5) The Great Fast to appease the wrath of a jealous God

So, let's recap. The social organization of the SheReNTe shares common features with the Israelites of the Bible. But it's in their particular relationship with sexuality that the similarities with the Bible and the Jews are most striking, notably this obsession with sexual purity coupled « at the same time » with actual organized prostitution. Features identified as unusual by ethnologists.

But you kids haven't seen anything yet. Nothing. Let's take a closer look at SheReNTe beliefs. Starting with their cosmology, which divides the tribe into two halves: one half is affiliated with the Sun, the other with the Moon. The Sun, like the Moon, hears and sees everything the SheReNTe Indians do – they are, therefore, constantly under the watchful eye of these two celestial bodies. So far, nothing but classic stuff, you might say.

But what really stands out is that the Supreme God, the Sun, is, on the one hand, the Father of all Indians - Abba in Hebrew. But he's also a Father with the unfortunate tendency to lose his temper, so much so that he's often « this close » to destroying the Indians, especially when he sees them abandoning their ancestral customs to follow those of the Brazilian colonizers. Just like the God of the Bible, just as angry, destructive and jealous.

As stated in the 2nd of the 10 Commandments:

You shall have no other gods besides me. You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any image of anything that is in heaven above, or in the earth below , or in the waters under the earth. You shall not bow down to them, nor worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, pursuing the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation, for those who offend me. Exodus 20.3.

But that's not all - far from it. This God has Associates and Intermediaries who go back and forth between Heaven and Earth in human or animal form. These are the planets and stars - the Celestial Army of « Adonay Tsebaot » in the Bible. And these stellar intermediaries are again divided into halves: Venus and Jupiter act as intermediaries for the Sun, while Mars and the Pleiades do so for the Moon. But in the Bible, these intermediaries who come and go between Heaven and Earth, as in Jacob's dream, are, first and foremost, the Angels - « MaLeaKh » from the root « LeKh » which means sent. As a result, in the Sherente mind, the Celestial Army and the Angels are but one and the same, we'll come back to it later.

Meanwhile, let me give you an example of an intervention by one of these celestial intermediaries, there's the story, P60, of an Indian who encounters a magnificent stag who announces that he is a messenger from Heaven. The stag tells him it has come to warn him that he and the elders must found a new ritualistic society. Then, after taking on human form, the heavenly envoy transforms back into a white heron and returns to Heaven. A heavenly envoy who has come to warn mankind, before ascending back to Heaven in a blaze of white - sounds straight out of the New Testament.

Then there's the story of the Indian who dreams of Venus one night - and meets him again the next day in the forest in human form after perceiving « signs of presence ». This time, this human incarnation of Venus claims to have come to warn the Indians that Mother Earth is angry with them for practicing abortion, while Christians have already killed many Indians. Under these conditions, Mother Earth threatens to throw herself on her son the Sun and cause the final deflagration if things don't change. A cataclysmic warning which feels very familiar - whether in the Bible or the Quran.

And in the face of these angry supreme gods, ready to devastate them at the slightest deviation, the SheReNTe have only one protection: the Great Fast. Ramadan - but above all Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, when every Jew fasts for 24 hours to change the verdict of the heavenly court and gain another year to live.

The Great Fast is THE central ceremony of the SheReNTe - just as Yom Kippur is the ritual practiced by all Jews, even those farthest from the religion. All Indians must get involved, fasting and singing for several nights - this is the price to be paid for the people to be forgiven and for the catastrophe foretold by the astral envoys to be averted, in particular the drought, to which I'll return in a moment.

The Great Fast lasts for days and only ends when those fasting see mysterious wasps appear. A pole is then driven into the ground. A man climbs it to ask questions to the ancestors, to receive fire from Heaven and to raise objects belonging to each member of the tribe. The ceremony ends with the circulation of hourd bowls filled with water, heralding the return of rain. Then, if the ritual has worked well, the master of ceremonies informs the tribe that Waptokwa, the Sun, has approved the Great Fast and will send rain - while reminding them not to follow the abominations of the Christians.

An important note here, is Curt Nimuendaju pointing out that, while this ceremony largely « eclipses » all others in importance, this rain ritual is ill-suited to the very wet environment in which the SheReNTe live - the state of Goias being largely irrigated by rivers and lakes. On the contrary, such a ritual would be much better suited to a « dry » region. Curt Nimuendaju notes that this same paradox can be found in the myth of Asare, the SheReNTe civilizing hero who pushed a spear into the ground to bring forth water - yes, a bit like Moses striking the rock with his staff in the desert.

6) The Envoy who came as a warner before the Flood

Okay, let's recap. The SheReNTe share several traits with the Israelites of the Bible - an organization into 2 times three tribes, an atypical sexuality marked by a dual obsession with « virginity » and prostitution, a jealous and destructive solar God, cosmic intermediaries going back and forth between Heaven and Earth and a central institution: the Great Fast, through which the SheReNTe obtain the cancellation of their punishment and absolution for their sins, but which seems to be a memory of a time when the SheReNTe lived in an environment marked by drought.

That's a lot - but that was just to whet your appetite, my children. That's not what caught the Paraklet's eye. What caught my eye was a myth - or should I say, « The » central myth of the SheReNTe, which is the subject of a precise review by Curt Nimuendaju, and which Claude Lévi-Strauss took up and translated in Le Cru et le Cuit P256, the first volume of his Mythologiques. It's the story of Venus coming to Earth to announce the end of humanity and the Flood. This myth bears a disturbing resemblance to a sort of « mix » between the story of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and that of Job or the Righteous Sufferer.

It starts like this:

Venus was living in human shape among men. His body was covered with malodorous ulcers and behind him was buzzing a swarm of blowflies . All people turned up their noses when he passed and refused to admit him when he asked for permission to rest in their houses.

Here we find a central motif in the book of Isaiah, that of the Righteous Sufferer, chapter 53, I'll read it to you:

He was despised, shunned by others, A man of suffering, familiar with disease. As one who hid his face from us, He was despised, we held him of no account. Yet it was our sickness that he was bearing, Our suffering that he endured. We accounted him plagued, Smitten and afflicted by God; But he was wounded because of our sins, Crushed because of our iniquities. He bore the chastisement that made us whole, And by his bruises we were healed. We all went astray like sheep, Each of us going our own way; And GOD visited upon him The guilt of all of us. He was maltreated, yet he was submissive, He did not open his mouth; Like a sheep being led to slaughter, Like a ewe, dumb before those who shear her, He did not open his mouth.»

This passage is central to Christian dogma, which sees in it the prophetic proclamation of Christ, who is also familiar with disease - although he himself didn’t carry any, unlike the Sherente myth of Venus, whose body was covered with malodorous ulcers. This motif of the righteous sufferer covered with purulent, stinking ulcers is also found in Job, in the Lazarus of the Gospel of Luke 16.19 and in the Ludlul bel Nemeqi that I mentioned in my S4 video on suffering and menstruation - all of whom are afflicted with purulent, stinking ulcers and, more generally, diseases, diseases which are, need I remind you, a menstrual allegory...

But let's continue - there's still a righteous man in this corrupt generation:

Only the Indian Waikaura welcomed the unfortunate man, offered him a brand-new mat to sit on, and questioned him politely. Venus explained that he had lost his way. Waikaura had hot water brought in to wash the wounds, and insisted that the operation take place inside the hut, not outside as his host had wanted. He even ordered his virgin daughter to sit Venus on her bare thighs. Thanks to this attentive care, the visitor was cured.

From this passage on, we move on to the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, in Genesis 19. After visiting Abraham and enjoying his hospitality, two Envoys - MaLeaKh - arrive in Sodom in the evening and meet Abraham's nephew Lot, who is also quick to welcome them, asking them to come to his house to rest and wash their feet. Just as Waikaura washes the wounds of Venus. Despite Lot's insistence, however, the Envoys refuse his proposal and say they'd rather sleep outside. Just like Venus in the SheReNTe myth.

Nevertheless, Lot insists, as did Waikaura, and the Envoys eventually enter his house to eat. Then the people of Sodom arrive, demanding that Lot take the two men out to « get to know » them - sexually that is. This is where the word Sodomy comes from. Lot refuses, offering instead to hand over his two virgin daughters. Just as Waikaura offers his virgin daughter - to Venus, however.

Then

After nightfall, [Venus] asked Waikaura: « What do you desire? » And when the other didn't understand, he clarified: « To live, or to die? » For the sun was angry with the Indians, who were slaughtering each other and even sacrificing little children. Venus advised his benefactor to prepare to leave, in secret. But first he must kill a dove.

Here we find the same form as in Genesis 19, verse 12:

The travelers said to Lot: « Whom else have you here? Sons-in-law, your sons and daughters, or anyone else that you have in the city—bring them out of the place. For we are about to destroy this place; because the outcry against them before The Lord has become so great that The Lord has sent us to destroy it ».

There's even a mention of the sacrifice of little children - found in the Bible with the condemnation of the cult of Molokh, to which we'll return shortly.

While we're on the subject, this motif of the warner is central to the Quran: « And We did not destroy any city until it has had warners » Sura As Shuaraa 26.208. It comes up again and again. But don't tell Claude Lévi-Strauss, he'd probably never opened a Quran in his life - judging by the Islamophobic stereotypes that conclude his Tristes Tropiques. Well, what can you do? He just swallowed his master George Dumézil's « Indo-European » mush without batting an eye.