Year: 2008

The Hopi Nakwách – The Symbol of Brotherhood

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Nakwach symbol

Nakwach symbol

Hugh Nibley had a fascination with the Hopi Indian tribes of northeastern Arizona. He believed that the Hopi captured something about life that the rest of the world had missed. Their culture, traditions, and ceremonies were stable and permanent. They did not look to the conveniences of the day, and yet had still survived unhampered for thousands of years. Their rituals were particularly of interest to Dr. Nibley, as he saw in them something very familiar in parallels to ancient patterns throughout the world:

By the latest count, the Hopi are the only people in the world who still preserve a full annual cycle of full-dress protological, eschatological and cosmological ceremonies. ((Boyd Jay Petersen. Hugh Nibley: A Consecrated Life. 280))

What most impressed Nibley were the similarities between the Hopi rituals and those of the Church. Nibley’s son-in-law, Boyd Petersen, recounts: [Read more…]

President Monson’s Calling as a Prophet

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New First Presidency

New First Presidency

I want all people to know that I know that President Thomas S. Monson is God’s prophet, seer, and revelator on the earth today. He has been called just as all prophets have been called since the beginning of time, and that is by God. God calls prophets, such as Adam, Enoch, Abraham, Moses, Isaiah, and others. It is God who has chosen President Monson to be His representative on the earth at this time. Is he still a man? Yes. But the Lord has anointed him with the position and authority to lead and direct His kingdom on the earth. We will listen to his counsel as it is the word of the Lord (D&C 1:38).

I noticed, as have others, that President Monson did not look like himself yesterday morning [Read more…]

Temple a Model for Raising Children

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Today there was a great post on Times & Seasons about President Beck’s talk at the last General Conference called “Mothers Who Know“, and specifically focusing on how to make our homes as a temple. Julie Smith makes some good points about how we can integrate temple teachings into our home environment.

But I also thought a comment from Anita made an interesting point about how the temple can be a model for raising and teaching our children:

…in their initial years they are given a name and learn about the importance of bodies, body parts, about clothing and modesty, the nature of this world, creation, and opposites. As they are baptized and accountable, they learn to recognize Satan and his half-truths, and as they become teenagers, we focus on morality and chastity, and preparation for marriage. The temple can be a map through mortality and guide us in raising our children if we look at it that way.

On a related note, in some cultures the initiation of adolescents into adulthood only takes place by the sacred rites and ceremonies (i.e. the Hopi).

The Genesis of the Round Dance – Part 6

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Byzantine Dance

Byzantine Dance

(Continued from Part 5)

Dancing in Worship

If this round dancing in the prayer circle seems peculiar, recall Lehi’s vision at the beginning of The Book of Mormon, where he sees God on his throne “surrounded with numberless concourses of angels in the attitude of singing and praising their God” ((The Book of Mormon, 1 Nephi 1:8)). Nibley comments:

Surrounding concourses are concentric circles, and the singing and praising are never static: it is a dynamic picture with everything in motion, as Lehi sees it, and as the cosmic pattern of the thing requires. The prayer circle is often called the chorus of the apostles, and it is the meaning of chorus which can be a choir, but is originally a ring dance. ((Nibley, Hugh, et al. Mormonism and Early Christianity. Vol. 4. Salt Lake City, Utah; Provo, Utah: Deseret Book Co.; Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 1987, 53-54)) [Read more…]

The Ancient Pentagram – A Christian Symbol

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Pentagrams on the Nauvoo Temple

Pentagrams on the Nauvoo Temple

One of the more well-used and worn-out attacks from our critics has been the Church’s use of the symbol of the pentagram (a 5-pointed star) on some of our temples, most particularly on the early temples of this dispensation such as the Nauvoo Temple. In an sweeping gesture they pass these symbols off as absolute proof that Mormonism is a Satanic organization. They cannot imagine why a so-called Christian faith would even think to use such symbols when it is so clear to them that they are evil and of the devil.

Why do these critics always assume the worst, and ignore the simple evidence? It didn’t take me more than a few minutes of Googling to find the following information on the symbolism of the pentagram from several different sites: [Read more…]