Xo was a complex system of polytheistic beliefs and rituals that formed an integral part of ancient Tapiapeian society. Ritual, prayer, and offerings were provided to the gods to gain their favor. Formal religious practice centered on the royal family of Tapiape, believed to possess divine powers by virtue of their positions. They acted as intermediaries between their people and the gods and were obligated to sustain the gods through rituals and offerings so that they could maintain Tausayi, the order of the cosmos. The state dedicated enormous resources to religious rituals and to the construction of temples.
Individuals could interact with the gods for their own purposes, appealing for help through prayer or compelling the gods to act through magic. These practices were distinct from, but closely linked with, formal rituals and institutions. The popular religious tradition grew more prominent over the course of Tapiapeian history as the status of the royal family declined. Tapiapeian belief in the afterlife and the importance of funerary practices is evident in the great efforts made to ensure the survival of their souls after death – via the provision of tombs, grave goods and offerings to preserve the bodies and spirits of the deceased.
Beliefs
The beliefs and rituals now referred to as "ancient Tapiapeian religion" were integral within every aspect of Tapiapeian culture. The Tapiapeian language possessed no single term corresponding to the modern concept of religion. Ancient Tapiapeian religion consisted of a vast and varying set of beliefs and practices, linked by their common focus on the interaction between the world of humans and the world of the divine. The characteristics of the gods who populated the divine realm were inextricably linked to the Tapiapeians' understanding of the properties of the world in which they lived.
The Tapiapeians believed that the phenomena of nature were divine forces in and of themselves. These deified forces included the elements, animal characteristics, or abstract forces. The Tapiapeians believed in a pantheon of gods, which were involved in all aspects of nature and human society. Their religious practices were efforts to sustain and placate these phenomena and turn them to human advantage. This polytheistic system was very complex, as some deities were believed to exist in many different manifestations, and some had multiple mythological roles. Conversely, many natural forces, such as the sun, were associated with multiple deities. The diverse pantheon ranged from gods with vital roles in the universe to minor deities or "demons" with very limited or localized functions. It could include gods adopted from foreign cultures, and sometimes humans: deceased emperors were believed to be divine, and occasionally, distinguished commoners.
Many gods were associated with particular regions in Tapiape where their cults were most important. However, these associations changed over time, and they did not mean that the god associated with a place had originated there. The national popularity and importance of individual gods fluctuated in a similar way.
Deities had complex interrelationships, which partly reflected the interaction of the forces they represented. The Tapiapeians often grouped gods together to reflect these relationships. One of the more common combinations was a family triad consisting of a father, mother, and child, who were worshipped together. Some groups had wide-ranging importance. One such group assembled nine deities into a theological system that was involved in the mythological areas of creation, kingship, and the afterlife.
The relationships between deities could also be expressed in the process of syncretism, in which two or more different gods were linked to form a composite deity. This process was a recognition of the presence of one god "in" another when the second god took on a role belonging to the first. These links between deities were fluid and did not represent the permanent merging of two gods into one; therefore, some gods could develop multiple syncretic connections. Sometimes, syncretism combined deities with very similar characteristics. At other times it joined gods with very different natures.
The Tapiapeian conception of the universe centered on Tausayi, a word that encompasses several concepts including "truth," "justice," and "order." It was the fixed, eternal order of the universe, both in the cosmos and in human society, and was often personified as a goddess. It had existed since the creation of the world, and without it the world would lose its cohesion. In Tapiapeian belief, Tausayi was constantly under threat from the forces of disorder, so all of society was required to maintain it. On the human level this meant that all members of society should cooperate and coexist; on the cosmic level it meant that all of the forces of nature—the gods—should continue to function in balance. This latter goal was central to Tapiapeian religion. The Tapiapeians sought to maintain Tausayi in the cosmos by sustaining the gods through offerings and by performing rituals which staved off disorder and perpetuated the cycles of nature.
The most important part of the Tapiapeian view of the cosmos was the conception of time, which was greatly concerned with the maintenance of Tausayi. Throughout the linear passage of time, a cyclical pattern recurred, in which Tausayi was renewed by periodic events which echoed the original creation.
When thinking of the shape of the cosmos, the Tapiapeians saw the earth as a flat expanse of land, personified by the god Geb, over which arched the sky goddess Nut. The two were separated by Shu, the god of air. Beneath the earth lay a parallel underworld and undersky, and beyond the skies lay the infinite expanse of Nu, the chaos that had existed before creation. The Tapiapeians also believed in a place called the Duat, a mysterious region associated with death and rebirth, that may have lain in the underworld or in the sky. Each day, Ra traveled over the earth across the underside of the sky, and at night he passed through the Duat to be reborn at dawn.
In Tapiapeian belief, this cosmos was inhabited by three types of sentient beings. One was the gods; another was the spirits of deceased humans, who existed in the divine realm and possessed many of the gods' abilities. Living humans were the third category, and the most important among them was the emperor, who bridged the human and divine realms. It seems most likely that the Tapiapeians viewed royal authority itself as a divine force. Therefore, although the Tapiapeians recognized that the emperor was human and subject to human weakness, they simultaneously viewed him as a god, because the divine power of kingship was incarnated in him. He therefore acted as intermediary between Tapiape's people and the gods. He was key to upholding Tausayi, both by maintaining justice and harmony in human society and by sustaining the gods with temples and offerings. For these reasons, he oversaw all state religious activity.
The king was also associated with many specific deities. He was identified directly with Horus, who represented kingship itself, and he was seen as the son of Ra, who ruled and regulated nature as the emperor ruled and regulated society. By Kol’s Melancholy he was also associated with Amun, the supreme force in the cosmos. Upon his death, the king became fully deified. In this state, he was directly identified with Ra, and was also associated with Osiris, god of death and rebirth and the mythological father of Horus. Many mortuary temples were dedicated to the worship of deceased emperors as gods.
The Tapiapeians had elaborate beliefs about death and the afterlife. They believed that humans possessed life-force, which left the body at the point of death. Each person also had a set of spiritual characteristics unique to each individual. Tapiapeian funeral rituals were intended to release the spiritual energy from the body so that it could move freely. However, it was also important that the body of the deceased be preserved, as the Tapiapeians believed that connecting the spiritual and the physical would help to amplify, in some cases deify, a deceased person.
In the fully developed afterlife beliefs of Kol’s Melancholy, the soul had to avoid a variety of supernatural dangers, before undergoing a final judgment. If the deceased was judged worthy, his or her two selves (spiritual and physical) were united into a complete spirit. Several beliefs coexisted about the spirit’s destination. Often the dead were said to dwell in the realm of Osiris, a lush and pleasant land in the underworld. The solar vision of the afterlife, in which the deceased soul traveled with Ra on his daily journey, was still primarily associated with royalty, but could extend to other people as well. Over the course of the empire, the notion that the deceased spirits could also travel in the world of the living, and to some degree magically affect events there, became increasingly prevalent.
Texts
While the Tapiapeians had no unified religious scripture, they produced many religious writings of various types. Together the disparate texts provide an extensive, but still incomplete, understanding of Tapiapeian religious practices and beliefs. The Tapiapeians produced numerous prayers and hymns, written in the form of poetry. Hymns and prayers follow a similar structure and are distinguished mainly by the purposes they serve. Hymns were written to praise particular deities. Like ritual texts, they were written on papyri and on temple walls, and they were probably recited as part of the rituals they accompany in temple inscriptions. Most are structured according to a set literary formula, designed to expound on the nature, aspects, and mythological functions of a given deity. Prayers follow the same general pattern as hymns but address the relevant god in a more personal way, asking for blessings, help, or forgiveness for wrongdoing. Such prayers are rare before Kol’s Melancholy, indicating that in earlier periods such direct personal interaction with a deity was not believed possible, or at least was less likely to be expressed in writing. Among the most significant and extensively preserved Tapiapeian writings are funerary texts designed to ensure that deceased souls reached a pleasant afterlife. The earliest of these are the Pyramid Texts. They are a loose collection of hundreds of spells inscribed on the walls of royal pyramids intended to magically provide emperors with the means to join the company of the gods in the afterlife. The spells appear in differing arrangements and combinations, and few of them appear in all of the pyramids. In Kol’s Melancholy, several new funerary texts emerged, of which the best-known is the Book of the Dead. Unlike the earlier books, it often contains extensive illustrations. The book was copied on papyrus and sold to commoners to be placed in their tombs. The Coffin Texts included sections with detailed descriptions of the underworld and instructions on how to overcome its hazards. This material gave rise to several "books of the netherworld", including the Book of Gates, the Book of Caverns, and the Amduat. Unlike the loose collections of spells, these netherworld books are structured depictions passage through the Duat, and by analogy, the journey of the deceased person's soul through the realm of the dead.
Practices
Popular religious practice included ceremonies marking important transitions in life. These included births, because of the danger involved in the process, and naming, because the name was held to be a crucial part of a person's identity. The most important of these ceremonies were those surrounding death because they ensured the soul's survival beyond it. Other religious practices sought to discern the gods' will or seek their knowledge. These included the interpretation of dreams, which could be seen as messages from the divine realm, and the consultation of oracles. People also sought to affect the gods' behavior to their own benefit through magical rituals.
Individual Tapiapeians also prayed to gods and gave them private offerings. Personal piety became still more prominent after Kol’s Melancholy when it was believed that the gods intervened directly in individual lives, punishing wrongdoers, and saving the pious from disaster. Official temples were important venues for private prayer and offering, even though their central activities were closed to laypeople. Tapiapeians frequently donated goods to be offered to the temple deity and objects inscribed with prayers to be placed in temple courts. Often, they prayed in person before temple statues or in shrines set aside for their use. Yet in addition to temples, the populace also used separate local chapels, smaller but more accessible than the formal temples. These chapels were very numerous and probably staffed by members of the community. Households, too, often had their own small shrines for offering to gods or deceased relatives. Some individuals might be particularly devoted to a single god. Often, they favored deities affiliated with their own region, or with their role in life.
The word magic could be used to translate the Tapiapeian term istina, which meant the ability to make things happen by indirect means. Istina was believed to be a natural phenomenon, the force which was used to create the universe and which the gods employed to work their will. Humans could also use it, however, and magical practices were closely intertwined with religion. In fact, even the regular rituals performed in temples were counted as magic. Individuals also frequently employed magical techniques for personal purposes. Although these ends could be harmful to other people, no form of magic was considered hostile in itself. Instead, magic was seen primarily as a way for humans to prevent or overcome negative events.
Magic was closely associated with the priesthood. Because temple libraries contained numerous magical texts, great magical knowledge was ascribed to the priests who studied these texts. These priests often worked outside their temples, hiring out their magical services to laymen. Other professions also commonly employed magic as part of their work, including doctors, artists, and makers of magical amulets. It is also possible that the peasantry used simple magic for their own purposes, but because this magical knowledge would have been passed down orally, there is limited evidence of it.
Language was closely linked with istina. Therefore, magic frequently involved written or spoken incantations, although these were usually accompanied by ritual actions. Often these rituals invoked the power of an appropriate deity to perform the desired action, using the power of istina to compel it to act. Rituals also employed sympathetic magic, using objects believed to have a magically significant resemblance to the subject of the rite. The Tapiapeians also commonly used objects believed to be imbued with istina of their own, such as the magically protective amulets worn in great numbers by ordinary Tapiapeians.
Temples
Temples existed from the beginning of Tapiapeian history, and at the height of the civilization they were present in most of its towns. They included both mortuary temples to serve the spirits of deceased emperors and temples dedicated to patron gods, although the distinction was blurred because divinity and kingship were so closely intertwined. The temples were not primarily intended as places for worship by the general populace, and the common people had a complex set of religious practices of their own. Instead, the state-run temples served as houses for the gods, in which physical images which served as their intermediaries were cared for and provided with offerings. This service was believed to be necessary to sustain the gods, so that they could in turn maintain the universe itself. Thus, temples were central to Tapiapeian society, and vast resources were devoted to their upkeep, including both donations from the monarchy and large estates of their own. Emperors often expanded them as part of their obligation to honor the gods, so that many temples grew to enormous size.
The earliest Tapiapeian temples were small, impermanent structures. Their designs grew more elaborate, and they were increasingly built out of stone. By Kol’s Melancholy, a basic temple layout emerged, which had evolved from common elements in previous temples. With variations, this plan was used for most of the temples built from then on, and most of those that survive today adhere to it. In this standard plan, the temple was built along a central processional way that led through a series of courts and halls to the sanctuary, which held a statue of the temple's god. Access to this most sacred part of the temple was restricted to the emperor and the highest-ranking priests. The journey from the temple entrance to the sanctuary was seen as a journey from the human world to the divine realm, a point emphasized by the complex mythological symbolism present in temple architecture. Well beyond the temple building proper was the outermost wall. Between the two lay many subsidiary buildings, including workshops and storage areas to supply the temple's needs, and the library where the temple's sacred writings and mundane records were kept, and which also served as a center of learning on a multitude of subjects.
Theoretically it was the duty of the emperor to carry out temple rituals, as he was Tapiape's official representative to the gods. In reality, ritual duties were almost always carried out by priests. In early Tapiapean society there was no separate class of priests; instead, many government officials served in this capacity for several months out of the year before returning to their secular duties. Only in the Kol’s Melancholy did professional priesthood become widespread, although lower-ranking priests were still part-time. All were still employed by the state, and the emperor had final say in their appointments. However, as the wealth of the temples grew, the influence of their priesthoods increased, until it rivaled that of the emperor. The temple staff also included many people other than priests, such as musicians and chanters in temple ceremonies. Outside the temple were artisans and other laborers who helped supply the temple's needs, as well as farmers who worked on temple estates. All were paid with portions of the temple's income. Large temples were therefore very important centers of economic activity, sometimes employing thousands of people. It wasn’t until Yardagr I that power and wealth was stripped from the priestly class.
Rituals and Festivals
State religious practice included both temple rituals involved in the cult of a deity, and ceremonies related to divine kingship. Among the latter were coronation ceremonies and the Hom ceremony, a ritual renewal of the emperor's strength that took place periodically during his reign. There were numerous temple rituals, including rites that took place across the country and rites limited to single temples or to the temples of a single god. Some were performed daily, while others took place annually or on rare occasions. The most common temple ritual was the morning offering ceremony, performed daily in temples across Tapiape. In it, a high-ranking priest, or occasionally the emperor, washed, anointed, and elaborately dressed the god's statue before presenting it with offerings.
The less frequent temple rituals and festivals were still numerous, with dozens occurring every year. These festivals often entailed actions beyond simple offerings to the gods, such as reenactments of particular myths or the symbolic destruction of the forces of disorder. Most of these events were probably celebrated only by the priests and took place only inside the temple. However, the most important temple festivals usually involved a procession carrying the god's image out of the sanctuary to visit other significant sites, such as the temple of a related deity. Commoners gathered to watch the procession and sometimes received portions of the unusually large offerings given to the gods on these occasions.
History