THE IMAGE-SYMBOLIC FUND OF SACRED OCEANOGRAPHY OF THE SEA PEOPLES (Part 1)

Abstract

Based on the comparative religious analysis, this paper reconstructs the image-symbolic fund (thesaurus) of the sacred oceanography of the sea peoples (Viking Age Scandinavians, peoples of Oceania, Russian Pomors, etc.). These peoples are considered to be the keepers and exegetes of the secret maritime knowledge (“sacred maritime science”), which is embodied in the maritime myth and  ritual. Sacred oceanography – a part of sacred geography – should be considered as а traditional sacred science about images and symbols marking the metageographical (metaphysical) reality of maritime otherness. Using the tools of intellectual intuition (R. Guénon), sacred oceanography investigates the sacramental providential meaning and symbolism of all phenomena, events and loci related not only to sacred manifestations at and by the sea (hierophany), but also to theurgic and hierotopical human activity aimed to create sacred items and places structuring the sacred space of maritime culture. The comparative religious analysis of the mythological religious ensembles of the world’s peoples’ traditional maritime culture allows us to reconstruct its image-symbolic fund. It is a kind of a mythopoetic thesaurus or a universal maritime “summa theologiae” of the sea peoples. In the sacred space of maritime culture, every new ship is a reincarnation of the “old” ship, which fact is reflected in the ritual during which the primal forefather’s sacred attributes and valuables are handed over to the “novice” (the ship’s name, icon, etc.). These originate in the archetype of the first ship as a ternary model of the universe and a sacred shipbuilding module riding the waves of primordial chaos. The traditional shipbuilding technology was extremely sacralized and embedded into the cosmogonic rhythm, scale and symbolism of the building cycle rituals. These rituals included a number of operations and procedures that shaped the spatiotemporal, attributive, actional and character aspects of the sacred act of the first ship’s birth. A newborn ship acquired the sacred name of its primal forefather, thereby becoming immortalized and incarnating the eternal procession of its historical namesakes.