Symbol Dictionary Mask-Mart
Mask: Masks have been used as a tool to connect humans with deities or animal spirits, as hidden identities, as repositories of sacred power, personifying the supernatural, and marks of distinction. Earliest mask cave paintings Old Stone Age of France and Spain c. 20,000 B.C.E. Barbara Walker, in her book The Woman’s Encyclopedia Of Myths And Secrets (1983) explains, “It is a commonplace of primitive religion that deity resides in a sacred mask.” It is believed that when the mask is put on, the wearer becomes the animal or deity it represents. Carl Jung, in his book, Man And His Symbols (1964) clarifies that a religious mask-wearer “isn’t pretending to be a lion; he is convinced that he is a lion... [He] shares a ‘psychic identity’ with the animal” (as cited in Walker, 1983). Many cultures, from Paleolithic times to pre-Christian Europe, to modern Africa, Melanesian, and Australia all use mask magic. Scandinavian people’s word for mask was grim, which was also a part of their gods’ names, like Grim Reaper (masked reaper of souls). Christianity demonized mask wearing, claiming that is was possessed by the devil, leading to the negative connotation on the Grim Reaper. Man, Myth And Magic: The Illustrated Encyclopedia Of Mythology, Religion And The Unknown (1995), edited by Richard Cavendish “In many primitive societies a mask is more than a means of changing your appearance; it is a link with the world of the spirits, a channel by which men can tap the force possessed by supernatural beings… the human guardian and wearer of the mask partakes of the power of the spirit or divinity which the mask symbolizes and is thereby elevated above the common mass of the uninitiated.”
Mass: Catholic religious practice including the consumption of wine and bread representing the body and blood of Jesus Christ. Barbara Walker, in her book The Woman’s Encyclopedia Of Myths And Secrets (1983), asserts that mass is derived from the “Latin missa, from the Persian-Mithraic communion cake called mizd, thought to embody the divine flesh and blood of the Sole-Created Bull sacrificed by Mithra.”
Matrilineal Inheritance: Before the Greeks created a system patriarchal rule, which was later adopted and spread by Christianity, almost everyone followed the system of Matrilineal Inheritance in which possessions, children, property, and even kingdoms were passed from mother to daughter. Traditionally, a maiden would stay in her home, inherit the land, and be buried under her hearth, with the expectation that sons would venture out to find a wife, in fact it was sometimes a violation of law to take a bride from her family. Remnants of this system of succession still survived in parts of the British Isles until the 9th century. The English word “heir” is derived from the Greek word for a female landowner here or “Hera,” the goddess. The Latin word for landowner, latifundia, is derived from the Goddess Lat. In Egypt, Lydia, Africa, Ireland, Middle East, and tribes such as Sioux, Cree, Kiowa, Algonquin, Pawnee, Seminole, Seneca, and Seminole, women were “mistresses of the soil” (Walker, 1983). Perhaps, because women were the first to cultivate land, it was considered “natural” as Barbara Walker, in her book The Woman’s Encyclopedia Of Myths And Secrets (1983) explains: “Indian men didn’t resent the prerogatives of mother-right. They considered the mother’s authority natural, as Christians considered the father’s authority natural.” Everywhere Christian missionaries went, they tried to reform these systems, resulting in destruction of clan ties, respect for women, and created masculine dominance. Walker explains, “Patriarchal religious authorities everywhere changed ancient systems of matrilineal inheritance to put property in the hands of men.” Interestingly, a side effect of this was to produce weddings that mocked stealing the bride and property from the bride’s family. Walker asserts, “The legal/ecclesiastical war on female property ownership went on century after century, until women were so hamstrung by the laws of God and man that they had almost nothing left that they could call their own.”
Mara: See Goddess.
Mari: Name for the Crone-Goddess. See Mara.
Marriage: Marriage is a religious and secular symbol of commitment between two or more people, or a person with a deity, the implications of which vary from culture to culture. Originating from the Latin word maritare, marriage was a union presided over by the Goddess Aphrodite-Mari, before the rule of patriarchal religions, but later would be presided over by her son (with Dionysus) Hymen in Greco-Rome. Matriarchal societies retained flexibility about the structure of marriage and the necessity of marriage. Asian Gods had to be married; Brahman priests could not perform important rituals unless they were married; Oriental mystics believed men’s spirituality required marriage; Tantric belief was that women represented the Goddess; unmarried Israelites could not become priests; Jewish scripture insinuated that that men gained status through marriage; the Roman high priest, the Flamen Dialis only ruled through his marriage with the Flaminica, the high priestess; the Celts practiced poligamy; and pre-Brahmanism Indian wives retained sovereignty. In China the bride was represented by a phoenix and considered “empress for the day,” similarly in 16th and 17th century Europe the bride wore a wreath or crown like a queen (Shepherd, 2002). All over the globe, a man’s authority was justified through his marriage, which was completely retractable by the wife. According to Barbara Walker, in her book, The Woman’s Encyclopedia Of Myths And Secrets (1983), the early Anglican marriage service included the bridegroom saying: “‘With this ring I thee wed and this gold and silver I give thee and with my body I thee worship, and with all my worldly chattels I thee honor.’ The bride responded: ‘I take thee to my wedded husband, to have and to hold, for fairer for fouler, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to be bonny and buxom [which possibly means ‘meek and obedient’] in bed and at board, till death us depart.’”
The Greeks, one of the first patriarchal societies, believed that a man should dominate and control his wife. At the turn of the first century C.E., during the rise of patriarchal religion, the attitude toward marriage and female sovereignty changed to reflect masculine control and dominance. Early Christian dogma believed marriage was unclean, obscenity, and “a crime against God, because it changed the state of virginity that God gave every man and woman at birth” (Walker, 1983). Saints and priests alike found marriage an abomination against God, founded on the belief, as Saturninus put it, “God made only two kinds of people, good men and evil women” (Walker, 1983). Walker states the Syrian Christian Church believed, “Marriage perpetuated the deviltry of women, who dominated men through the magic of sex… The Christian priesthood was fighting ancient traditions in which it was remembered that male spiritual authority was dependent on marriage: either a hieros gamos (Sacred Marriage) between the ruler of a land and his Goddess, or the mandatory husbandship of priests who were not allowed to contact the deities unless they had wives.” It was not until the 16th century that the Christian Church created a sacrament of marriage, and this was only done reluctantly. According to Rowena and Rupert Shepherd in their book 1000 Symbols: What Shapes Mean In Art And Myth (2002), “In many cultures, the bride leaves her parental family when she marries.” Often this was seen as a death in the family, as in the case of Japanese brides who wore white to symbolize their death and ancient Greece brides who were accompanied to their new home by lamentation and torches to ward of evil spirits. See Husband and Sacred Marriage.
Mars: See Planets
Martyrs: A Martyr is a Christian who died in the persecution during the 4th and 5th century and was turned into a Saint by the church, gaining Christ-like status and becoming “among the blessed in heaven” (Walker, 1983). One of the biggest conflicts that created Martyrs was with Diocletian, beginning in 298 C.E. and basically ending by 313 C.E. Christian Zealots interrupted and prevented an offering to Diocletian’s priests and were in turn imprisoned and forced to make offerings to the Gods, then released, although a few who refused were executed. Barbara Walker, in her book, The Woman’s Encyclopedia Of Myths And Secrets (1983), asserts that “These ten years and comparatively few deaths were blown up into a legendary reign of terror.”