Symbol Dictionary I
Iao: See Gods.
Iblis: See Gods/Underworld Guardians.
Idolatry: An idol is an image in the likeness of a deity and idolatry is worshiping that idol as a symbol of the deity. In her book The Woman’s Encyclopedia Of Myths And Secrets (1983), Barbara Walker explains, “The pagan habit of making graven images of deities and heroes was copied by the Catholic church and never abandoned, despite God’s many prohibitions of idolatry in the Bible(Exodus 20:4, Leviticus 19:4 etc).” During the Protestant Reformation idols were one reason Protestants felt that the Catholic Church no longer followed the bible. It was feared that people would lose reverence for idols and thus lose reverence for God.
Immaculate Conception: Immaculate Conception refers to conception free of original sin (Eve’s accused seduction and Adam’s subsequent rebellion which caused the fall of grace). According to Barbara Walker, in her book The Woman’s Encyclopedia Of Myths And Secrets (1983), “Often erroneously thought to refer to the conception of Christ, the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception actually was invented to absolve the virgin Mary of original sin from the moment of her own conception.” It was believed that a person tainted with sin could not bear god, and furthermore, could not be worshipped. However, Mariolatry was prolific by the 12th century so the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception was created to make her holy. In 1854 Pope Pius IX approved an article of faith in which he said that Mary “at the first instant of her conception, was preserved immaculate from all stain of original sin, by the singular grace and privilege granted to her by Almighty God” (as quoted in Walker).
Incense: Incense is often used in meditation or spiritual practices for a variety of purposes. According to Man, Myth And Magic: The Illustrated Encyclopedia Of Mythology, Religion And The Unknown (1995), edited by Richard Cavendish, “The burning of sweet-smelling substances in religious ceremonies, both public and private, is of great antiquity and common to many peoples. Pleasing odors have been thought to delight the gods and to be offensive to evil spirits.” Smoke rising to heaven was believed to symbolize the ascent of prayer and souls to heaven.
Sage: From the Latin salvere, meaning “to save,” sage has been used for purification and healing in European and Native American traditions (Shepherd, 2002). It is even attributed to the Virgin Mary for its purity.
Frankincense: This incense was prized by the Greeks, Romans, and Jews. The Boswellia tree in Africa and Asia produces the gum for this incense. According to Symbols Of Church Seasons And Days (1997), by John Bradner, “Since it was an accompaniment of worship, it symbolizes divinity.” It was also used on the altars of Jewish Temples (Shepherd, 2002).
Myrrh: The gum for this incense comes from Africa and Arabia and is bitter and pungent. From Symbols Of Church Seasons And Days (1997), by John Bradner, “Ancient peoples valued it as an ingredient for perfumes and unguents. It symbolizes a suffering body or death because it is used to anoint bodies before burial.” The Biblical Jesus was anointed with Myrrh twice, at his birth (Matthew 2:11) and at his death (Mark 15:23) and was used to represent rebirth. Barbara Walker, in her book, The Woman’s Encyclopedia Of Myths And Secrets (1983), explains, “myrrh represented the mystic virgin mother who was also Mother Death, called Mary, or Miriam, or Mari, or Myrrha, or—as the Christians called the virgin Mary—Myrrh of the Sea.’” In a parallel pagan myth, the priestess Myrrha births the god Adonis, and myrrh was used as an aphrodisiac in his honor. In the Orient, myrrh represented Mara, the spirit of death.
Incubus: The Incubus is the practice of inducing a spiritual/insightful dream or vision. In her book The Woman’s Encyclopedia of Myths and Secret (1983), Barbara Walker explains, “The pagan incubus was a special priest embodying a prophetic spirit who could come in dreams or visions to those who ‘incubated’ overnight in the earth-womb or Pit of a temple.” The Greeks ritualized this practice of incubation in the temples of Asclepius and Hygeia, the Egyptian used the temples of Imhotep. The practice was Christianized as “watching” or “keeping vigil,” staying up through the night, praying for guidance. A byproduct of these night-stays in temples and churches was sexual relations between the incubator and the priest/priestess, and the Church eventually demonized the incubus.
Indulgence: Indulgence is the Catholic Church’s practice of absolving sins. According to Barbara Walker, in her book, The Woman’s Encyclopedia Of Myths And Secrets (1983), “Bills of indulgence became the spiritual carrot corresponding to the stick of excommunication, which was thought to sentence the sinner irrevocably to hellfire.” They were sold by Renaissance popes as a means to support their lush life-styles and promised to military leaders of the Crusades.
Infallibility: The idea of Infallibility is that God would not allow his pope to act or speak without total divine approval, so therefore whatever the pope did or said was necessarily right and true. The idea first appeared in the writings of Torquemada in the 15th century. Cardinal Cajetano agreed and the pope created the bull Pastor Eternus, making it a part of canon law. By the 19th century, scientists were proving statements of the pope to be false, at least when it came to matters of earth sciences, so the bull was revised the pope’s word was only infallible when he spoke officially. However that didn’t hold up long either and as Barbara Walker, in her book, The Woman’s Encyclopedia Of Myths And Secrets (1983), explains “It was soon found that popes were wrong in numerous statements officially enshrined in bulls and encyclicals,” and it was revised again, this time “the pope is infallible only when speaking ‘on matters of faith and morals.’”
Infernus: See Underworld.
Innocents, Slaughter of: The Slaughter of the Innocent is an archetypal part of the life of a sacred king or messiah or divine leader, in which the current king is warned of the birth of his rival and successor and in an attempt to retain power, orders all the recently born infants killed. This has occurred in the myths of Nimrod, Sargon, Moses, Jason, Krishna, Jesus, and Mordred.
Inquisition: Also called the Witch Hunts and the Burning Times. The Inquisition was a policy of the Catholic Church to torture and execute heretics, non-believers, sinners, witches, and anyone else who stood in the way of gaining power and money. It lasted 500 years during the first part of the second decade and spread throughout all of Europe. Henry Charles Lea, historian on the medieval period, said the Inquisition was “a standing mockery of justice—perhaps the most iniquitous that the arbitrary cruelty, and insatiable cupidity rivaled each other in building up a system of the unspeakably atrocious. It was a system which might well seem the invention of demons” (as quoted in Walker). Barbara Walker, in her book The Woman’s Encyclopedia Of Myths And Secrets (1983) asserts that the Inquisition “was invented primarily to force public acceptance of a church the public didn’t want.” The priests became an elite class, enjoying uncontrolled power, stealing from their ministry, raping the nuns. There was criticism of the church’s behavior, but criticism was heresy and the critics were burned alive en mass, sometimes along with the villages they lived in. At this same time, suspicion of the literal validity of Church mythology—the Garden of Eden, original sin, heaven and hell, the salvation, the virgin birth—was growing. Walker explains, “Despite the church’s efforts to keep the populace in ignorance, even among the peasantry there were individuals astute enough to recognize theology’s clumsy lies.” The Church possessed goods and property of the accused before conviction because nobody was found innocent, making it not only rich, put a powerful landowner. The accused had to pay not only for the trial, court proceedings, and accommodations, but also for their torture. Clergy who opposed the Church were excommunicated and then burned without trial. The accused was not allowed a lawyer and the rules of the “trial,” according to Walker were as follows:
- The procedure was kept secret.
- “Common report” and hearsay were accepted as proof of guilt.
- The Accused was not told of the nature of the charges nor allowed legal counsel.
- Witnesses were kept concealed.
- Perjurers, excommunicates, or children could give evidence against witches.
- No favorable evidence or character witnesses were permitted.
- Torture was used always, without limit of duration or severity. Even if the accused confessed before torture, it was applied anyways.
- The accused was forced to confirm under torture the names of “accomplices” suggested to him by the judges.
- No accused person was found innocent.
It is impossible to say how many died in those five centuries. It was not just the accused who officially lost their life, but those who starved in prison, their families who starved to death, those who disappeared, those who committed suicide, those who were driven to financial ruin... The number is somewhere between hundreds of thousands and millions. Women were especially victimized, as in some cases they still owned the property, were easily accused of witchcraft, and easy victims of sexual abusers. The Inquisition left some towns completely without women. Walker adds, “It can hardly be doubted that a major driving force of all witch hunts was sadistic sexual perversion.” A horrendous amount of instruments of torture were created and used during the Inquisition. The graphic details of the Inquisition, although pertinent, will not be covered here, but it is advised that we each do our own research on this topic, as Walker expresses, “Such history should be remembered, on the old principle that those who cannot remember their history are condemned to repeat it.”