Spring - Ver Sacrum

During this period of the year, Nature starts again its life cycle after the "descending" period during autumn and winter. It is useful to remind, even if by now it should be unnecessary, that it is a re-activation of cycles not only in biological and physical terms, but also in meta-physical and meta-biological terms.

Considering therefore this double perspective in the meaning of the term "cycle", I think it is worth recalling that, in the Traditional Roman Spirituality, Time has a completely different value when compared to the present use.

 

In everyday life, we consider time in a linear manner, measurable in an abstract way in mathematical terms: thus it appears as an indistinct flowing of random events. Profane time is structured in seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years, and so on. Time commonly appears to us as structured in a grid composed of empty boxes (just observe empirically any calendar). Time is therefore an "empty" dimension which can be filled with a random "present": any activity can be randomly made in any anonymous moment.

In the Traditional Roman Spirituality, yesterday and today, Time is a "full" dimension: it is a process composed of concrete temporal events that result from natural or social well-identified events. From the identification of these well-defined events derives that Time is not a progression of empty random events, but an ordered structure of identified and classified events , each of which full of well-identified energy and forces, which for this reason can not be interchangeable .

The harmony of Nature and the Universe are poured in the harmony of the Sacred Time, the knowledge of which allows to perform certain actions in their correct point in time and therefore in the right and, in this sense, "propitious" moment. Time has thus its own identity having also its cycles, which can be known, capable to attributing a defined character and a value to each moment of existence. In this sense we understand why certain rites are performed in a given moment, in a given period of the year, because this allows us to be "synchronized" and aware of the real nature of Time: every divine power has therefore "his/her own time". The future is not a mere adventure into the unknown: in a some extent, our existence, like that of all other living beings, results from an adaptation to natural mega-cycles that go far beyond our ability to influence them. This inability to understand our structural links with the Sacred Time and its cycles is perhaps one of the most relevant cause of unhappiness, disconfort, depression that afflict the majority of humanity today.

This long introduction is essential to understand the meaning and the Time allocation of this re-activation of the natural cycles in spring I mentioned above, which in ancient times was ritualized through the Ver Sacrum.

Here I do not want to talk about the concept of Ver Sacrum in historical or anthropological terms: what I would like to do is just to discuss the sense of this cyclical event of the sacred calendar in contemporary terms, the meaning it may have for us, Cultores and Cultrices, today.

For its connections with this concept of Sacred Time, this peculiar period of time, ritualized in the Ver Sacrum, is an extremely complex and rich of implications phase I can only briefly mention in this occasion.

The Ver Sacrum is a consecration to the Gods and Goddesses of all that is "alive" being about to come to light during this time of the year. This is the time of generation. A whole new "generation", in the most broad literal sense of the term, is consecrated to the divine sphere then becoming fully real. Similarly, this is the time of the re-generation: also re-generation is therefore consecrated to the Divine in this period.

Considering that everyone of us is a microcosm, in this period of the year a physical and inner spiritual generation and regeneration phase is reactivated being ritualized in the Ver Sacrum, and then filled with the Divine.

According to the Tradition, generation and re-generation are always synonymous with "movement". Energies and forces in motion, swarming and roaming freely, only apparenlty in a random movement, are the basis of the generation.

Tradition tells us, with the voices of the myths, about groups of young people, who, following a guide, in the appearance of an animal, wander, radiate, through the forests along invisible paths, starting from the Omphalos of Cotilia, in central Italy - in the Sabine Land, to populate the dimension of the wild, of the non-human.

The Ver Sacrum is a ritual walk and wander along invisible paths through places symbolically hostile, following a spirit-guide, from a center of divine irradiation. This ritual walking takes place in the period sacred to Mars as male generating force. Mars is the divine force that inspires the major groups of sodales that in the past performed ritual "dancing" or "walking": the Salii and Arvali. Often the guiding spirits have the appearance of the woodpecker or the wolf, sacred animals to Mars.

All this mythical representation must be read and interpreted in a non-profane way. Walking takes, especially in this moment of the year, a very important ritual and symbolic value. It becomes the metaphor of our being on the Via, the spiritual journey undertaken by the Cultor and the Cultrix that in this special time of the year is reconfirmed, ritualized and sacralized as liturgy of physical and inner spiritual generation and regeneration.

Central Italy, starting from the Sabine Land, was crossed by a network of invisible paths, ritual roads that were covered in this time of the year with sacred processions. We have lost the memory of this invisible network, but some traces of these ancient paths are still visible.  

Along these paths of the Ancestors, every rock, stone, hill, mountain, tree, river was (and still are) part and components of a "sacred and mythical literature" useful for this symbolic path of generation and regeneration.

Young men and women in the past (being the "New Generation"), and today the Cultor and the Cultrix, wander along these ritual invisible paths where every natural element is a sign of this process of natural generation and regeneration which corresponds to a personal (physical and spiritual) generation and regeneration. During the Ver Sacrum, the Cultor and the Cultrix, reading this natural "literature" around them, acquire a full awareness of these processes in which themselves are an integral part. This map of a sacred geography is made ​​of myths and signals telling the mythical story of this generation process which can be read by wandering along the Via. When walking in the Ver Sacrum, the ritual journey, the Cultor and Cultrix acquire awareness of the "existence" that again comes to light. 

 

The existence is symbolized by this act of walking along the Via itself, the path open and followed by the Ancestors, the Via of the Mos Maiorum. Walking becomes a ritual.

As I mentioned above, the memory of these ancient paths has been lost, but perhaps some traces are still visible. I think that, for example, the "Etruscan Rock-Cut roads" can be considered parts of this network of Ritual Paths.


The Etruscan rock-cut roads are very complex  elements in the symbolic and spiritual landascape of Italy which require a specific discussion not viable in this post. I will discuss this topic in a specific post in the future. Nonetheless, I will provide just few brief considerations useful for the present analysis.
  The "Etruscan rock-cut road" is a tortuous passage carved into the rock in very ancient times: poor is the light that penetrates there and the course is full of curves. This path carved into the rock can be interpreted in two main perspectives. On the one hand, it is the wandering in the cosmos, which is obscure: the rock is the image of the cosmos and the Cultor and Cultrix, walking through the narrow and damp rock walls, penetrate with the intellect what is "obscure". Each curve is a symbolic interval dedicated to the elements of the cosmos and regions of the sky. Cosmos is therefore a generated and perceptible element: but, on the other hand, walking through the narrow damp rock walls in the darkness symbolizes the progress among the unseen powers, not perceptible to the eye. It is also a walking in the matter-generating moist, the Mater-Materia: a journey of "return", a rebirth. A Regeneration in palingenesis.