Symbols of Innocence

Symbols of Purity

Definition of Innocence

Definition of Purity

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Every culture has an idea, in one form or another, that the inner essence of man can be either pure or defiled (polluted). Lost purity can be re-established only by ritual. The rituals for re-establishing lost purity, or for creating a higher degree of purity, take many different forms.

Some purification rituals involve one or two simple gestures, such as washing the hands or body, changing the clothes, fumigating the person or object with incense, reciting a prayer or an incantation or anointing the person or object with some ritually pure substance. Some involve ordeals, including blood-letting, vomiting, and beating, which have a purgative effect. Some work on the scapegoat principle, in which the impurities are ritually transferred onto an animal, or even in some cases (as among the ancient Greeks) onto another human being; the animal or human scapegoat is then run out of town and/or killed, or at least killed symbolically. Many purification rites are very complex and incorporate several different types of purifying actions.

Common cross-cultural, human symptoms of pollution include: skin disease, physical deformity, insanity and feeblemindedness, sterility and barrenness. Nature also may become barren as a result of pollution; but, on the other hand, the natural elements and magical or supernatural forces may run amok as a result of pollution.

Rite for purifying a cured leper in ancient Judaism

This is a ritual from the Old Testament, for a person who has been cured of leprosy, as described in Leviticus.

The leper and the priest meet outside the camp, and the priest examines the man to ascertain that he is cured. The priest then calls for two live clean birds, cedar wood, a scarlet item, and hyssop (an aromatic herb). One of the birds is killed in an earthen vessel over running water. The live bird and the other ingredients are then dipped in the blood of the dead bird and used to sprinkle blood seven times upon the leper while the priest pronounces him clean. The live bird is then allowed to fly away. The leper washes his clothes, shaves off all his hair and washes himself, after which he is allowed to enter the camp, although he must remain outdoors for seven days. On the seventh day he once again shaves off his hair, including his eyebrows, and washes his clothes and body. On the eighth day he goes to the temple to make various offerings to the Lord. The priest then takes some of the blood of one of the offerings and places it on the man’s right ear, thumb and large toe of the right foot, after which he does the same with some oil that is being offered, also pouring some oil on the man ’s head. The sacrifices are then offered to the Lord upon the altar, thus completing the required ritual: “the priest shall make atonement for him, and he shall be clean.”

The Navajo sweat-emetic rite

The Navajo sweat-emetic rite is part of most major Navajo ceremonies for curing illness or rectifying other ritual disturbances. It is specifically viewed as a rite of purification.

A ritual hut is prepared with sand paintings and a fire is then built. A procession of patients, led by the chanter, enters the hut and circumambulates the fire, pausing at each of the four directions to sing an appropriate chant. In some cases there is fire jumping where the men are required to jump over the fire, and the women to walk as close to it as possible. The audience then enters, with men and women sitting in segregated groups. The chanter heats wooden pokers in the fire and applies them to himself, mainly on the legs, and then to all the patients. Basins in front of each patient are filled with the emetic formula, the fire procession is repeated, and the emetic is then drunk. Everyone is expected to vomit; if they do not, it is regarded as inauspicious. Vomiting is done into receptacles containing sand, and the contents of these receptacles may then be sprinkled with ashes from the pokers. A bullroarer (a heavy stone on a string that produces a deep roaring sound when whirled) is sounded outside six times and then brought in and applied to the patients. The audience leaves the hogan (hut) in procession, this time led by assistants who carry out the basins with their contents. The contents of the basins are deposited neatly in a row outside the hogan and allowed to be dispersed by the natural elements. The patients, however, remain inside the hogan, perspiring in the heat. Later, the audience re-enters; the fire is broken up and extinguished, and all remnants of it are removed to a place near the basin area. The chanter sprinkles all present with a medicinal lotion and then fumigates everyone with incense. All then leave in procession and dress outside.

The Zoroastrian “Great Purification” rite

The “Great Purification” rite (baresnum) of Zoroastrianism originally was intended for purification from serious polluting contacts, especially for corpse bearers after contact with death. The rite was later pre-empted for initiation into the priesthood, or for attaining higher statuses within it.

In preparation for this rite a priest seeks a piece of ground regarded as clean (i.e., dry and unfrequented by men or animals). He then cuts down any trees located on the area selected. Nine pits are dug in a certain arrangement; furrows are drawn around three, then around six, and finally around all nine pits. Thereafter, the whole area is covered with sand. After these activities have been completed, the priest stands outside the outer furrow, and the subject requiring purification advances to the first pit and is told to recite praises to the “Purity of Thought.” The priest, holding a stick with nine knots and with a spoon fastened to the end, uses the spoon to pour consecrated cow's urine (gomez) upon the hands of the subject, who washes his hands with the urine three times. He then washes his entire body with gomez, progressing from the head down to the feet. The pollution is said to leave the toes in the form of a foul-smelling fly. After the one seeking purification has washed himself with gomez, the priest recites purifying formulas. This process is repeated at each of the first six pits; at a prescribed distance from the seventh pit, the subject sits down and rubs himself 15 times with sand, making sure that he is completely dry. At the seventh pit he washes his body once, from head to toe, with water; at the eighth pit he does this twice and at the ninth pit three times. His body is then fumigated with the smoke of fragrant wood, after which he dresses in clean clothes. In certain versions of the ceremony, a dog is presented to the candidate, who, after each washing at each pit, must touch the left ear of the dog with his left hand. At the end of the ceremony the candidate is required to recite the following formula: “The Evil Spirit of pollution is put down. The head and the body have become purified. The soul has been purified. The dog is holy, the priest is holy.”

The candidate then retires to a house and is required to have no contact with fire, water, cultivated land, trees, cattle, men or women. On the fourth, seventh, and tenth days he again bathes with gomez and then with water. After the final bath he is considered “perfectly purified.”

Muslims and Dogs

According to the “impure” tradition, contact with dog saliva will invalidate ritual purity and nullify ablutions (“breaks" wudu') required for prayer or handling the Muslim holy book. To remedy this, the soiled spot must be cleansed in ritual fashion (seven times in all, and once with dirt), and the person must apply partial ablutions (wudu') to the face and extremities.

The Purity Rites of Ancient Egyptian Priests

Regardless of what status the priest was, there were numerous taboos and tradition's a priest had to or could not partake of. Of these taboos and traditions, a priest or priestess could not eat fish (a food thought to be ascribed to peasant life), could not wear wool (as nearly all animal products were unclean), were generally circumcised (only common among the male priests), and it was not uncommon for priests to bathe three or four times a day in "sacred" purificatory pools. It was also not uncommon for the "oracle" tending priests (one of the most sacred positions), to shave off all of their body hair, partially to get rid of lice, but partially for purificatory functions. These “oracle" priests symbolically gave food to the statues of the gods, clothed the statues of the gods, sealed the temple chamber in the evening, and were known as stolists. As can be seen from the example of the stolists, the need for purity extended not only upon the mundane level, but also held true within the afterlife as well. Further, from such purificatory rites the priests were often times known as the "pure ones" regardless of status within the temples.

Scapegoat Chicken

In Bali a three-month-old child is purified by transferring his impurities to a chicken; this chicken may then become his pet and continue to absorb the pollutions to which the child is exposed. It may never be killed or eaten, and when it dies it is buried with respect.

Whipping Boys

A whipping boy, in the 1600 and 1700s, was a young boy who was assigned to a young prince and was punished when the prince misbehaved or fell behind in his schooling. Whipping boys were established in the English court during the monarchies of the 15th century and 16th century. They were created because the idea of the Divine Right of Kings, which stated that kings were appointed by God, implied that no one but the king was worthy of punishing the king's son. Since the king was rarely around to punish his son when necessary, tutors to the young prince found it extremely difficult to enforce rules or learning.

Widow Cleansing

When a woman’s husband dies in some communities in Africa and Asia a cleansing ritual is expected to take place. This ritual generally involves a widow having sexual relations either with a designated village cleanser or with a relative of her late husband. It has traditionally been a way to break with the past and move forward - as well as an attempt to establish a family’s ownership of the husband’s property, including his wife. In cases where a husband died of AIDS, this practice is just as risky for the men who are chosen to ‘cleanse’ as the women who are ‘cleansed’. It also prevents women from inheriting property that has been their family’s main source of support.

Kalash

Kalash theology has very strong notions of purity and impurity. Menstruation is confirmation of women's impurity and when their periods begin they must leave their homes and enter the village menstrual building or “bashaleni”. Only after undergoing a purification ceremony restoring their purity, can they return home and rejoin village life. The husband is an active participant in this ritual.

Jewish Menstruation Rituals

The biblical regulations of Leviticus specify that a menstruating woman had to be separated from other people for seven days; anything she sat on, or lay upon, would become ritually impure during this period, and anyone who came into contact with these things, or her, during this period would also become ritually impure, until the evening came and the person making contact had washed themselves and their clothes in water. A man who shares the same bed with her and thereby comes into contact with her menstrual blood during this period would be rendered ritually impure for seven days, rather than just one; Leviticus further contains a prohibition against sexual contact with a woman who is currently separated from the people due to menstruation, and imposes the punishment of both individuals being cut off from the people if the prohibition is ignored.

Purity Balls

A purity ball (also known as a father-daughter purity ball) is a formal event attended by fathers and their daughters. Purity balls promote virginity until marriage for teenage girls and are often closely associated with U.S. Christian churches, particularly fundamentalist churches.

Details vary, but at typical purity balls, fathers who attend pledge to protect their young daughters' purity in mind, body, and soul. Daughters in turn pledge to remain virgins, abstaining from pre-marital sex. A stronger father-daughter relationship is promoted as a means to affirm spiritual and physical purity.

Ablution in Christianity and Lavabo

Baptism, as a form of ritual purification, occurs in several religions related to Judaism, and most prominently in Christianity; Christianity also has other forms of ritual purification. In older churches, and modern Roman Catholic churches, there are a number lavers around the building for the laity to use as ritual symbolism of cleansing themselves, usually by dipping the fingertips in the holy water, and then making the sign of the cross. In traditional liturgical churches a laver, often embedded in the wall, exists for the priest and deacon to wash their hands before celebrating the Eucharist, and to pour any excess Eucharistic wine onto natural earth, to which the outflows of these lavers connect.

Many ancient churches were built with a large fountain in the courtyard. It was the tradition for Christians to wash before entering the church for worship. This usage is also legislated in the Rule of St. Benedict, as a result of which, many medieval monasteries were built with communal lavers for the monks or nuns to wash up before the Daily Office.

Traditionally, Christianity adhered to the biblical regulation requiring the purification of women after childbirth; this practice, was adapted into a special ritual known as the churching of women, for which there exists liturgy in the Church of England's Book of Common Prayer, but its use is now rare in Western Christianity. The churching of women is still performed in a number of Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox and Eastern Catholic churches.

Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox and High church Anglicans are also traditionally required to regularly attend confession, as a form of ritual purification from sin, especially as preparation before receiving the Eucharist. However, this is only required once a year or if a mortal sin has been committed.

At the same time, the idea of ritual purity and impurity does not exist in Christianity, while it is very strong in other religions like Islam or Judaism.

Hinduism

An important part of ritual purification in Hinduism is the bathing of the entire body, particularly in rivers considered holy such as the Ganges; it is considered auspicious to perform this form of purification before any festival, and it is also practised after the death of someone, in order to maintain purity. Although water pollution means that in modern times there is a need for care during bathing in such rivers, the physical impurities within the river do not diminish the attributed power they have to bring ritual purity. Lesser aspects of Hindu purification ritual include achamana - the touching and sipping of pure water while reciting specific mantras - and the application of a tilaka on the forehead.

In the ritual known as abhisheka (Sanskrit, “sprinkling; ablution”), the deity's murthi or image is ritually bathed with water, curd, milk, honey, ghee, rosewater, etc. Abhisheka is also a special form of puja prescribed by Agamic injunction. The act is also performed in the inauguration of religious and political monarchs and for other special blessings.

Shinto

In Shinto, the main form of ritual purification is Misogi, which involves natural running water, and especially waterfalls. Rather than being entirely naked, men usually wear Japanese loincloths, and women wear kimonos, both additionally wearing headbands.

Portuguese Nuns and Princesses

Nuns from the Carmelite order used to weave the linen sheets for the marriage beds of Portuguese princesses. The sheets were then displayed the morning after the wedding night. The bloody sheets told the story of each bride's loss of virginity. In return for their excellant work the nuns used to receive that central piece of snow-white linen which bore witness to the honour of a royal bride. They then displayed these pieces, framed with the appropriate princess's name on each, in a gallery at the convent. Of most interest however, is one peice of linen which is a blank page, no blood appears on it and no name appears on the frame. Passers by contemplate why this might be.

Proof of Innocence

One characteristic of Arabic weddings is that when the groom sees the bride and deflowers her, relatives and friends wait outside for him to come out and express his approval of the girl and then they continue with their celebrations. After the wedding day, the blood stained bed sheet is paraded across the city and is finally given to the bride's parents. This is so that in future, if the groom ever complains of her not being a virgin when he married her, otherwise can be proved.

Shinto Bride

The Japanese bride-to-be is painted pure white from head to toe, visibly declaring her maiden status to the gods. The bride wears a white kimono and an elaborate headpiece covered with many ornaments to invite good luck to the happy couple. A white hood is attached to the kimono, which the bride wears like a veil to hide her 'horns of jealousy' from the groom's mother, who will now become the head of the family.

Hindu Wedding Purification

In Hindu tradition the brides parents wash the couples feet with milk and water to purify them for a new life.