The Purpose of a Temple
© Copyright 2012 M7C, All rights reserved.
In Ancient Times, the Gods appeared among the living –
supernatural beings that when conversed with could influence the
environment. People would worship them
for helping answer requests (prayers), by making offerings in a selected
building, or Temple-Palace. Talking to a
God was the same as requesting an event.
When Gods were incarnate, or in human or animal bodies (“alive”), they
were people with supernatural abilities not just someone claiming divine birth
with no ability. The Egyptian Pharaoh
was a living God as well, so his Palace resembled a Temple – a columned building
decorated in the finest artwork, with pools, gardens, libraries, colleges, and
Temple Granaries (food storage, which acted as a grain bank – grain was their
form of money). A Priesthood was
maintained to tend to the living God, as well as educate the people and perform
religious or magical ceremonies.
Offerings were of grain (money), processed food and drink in
containers, flowers, gems, processed cloth or textiles, books/scrolls, or the
best that the citizens had to offer. The
food was so rich that it caused health issues among the priests, who ate the
leftovers. In return the Gods would
create events like attracting prosperity to the country, winning foreign battles,
causing rain in place of a drought, causing the Sun to appear during a storm,
appeasing ancestral spirits, or personal issues of the people. If the Gods were not satisfied for any
reason, they would act in the world with their powers, in the form of Natural
Disasters until the people made them happy again; monuments were another form
of offering.
Temples were not places where Citizens went to converse with
the Gods (Churches or Mosques), because they could pray at home to miniature
statues of the Gods in a home shrine. The
statues were similar to photographs, images that reminded the people of what
the Gods looked like. They were not “worshiped”
as idols, for the statues formed an element of the shrine. The people needed to know the image of the
God in order to direct their prayers, as with Visualization.
Talking to a God / Divine incarnate is the same as praying
or requesting. The entity can cause an
event by email, blogging, telephone, speaking, writing, thinking, or
dreaming. So for this reason silence is
necessary to prevent “accidental requests.”
As living Gods can be anyone or anywhere, the people can request something
in public and be assured someone will answer it.
© M7C 2012.
