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Here is a guide to help you with this project:
You need to know what can be gained from your group before you start with anything else. Is it a mystery about life or death, or is this paradoxical reality one and the same? Remember the question, “What is a mystery worth knowing, or experiencing?” You need to understand Victor Turner and the chapter on ritual, as well as the Joseph Campbell chapter, “The Importance of Rites.”
The function of rites along with the axiomatic concepts found in Turner should fuel your creation. Here are some of the main concepts to take into consideration, both optional information and non-optional information:
1. Non-optional: Exegetic, operational, and positional (axiomatic concepts) 2. Separation, liminal, aggregation (Rites de Passage) 3. Is the group you are studying liminoid or liminal?
2. Optional material: You can use ludic aspects as your focus, liminal aspects, concepts from Campbell, such as his discussion of Freud’s ‘reality function,’ the role of the artist in modern conceptions of the mystery (Hermetic groups).
You have a couple of main options.
1. The first option is to create your own mystery religion, cult, or secret society. This is a work of fiction. If you actually are a member or a creator of a society of this kind, I will not know the difference, so your secret is safe with me. This can be done rather straightforwardly as an essay or it can entail a work of short fiction, a fictional memoir, a dossier, etc. You need to tell me what type of approach you are taking. You need to designate which type of social structure you are going to discuss, whether it is a mystery religion, a cult, or a secret society. Often this is merely a matter of perspective. The value of the initiation and rituals change depending on which of these you choose and from what perspective, for example: There will be a difference between how a detective would see a group, or a member of a family that has a relative who has joined a religion they do not understand, as opposed to an anthropologist or a member of the religion. A secret society can revolve around initiation, but a secret society functions very differently than a cult. There are a few directions you can go with this option. You can be a member (group, society, kin-based group, etc.), or the creator, or third person omniscient. I consider these three essentially one concept. You are on the inside. You can also look at the study of a mystery religion, cult, and secret society as if you were an outsider attempting to look at it anthropologically. In this scenario you are on the outside. Both of these approaches are creative approaches to a fiction. You will need to introduce you approach carefully and make sure I understand both the role of the axiomatic concepts and the rites of passage.
2. The second option is to study an actual mystery religion, cult, secret society and act as if you are an anthropologist/mythologist, or at the very least research the society, using full MLA in this case, and using the terminology found in the Victor Turner section, as well as information from Campbell’s book on the importance of rites. In this scenario you will actually study, for example, the Branch Davidians, the Manson Family, a gnostic groups or hermetic groups: Golden Dawn, Theosophical Society, Philosophical Research Society, Temple of Thelema, etc., etc. You can also choose one of the essential mysteries we know about from history, such as The Mithraic Mysteries, The Eleusinian Mysteries, The Orphic Mysteries, The Oracle at Delphi, etc. If you choose this approach, you must understand that you are undergoing a research heavy choice.
3. Your third option is to evaluate a mystery religion or secret society that has been portrayed in either a book or film using the same information that you would use in the previous two choices. In this option you are not talking about a real historic mystery religion, nor are you discussing one of your own creations. Here you are looking at the ways in which fictional narratives of any kind have used the same information to give a verisimilitude to the work in which you find your example. This can be anything from the work of William Blake (his own gnostic approach to religion in his poetry), H.P. Lovecraft (Cthulhu Cult) to films such from Harry Potter (Death Eaters), Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut, etc. As long as it meets the criteria of the assignment, you can identify 1. Exegetic material 2. Operational 3. Positional and then 1. Pre-liminal 2. Liminal 3. Post liminal.
How to structure the assignment:
You need and introduction which deals with the essential questions of what your group is, how you are going to approach your paper from the options listed above, and then mention how the operational and positional perspectives work, making sure to mention where exegetic information originates. These three divisions are the axiomatic concepts you will use to discuss the three basic functions of any mystery religion. If you are writing this as a creative project this introduction can be separate from the main work as an introduction to me in order to keeps the work itself flowing better. That is up to you.
You must include the three main divisions of the Rites de Passage: 1.Separation, 2. Liminality, 3. aggregation in your thesis/introductory paragraph. Remember that the Rites of Passage are understood using the axiomatic concepts mentioned above. One way this could work, if you want to write this in essay form, is to use these three aspects as your three-pronged thesis statement, with exegetic information, positional, and operational details used to explain the significance of each of the three divisions. You could, on the other hand, use exegetic, positional and operational as your three prongs discussing separation-aggregation in each prong. It is also fine by me if you use, with the body structure, bullet points, an outline, short story, a memoir, etc. Just as long as you address these three concepts within the confines of your creation (the following is merely two examples of the kind of information required to understand each of the three main concepts):
Separation:
1. How do you get members (neophytes)? Who is good material for your particular group?
2. Once you define how you get neophytes, you then must illustrate if they need to wear something different in preparation for initiation, etc.
Liminality:
1. How does your group view the uninitiated that has at the same time been separated from society as a whole? What makes this the threshold period?
2. List and describe in detail your initiation rites and how this relates to becoming a member of this group. How many steps, what are these steps, etc.
Aggregation:
1. Once the initiation period has been dealt with, then you need to tell me what is gained with being taken as an equal member in this mystery.
2. Does being a member mean …? You tell me. Is there ever a time when a member can rejoin society, or are they similar to a priestly class. Are they ostracized from society, or is participation in typical society expected?’
Last thing you will write is a concise conclusion telling me what you think can be gained from this type of analysis. Even if you write a fictional account, you need to conclude with what significance as a reader I should take from your assignment.
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