THE ROOSTER CULT
In the late
1980's I participated in a verbal exchange on a
computer bulletin board devoted to the topic of
religion. At that time the board, titled
"Religious Realms," was dominated by
Christian fundamentalists, and their rather
predictable input was copiously commented upon by a
small band of people of assorted persuasions. As I
recall, the group of non-fundamentalist
"regulars" consisted of a Buddhist, a few
mainstream Christians, a couple of Jews, a Wiccan or
two, and maybe a trio of us atheist-agnostic types.
Despite our considerable differences in belief and
custom, we non-fundamentalists usually got along
quite well among ourselves. But as can well be
imagined, when it came to dealing with the fundies,
tempers there were often short and feelings raw. But
despite the general heatedness of the ongoing
exchange (I hesitate to call it a
"discussion"), one could occasionally find
wee scraps of humor floating in the vitriol. One of
these which I happen to recall involved an
extemporaneous collaboration between another atheist
(an acquaintance of mine, but not one of the religion
board "regulars") and me. Unfortunately, I
did not save a record of this exchange at the time.
Nevertheless, it has stuck in my memory for a few
years; and if I may be forgiven any errors in
reconstructing it from memory, I'd like to share it
with you.
I don't recall
exactly what prompted this particular exchange, but I
suspect it had something to do with an unkind and
ill-informed comment about paganism by one of the
fundamentalists. In response, my acquaintance (we
shall call him "Phil"), contrived an
ostensibly scholarly essay on the practice of
"Rooster Worship." In his message he
meticulously described various aspects of the
rooster-god's influence over nature and his
interaction with mankind. Though tongue-in-cheek,
Phil's masterful touch gave the essay, despite its
brevity, the air of a serious work. And, to judge
from the immediate responses from some of the
fundamentalists, the "Rooster-Worship" opus
took in a number of the more gullible participants on
the board, leaving the rest of us to chuckle under
our breath.
A day or two
after reading his message, I came up with an idea of
my own to further the rooster ruse. Before
proceeding, however, I contacted Phil by e-mail, to
ascertain whether he had in mind any enhancements of
his own, which he might be considering adding to the
story. For the moment, he assured me, he had none; so
I contrived and posted my own sequel to "Rooster
Worship." As I have already said, memory is my
only record of the exchange, so the following
reconstruction might differ somewhat from the
original bulletin board post in its details.
Nevertheless, I am confident that its general tone
and content are a reasonably accurate representation
of the original.
| Like
most people posting on this board, I had been
unaware of Rooster Worship until I read Phil's
account of it here. Being a naturally curious
person, I phoned a professor friend of mine, who
happens to be something of an expert on ancient
pagan customs, and asked whether she had any
knowledge of such a religion. She told me that
she vaguely remembered having studied something
on the matter many years ago, but that she would
have to dig through some of her books to refresh
her memory on the subject. I told her there was
no rush, but she assured me she would be
delighted to do a quick bit of research for me,
since she was not at the time engaged in giving
classes. A few
evenings later she appeared at my door with a
large manila envelope containing the fruits of
her research. We sat down at the dining room
table, where she could spread out the numerous
Xeroxed pages, handwritten notes, photos, and
sketches she had brought. And, over the next hour
or two (and several cups of coffee), she
expounded upon her discoveries, which I shall
distill for the reader here.
"The only known
religious system, in which the rooster acquired
the status of a god, was an obscure Delaware
Indian subculture, which, during the sixteenth
and seventeenth centuries, inhabited part of what
is now southern New Jersey. The rooster was one
of two divine icons of this tradition, the other
being the male of an indigenous breed of cattle,
which was once common to the area but is now
extinct. By its association with the rising of
the sun, the rooster symbolized light, fertility,
courage, and the hunt. The bovine, on the other
hand, represented wisdom, strength, endurance,
and the harvest. Special rites for each of these
deities were performed at certain times of the
year; for the rooster during the winter and
summer solstices, and for the bull during the
spring and fall equinoxes."
Having outlined the
subject, my friend then went into considerable
detail regarding the idiosyncrasies of the
beliefs and customs of the Indians of the region,
their interactions with other local natives and
with white settlers, and their eventual move
westward. When she had finished her presentation
(remarkably detailed, I thought, considering the
obscurity of the particular group in question),
my friend and I settled back in our chairs and
silently sipped at our coffee. She had obviously
done a great deal of deep thinking about the
subject during the few days she had devoted to
researching it. And as I eyed her across the
table she still seemed to be mulling the matter
over in her mind. I thanked her for all the time
and effort she had spent on the project, which
she shrugged off as "just something I
enjoyed doing, to keep 'in shape' mentally."
She was about to rise from the table, when an
afterthought occurred to her. Her wistful gaze
wandered as she spoke slowly and thoughtfully.
"You know,
farfetched though they may seem today, such
animalistic beliefs were fairly common only a few
centuries ago. But with the coming of Europeans
to the Western Hemisphere, those ancient, native
beliefs were ultimately trodden down by the
onslaught of Christianity, just as similar pagan
traditions had been trampled in Europe centuries
before. The old gods represented by the bull and
the rooster are no longer vibrant entities, nor
even dim memories. Nowadays they exist only in
dusty library archives."
I asked my friend if
she thought that such beliefs could not still
exist today.
"Are you
kidding?" she said. "No one in this day
and age would believe such cock-and-bull
nonsense!"
I wasn't so sure about
that.
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