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See also:CONSECRATION (See also:Lat. consecrallo, from See also:con and sacrare, " to make sacred ")
, the separating or setting apart of certain persons, animals, things, places and seasons as sacred, so as to hallow and _sanctify them in themselves or adapt them to a
religious rble and purpose
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Thus we consecrate a See also:
Among the Australian natives we catch the consecrating agency at See also:work
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Their babies are incarnations of spirits which quitted a bush or See also:rock passed by the mothers at the moment of conception
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Each spirit, as it quits its nanja or natural haunt to enter the See also:mother, drops a churinga, a slab of See also: The god has not been constrained or invited to enter in . The Fetish religions afford examples of such constraint or invitation . Spirits capable of being confined in See also:matter and made useful are in various ways sung or coaxed into the tenements prepared for them . Thus a See also:West See also:African native who wants a suhman takes a rudely-cut wooden See also:image or a stone, a See also:root of a plant, or some red See also:earth placed in a See also:pan, and then he calls on a spirit of Sasabonsum (" a genus of deities, every member of which possesses identical characteristics ") to enter the See also:object prepared, promising it offerings and See also:worship . If a spirit consents to take up its See also:residence in the object, a See also:low hissing See also:sound is heard, and the suhman is See also:complete . It receives a small portion of the daily See also:food of its owner, and is treated with reverence, and mainly used to bring evil on some one else.' This is a typical case of a human consecration . Invocation of a name, with See also:sacrifice and See also:anointing, consecrated the Semitic massebas or nosbs,—erect pillars of stone ' From A . B . See also:Ellis, The Tshi-s peaking Peoples of the See also:Gold See also:Coast (1887), cited in A . C . Haddon's Fetichism and Magic.in which the godreally lived, and which were no See also:mere images or symbols of him . Two such still remain hard by the ruins of the royal See also:sanctuary of See also:Edom, overlooking See also:Petra, and are obelisks in See also:form, 18 ft. high . They were usually set up under a holy tree to commemorate a divine See also:epiphany and were mostly unwrought . (Exod. xx . 25), lest the See also:hand of human craftsman should intro-duce another numen or divine See also:power than what the votaries wished to See also:tenant them . The consecration consisted of a smearing with See also:fat of victims or with oil of See also:vegetable offering (Gen. See also:xxviii . 18), and the See also:life or soul inherent in these passed into the stone . Such stones were See also:familiar objects 111 the streets of an old See also:Greek See also:city, where See also:Theophrastus (Characters, ch . 16) saw the " superstitious " man, as he passed by, take out his phial of oil, pour it over them, and kneel down before them to say his prayers . In a See also:street of See also:Benares similar devotions meet the See also:eye, as dainty maidens pour out phials of holy water over erect stones of the same obscene See also:pattern that was See also:common also in See also:Greece and See also:Italy . The Semitic word for a stone tenanted by the numen was Beth-el, See also:house of god, in Greek abrvXor . It was often small and See also:port-able, and known as a " stone ensouled." Such stone pillars were usually two in number, as in See also:Solomon's temple (i See also:Kings vii . 15, 2 i) or in Melkarth's shrine at See also:Tyre, described by See also:Herodotus (ii . 44) . Sometimes twelve stood together, e.g. in Jos. iv . 20 and Exod. See also:xxiv . 4, which passages may have suggested that Armenian rite of See also:founding a church, in which we See also:witness the transition from a See also:stonehenge to a church See also:building . The bishop and See also:clergy choose a suitable spot, and erect twelve large stones unwrought and unpolished around the central rock of the See also:altar, and on these the walls of the church are laid . In See also:Armenia and the See also:Caucasus the cult of such sacred trees and pillars passed without break into that of the See also:cross, which was hallowed as follows . By popular preference made of the wood of a sacred tree, it was brought into church, and washed first with water and then with wine, or anciently perhaps with blood of a victim . The See also:people pray "for the sending of the See also:grace of the Holy Spirit into this image of the holy cross "; the priest that God will " send the grace of His all-powerful and uplifted See also:arm " into the holy oil, with which he then makes the sign of the cross first on the eye and afterwards on the four wings of the cross, saying: " May this cross be blessed, anointed and hallowed in the name of See also:Father and Son and Holy Spirit." He then See also:lays his right hand on it and ordains it, with the See also:prayer: " See also:Lay, 0 See also:Lord, Thy holy hand upon this See also:emblem of the cross and bless it." The people See also:kiss the cross and See also:bow down to it; and ever after See also:Christ's spirit is enshrined in it; it See also:cures disease, drives off demons, and wards off See also:wind and See also:hail . See also:Animal victims are sacrificed before it, as in old days before the sacred See also:pole or pillar, and it is worshipped and adored . He that See also:dies in See also:defence of it is a holy See also:martyr . Thus Christ ousted in the See also:stocks and stones the old evil spirits that tenanted them, and took their See also:place . Among the Greeks cruciform shape sufficed of itself to hallow wood or stone . In See also:Hinduism the various implements of sacrifice are similarly personified and worshipped, especially the sacrificial See also:post to which the victim is bound, and which, under the name of vanaspati and svaru, is deified and invoked . It is a survival of tree-worship and comparable- to the Semitic ashera . The Rigveda (3, 8) describes it as a tree well lopped with See also:axe, anointed and adorned by the priest . Such a post set up by the priests is a god, is thrice anointed with See also:ghee (or holy See also:butter), and being set up beside the See also:fire is invoked to let the offering go up to the gods .2 It is not always easy to markoff consecration from See also:inspiration . Thus in New See also:Zealand " a priest by repeating charms can cause the spirit to enter into the idol . . . it is the same atua or spirit which will at times enter not the image but the priest himself, throw him into See also:convulsions and deliver oracles through him." a It is, however, best to restrict the See also:term " consecration " to cases where the spirit falls on a See also:person, not automatically or unexpectedly, but by invitation, in response to prayer, through laying-on of hands and greasing, after a formal fast, continence, ritual 2 " Vedic See also:Mythology," by A . A . MacdonnelI, in Grundris der indo-arischen Philologie (See also:Strassburg, 1897) . 2 See also:Tyler, Primitive Culture, ii . 174 . washing, and so forth . Thus in r Sam. x., See also:Samuel ordaining See also:Saul " took the vial of oil and poured it upon his See also:head and kissed him," and soon afterwards ".God gave Saul another See also:heart "; so that when he met the See also:band of prophets the contagion:flew from them to him; and the spirit of God came mightily upon him, and he prophesied. among them." The. recognized modes of communicating the afflatus, power or numen to a person or thing to be consecrated are many, and only a few can be enumerated . (I) Blowing .
The risen Jesus (See also: An inanimate object is similarly consecrated . The " soldiers " of See also:Mithras, says See also:Tertullian, were signed or sealed on their foreheads . (4) Use of a name . The invocation of a powerful name over a thing or person brings him or it within its See also:sphere of See also:influence, and actually communicates thereto the demoniac or supernatural power wielded by the owner of the name . Amulets, See also:seals, talismans, See also:relics, See also:ear or See also:nose rings stamped with divine emblems or otherwise hallowed, communicate their holiness to the wearers and protect from the Adversary . See also:Personal ornaments and decorations of dwellings, furniture, vehicles and pottery had once a consecrating, or—what often comes to the same thing—a prophylactic value and significance . Mutilations, such as See also:circumcision, violation of chastity in the case of maidens hallowed to certain gods, ritual cutting of See also:hair and nails, and their deposition in a sanctuary, rather belong to the See also:category of sacrifice, as also the See also:burial of a living victim under the See also:foundations of a new building or See also:bridge (see SACRIFICE) . Cursing is, equally with consecration, a taboo imposed on a thing or person . It may be noted in consecration how nicely the taboo or contagion, whether of holiness or unholiness, can be localized . An Arab's curse is escaped by falling See also:flat on the face, for it then shoots over the head; and recently the following case was referred from See also:French See also:Canada before the judicial See also:committee of the privy See also:council . A man buried his wife in a See also:plot he had bought in a See also:Catholic See also:cemetery . Presently he died also, but without the sacraments, for he had changed his See also:religion . His executors ignored the protests of the Catholic clergy and buried him in the same See also:grave . Ultimately the bishop of See also:Quebec, unable to get a See also:mandamus from the See also:English privy council to dig him up, solemnly deconsecrated the ground down to the estimated See also:depth of the lid of the wife's See also:coffin . The use of specially consecrating cemeteries among Christians is first mentioned by See also:Gregory of See also:Tours (c . 570) ; but under the Roman See also:law they had, like those of the Pagans, been held inviolable by See also:pagan emperors like See also:Gordian and See also:Julian and defined as " res religioni destinatae See also:quin immo (lam) religionis effectae " (See also:Cod . See also:Justin, See also:lib. ix. tit . 19) . Lastly, a classical mode of consecrating persons, or winning or reinforcing their holiness or kinship with the god, is the sacrificial See also:meal at which sacred animals or the god himself are eaten . (See SACRAMENT and SACRIFICE.) Consecration is so frequently the counterpart of See also:PURIFICATION that the See also:article thereon should be read in connexion with this . For the consecration of bishops, see BISHOP; for that of churches, See See also:DEDICATION . |
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