First in a series of short articles on different aspects of mythological studies.
This article focuses on the concept of Divine Manifestation.
Prague, 07 Oct 2012

Divine Manifestation, a critical mythological phenomenon.

In mythology, the concept of divine manifestation is simple: certain gods, ancestors or divinities are taken by the believers to manifest themselves in a special way in earthly phenomena at certain times and under certain conditions, and not otherwise.

This is familiar enough to us from the practices of shamanism, medium-trance and pentecostalism, when the believer becomes transformed and possessed by a godhead or spirit. In this case the natural phenomena concerned take place within the human mind and body. We can also label as a manifestation the moment in the Catholic mass when the bread and wine are said to be transformed into the body and blood of Christ. Indeed, manifestation is a central element of ritual and sacrifice in particular. In the case of sacrifice the offering or victim is often thought of as being transformed into the Divine Actor, who is also the godhead to whom the sacrifice is being made. Thus in Nordic myth Odin is said to sacrifice himself to himself, when in fact it was hapless victims that were strung up in his honor.

Divinities may become manifest in natural phenomena, and this is perhaps what we most often think of when we think of pagan beliefs. Thus there may be a thunder god, a rain god, an earth-quake or tsunami god and so forth. These are the gods that become manifest in these events. Depending on their status within a culture, they may have extensive mythologies and might be said to become manifest under many other circumstances as well, quite possibly serving radically different aims at those times.

The concept of a divinity becoming manifest often applies to regular events, be they daily, monthly or seasonal. Thus the druids believed, it seems, that their Goddess of Wisdom (let us call her Brigantia) became manifest at a particular phase in the waxing Moon's cycle, namely when the shape of the crescent Moon echoed the shape of a cow's horns – for her knowledge was thought of as a stream of divine milk that flowed, full of inspiration and insight as if from a magic cow, and this was a special moment when contact with her was facilitated by her ready presence. Similarly, she could be manifested in dew, hoarfrost or snow in the Spring, particularly as it catches the first light of dawn. Clearly her wisdom was seen as pure, bright and incredibly beautiful.

Where the modern person is often confused, however, is that this does not allow us to say that Brigantia was the Moon in goddess form, much less the snow (or hoarfrost) as a goddess. While the Moon and other natural phenomena were associated with Brigantia, and taken to reveal her presence at the sacred moment of her manifestation, exactly the same things might be seen to manifest another God at another time and under different conditions, such as during a full Moon, or a lunar eclipse or when snow falls in Winter.

This means that any simple identification of divinities with what we now take to be single natural objects or events - the Sun, the planet Venus, the sky, the sea, a prominent mountain or rock, megaliths, flooding, thunder, rain, owls, reindeer, snakes, certain fruits or vegetables and so forth – is simply incorrect. Similarly a fetish might not be sacred until it is used in a ceremony, like the eucharistic bread that is bread until the consecration. Rather it has to be understood that divinities may have a mythical affiliation with these objects and thus display a preference for becoming manifest in those objects at certain times and under certain conditions, but not so that we can say, simplistically, that this or that god or goddess is the mountain, lake or whatever.

They may therefore have been a number of sky gods, a number of Sun gods, a number of sea gods, and so forth, any one of whom might “possess” the natural object concerned as certain phenomena coincided to produce particular effects.

To take this a step further, figures such as Belenos or Lugus, in Celtic mythology, who may ultimately have been taken to represent the same being, might be names for different natural manifestations of this same god under different conditions, and as such could reasonably be the subject of separate mythical interpretations, explaining these different functions. Belenos could be the god of the May Day Sun, and Lugus the god of the Harvest Sun, each with their own mythic cycle and development, but ultimately both understood to be one being.

But even this cannot allow us to identify either god with the Sun per se. While we can justifiably say that Belenos (or Lugus) was a sungod, in the sense that they were both thought to become manifest in the Sun, and were clearly associated with it, so that it could stand for their power emblematically, to say that either Belenos or Lugus was the Celtic sungod and thus equivalent to the Sun itself as a natural object would again be incorrect. The Sun might be their symbol, but they only became manifest – i.e. present - in it at certain times.

The point is not just that natural objects could be taken to represent a variety of different – possibly even opposing – divinities at different times and under different conditions, but that, at a deeper level these divinities were imagined as existing on a different level to the physical world. They exist on a different plane of reality, and when they become manifest in our world, it represents a transformational event, a transubstantiation, in which they come among us in a form that we can see and, however awesome their presence, comprehend.

© Mícheál úa Séaghdha, Praha 2012