Spirituality
Christianity
| Before the Black Death destroyed the vast majority of those Priests who put the cares of their congregation before the cares of themselves, Christianity during this period was going through a flowering of growth. Aristotelian logic was replacing Platonic absolutism through the work of Thomas Aquinas. Albertus Magnus laid the foundations of scientific thought and exploration in a church embracing the exploration and understanding of the world and its workings. The Fourth Laterine Council recognized both Eucharist and Penance as Holy Sacraments. Christianity was even changing its approach to animals through the naturalism of the Franciscans. Christian mysticism flourished, with the music of Hildegard of Bingham and the meditations of Bonaventure being chief examples. Christianity would face its main challenge in this era from the idea of Romantic Love. The idea of devotion to another person instead to God as an act worthy of poetry, story and song spread like wildfire across secular Europe. Christianity would later adopt this idea as core to its teachings, and teach that no marriage was valid unless husband and wife loved each other.
CHRISTIAN MYTH
UNICORNS
Unicorns are one of the many creatures found in Christian bestiaries, but what made unicorns special was that they couldn’t abide the presence of anyone who was not chaste. Chastity to a medieval person was a very important virtue, but it did not mean virginal (a modern misunderstanding) but rather some one who was virginal until marriage, and then faithful to their spouse.
NIMUË
Nimuë was the student of Merlin who caused him to fall in love with her and then imprisoned him in either a cave or a tree.
LEVIATHAN
The leviathan is a biblical sea monster whom the medieval sailors would blame for many a misfortune at sea
Judaism
Judaism had had a long and tumultuous dialectic with Greek Philosophy, and in Maimomedes, Aristotelian logic was brought systematically for the first time into serious use in the study of the Torah. Reactions to this were less than the adoration with which Maimomedes is held today, and many congregations begged the Christians to ban the publication and distribution of this work, while other congregations embraced this rationalization of their religion. Jewish mysticism was also flourishing with the first publications of the Kabalah and an exploration of the idea that the Torah itself was the Tree of Life and to those who held fast to it would provide joy and peace.
JUDAIC MYTH
LILITH
Lilith is mentioned briefly in the Book of Isaiah 34:13-15, in a list of evil creatures some of which are demonic, but most of the myth regarding Lilith comes from other sources where she is cast as Adam’s first wife. She is portrayed as co-equal with Adam - perfect and without sin, but the stories also tell of her refusal to submit to Adam's will, her exile from Eden and how she became the mother of monsters. Medieval Jewish women would hang a medallion over the cradles of uncircumcised boys to protect them from her
Islam
In the 13th century, much of Islam was focused political matters and the dual crisis of the imminent collapse of the Caliphate and the mongol hordes. However, in the heart of the Seljuk Empire (medieval Turkey) the Sufi movement was flourishing, embracing dance and mystical poetry. The love poems of Rumi, who lived in the capital city of Konya, would be embraced by all the world as how Romantic love is a clear mirror of the love between God and humanity.
ISLAMIC MYTH
DJINN
The Djinn were demons capable of terrible deeds bound in the distant past by King Solomon who put his seal upon their prisons. Woe to those who finding one of the prisons of the djinn who would presume to break the seal of Solomon and free the djinn within.
Sanatana Dharma or Hinduism
Bhakti was an important reform movement of this era. Bhakti, which means devotion, taught that one must move beyond just ritual worship of God to find a way to have a loving relationship with God. There were two basic forms of Bhakti in the 13th century.Madhva taught Bhagavata: 9 stages to Bhakti: sravana – hearing, kirtana – singing the name of god, smarana – remembering the divine name, padasevana – serving the holy feet, arcane – worship, vandana – salutation, dasya – servitude, dakhya – friendship with God, atmanivendana – annihilation of the self.Narada, who founded the Bhakti movement taught another kind: 11 stages of Bhakti: Singing the quantities of God, a desire to see his form, worshipping the image of God, meditation on God, service of God, friendship with God, affection towards God, love to God as to a husband, surrender of one’s own self to God, atonement with God, the agony of separation from God.Followers of this older kind of Bhakti included some historic women, Andal and Kanhupatra, both of whom sought marriage with God, much like some of the Christian Nuns.Both kinds of Bhakti focused on either Vishnu or Siva, masculine avatars of God (there are plenty of Hindus who would be very upset with me to have Vishnu and Siva as fellow avatars of Divinity, but there are others who put forward the concept of Trimurti, with Hiranyagabha (Brahma), Hari (Vishnu), and Sankara (Siva). One God, with triple energy. The manifest and unmanifest are both in him, issuing from spirit and passing into the fourth mode of being: time.)
HINDU MYTH
VETAL
The Vetal, also spelt Betaal, is a vampire demon of great power. There is a famous story cycle of the King Vikram and his efforts to get rid of a Vetal who would tell Vikram a story. Vikram knew he must keep quiet as he carried the Vetal, but inevitably the question posed by the story was so compelling that Vikram would find himself answering the question and having to start all over again. Like all other demons in Hinduism, the Vetal’s actions and motives are not necessarily evil.
Buddhism
I know of no new movements within Buddhism in the 13th century other than that of Zen. As Japan is not figured in the novel, I will take a moment to explain the form of the religion in the Himalayas. Much like Christians wait for the return of Christ, Buddhists in medieval Tibbet awaited the return of Maitreya. Maitreya (the name means loving kindness) is a bodhisattva who is to appear on Earth, achieve complete enlightenment, and teach the pure dharma.In Tibet, lamas frequently ministered to they dying, with prayer, incantation and poetry, trying to help liberate them while in this transitory state.
BUDDHIST MYTH
YETI
Yeti are the abominable snowmen of the Himalayas, a man eating beast of great strength.
SAINT ISA
In a Buddhist monastery deep within the Himalayas, some claim there is a document which claims that Jesus, known by his Arabic name Isa, coming to India to study under the Vedic and Buddhist masters before returning to Israel as a mature man.