosis is on its way through a number of consequent transformations of a human consciousness towards anti-world of shadows and images happens, which do not cast their own shadows, a rebirth and some kind of illusion that is composed of imitation of life" (Mamardashvili, 1992).
If you think deeply about the given above characteristics of postmodernity, if you can imagine the personality that literally and completely embodies them, you can definitely notice one of the major qualities of such a person: inability for spiritual labor. An atrophy of psychic "muscles" occured, the person agreed to play the role of a Brownian particle in its meaningless movement of its random existence... This is a total rejection of the sacred as a principle of spiritual art, a refusal of the Origin, on which all life relies upon.
The artistic instinct of such situation is that self-preservation, one of the strongest biological instincts, is beyond the spiritual sphere: a person feels the terror of physical death and resists it, but they does not understand the horror of spiritual death, does not feel how close it is.
Animal instincts do not need support from culture – except in restraining. But the Higher instinct – the inaudible voice of God – needs it. An aspiration for the sacred is nurtured, cultivated and directed... For this reason a temple is needed, and a road leading to it too. That is why all who with such certainty and pleasure is willing to proclaim the end of world religions should think about what is in return? Society, deprived of the sacred essence, becomes similar to a graveyard of the living dead.
Bogdanova. O.A. (2001). Secularization process and identity crisis in XX century western culture. Rostov State Economic University, Rostov-on-Don.
Deleuze, G. (1998). Difference and repetition. Petropolis, Saint Petersburg. Mamardashvili, M. (1992). How I understand philosophy. Progress, Moscow. Matyash, T.P. (1978). Postmodern. Culturology. Feniks, Rostov-on-Don.
Motroshilova, N.V., ed. (1999). History of philosophy. West – Russia – East (Book 4: ХХ century philosophy). Museum Graeco-Latinum of Y.A. Shichalin, Moscow.
Orlova, E.A. (1994). Introduction to social and cultural anthropology. MSIC Publishing, Moscow. Rudnev, V.P. (1997). Dictionary of XX century culture. Key concepts and texts. Agraf, Moscow.