유란시아 책
III 부. 유란시아의 역사
Paper 90
Shamanism—Medicine Men and Priests
Shamanism—Medicine Men and Priests
90:0.1 (986.1)
THE evolution of religious observances progressed from placation, avoidance, exorcism, coercion, conciliation, and propitiation to sacrifice, atonement, and redemption. The technique of religious ritual passed from the forms of the primitive cult through fetishes to magic and miracles; and as ritual became more complex in response to man’s increasingly complex concept of the supermaterial realms, it was inevitably dominated by medicine men, shamans, and priests.
90:0.2 (986.2)
In the advancing concepts of primitive man the spirit world was eventually regarded as being unresponsive to the ordinary mortal. Only the exceptional among humans could catch the ear of the gods; only the extraordinary man or woman would be heard by the spirits. Religion thus enters upon a new phase, a stage wherein it gradually becomes secondhanded; always does a medicine man, a shaman, or a priest intervene between the religionist and the object of worship. And today most Urantia systems of organized religious belief are passing through this level of evolutionary development.
90:0.3 (986.3)
Evolutionary religion is born of a simple and all-powerful fear, the fear which surges through the human mind when confronted with the unknown, the inexplicable, and the incomprehensible. Religion eventually achieves the profoundly simple realization of an all-powerful love, the love which sweeps irresistibly through the human soul when awakened to the conception of the limitless affection of the Universal Father for the sons of the universe. But in between the beginning and the consummation of religious evolution, there intervene the long ages of the shamans, who presume to stand between man and God as intermediaries, interpreters, and intercessors.
90:1.1 (986.4)
The shaman was the ranking medicine man, the ceremonial fetishman, and the focus personality for all the practices of evolutionary religion. In many groups the shaman outranked the war chief, marking the beginning of the church domination of the state. The shaman sometimes functioned as a priest and even as a priest-king. Some of the later tribes had both the earlier shaman-medicine men (seers) and the later appearing shaman-priests. And in many cases the office of shaman became hereditary.
90:1.2 (986.5)
Since in olden times anything abnormal was ascribed to spirit possession, any striking mental or physical abnormality constituted qualification for being a medicine man. Many of these men were epileptic, many of the women hysteric, and these two types accounted for a good deal of ancient inspiration as well as spirit and devil possession. Quite a few of these earliest of priests were of a class which has since been denominated paranoiac.
90:1.3 (987.1)
While they may have practiced deception in minor matters, the great majority of the shamans believed in the fact of their spirit possession. Women who were able to throw themselves into a trance or a cataleptic fit became powerful shamanesses; later, such women became prophets and spirit mediums. Their cataleptic trances usually involved alleged communications with the ghosts of the dead. Many female shamans were also professional dancers.
그러나 모든 무당이 자아-기만적이지는 않았으며;교활한 사람과 유능한 사기꾼도 많았다. 그 직업이 발달하게 되자, 주술사 자격을 얻기 까지 10년 동안 고생하고 금욕하면서 실습하는 봉사기간이 초보자에게 요구됐다. 무당은 특화된 형태의 복장을 개발했고, 신비스럽게 보이는 행위를 꾸며냈다. 그들은 부족원들을 감동시키고 미혹할 수 있는 어떤 신체 상태를 유발하려고 흔히 약품을 사용했다. 재빠른 손재주는 평범한 사람들에게 초자연적인 것처럼 보였고, 교활한 사제들이 복화술{腹話術}을 처음 이용했다. 옛 무당 중에 상당수는 자신도 모르게 최면 상태에 빠졌으며, 자기 배꼽을 오랫동안 집중하여 응시함으로써 자가 최면을 유도하는 경우도 많았다.
90:1.4 (987.2)
But not all shamans were self-deceived; many were shrewd and able tricksters. As the profession developed, a novice was required to serve an apprenticeship of ten years of hardship and self-denial to qualify as a medicine man. The shamans developed a professional mode of dress and affected a mysterious conduct. They frequently employed drugs to induce certain physical states which would impress and mystify the tribesmen. Sleight-of-hand feats were regarded as supernatural by the common folk, and ventriloquism was first used by shrewd priests. Many of the olden shamans unwittingly stumbled onto hypnotism; others induced autohypnosis by prolonged staring at their navels.
90:1.5 (987.3)
While many resorted to these tricks and deceptions, their reputation as a class, after all, stood on apparent achievement. When a shaman failed in his undertakings, if he could not advance a plausible alibi, he was either demoted or killed. Thus the honest shamans early perished; only the shrewd actors survived.
영{靈}을 불러내는 것은 몹시 까다롭고 심히 복잡한 과정이었는데, 오늘날 교회 예식에서 옛 말투를 사용하는 것과 비교될 수 있다. 인간 종족은 초인적 존재의 도움 곧 계시를 아주 일찍부터 추구했으며;사람은 무당이 실제로 그런 계시를 받는다고 믿었다. 무당들은 활동할 때 큰 암시 능력을 활용했지만, 그것은 거의 변함없이 소극적인 암시였으며;아주 최근에 와서야 적극적 암시 기법이 채택됐다. 전문적인 무당 직업이 발달하던 초기에, 그들은 비 내리기, 병 고치기, 범죄자 찾아내기 등의 분야로 전문화하기 시작했다. 그러나 병 고치는 것은 무속{巫俗} 주술사의 주요 기능이 아니었으며;오히려 삶 속에서 위험요소를 알아내고 통제하는 것이 주요 기능이었다.
90:2.1 (987.5)
Spirit conjuring was a very precise and highly complicated procedure, comparable to present-day church rituals conducted in an ancient tongue. The human race very early sought for superhuman help, for revelation; and men believed that the shaman actually received such revelations. While the shamans utilized the great power of suggestion in their work, it was almost invariably negative suggestion; only in very recent times has the technique of positive suggestion been employed. In the early development of their profession the shamans began to specialize in such vocations as rain making, disease healing, and crime detecting. To heal diseases was not, however, the chief function of a shamanic medicine man; it was, rather, to know and to control the hazards of living.
90:2.2 (987.6)
Ancient black art, both religious and secular, was called white art when practiced by either priests, seers, shamans, or medicine men. The practitioners of the black art were called sorcerers, magicians, wizards, witches, enchanters, necromancers, conjurers, and soothsayers. As time passed, all such purported contact with the supernatural was classified either as witchcraft or shamancraft.
90:2.3 (987.7)
Witchcraft embraced the magic performed by earlier, irregular, and unrecognized spirits; shamancraft had to do with miracles performed by regular spirits and recognized gods of the tribe. In later times the witch became associated with the devil, and thus was the stage set for the many comparatively recent exhibitions of religious intolerance. Witchcraft was a religion with many primitive tribes.
90:2.4 (987.8)
The shamans were great believers in the mission of chance as revelatory of the will of the spirits; they frequently cast lots to arrive at decisions. Modern survivals of this proclivity for casting lots are illustrated, not only in the many games of chance, but also in the well-known “counting-out” rhymes. Once, the person counted out must die; now, he is only it in some childish game. That which was serious business to primitive man has survived as a diversion of the modern child.
90:2.5 (988.1)
The medicine men put great trust in signs and omens, such as, “When you hear the sound of a rustling in the tops of the mulberry trees, then shall you bestir yourself.” Very early in the history of the race the shamans turned their attention to the stars. Primitive astrology was a world-wide belief and practice; dream interpreting also became widespread. All this was soon followed by the appearance of those temperamental shamanesses who professed to be able to communicate with the spirits of the dead.
90:2.6 (988.2)
Though of ancient origin, the rain makers, or weather shamans, have persisted right on down through the ages. A severe drought meant death to the early agriculturists; weather control was the object of much ancient magic. Civilized man still makes the weather the common topic of conversation. The olden peoples all believed in the power of the shaman as a rain maker, but it was customary to kill him when he failed, unless he could offer a plausible excuse to account for the failure.
90:2.7 (988.3)
Again and again did the Caesars banish the astrologers, but they invariably returned because of the popular belief in their powers. They could not be driven out, and even in the sixteenth century after Christ the directors of Occidental church and state were the patrons of astrology. Thousands of supposedly intelligent people still believe that one may be born under the domination of a lucky or an unlucky star; that the juxtaposition of the heavenly bodies determines the outcome of various terrestrial adventures. Fortunetellers are still patronized by the credulous.
90:2.9 (988.5)
Ever and anon, true prophets and teachers arose to denounce and expose shamanism. Even the vanishing red man had such a prophet within the past hundred years, the Shawnee Tenskwatawa, who predicted the eclipse of the sun in 1806 and denounced the vices of the white man. Many true teachers have appeared among the various tribes and races all through the long ages of evolutionary history. And they will ever continue to appear to challenge the shamans or priests of any age who oppose general education and attempt to thwart scientific progress.
90:2.10 (988.6)
In many ways and by devious methods the olden shamans established their reputations as voices of God and custodians of providence. They sprinkled the newborn with water and conferred names upon them; they circumcised the males. They presided over all burial ceremonies and made due announcement of the safe arrival of the dead in spiritland.
90:2.11 (988.7)
The shamanic priests and medicine men often became very wealthy through the accretion of their various fees which were ostensibly offerings to the spirits. Not infrequently a shaman would accumulate practically all the material wealth of his tribe. Upon the death of a wealthy man it was customary to divide his property equally with the shaman and some public enterprise or charity. This practice still obtains in some parts of Tibet, where one half the male population belongs to this class of nonproducers.
90:2.12 (989.1)
The shamans dressed well and usually had a number of wives; they were the original aristocracy, being exempt from all tribal restrictions. They were very often of low-grade mind and morals. They suppressed their rivals by denominating them witches or sorcerers and very frequently rose to such positions of influence and power that they were able to dominate the chiefs or kings.
90:2.13 (989.2)
Primitive man regarded the shaman as a necessary evil; he feared him but did not love him. Early man respected knowledge; he honored and rewarded wisdom. The shaman was mostly fraud, but the veneration for shamanism well illustrates the premium put upon wisdom in the evolution of the race.
고대인은 자신과 자신의 물질 환경이 유령의 변덕과 영의 즉흥적 생각에 직접 반응한다고 생각했으므로, 그의 종교가 오로지 물질 용건에만 관련됐다는 것은 전혀 이상하지 않다. 현대인은 자신의 물질 문제에 직접 대처하며;정신이 총명하게 조종함에 따라서 물질이 반응한다는 것을 인식한다. 원시인도 마찬가지로 물리적 영역의 에너지와 생명을 변경하고, 심지어 통제할 수 있게 되기를 열망했지만;시공우주에 대한 납득이 제한됐으므로, 유령과 영과 신들이 몸소 생명과 물질을 낱낱이 통제하는 데 즉시 관여한다고 믿게 됐고, 이런 초인적 대행자의 호감과 후원을 얻을 수 있도록 논리적으로 자신의 노고를 기울였다.
90:3.1 (989.3)
Since ancient man regarded himself and his material environment as being directly responsive to the whims of the ghosts and the fancies of the spirits, it is not strange that his religion should have been so exclusively concerned with material affairs. Modern man attacks his material problems directly; he recognizes that matter is responsive to the intelligent manipulation of mind. Primitive man likewise desired to modify and even to control the life and energies of the physical domains; and since his limited comprehension of the cosmos led him to the belief that ghosts, spirits, and gods were personally and immediately concerned with the detailed control of life and matter, he logically directed his efforts to winning the favor and support of these superhuman agencies.
90:3.2 (989.4)
Viewed in this light, much of the inexplicable and irrational in the ancient cults is understandable. The ceremonies of the cult were primitive man’s attempt to control the material world in which he found himself. And many of his efforts were directed to the end of prolonging life and insuring health. Since all diseases and death itself were originally regarded as spirit phenomena, it was inevitable that the shamans, while functioning as medicine men and priests, should also have labored as doctors and surgeons.
90:3.3 (989.5)
The primitive mind may be handicapped by lack of facts, but it is for all that logical. When thoughtful men observe disease and death, they set about to determine the causes of these visitations, and in accordance with their understanding, the shamans and the scientists have propounded the following theories of affliction:
90:3.4 (989.6)
1. Ghosts—direct spirit influences. The earliest hypothesis advanced in explanation of disease and death was that spirits caused disease by enticing the soul out of the body; if it failed to return, death ensued. The ancients so feared the malevolent action of disease-producing ghosts that ailing individuals would often be deserted without even food or water. Regardless of the erroneous basis for these beliefs, they did effectively isolate afflicted individuals and prevent the spread of contagious disease.
90:3.5 (989.7)
2. Violence—obvious causes. The causes for some accidents and deaths were so easy to identify that they were early removed from the category of ghost action. Fatalities and wounds attendant upon war, animal combat, and other readily identifiable agencies were considered as natural occurrences. But it was long believed that the spirits were still responsible for delayed healing or for the infection of wounds of even “natural” causation. If no observable natural agent could be discovered, the spirit ghosts were still held responsible for disease and death.
3. 마술 --적의 영향력. 대부분의 질병은, 마녀술책에 걸림으로써, 즉 흉안이나 마술적 활 겨누기 행위로 인해 일어난다고 생각했다. 한때는 다른 사람을 손가락으로 가리키는 것을 정말로 위험하게 여겼으며;손가락으로 가리키는 것은 지금도 무례한 행동으로 간주된다. 애매한 질병이나 죽음이 발생된 경우에, 고대인은 공식으로 검시하고, 시신을 해부하고, 무엇을 발견하면 그것이 질병의 원인이라고 결정하곤 했으며;그렇지 않으면 죽음을 마녀술책의 책임으로 돌리곤 했고, 따라서 그 책임이 있는 마녀를 죽일 필요가 있었다. 옛 검시관의 검시가, 마녀라고 생각되는 자의 생명을 많이 살렸다. 어떤 부족 가운데서는 부족원이 스스로 마녀술책에 걸려서 죽을 수 있다고 믿었으며, 그런 경우에는 아무도 고발되지 않았다.
90:3.7 (990.2)
3. Magic—the influence of enemies. Much sickness was thought to be caused by bewitchment, the action of the evil eye and the magic pointing bow. At one time it was really dangerous to point a finger at anyone; it is still regarded as ill-mannered to point. In cases of obscure disease and death the ancients would hold a formal inquest, dissect the body, and settle upon some finding as the cause of death; otherwise the death would be laid to witchcraft, thus necessitating the execution of the witch responsible therefor. These ancient coroner’s inquests saved many a supposed witch’s life. Among some it was believed that a tribesman could die as a result of his own witchcraft, in which event no one was accused.
4. 죄 --금기{禁忌} 위반에 대한 형벌. 비교적 근래에 이르러서, 질병은 개인이나 종족이 저지른 죄에 대한 형벌이라고 믿었다. 이런 수준의 진화를 겪고 있는 민족들 가운데 널리 퍼진 견해는, 누군가 금기를 범하지 않는 한, 아무도 고통당하지 않는다는 것이다. 질병이나 수난을, “저희 안에 계시는 전능자의 화살”로 간주하는 태도는, 전형적인 그런 믿음의 모습이다. 중국인과 메소포타미아인은 질병을 악한 귀신이 작용한 결과로 간주했으며, 갈대아인은 또한 별들이 고난의 원인이라고 생각했다. 신이 진노한 결과로 질병이 생긴다는 이런 견해는, 문명화된 것으로 평판 나 있는 대부분의 유란시아인 집단에서 여전히 우세하다.
90:3.8 (990.3)
4. Sin—punishment for taboo violation. In comparatively recent times it has been believed that sickness is a punishment for sin, personal or racial. Among peoples traversing this level of evolution the prevailing theory is that one cannot be afflicted unless one has violated a taboo. To regard sickness and suffering as “arrows of the Almighty within them” is typical of such beliefs. The Chinese and Mesopotamians long regarded disease as the result of the action of evil demons, although the Chaldeans also looked upon the stars as the cause of suffering. This theory of disease as a consequence of divine wrath is still prevalent among many reputedly civilized groups of Urantians.
5. 자연발생적 인과관계. 에너지와 물질과 생명을 다루는 물리적 영역에서, 원인과 결과의 상호관계라는 물질적 비밀을 인류가 깨우치기까지, 무척 오랜 세월이 걸렸다. 아담선의 교훈을 전통으로 간직했던 고대 그리스인은, 질병이 자연발생적 원인의 결과라는 사실을 처음 깨달은 민족 가운데 하나였다. 과학 시대가 전개됨으로써, 질병과 죽음에 대한 케케묵은 견해는 서서히 확실하게 무너지고 있다. 열병{熱病}은 초자연적 부조화의 범주에서 제외된 첫 인간 질병이었고, 인간 정신을 그토록 오랫동안 가뒀던 무지의 족쇄를, 과학시대가 점차 파괴해왔다. 노화 현상과 전염병을 이해함으로써, 인간의 고통과 팔사자의 수난을 직접 일으키는 가해자라고 여기는, 유령이나 영이나 신들에 대한 사람의 두려움이 점차 사라지고 있다.
90:3.9 (990.4)
5. Natural causation. Mankind has been very slow to learn the material secrets of the interrelationship of cause and effect in the physical domains of energy, matter, and life. The ancient Greeks, having preserved the traditions of Adamson’s teachings, were among the first to recognize that all disease is the result of natural causes. Slowly and certainly the unfolding of a scientific era is destroying man’s age-old theories of sickness and death. Fever was one of the first human ailments to be removed from the category of supernatural disorders, and progressively the era of science has broken the fetters of ignorance which so long imprisoned the human mind. An understanding of old age and contagion is gradually obliterating man’s fear of ghosts, spirits, and gods as the personal perpetrators of human misery and mortal suffering.
90:3.10 (990.5)
Evolution unerringly achieves its end: It imbues man with that superstitious fear of the unknown and dread of the unseen which is the scaffolding for the God concept. And having witnessed the birth of an advanced comprehension of Deity, through the co-ordinate action of revelation, this same technique of evolution then unerringly sets in motion those forces of thought which will inexorably obliterate the scaffolding, which has served its purpose.
90:4.1 (990.6)
The entire life of ancient men was prophylactic; their religion was in no small measure a technique for disease prevention. And regardless of the error in their theories, they were wholehearted in putting them into effect; they had unbounded faith in their methods of treatment, and that, in itself, is a powerful remedy.
90:4.2 (991.1)
The faith required to get well under the foolish ministrations of one of these ancient shamans was, after all, not materially different from that which is required to experience healing at the hands of some of his later-day successors who engage in the nonscientific treatment of disease.
90:4.3 (991.2)
The more primitive tribes greatly feared the sick, and for long ages they were carefully avoided, shamefully neglected. It was a great advance in humanitarianism when the evolution of shamancraft produced priests and medicine men who consented to treat disease. Then it became customary for the entire clan to crowd into the sickroom to assist the shaman in howling the disease ghosts away. It was not uncommon for a woman to be the diagnosing shaman, while a man would administer treatment. The usual method of diagnosing disease was to examine the entrails of an animal.
90:4.4 (991.3)
Disease was treated by chanting, howling, laying on of hands, breathing on the patient, and many other techniques. In later times the resort to temple sleep, during which healing supposedly took place, became widespread. The medicine men eventually essayed actual surgery in connection with temple slumber; among the first operations was that of trephining the skull to allow a headache spirit to escape. The shamans learned to treat fractures and dislocations, to open boils and abscesses; the shamanesses became adept at midwifery.
감염되거나 손상을 입은 신체 부위에 마술적인 어떤 것을 문지르고, 마법장신구를 멀리 던지면서, 체험상 치료법으로 간주되는 행위를 함으로써 치료하는 것이 일반적인 방법이었다. 누구든지 버려진 마법장신구를 우연히 만지면, 그 사람이 감염되거나 손상을 입는다고 믿었다. 약초 또는 기타 실제 약품이 소개되기까지는 오랜 세월이 걸렸다. 안마하는 방법은, 주문 외우는 것과 관련하여 개발됐는데, 몸을 주물러서 영을 쫓아내려는 것이었으며, 그전에는 현대인이 바르는 약을 문질러서 스며들게 하는 것처럼, 약품을 문질러서 침투시키려고 시도했다. 사혈{瀉血}과 함께, 병 걸린 부위에서 피를 짜거나 빨아내는 방법은, 질병을 일으키는 영을 제거하는 효력이 있다고 생각됐다.
90:4.5 (991.4)
It was a common method of treatment to rub something magical on an infected or blemished spot on the body, throw the charm away, and supposedly experience a cure. If anyone should chance to pick up the discarded charm, it was believed he would immediately acquire the infection or blemish. It was a long time before herbs and other real medicines were introduced. Massage was developed in connection with incantation, rubbing the spirit out of the body, and was preceded by efforts to rub medicine in, even as moderns attempt to rub liniments in. Cupping and sucking the affected parts, together with bloodletting, were thought to be of value in getting rid of a disease-producing spirit.
90:4.6 (991.5)
Since water was a potent fetish, it was utilized in the treatment of many ailments. For long it was believed that the spirit causing the sickness could be eliminated by sweating. Vapor baths were highly regarded; natural hot springs soon blossomed as primitive health resorts. Early man discovered that heat would relieve pain; he used sunlight, fresh animal organs, hot clay, and hot stones, and many of these methods are still employed. Rhythm was practiced in an effort to influence the spirits; the tom-toms were universal.
90:4.7 (991.6)
Among some people disease was thought to be caused by a wicked conspiracy between spirits and animals. This gave rise to the belief that there existed a beneficent plant remedy for every animal-caused disease. The red men were especially devoted to the plant theory of universal remedies; they always put a drop of blood in the root hole left when the plant was pulled up.
90:4.8 (991.7)
Fasting, dieting, and counterirritants were often used as remedial measures. Human secretions, being definitely magical, were highly regarded; blood and urine were thus among the earliest medicines and were soon augmented by roots and various salts. The shamans believed that disease spirits could be driven out of the body by foul-smelling and bad-tasting medicines. Purging very early became a routine treatment, and the values of raw cocoa and quinine were among the earliest pharmaceutical discoveries.
90:4.9 (992.1)
The Greeks were the first to evolve truly rational methods of treating the sick. Both the Greeks and the Egyptians received their medical knowledge from the Euphrates valley. Oil and wine was a very early medicine for treating wounds; castor oil and opium were used by the Sumerians. Many of these ancient and effective secret remedies lost their power when they became known; secrecy has always been essential to the successful practice of fraud and superstition. Only facts and truth court the full light of comprehension and rejoice in the illumination and enlightenment of scientific research.
제례식{祭禮式}의 본질은, 그것을 완벽하게 실행하는 데 있었으며;미개인 가운데서는 아주 정확하게 이뤄져야 했다. 제례식이 정확하게 이뤄질 때에만, 영들을 강압하는 힘을 갖게 된다고 생각했다. 제례식에 결함이 있게 되면, 신들의 분노와 노여움을 일으킬 뿐이었다. 그러므로, 더디게 진화하는 정신을 지닌 사람이, 제례식 기법이 그 효력에서 결정적 요소라고 이해했기 때문에, 초기 시대의 무당이 곧 사제계층{司祭階層}으로 발전하여, 제례식의 신중한 실행을 지시하도록 훈련받게 된 것은 불가피했다. 그리하여 수만 년 동안, 끊임없는 제례식들이 공동체를 훼방하고 문명의 발전에 화를 미쳤는데, 생활에서 행위마다, 종족의 이행업무마다, 그 위에 견디기 힘든 짐을 부과했다.
90:5.1 (992.2)
The essence of the ritual is the perfection of its performance; among savages it must be practiced with exact precision. It is only when the ritual has been correctly carried out that the ceremony possesses compelling power over the spirits. If the ritual is faulty, it only arouses the anger and resentment of the gods. Therefore, since man’s slowly evolving mind conceived that the technique of ritual was the decisive factor in its efficacy, it was inevitable that the early shamans should sooner or later evolve into a priesthood trained to direct the meticulous practice of the ritual. And so for tens of thousands of years endless rituals have hampered society and cursed civilization, have been an intolerable burden to every act of life, every racial undertaking.
90:5.2 (992.3)
Ritual is the technique of sanctifying custom; ritual creates and perpetuates myths as well as contributing to the preservation of social and religious customs. Again, ritual itself has been fathered by myths. Rituals are often at first social, later becoming economic and finally acquiring the sanctity and dignity of religious ceremonial. Ritual may be personal or group in practice—or both—as illustrated by prayer, dancing, and drama.
단어들이 제례식의 한 부분이 됐는데, 아멘과 셀라 같은 말을 사용하는 것이 좋은 예다. 욕하는 습관, 신성을 모독하는 언행은, 전에 제례식에서 거룩한 이름들을 반복하던 행위가 타락된 것이다. 신성시되는 성지를 순례하는 행위는 매우 오래된 의식{儀式}이다. 그다음에 의식은, 정화와 씻음 그리고 성화{聖化}라는 정교한 예식으로 발전했다. 원시 부족의 비밀 공동체에 가입하는 예식은 실제로 미숙한 종교 제례였다. 옛 시대에 신비 예찬집단의 숭배 기법은 축적된 여러 종교 제례식을 길게 이어놓은 것에 불과했다. 제례식은 결국, 현대 유형의 사회 예식절차와 종교적 경배, 기도가 포함된 예배, 노래, 교독{交讀}, 그리고 기타 여러 개인적이고 집단적인 영적 헌신행위로 발전했다.
90:5.3 (992.4)
Words become a part of ritual, such as the use of terms like amen and selah. The habit of swearing, profanity, represents a prostitution of former ritualistic repetition of holy names. The making of pilgrimages to sacred shrines is a very ancient ritual. The ritual next grew into elaborate ceremonies of purification, cleansing, and sanctification. The initiation ceremonies of the primitive tribal secret societies were in reality a crude religious rite. The worship technique of the olden mystery cults was just one long performance of accumulated religious ritual. Ritual finally developed into the modern types of social ceremonials and religious worship, services embracing prayer, song, responsive reading, and other individual and group spiritual devotions.
90:5.4 (992.5)
The priests evolved from shamans up through oracles, diviners, singers, dancers, weathermakers, guardians of religious relics, temple custodians, and foretellers of events, to the status of actual directors of religious worship. Eventually the office became hereditary; a continuous priestly caste arose.
90:5.5 (992.6)
As religion evolved, priests began to specialize according to their innate talents or special predilections. Some became singers, others prayers, and still others sacrificers; later came the orators—preachers. And when religion became institutionalized, these priests claimed to “hold the keys of heaven.”
90:5.6 (992.7)
The priests have always sought to impress and awe the common people by conducting the religious ritual in an ancient tongue and by sundry magical passes so to mystify the worshipers as to enhance their own piety and authority. The great danger in all this is that the ritual tends to become a substitute for religion.
90:5.7 (993.1)
The priesthoods have done much to delay scientific development and to hinder spiritual progress, but they have contributed to the stabilization of civilization and to the enhancement of certain kinds of culture. But many modern priests have ceased to function as directors of the ritual of the worship of God, having turned their attention to theology—the attempt to define God.