By Sharron Rose

The Bronze Age: The Age of Doubt

The arts are not for our instruction, but for our delight, and this delight is something more than pleasure, it is the godlike ecstasy of liberation from the restless activity of the mind and the senses, which are the veils of all reality, transparent only when we are at peace with ourselves. From the love of many things we are led to the experience of Union. The secret of all art is self-forgetfulness.

-Ananda Coomarswamy, The Dance of Shiva

By definition the Symbol is magic; it evokes the form bound in the spell of matter. To evoke is not to imagine. It is to live; it is to live the form.

-R. A. Schwaller de Lubicz, The Temple of Man

As time inevitably marched on, the downward spiral of the great yuga unfolded and the pure light of spirit diminished once again. Only half the initial light of creation remained. According to numerous texts, this was the crucial period when the balance of power, of light and darkness, shifted. It was a catastrophic time compared to the earlier idyllic existence, which was dominated by feminine values and the collective experience. One could speculate that until this moment in time, we retained a strong telepathic connection with each other and the animals, and forces of the natural world. Intimate with the elements and the subtle vibrations of a larger reality, we could perform what we today consider extraordinary feats of extrasensory perception such as clairvoyance, telekinesis, and astral projection.

This was the legendary time of the Tower of Babel, a time in which great catastrophes such as floods, earthquakes, storms, and fires ravaged the land. Communities were torn apart and the natural fertility of the planet began to be compromised. This was an age of material and spiritual separation, a time of confusion and disorientation in which we lost the ability to speak to each other in the same language.²⁰

We then moved into an era of increasing materialization in which we began to identify ourselves with our physical bodies and the ever-densifying material world. In this second half of the Mahayuga, which was dominated by the fundamental forces and energy of the male principle, inherent trust for the nurturing and sustaining qualities of the earth had clearly diminished. We humans began to limit the scope of our vision and to attempt to control Mother Nature and each other. With the discovery of agriculture as a way to provide for ourselves and prove our dominion over natural forces, our contemplative nomadic existence, with its wide-open spaces and panoramic views, was traded for the agrarian, pastoral life. The hunter-gatherer tribes moved into the stable, immobile farming communities. Frightened by the powerful forces of nature, we no longer felt free to wander the earth living on nothing but the natural fruit of the land. With the advent of agriculture, civilization–with its settlements, hierarchical power structure, and rules and regulations–slowly became the guiding force.²¹

In the early agrarian civilizations of this period, worship of the Great Mother Goddess, the symbol of fertility, was still performed. The womb was still perceived as the primordial doorway to creation, the holy vessel that brought new life. It was equated with the storehouse, or the place in which the grain was kept. It was seen as a horn of plenty and the abundant nature of planet earth herself. As women traveled the inner and outer roads of feminine experience from young girl to mother and fully mature female, they were seen as great repositories of knowledge and wisdom. It was the mother, the priestess, and the wise woman to whom all would come for healing of body, mind, and spirit. Essential to their roles was the maintenance of the psychic-energetic-emotional landscape of their communities.

But as time went on and farm turned to village, village to town, town to city, and city to nation-state, a new social structure was formed. Society was divided into castes or classes, each individual assuming her or his own distinct role. This was the beginning of the era of the great theocracies. Kings and queens, believed to be the living embodiment of Divinity, ruled these civilizations. Men were especially affected by this alteration. In the new world order the male began to change his responsibilities from those of hunter and animal caretaker to that of guardian. At first his responsibilities were that of protector of the land; later they were that of warrior and conqueror. Because the veil of darkness and densification had begun to descend, the average man–immersed in his role as farmer, shepherd, laborer, and warrior–was given little time to contemplate nature and the manifold expressions of Divinity. Women, in general, maintained their familial roles.

As the great cycle unfolds, more and more souls are born into the world. Some have chosen to incarnate throughout the cycle to keep the light of spirit burning, and they still retain the innate knowledge of truth and virtue and the spiritual vision of our divine beginnings and the primordial paradise. Others who are newly incarnated have only the knowledge of their immediate time and place in the cycle.²² Working the fields, many times with women and children by their sides, and struggling with the forces of nature and each other in order to protect their land and possessions, the average person had less time and inclination to seek the pathways of spirit and explore the wonders of life.

Because of this constraint and our increasing concern with the conditions of daily life an intermediary was needed to link most people with the world of spirit and help them remember their divine heritage. A special hierarchy of priestesses and priests arose to traverse the pathways between spirit and matter. Symbolic rites and rituals and artistic expression in the form of dance, music, sculpture, theater, and painting became the vehicles through which our ancient stories, dreams, and memories were transmitted. The myriad aspects and forces of our material world and its dual nature became personified as goddesses and gods, monsters and demons. This anthropomorphization came about as a means by which to transmit the early knowledge of our divine beginnings and the enormous potential of the individual human being. By depicting these powers and forces in sentient form, our spiritual leaders were teaching us that as embodied beings we had a conscious choice whether to rise to the heights of the gods or to sink to the depths of the demons.

Our myths, legends, magic, and mysteries–the vast wealth of human knowledge, which had been passed down through oral tradition–were now encoded in songs, dances, hieroglyphic symbols, and images. This was the beginning of culture and the encoding of the sacred arts. The idols, icons, and images–replete with their symbolic gestures, postures, implements, and attributes–and the mystic rituals and practices of the priesthood became the vehicles through which the average person could perceive and commune with the subtle and sophisticated world of Divinity. According to the ancient texts, this is when the sacred remnants of the Golden Age, the high arts of civilization and of refinement and sophistication, were given to humanity. And who was the giver of these heavenly gifts? The mother herself, the Great Goddess in the form of Inanna in Sumer, Isis in Egypt, and Saraswati in India. As emanations of the Great Goddess, or voice of Divinity, goddesses such as these were often associated with the art of weaving, for as embodied manifestations of her divine feminine force, it was their role to continuously weave her sacred currents of spiritual light, of beauty, truth and grace into the fabric of our world. These goddesses became the caretakers of the tradition and the vehicles through which divine knowledge was transmitted.

As time went on and the forces of materialization took hold, holy temples were built to house the energy and image of the goddesses and gods. They were constructed according to the sacred teachings of these societies. Based on a perception of the divine order of the universe, constructed through the use of sacred mathematical and geometric principles, and filled with exquisite art and sculpture, these temples were designed to provide the multitudes with a personal experience of the celestial realms.

Amid this heavenly atmosphere sacred rituals composed of dance, drama, music, and chanting were performed. These rituals were created not only to further enhance the religious experience but also to convey the basic principles, teachings, and practices of the culture’s faith. In essence, these sacred structures and the ritual activities that took place within them were created to provide the individual with the opportunity to experience the energies (sounds, visions, feelings, and so on) of a larger reality. The buildings became huge womblike generators in which the average human being could be immersed in the power and potential of divine union.²³

The sacred rituals and works of art that were housed within the temples still held the potential to open the doorway to multiple layers of understanding, even in the average viewer. Through the vehicle of a ritual performance, a statue, a painting, the architectural grandeur of the temple, or a sacred monument, the spectators or participants could be mystically transported from their simple tangible world to a magical display of the celestial realms. In these treasured moments they could experience the beauty and wonder of their divine inheritance. Because of the overwhelming power of this spiritual experience, everyone who participated came away with the feeling that all human beings still possessed the innate capacity for divine insight and inspiration.²⁴

According to Hindu beliefs, it was at this time that the Natya Shastra, the fifth Veda, or sacred text on the science of dramatic art, was revealed. It was brought forth from the great compassion of the Creator for the new souls being born into the Dvapara Yuga, or Bronze Age. These new people’s minds were believed to be clouded by the vicissitudes of earthly existence. In the myth the gods saw that most people were now bound by the seduction of the senses and were living under the relentless sway of earthly passions. Knowing that the inherent joy of humanity was constantly mixed with sorrow, the gods asked the Creator to provide a means by which all classes of humanity could contact their divine inheritance. The Creator then fashioned a pastime that would be called theater. He said,

All the themes of mythology and heroic tradition will be combined. This Veda will lead to Rectitude and Justice (dharma), to Wealth and Plenty (artha). It will bring fame, it will impart learning, it will be adorned with a set of maxims, it will show the future world every possible act or deed, it will contain the meaning and bearing of all sacred knowledge, it will bring to life every facet of the arts and make them prosper.^{" 25}

This was the age of the temple priestess. Young girls whose manner and bearing revealed an innate connection to the divine were consecrated at the temples and initiated into the feminine mysteries. They were trained in the sixty-four sacred arts that included religious rites, dance, theater, music, poetry, weaving, adornment, massage, herbal elixirs, the practices of healing and divination, and the secret mysteries of sexual union.²⁶ As priestesses they mastered ritual practices that enabled them to realize the goddess within. Through this training their bodies were transformed into holy vessels through which the pure power and energy of the goddess flowed. Each movement, expression, gesture, and posture was perceived as a blessed act of worship and consecration. Essentially, they became living symbols of Divinity, goddesses in the flesh. In many cultures these priestesses were considered emissaries of divine energy and were encouraged to travel the luminous paths of spirit and bring back fresh images and insights from the more subtle energetic dimensions.²⁷

Day after day in their exercises and meditations these priestesses explored and became intimate with the subtle interplay of spirit and matter. Sensitive to every nuance of emotion, passion, and vibration, they were masters at perceiving and influencing the powerful energies of the invisible landscape. Knowledge of this art was crucial to their significant roles as initiators, for it was their responsibility to ignite and channel the spiritual fire of the male inward and upward along the sacred path of enlightenment. In this exacting role they would initiate men into the deep and secret mysteries of the heart, awakening them to their true spiritual potential.

Even with the increasing densification of the material world, myth and legend tell us that until the end of the Bronze Age human beings still had the capacity to perceive and interact with the elemental realms. A popular example of a book that describes the shift that happened between the Bronze and Iron Ages is J. R. R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings series. Filled with fairies, elves, orcs, and other magical beings who interact with humans on an equal basis, this popular series provides a glimpse of a time when the veil between the worlds was more transparent. But Tolkien leaves us with no illusions. He makes it clear that the magical world of hobbits, goblins, and magicians is coming to a close. At the end of the tale, all these fairytale creatures vanish into the mist, declaring that their time in the world has come to an end and it is now the time of man.