Four Beasts

Oftentimes rituals are associated with some sort of solemn ceremony pertaining to religion or some other highly organized meeting, but the more common rituals are the ones that we conduct as a part of our everyday lives. The best definition that I found for this type of ritual came from the dictionary app on my computer: "a series of actions or type of behavior regularly and invariably followed by someone". I have many of these types of rituals in my life, such as taking my dog for a run every morning before class. Another activity that I do ritualistically whenever I drive anywhere is listen to country music, and as a result of this activity I know the lyrics to many songs by heart. Today in class Dr. Sexson mentioned the image of the four beasts and the white horse from the bible, and instantly it made me realize where the lyrics of one of my favorite songs comes from.

"And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts...
And I looked and behold, a pale horse
And his name that sat on him was Death
And Hell followed with him"

- Johnny Cash

This quote from Revelation was used by one of my favorite musical artists in one of the last songs he wrote before he died. Another place that this subject appears in the bible is in the book of Daniel, which I recently read for my Bible as Literature class. In one of Daniel's dreams, he sees four beasts arise from the sea. The first beast is a lion with eagle's wings, the second a bear with three tusks protruding from its mouth, the third a leopard with the wings of a bird on its back and four heads. The fourth beast is described as the most gruesome of the four, "terrifying and dreadful and exceedingly strong", with ten horns.

According to the interpretation of the dream, the four beasts symbolize the four kings that are to arise out of the earth, and the 10 horns of the fourth beast represent the smaller kingdoms within it. In his dream Daniel also saw an additional horn emerge out of the fourth beast and three of the original horns were plucked out by the roots to make room for it. This in turn symbolizes the emergence of a new kingdom that is to take out three of the existing kingdoms, and rise to power. After a time the emerging power will be crushed due to to its king's ill spoken words against the most high, and "the holy ones of Most High shall receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever". The ability of the holy ones to suddenly arrive and possess others reminded me of the powerful deity Dionysus, and his track record of stripping people of their power through possessing them.

On the same note, I found connections to the theme of possessing in The Magus. After spending time at Bourani, Nicholas Urfe is so captivated that it is all he can think about when he is not there. The mysteries surrounding his visits are so intriguing that they totally possess him and do not allow him to focus on anything else. 

This is how rituals are for some people, they possess them so totally that they cannot function without performing them on a regular basis. Some people take this to the extreme, like the example that Megan shared about her ex-roommate's specific cup spacing requirement of 1.5 inches. From a medical standpoint, this condition is referred to as Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. If one were to view the subject in a more mythological light however, it may be interpreted that these people are possessed by some external factor, like a deity. Who knows, maybe those people are destined to perform a task that will only be possible with the aid of godly power. While our everyday rituals may seem trivial, many of them are "heroic" ( according to Dr. Sexson), and possibly contribute to the fulfillment of some larger task not yet known to us...