Running group Run to Remember joins in a prayer circle before a run. Photo Courtesy of U.S. Army. (Photo Credit: Ingrid Barrentine)

A little background.  I’m a runner.  I started running back in June of 2009, and have only stopped occasionally for sickness or injury (got the flu once, probably H1N1, and Achilles tendinitis).  Since that time I’ve logged 723 miles in 193 runs, and just recently surpassed 100,000 calories burned.  Last year I ran the Utah Valley Half Marathon in 2:06, and am planning on the Shamrock Half Marathon next month, and hopefully the Utah Valley Marathon in June.

I love running.  There is something about it that helps me connect with myself at a deep level.  Some of my most spiritual impressions have come to me on runs, and I have felt most alive.  Our fellow blogger, Geoff, over at Millennial Star has expressed the same feeling.  I noted on his blog post:

I've had moments on my runs when I have felt the Spirit strongly. It caught me off guard, but I think I understand. Running helps me be a better person, more healthy, less stressed, more focused, invigorates my mind, and I think the Spirit is telling me that I'm doing good, to keep at it, and it will benefit me.

One of my great-great cousins is also well known in the Church for his running – Creed Haymond.  His story has been told in General Conference and in the Ensign, always in conjunction with the Word of Wisdom.  The Statistical Report of 1982 noted his passing.  Perhaps there is something about running that helps me feel more connected with my heritage.

As I read this story in Runner’s World today about army wives and widows using running to cope with the stress, pain, and loss of their husbands, it touched me.  It started with Lisa Hallett, whose husband, Capt. John Hallett, was killed in an explosion in Afghanistan in 2009.  With a newborn baby, and two other toddlers at home, Lisa found peace in running.

Before his death, Lisa found running was a time to dream about his coming back, but afterwards, they’ve become “a spiritual escape.”  Lisa explains, “There’s a lot of conversations with God, there’s a lot of sorting.”  Since the death, she’s helped put together a running group of other military wives who’ve also lost their husbands, called “Run to Remember,” who’ve run two marathons together and are planning another this June.

Their Run to Remember team shirts list all the names of men who died while serving with 5th Bde., 2nd Inf. Div., in Afghanistan. Photo Courtesy of U.S. Army. (Photo Credit: Ingrid Barrentine)

On a recent damp and cool Pacific Northwest Saturday morning, 20 women gathered to start their weekly run. The ritual is steeped in tradition, like most things in the Army. At 10 a.m., the women formed a circle. Lewis glanced at Hallett before saying, “I’ll read the names.” She started down the list of men who died in combat or, in one case, committed suicide since August 2009.

“Sgt. Troy Tom, Spc. Jonathan Yanney, Capt. John Hallett,” Lewis says. At her husband’s name, Hallett fixed her gaze hard into empty space. She was focusing on thoughts of John, the same thing she thinks about when she runs, she says.

It took Lewis another full minute to finish the list of 41 names. Then after short prayer, the women ran off.

The first time I encountered a prayer circle was when I went to the temple for the first time.  But we are not alone in employing this form of worship, of bonding, of prayer, of reflection, of remembrance, and the power of focused meditation and group thought.  The members of Run to Remember gather together on the weekends, form a circle, read a list of names of fallen soldiers, fallen husbands, to remember and honor them, and say a prayer.

Then they run.

Run to Remember’s Prayer Circle

This can be seen in the way the Bible is written in Hebrew, one of the oldest languages in the world.  In Hebrew, particularly the Hebrew Bible, there are cantillation marks that specify how the text should be sung: 

Hebrew text, vowel points in red, cantillation in blue

Cantillation marks are described by Wikipedia:

Cantillation is the ritual chanting of readings from the Hebrew Bible in synagogue services. The chants are written and notated in accordance with the special signs or marks printed in the Masoretic text of the Hebrew Bible (or Tanakh) to complement the letters and vowel points…

A primary purpose of the cantillation signs is to guide the chanting of the sacred texts during public worship. Very roughly speaking, each word of text has a cantillation mark at its primary accent and associated with that mark is a musical phrase that tells how to sing that word…

Even the name of the symbols themselves, cantillation marks, gives us a sense of what they are and were used for, the cant- prefix meaning “to sing.”

Michael Ballam

A few weeks ago my wife heard some interesting commentary on this subject on a radio show on Classical 89 called “On Stage with Michael Ballam”.  Michael Ballam is the general director of the Utah Festival Opera, a professor of music at Utah State University, and a very accomplished operatic singer.  He also does some acting.

In his commentary on that program, Br. Ballam said that back in the 1990s he took a sabbatical to go to Israel, and one of the things he wanted to study was the art of cantillation, the way the scriptures are sung in the Jewish synagogue.  This is an ancient tradition, one that Br. Ballam says the Jewish tradition dates back to Moses:

How did Moses, the author of the Torah or The Law, the first five books of the Bible, convey the message to the children of Israel?  He wrote it down on stone or metallic plates of copra, gold etc; he sang the law to them. He couldn't pass around the law in those plates or in those stones. He would have to communicate orally and he did it by singing. The holy writings or scriptures were conveyed in an oral tradition from generation to generation by chanting. That tradition is called Hassan or hassanot in plural. That's why I went to Israel. I wanted to understand that tradition. Not having been brought up in that tradition I wanted to understand its derivation. Moses, Aaron and ultimately the Rabbis in the synagogues and temples would convey God's will through the means of singing his will. It is Jewish tradition that Moses was commanded of God to sing the scriptures to impress upon them their meanings, into their minds and into their hearts.

Br. Ballam wanted to be able to read, hear, and sing those scriptures the way they would have been sung by Moses, and the ancients, before they were written down:

Now, the tradition of chanting the Holy writings were passed down in an oral tradition per centuries until a group of Rabbis in Tiberius, on the Southern shore of the sea of Galilee, determined it was time to write it down, so that it could be more stable. There are a series of marking called Chantalatian markings, there is the prefix Chantalatian, are found in most credible Hebrew Bibles. They are written directly under the words and moved from right to left, remember Hebrew goes from right to left, English goes left to right. They indicate when the pitches go up, when the pitches go down, when they come to a stopping point and when they need to be embellished, given special emphasis. They are supposedly as close to what the children of Israel heard from Moses in the wilderness as possible. One of my goals in going to Israel was to find someone who could read those Chantalatian markings and tell me the authoritarian sound that went with them. I found such an expert, Israel Vault, in a Hebrew University. He began by chanting for me those first lines of the Torah, the Bible. “Bereshit bara Elohim et hashamayim ve’et ha’arets.” The pitch goes up on the word Eloh-im. Why? The name of the Supreme Deity. “ve’et ha’arets”. There is a punctuation there. It comes to a conclusion. That is we hear a cadence. It comes to an end, a period there.

To hear what those first lines of Genesis 1:1 sound like sung in Hebrew, press play in this audio clip:

This is where things got interesting for Br. Ballam.  The expert, Israel Vault, told Br. Ballam an amazing story, and asked him if he could explain it:

He came to America a number of years ago and was asked to speak in a university in New Mexico. He began to chant the Torah: “Bereshit bara Elohim et hashamayim ve’et ha’arets”. As he began to chant, he noticed a segment of the audience becoming very interested, even agitated by it. At the conclusion of the class was met by a group of students all of whom were Native Americans from a Tribe and they asked him a question. Where did you get that music? He said: well, I got it out of the Bible its right there; it has been there for centuries. Why do you ask? And the spokesperson for this group of Navajo students said: It's fascinating to us that, though the words are in a different, it's the same tune that our fathers used to explain the creation to our tradition. Then Israel said to me: I don't understand this. How could this group in another continent, from another separation of time have this same melody to describe creation from the same perspective that ancient Israel did? He asked me if perhaps, those Navajos could be part of the lineage of the tribes of Israel. Would they in fact be one of the lost tribes? I didn't have a definitive answer for him but it is very interesting that the same tune that described the creation of the world in ancient Israel is also the same tune that describes the same story in ancient and modern Navajo.

Hugh Nibley would probably explain the synchronicity by telling about the universality of the creation song:

The word for poetry, poiema, means “creation  of the world.”  The business of the Muses at the temple was to sing the creation song with the morning stars. Naturally, because they were dramatizing the story of the creation, too, the hymn was sung to music (some scholars derive the first writing from musical notation). The singing was performed in a sacred circle or chorus, so that poetry, music and dance go together. (Lucian’s famous essay on the ancient dance, among the earliest accounts, takes it back to the round dance in the temple, like the prayer circle that Jesus used to hold with the apostles and their wives -- Jesus standing at the altar in the arms of Adam, and the apostles’ wives standing in the circle with them. Some have referred to this as a dance; it is definitely a chorus.). So poetry, music, and dance go out to the world from the temple -- called by the Greeks the Mouseion, the shrine of the Muses.

The creation hymn was part of the great dramatic presentation that took place yearly at the temple; it dealt with the fall and redemption of man…

I don’t have a definitive answer either for why the sung Hebrew Bible would be familiar to Navajo Native Americans, but Nibley gives us a good candidate.  Music was used in the earliest of temples to convey the ritual to the initiates.  It was one of the only modes of transmission the people had to pass the story and rites on from one generation to another.  Might the music contained in the Hebrew Bible be the same music sung by the Native Americans to describe the creation story?  Might it be the same creation song that was heard in the temple anciently?  It’s possible.

~~~~~~~~

In other more personal news, I resigned from my job today.  I am a designer by profession, and unfortunately I became overqualified for my position.  If anyone is aware of design work or open designer positions available, I would appreciate any leads.  I do all kinds of design – product design, graphic design, web design, etc.  You can contact me here.

Here’s a link to my design portfolio:

http://brycehaymond.com/Bryce_Haymond_Portfolio.pdf

Thank you!

The Universal Creation Song

Annunciation to the Shepherds, Abraham Hondius, 1663, oil on panel. (Click image for a larger view)

The Christmas story from Luke 2 reads in part:

And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them,

Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another,

Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.

And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger. And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child. And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds. But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them. (Luke 2:8-20)

Most of us are very familiar with these scriptures, as it is tradition in many families to read this story at Christmastime every year to remind us of the true meaning of Christmas.

But who were the shepherds?  Have you, like me, considered the angelophany to the shepherds in their fields something that was completely random?  Were the angels announcing the birth of the Savior abroad in the land, and this was just one of the accounts that was recorded in scripture?  Or was there a greater purpose to the angelic revelation specific to these shepherds? 

A couple weeks ago my perception of the shepherds changed, and I gained a greater understanding of their significance.  A preview of the upcoming Messiah documentary aired on BYU-TV on December 6th, in which Dr. Richard Holzapfel, professor of Church History and Doctrine at BYU, noted that the Christmas story takes on added meaning when we consider that the shepherds who were abiding by their flocks in the fields were perhaps watching over temple sheep, sheep that were being bred and protected to be sacrificed at the temple in Jerusalem.  These shepherds may have been men who were accustomed to preparing lambs which symbolically represented the Messiah in their cleanliness, perfection, and their sacrifice on the altar of the temple.  This gives added depth of meaning, if true, to these scriptures which tell of the angels who came to these shepherds to proclaim the birth of the Lamb of God, the Savior of mankind, who would offer the last and ultimate sacrifice.

But there are more interesting details.  The place where the angels appeared to the shepherds is traditionally known as the “Tower of the Flock,” or Migdal Edar, which is very near Bethlehem.  One commentator notes:

This watch tower from ancient times was used by the shepherds for protection from their enemies and wild beasts. It was the place ewes were brought to give birth to the lambs. In this sheltered building/cave the priests would bring in the ewes which were about to lamb for protection. These special lambs came from a unique flock which were designated for sacrifice at the temple in Jerusalem.

According to Edersheim in The Life And Times Of Jesus The Messiah, in Book 2, Chapter 6, states, “This Migdal Edar was not the watchtower for the ordinary flocks that pastured on the barren sheep ground beyond Bethlehem, but it lay close to the town, on the road to Jerusalem. A passage from the Mishnah (Shekelim 7:4) leads to the conclusion that the flocks which pastured there were destined for Temple sacrifices…”

…What are we to make of all of this information from the writings of the rabbis? First, we know that Migdal Edar was the watchtower that guarded the Temple flocks that were being raised to serve as sacrificial animals in the Temple. These were not just any flock and herd. The shepherds who kept them were men who were specifically trained for this royal task. They were educated in what an animal, that was to be sacrificed, had to be and it was their job to make sure that none of the animals were hurt, damaged, or blemished. These lambs were apparently wrapped in “swaddling cloths” to protect them from injury and also used to wrap the Lord Jesus.

Thus, with the establishment of Temple worship in Jerusalem, the fields outside of Bethlehem became the place where a special group of shepherds raised the lambs that were sacrificed in the Temple. Being themselves under special Rabbinical care, they would strictly maintain a ceremonially clean stable for a birthing place. The Tower of the Flock was used for birthing ewes, and the surround fields were where these shepherds grazed their flocks. These shepherds customarily kept their flocks outdoors twenty-four hours a day every day of the year, but brought the ewes in to deliver their lambs where they could be carefully cared for. It was to this place that Joseph took Mary. It was in this special stable at "Migdal Edar" that Christ was born!…

Luke 2:8-18records that there were shepherds in the fields keeping watch over their sheep by night. Who then were these shepherds? Without question these were shepherds who resided near Bethlehem. They were none other but the shepherds from "Migdal Edar" who were well aware that the Targum hinted and many of the rabbis taught that Messiah might well be announced from "Migdal Edar" at Bethlehem. The angels only told the shepherds that they would find the Babe wrapped in “swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” There was no need for the angels to give these shepherds directions to the birth place because they already knew. These were the men who raised sacrificial lambs that were sacrificed in the Temple. When the angelic announcement came, they knew exactly where to go, as Luke 2 indicates, for the sign of a manger could only mean their manger at the tower of the flock! You cannot explain the meaning or direction of the sign they were given or their response unless you have the right manger and the right shepherds!

Typically, "Migdal Edar", (the tower of the flock) at Bethlehem is the perfect place for Christ to be born. He was born in the very birthplace where tens of thousands of lambs, which had been sacrificed to prefigure Him. God promised it, pictured it and performed it at "Migdal Edar". It all fits together, for that’s the place the place where sacrificial lambs were born! Jesus was not born behind an inn, in a smelly stable where the donkeys of travelers and other animals were kept. He was born in Bethlehem, at the birthing place of the sacrificial lambs that were offered in the Temple in Jerusalem which Micah 4:8 calls the “tower of the flock.”

I’m not sure how much of this commentator’s words can be corroborated, but it is interesting to consider.

As a side note, I also found it interesting when I was searching for an image to introduce this post that I found the painting “Annunciation to the Shepherds” by Abraham Hondius.  This 17th century art piece depicts the angels in heaven forming circular ring dances, reminiscent of the ancient temple prayer circles, with the cherubim taking each other’s hands.  Dr. Jeffrey Bradshaw has described this form of heavenly worship in an article recently at Meridian Magazine, which also describes temple themes in the Christmas story:

In ancient literature, heavenly worship is always described as taking a circular form. For example, in Abraham 3:23, God is described as standing "in the midst" (i.e., "in the center") of the premortal souls. Nibley clarifies this description by observing that: "He's surrounded on all sides." Likewise, Lehi describes God upon his throne "surrounded with numberless concourses of angels in the attitude of singing and praising their God." Nibley again points out: "A concourse is a circle. Of course [numberless] concourses means circles within circles."

Similar imagery relating to sacred circles is found in the Islamic hajj, where pilgrims circumambulate the Ka'bah and offer prayer in likeness of the angels. Teaching His disciples about prayer, Jesus said that "where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them [in the center]."

Who were the Shepherds in the Christmas Story?

Book Cover

(This is a continuation of my thoughts about The Lost Symbol from my previous post.)

One of the themes taken up again and again in Dan Brown’s latest novel The Lost Symbol is the idea of power in group thinking and concentration.  Katherine’s character in particular is engaged in the scientific study of producing physical changes through the power of group thought and concentrated collective intention.  In connection with this, the practice of prayer circles is brought up:

The shocking discovery, it seemed, paralleled the ancient spiritual belief in a "cosmic consciousness"--a vast coalescing of human intention that was actually capable of interacting with physical matter. Recently, studies in mass meditation and prayer had produced similar results in Random Event Generators, fueling the claim that human consciousness, as Noetic author Lynne McTaggart described it, was a substance outside the confines of the body . . . a highly ordered energy capable of changing the physical world.

In another place, Brown continues:

Galloway knew, of course, that one needn't go to a lab to witness proof of this bold new idea, this proposal of man's untapped potential. This very cathedral held healing prayer circles for the sick, and repeatedly had witnessed truly miraculous results, medically documented physical transformations. The question was not whether God had imbued man with great powers . . . but rather how we liberate those powers.

And again:

Katherine smiled down at him. "We have scientifically proven that the power of human thought grows exponentially with the number of minds that share that thought."

Langdon remained silent, wondering where she was going with this idea.

"What I'm saying is this . . . two heads are better than one . . . and yet two heads are not twice better, they are many, many times better. Multiple minds working in unison magnify a thought's effect . . . exponentially. This is the inherent power of prayer groups, healing circles, singing in unison, and worshipping en masse."

Prayer circles have been defined as where participants join hands in a circle of prayer, often as part of a vigil.   Such circles have existed for a very long time (see my paper “The Genesis of the Round Dance“).  They are witnessed today in even the simplest act of joining hands around the dinner table while saying grace.  Hugh Nibley wrote extensively about their use in early Christianity in his paper “The Early Christian Prayer Circle.”  In that paper he said: 

It is because each prayer circle is a faithful reproduction of the celestial pattern that impulses can be transmitted from one to the other by all who are in a receptive state; the thoughts of those in the circle are concentrated as in a burning glass, or, since the thing most emphasized as the indispensable requirement of the circle is the absolute purity of mind, concentration of thought devoid of any reservations or distractions, and since the communication is beamed from one Treasury of Light to others, the analogy of the laser is quite striking…

The fullest expression of that altruism by which one saves oneself in saving others is a simple but ingenious device employed in the prayer circle; it was the “diptych,” a sort of looseleaf notebook or folded parchment placed on the altar during the prayer. It contained the names of persons whom the people in the circle wished to remember. The diptychs are among the oldest treasures preserved in the oldest churches. The name means “folded double,” though the documents could be folded triple or quadruple as well if the list of names was very long.

In the scriptures we are told, “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much” (James 5:16).  Christ taught that there was strength in numbers – “if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.  For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them” (Matt. 18:19-20).  Prayers of many righteous people together are the most effectual – “Whatsoever ye shall ask in faith, being united in prayer according to my command, ye shall receive” (D&C 29:6).

An article in the January 1976 Ensign recounts the power of group prayer:

Why is it that when a ward comes together in fasting and prayer, it makes a greater difference somehow than if anyone had done so alone? In part because such united efforts of the Saints are a testimony unto the heavens--a witness that Christ and his purposes take precedence over our hostilities and personality problems. The revelation says, "Be agreed as touching all things whatsoever ye ask." (D&C 27:18.) Or again, "If ye are not one ye are not mine." (D&C 38:27.) Brigham Young, who learned much about prayer by listening to the Prophet, said repeatedly to the Saints that when someone prays in a congregation the rest of us should be saying in our minds what he is saying with his lips. We should repeat the very words in our minds. Then when we say "amen" we know what we are saying amen to. "Why?" Brigham asks. "So that Saints may be one." The effectual, fervent power of united prayer cannot be overestimated. Powerful prayer unites the "Saints--unity expands the power of prayer."

There are numerous stories in the church that have been told about the power of prayer and fasting in groups, which has the realization of healings, good fortune, receiving blessings, diverting disaster, or even altering nature.  One such story is told about the Utah drought of 1977:

It was spring and the farmers in the valley were worried. It had been a dry winter, and they needed rain so they could plant their crops.

The stake president decided to hold a special fast, and he asked each bishop to announce it to the members in his ward. He knew the people needed to draw closer to Heavenly Father and Jesus before they could receive the special help they needed. People from everywhere in the stake came to a meeting to join in praying and fasting. They prayed for rain or snow so they could plant their crops and they would grow. They waited and waited, but the moisture they needed did not come.

Months went by. The people continued to fast and pray. Finally, the stake president called another meeting. "Plant your crops," he told the people. "Heavenly Father has heard your prayers."

Even though the farmers had not seen any signs of rain, they did as they were directed. Within a few weeks, Heavenly Father's answer came. Day after day the rain fell, giving the crops the moisture they needed to grow. That year the farmers had one of the best crops they had ever seen. (See David Carl Danielson, "Rain in Due Season," Ensign, July 1978, pp. 68-69.)

Many times we consider such events to be miraculous, and they are, because we do not understand the operations which cause them.  Consequently, we also consider miracles to be outside our reality, i.e. that God causes them to happen contrary to natural law.  But consider the thoughts of Elder James E. Talmage in Jesus the Christ:

Miracles cannot be in contravention of natural law, but are wrought through the operation of laws not universally or commonly recognized. Gravitation is everywhere operative, but the local and special application of other agencies may appear to nullify it--as by muscular effort or mechanical impulse a stone is lifted from the ground, poised aloft, or sent hurtling through space. At every stage of the process, however, gravity is in full play, though its effect is modified by that of other and locally superior energy. The human sense of the miraculous wanes as comprehension of the operative process increases. Achievements made possible by modern invention of telegraph and telephone with or without wires, the transmutation of mechanical power into electricity with its manifold present applications and yet future possibilities, the development of the gasoline motor, the present accomplishments in aerial navigation--these are no longer miracles in man’s estimation, because they are all in some degree understood, are controlled by human agency, and, moreover, are continuous in their operation and not phenomenal. We arbitrarily classify as miracles only such phenomena as are unusual, special, transitory, and wrought by an agency beyond the power of man’s control…

In the contemplation of the miracles wrought by Christ, we must of necessity recognize the operation of a power transcending our present human understanding. In this field, science has not yet advanced far enough to analyze and explain. To deny the actuality of miracles on the ground that, because we cannot comprehend the means, the reported results are fictitious, is to arrogate to the human mind the attribute of omniscience, by implying that what man cannot comprehend cannot be, and that therefore he is able to comprehend all that is.

Could it be the the power that comes from prayer circles, fasting, group concentration, and the like, is actually because we tap into a power or energy that “transcend[s] our present human understanding,” “through the operation of laws not universally or commonly recognized” by us today?  That is not to say that God does not have a part in the process.  Since God knows all, could he have taught us about prayer and fasting so that we could utilize such laws which we don’t yet understand?

I believe that some day we will come to know and understand all the laws of the universe that we live in, and we will come to find that the peculiarities of quantum mechanics, energy and mass, the unique characteristics of light, the power of the priesthood, prayer circles, fasting, the operations of miracles, etc., are all interrelated and connected, and as President Howard W. Hunter once taught, that all truth is part of one great whole:

Truth never conflicts with itself. When we understand and work from true principles, we can expect order and agreement. True principles are part of one great whole, as the Savior explained to Joseph Smith…

When we encounter apparent conflict in our studies and scholarly work, it is because we see only a part of this great whole. Our understanding of the truth we seek may be partial or limited. We may hold an opinion or an idea about the world or human nature that is not entirely true. When we encounter situations of seeming conflict, we should not feel angry or discouraged, but rather we should confront the matter with great optimism and hope. For we know that this apparent conflict is only a prelude to a new understanding and a closer approximation of the ultimate principles we seek, and that this conflict will yield, in God’s own time, to those who seek wisdom by study and by faith.

It is inappropriate… to divide learning into secular education and religious education. Truth is, or ought to be, the object of our endeavors… and truth is not two things; it is one. Our concern is with true science and true religion. Certainly the laws that govern the behavior of both molecules and men are part of the laws known and used by our Heavenly Father. God is the perfect scientist. We must not forget that our knowledge is not yet perfect. Everyone in this life must often look at matters through a glass, darkly.

Nevertheless, all our discoveries in the physical sciences, in the social sciences, even in the workings of human nature testify that there is a set of eternal laws that govern in this universe. We come to realize that God, in his infinite wisdom and power, uses these laws in accomplishing his work. As we come to this awareness we can sense the beauty and majesty and harmony of the gospel. These truths are learned not just by study or prayer, but by study and prayer.

Prayer Circles and the Power of Group Thinking in Dan Brown’s ‘The Lost Symbol’

I am grateful for the SANE organizers for allowing us to videotape the symposium and make it available online, particularly Dan McLellan for his support.  I’d also like to thank Steve Smoot and Tyler Livingston for their help with the video cameras, digitizing and uploading.

Below are all the videos that we were able to record at the symposium (that have been uploaded to date).  You can see short bios of each presenter here or here.  David Larsen also took some great notes in the Ancient Israel sessions.  Note:  I will update this post with links to more of the videos as soon as they become available.  Enjoy!

Ancient Israel #1

Donald W. Parry: “Eve, Eden, and the Temple” – not permitted to record
Dan Belnap: “The Role of Scent in the Rituals of Ancient Israel” – Entire lecture or Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
David Larsen: “Two High Priesthoods? Evidence for Changes in the Priesthood from First to Second Temple Judaism” – Entire lecture or Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
William Hamblin: “What is the ‘Chariot’ in Ezekiel 1?” – Entire lecture or Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 or KeyNote presentation (see also his presentation the same day on the iconography of the “Hand of God” – part 1, part 2)

Ancient Israel #2

James Carroll: “An Expanded View of the Israelite Scapegoat” – Entire lecture or Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
David Seely: “The Tabernacle as Cosmos in Josephus’s Antiquities” – Entire lecture or Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
Brian M. Hauglid: “Ancient Temple Architecture: Beliefs and Practices in Light of the Restored Temple Idea” – not permitted to record
Matthew Brown: “Kingship Initiation Motifs in Ancient Israel” – not permitted to record

Early Christianity

Andrew Miller: “The Ante-Nicene Mysteries and their New Testament Sources” – Entire lecture or Part 1, Part 2
Aaron Snyder: “The Prayer Circle in Early Christianity” – Entire lecture or Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
Daniel Becerra: “The Chrism in Early Christianity” – Entire lecture or Part 1, Part 2
Rachel A. Grover: “The Paradise Garden and Messianic Age Imagery in the 5th to 7th Century Church Floor Mosaics of Jordan” – Entire lecture or Part 1, Part 2

The Classical World

Chris Dawe: “The Deification of Romulus” – did not present
Bryan Benson: “The Treatment of Temples in Plato’s Republic and Laws” – Entire lecture or Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
Dustin Simmons: “Emperor as God: Roman Imperial Cult Worship & Implications for Early Christians” – did not present
Daniel O. McClellan: “Initiation Ideology in Apuleius’ Golden Ass” – Entire lecture or Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
Keith Fairbank: “The Eleusinian Mysteries: Greatest Conquest of Demetrios Poliorketes” – Entire lecture or Part 1, Part 2

Egypt

Doug Marsh: “The Microcosmic Egyptian Temple” – Entire lecture or Part 1, Part 2
Kerry Muhlestein and Alyssa Lewis: “The Role of Violent Rituals in the Egyptian Temple” – Entire lecture or Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
Elliott Wise: “An Odor of Sanctity: The Iconography, Magic, and Liturgy of Egyptian Incense” – Entire Lecture or Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
John Gee: “Rituals of the Egyptian Temple: An Orientation” – not permitted to record

Open Session

Jacob Moody: “Philistine Ritual Artifacts” – did not present
Mark Wright: “The Cultural Context of Nephite Apostasy” – not permitted to record
Scott Preston Sukhan Nibley: “Ancient Southeast Asian Temples” – Entire lecture or Part 1, Part 2
Joseph Petramalo: “The Samaritan Temple and Priesthood” – Entire lecture or Part 1, Part 2

Videos of SANE Symposium Lectures on “Temples and Ritual in Antiquity”

David at HeavenlyAscents.com and I will be fasting for her this coming Sunday, October 19th.  If you would like to join with us in this fast, you are welcome to.  We pray that this difficult time will be a time of peace, comfort, and consolation to Dr. Larsen and her family, and that the Lord may bless them.

“And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up… and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” (James 5:15-16).

Our prayers are with you

The Associated Press reports that the Rihab Center for Archaeological Studies says that this cave “shows evidence of early Christian rituals.”  They also reportedly described part of the site as:

a circular worship area with stone seats separated from a living area that had a long tunnel leading to a source of water. He said the early Christians hid there from persecution.

An interesting mosaic in the church of St. George above the cave reads “the 70 beloved by God and the divine,” believing that “cave was used as a church by 70 disciples of Jesus in the first century after Christ’s death, which would make it the oldest Christian site of worship in the world.”

It seems as though there is quite a bit of skepticism about the find among other archaeologists, so it will be interesting to see what the consensus is after further study.

You can read the article at the Associated Press.

Possible Site of Early Christian Ritual Worship Discovered

In thinking further about your interesting paper on the genesis of the ring dance, I remembered that there is a marvelous example of a prayer circle and therefore a type of ring dance in the Book of Mormon. While teaching 2500 people at the temple of Bountiful, Christ organized them in concentric rings of righteousness and then He prayed with them. He was the center of these rings. Then came a ring of little children; next a ring of fire and angels; with the outer ring made up of righteous adults (see 3 Nephi 17:12, 15, 23-25" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outbound/comment/scriptures.lds.org');" href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/3_ne/17/12%2C15%2C23-25#12">3 Nephi 17:12, 15, 23-25). The message in forming these concentric rings of righteousness was in visual representation of the Savior's imperatives found in 3 Nephi 11:37-38" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outbound/comment/scriptures.lds.org');" href="http://scriptures.lds.org/en/3_ne/11/37-38#37">3 Nephi 11:37-38. To come unto Christ and become like Him we as adults must become sanctified little children.

I think that this might very well have allusions to a type of prayer circle when Christ visited the New World. Where else might we find hidden treasures such as this in the Book of Mormon?

Possible Prayer Circle in 3 Nephi 17

A group of researchers has just begun a two-week excavation at the well-known Stonehenge site in England in an attempt to discover, once and for all, the meaning behind the mysterious ruins. According to current scientific dating, Stonehenge dates back to about 3000 B.C., but it has perplexed archaeologists for years as to the purpose of its creation. Who created it and why? Why was the structure a venerated destination for thousands of years, being built, taken down, rebuilt and expanded a number of times.

What was Stonehenge?

There are, of course, many theories that have circulated since studies began hundreds of years ago. According to the BBC, the most popular hypotheses have regarded Stonehenge as a:

1. Gigantic calendar – The arrangement of the stones is such to allow for astronomical observations, including the summer and winter solstices.
2. Religious worship site – Some have said that the heavenward pointing stones connected man with the spiritual, as well as their circular placement. It created a type of shrine or sanctuary.
3. Monument for the dead – This theory states that the stones represented a permanence of ancestry that could be memorialized.
4. Extraterrestrial landing site – Some in the 1970s believed that beings from other worlds would come to this site.
5. Healing center – The latest theory, and the one supported by the latest researchers that are currently excavating at the site, is that Stonehenge served as a healing center for the sick and otherwise afflicted who would travel for miles around to be supernaturally cured from their ills. It was a kind of “prehistoric Lourdes.”

Scientists studying the ruins seem to argue for one or the other theories, and reject the others. I confess I’m not an archaeologist in the least kind, but I believe that Stonehenge could have served all of the above purposes that different researchers have concluded that the site was built for.

Nibley Spoke of Stonehenge

Hugh Nibley associated Stonehenge, as well as the rest of the megalithic stone circles found in many parts of Europe and other parts of the world, to the temple. In one of his latest analyzes Nibley spoke of the ruins in Avebury, another henge which is much larger and older than Stonehenge and just 20 miles to the north of the more famous site:

Since death cannot be denied, what hope is there for the hereafter? The Egyptian answer, as everybody recognizes today, was to start all over again and have a new life. That meant a new creation. How was that to be effected? There is one glowing example which no one can overlook--the sun. And the Egyptians, like other ancient people, made the most of it. Stick close to the sun was the idea, and do what he does. Get yourself a place in his boat, as a crewmember, attendant (shms-Re), or member of the family. To prolong your own life, you must get in on the action--you must be present at the only time and place that the sun, completing one cycle and reaching its lowest point at the solstice, without a split-second hesitation, reverses its direction and begins its upward climb [solstices].

This means that everybody in the world had to come together at a special place--the exact center of the cosmos, since it was the point of convergence for the pilgrims’ roads from every point on the horizon. And for the beginning of a new life cycle, you must start with the creation all over again. The creation drama is a standard feature of temple worship. Everywhere, as far as we can trace the records and the ruins, there have been great gatherings of the race--the panegyris, or “everybody in a circle,” in every part of the world. Many have recognized the phenomenon, but no one can explain when or how it began. Eduard Meyer thinks it started with animals in their periodic meetings to disport and reproduce. Megalithic circles marking the great ceremonial assemblages are found by the thousands and go back to the Stone Age.
I had the good fortune to be stationed near Avebury in Hertfordshire at the end of World War II and had ample time to examine the vast establishment. That was before it was discovered by the tourists. The stone circle, [was] 1400 feet in diameter… From the air (I had to pass over it slowly in regular and frequent glider flights) one could behold traces of prehistoric roads, marked by standing stones, leading from all directions. That is the general layout of countless megalithic ceremonial centers, over ten thousand of which are known…

On another occasion, Nibley said:

The temple is the great teaching institution of the human race; universities are much older than we might ever expect. A university began as a Greek Mouseion, a temple of the Muses, who represented all departments of knowledge… The Egyptians called it the “House of Life.” It was an observatory, a great megalithic complex of standing stones (later columns and pylons), with amazingly sophisticated devices for observing and recording the motions of the heavens. A study of Stonehenge shows that it was a computer of great accuracy, a university set in the midst of sacred groves -- botanical and geological gardens and groves; it was a “paradise,” a Garden of Eden, where all life is sacrosanct.

And again:

To get the general picture we have to see this institution which is so very important. We’ll call it the panegyris here. Pan means “everybody,” and gyris means “a gyroscope,” around in a circle. This is when everybody meets in the big circle, the cosmic circle. “In ancient times at holy shrines, each believed to mark the exact center of the universe… represented as the point at which the four quarters of the earth converge… one might have seen assembled at the new year… the moment of creation, the beginning and ending of time, vast concourses of people would come together.” That’s what you have at Stonehenge and Avebury and well over a thousand ancient megalithic centers scattered all over Europe. They are also in Asia. There are lots of them in Palestine. “Vast concourses of people, each thought to represent the entire human race in the presence of all its ancestors and gods….”

Nibley continually repeated these same things:

I spent eight months in 1943 and 1944 preparing for the invasion of Europe, at Grenham Lodge, not far from Avebury, near Marlborough, on the plains of England. This is one of the oldest (2600 B.C.) and largest monuments of Europe, 500 years older than Stonehenge. It’s enormous. Much excavating has been done there. On days off, I had a chance to inspect it, and I was electrified by it…

At this same time “in other parts of the British Isles people were already putting up great stone circles for ceremonies. At Stennes in the Orkneys [in Scotland halfway to the North Pole] twelve steepling columns stood in a ring” -- as Jacob did in Israel, whenever he made a covenant (Genesis 31:45-46).

Twelve steepling columns stood in a ring. . . . In Ireland the chambered round cairn of New Grange with its quartz walls with a passage aligned towards the mid-winter sunrise was placed inside a circle of over thirty massive blocks of stone. In the Lake District, source of many stone axes, people were going to splendid stone circles with names that peal like a prehistoric role of honour: Long Meg and Her Daughters, the Carles at Castlerigg, Sunken Kirk, the Grey Horses. Rites inside these sacred rings differed but in every region where there was a fair-sized population circular enclosures were the foci [notice the focus, the center points] of ceremonies, megalithic rings in the north and west, henges of earth or chalk in the stoneless areas of lowland Britain.

That is how they differed in form, but they always have the ring, and they always do the same thing when they come together. It is vastly older than the pyramids, is beautifully done, and contains magnificent things…

The point is that our ancestors were doing all this far back in time… In the earliest times, everybody seemed to be doing the same sort of thing, building the same kinds of structures….

“Avebury became almost a metropolitan centre to which people came from miles around to trade and to settle disputes, to worship in the marvelous stone rings that expressed the barbaric pride of the natives.” And the remains are not a few. There are piles of stuff to show what was going on at these places. They were all doing the same sort of thing.

Death and regeneration are the themes of Avebury. The presence of human bones, the pieces of stone, the red ochre, the pockets of fertile earth, the antlers, the shapes of the sarsens, the architecture of the avenues and circles, all are consistent with the belief that Avebury was intended as a temple in which, at various times of the year, the large population could gather to watch and take part in ceremonies of magic and evocation that would safeguard their lives…

Gordon Childe [the great Scottish prehistorian] thought of Avebury as a cathedral, Stuart Piggot as an open sanctuary associated with a sky-god… Jacquetta Hawkes wrote of fertility rites involving the earth and the sun although “what those mysteries were we shall never know.” However generalised these observations there is agreement about a religious centre… linked with the earth, the sun [the heavenly bodies in their motions], ritual objects and dead bones [i.e., with the ancestors, and scholars all agree on that]. Not many years ago Patrick Crampton went further, suggesting that Avebury was not only a temple of the powerful Earth Goddess but also a “city,” the first “capital -- religious, cultural, commercial -- of most of southern Britain.”

So these concepts are very old. I myself was enormously impressed by the size of the stones, weighing sixty tons, set in a great circle 350 yards across. It was an amazing accomplishment that they dragged them to the site. It required great work, concentration, and leadership…

The enormous ditch around the stones is thirty feet deep, dug out by use of only deer horns. For ritual reasons, they could not use anything else.

I used to fly over the area frequently. You could see radiating from the site great table stones, and the great prehistoric roads that led to the site, from hundreds of miles to the north. From everywhere, people came to Avebury, nearly five thousand years ago, to celebrate the very thing we do in our temples today -- the continuity of life.

And again:

In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries it was the habit of English country gentlemen, fired with the scientific interests of the former century and the romantic sensibilities of the latter, to survey, sketch, describe, and speculate about the many and mysterious prehistoric stone circles, avenues, passage-graves, and mounds on their estates and elsewhere. In their papers read before local learned societies and in their letters to antiquarian journals, they debated endlessly without reaching any consensus of agreement as to whether those often imposing monuments were the work of some mysterious unknown race or that of the ancient Britons, Druids, Romans, Saxons, or Danes. But on one thing there was almost unanimous agreement, namely, that the most impressive of the structures were temples. In the light of local folktales and legends, immemorial rustic seasonal festivities, and other quaint customs and observances, supported by occasional illuminating passages from classical and medieval writers as well as the Bible, they could imagine vast concourses of people gathering at these great ceremonial centers at times set by sun, moon, stars, and the growing and harvesting seasons, to celebrate a new lease on life for the individual and the society…

[An article from July 1980 Scientific American] finds “a succession of what we can only call cathedral architects” at work in the third and fourth millenniums B.C. “Most emphatically,” he writes, these “megalithic rings in general [were] sacred and secular meeting places,” and he sees” an impelling faith” behind the immense effort and skill that produced them--”some powerful religious belief including belief in an afterlife.” He notes that though the building activity stopped by 1000 B.C., “the general population” retained folk-memories of what went on, and he finds it “more than possible that the Druidic priesthood . . . used them as temples.” Finally he notes that even Christian churches in some places did not disdain to build upon their ruins.

So what were these people doing? They were building temples, sacred places where they could go to commune with diety and perform their sacred ceremonies, rites, and ordinances.

Latter-day Parallels

If you’ve made it this far in the post, congratulations. Probably 95% will have dropped off by now. Who cares about that old wreck Stonehenge, right? It has nothing to do with me. Well, it has much more to do with us than we might casually admit or recognize. Nibley saw it, he recognized it, and largely thanks to him our knowledge of the temple is placed squarely in the milieu of religious worship since the beginning of time.

The similarities between the restored ordinances of the LDS temple and the various theories that exist about Stonehenge go much deeper than first appearances:

1. Gigantic calendar – The temple has always been a place where, as Nibley said, “one gets one’s bearings on the universe”. The temple is a model of the universe. Even the newest member of the Church recognizes the vast number of cosmological symbols which adorn our temples, on the outside and within. The temple connects us with the heavens, the planets, the stars, the orbits, the motions, the dwelling place of God. The temple is the gate of heaven (Gen. 28:17). It connects us back to God.
2. Religious worship site – As Nibley extensively noted, Stonehenge was a religious site, as were all the other stone circle creations of man in ancient times. They were places where man got in touch with the Gods. God spoke to man there, and man to God. It represented the center of the cosmos, where God dwells. It was where people traveled far or near to worship deity. This is precisely the same of our modern-day temples.
3. Monument for the dead – I don’t think there is a greater monument or establishment to the dead in all the world than the Latter-day Saint temples which dot the earth today. 99.9% of the work that we do there is for the salvation and redemption of the dead, so that they might receive the ordinances of the gospel of Jesus Christ that they had no opportunity to in mortality. The gates of hell have not prevailed. They have been thrown open wide by Jesus Christ, and many thousands upon thousands are being redeemed every day in holy temples scattered across the world, dedicated to the work of the Lord. Billions of names have been gathered in preparation for the work. Around the year 350 A.D. Cyril of Jerusalem gave the following as part of the instruction in the early Christian prayer circle practice, hinting at a kind of vicarious offering of the atonement for the dead:
   

   After that we remember the dead--patriarchs, prophets, apostles, martyrs--that God might grant our petition through the joining of our prayers with theirs. Then we pray for … all of our own people who have fallen asleep, believing that the greatest possible benefit can come to the spirits on whose behalf (hyper hon) the petition is made.

   I have often heard people ask: What good does it do the departed spirit, whether the person was good or bad in life, to be remembered in the prayer? … Ans. By doing for them and for ourselves what a loving God requires (exileoumenoi), we make available (prospheromen) the atoning sacrifice which Christ made for our sins.

4. Extraterrestrial landing site – This might seem out of the realm of relationship with the temple, but it is not. Extraterrestrials are none other than beings or personages from another place. We do not believe in the aliens of popular folklore, the little green men with oversized heads and eyeballs. Modern revelation to prophets and apostles has revealed that there is other life in the universe besides us, and it is the very same life as we are – people. God’s creations are as innumerable as the sands of the sea, and each of them have human beings living on them, sons and daughters of God, just like us (Moses 1:35). Latter-day Saints believe that God and angels have visited the earth anew since the beginning of the restoration (JS-H 1). Indeed, from the very beginning of time, this earth was populated from people from another place (i.e. heaven). We believe that the temple is a place where God and his angels can come to this earth and commune with the saints. They walk the halls. They witness the ordinances. They interact with the patrons. They facilitate the work, both inside and outside the temple. They have been seen countless times in temples since Kirtland. God and his angels are not absent from the his work on the earth.
5. Healing center – The latest theories, especially those of the current excavators, surrounding Stonehenge are that it was a place of healing, where people could gather who had ailments, and the sanctity and supernatural powers of the spot would help cure them. LDS temples today have prayer rolls in the temples whereupon the names of people who are sick and afflicted (either physically, emotionally, mentally or spiritually) may be written, and for whom prayers are then offered up in the temple. We believe the words of James who said, “Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much” (James 5:16). As part of the same instruction from Cyril in the fourth century on the early Christian prayer circle we read:
   

   We pray for the common peace of the church and the well-being of the world (kosmos), for kings, commanders, and allies, for the sick and afflicted, and in short for all who need help.

Stonehenge is not something that is so unrelated to our present situation that we cannot understand it. It has served the same purpose that many sacred spaces have since the beginning, and which has been restored in its true and correct form today in the Latter-day Saint temples, the house of the Lord.

Stonehenge: An Ancient Temple

For those who may have missed it the first time when this blog was in its infancy, have a look over at at the 6-part series I posted entitled “The Genesis of the Round Dance.”  I’d like to get your take on the paper.  I didn’t receive much commentary the first time round.  (No pun intended).

The Genesis of the Round Dance – Reprise