Play as Symbol of the World by Fink Eugen; Moore Ian Alexander; Turner Christopher

Author:Fink, Eugen; Moore, Ian Alexander; Turner, Christopher
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Published: 2016-09-18T16:00:00+00:00

16. Play and Consecration—Cult-Play and Religion. The Play of the Gods Is Not Itself Cult-Play

The connection between play and cult, which we sought to bring into view primarily in archaic, mythical human existence, opened up for us as an essential imbrication of primordial human phenomena. The human being’s drive to worship, at its root, is bound up with the drive to play; the association with superhuman powers is carried out in early historical time in a play-ritual. That is a strange and extraordinary state of affairs that appears more bizarre the more we “self-evidently” proceed from the everyday, current understanding of play and thus emphasize play’s features of unboundedness, of arbitrary fancy, of unserious, relaxed merriment and a vagabond levity, and oppose play to the solemn ways of carrying out our lives. For this reason it surprises us to encounter play in the most serious and most solemn activity of the archaic human being’s life, in his association with gods and daemons. How could play achieve this status, this elevated significance? Perhaps this question is falsely posed. Perhaps it has nothing at all to do with the fact that human play retains a meaning, which it does not at all have itself, from religion’s dimension of sense. Perhaps even that which, in an everyday manner, we call “play” and contrast disparagingly with serious areas of life is already a fallen mode of an erstwhile primordial state. In any case, we need to be clear: cultic play first and foremost must be interrogated in its playfulness and in no way may it be subsumed under the popular concept of play. The cult is not merely “primordial” in its religious aspect but also in its playful aspect. Here, not only is play “consecrated”; “consecration” is also played. Consecration and play permeate one another in the phenomenon of the archaic cult in an almost indissoluble intimacy. Consecration is determined by play and play by consecration. We have sought to make this clear in reference to the enchantment of masks, magical technique, and the dramatic play or spectacle that brings the mythos to presence. Insofar as these are aspects of the cult, the cult as such is a playful praxis. It is carried out as an elevated kind of human play that does not merely move within a “sense,” maintain itself in an understanding, or stand in an openness to the revelation [Offenbarkeit] of prevailing powers; it gives to be understood the sense that is understood, it interprets the revelation, it imparts its knowledge. The cult is always also a making-known, a life-teaching, proclamation. Proclamation is not thereby restricted to the word. It is not confined to the transmission of knowledge by the discourse that imparts. In the realm of the sacred, discourse has a peculiar powerlessness and impotence. We can easily discuss what is readily given to our senses, what lies before our hands and eyes, the things that we work on, the everyday given thing: here everything has its fixed name, its

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