Cult

The term cult or cultus (Latin: cultus, from colere "to cultivate, to care for", from which the word culture is also derived, which has its roots in the time when people settled down and began to cultivate the land), encompasses the totality of all sacred acts through which humanity attempted to re-establish the lost direct connection to the spiritual worlds. By its very nature, the cultus is a sensual image of spiritual processes:

„A cultus arises from the fact that it is the image of that which takes place in the spiritual world.“ (Lit.:GA 236, p. 283)

Cultic acts usually follow strictly ordered rituals, which are performed at precisely regulated times in certain consecrated places using appropriate cult objects. Cultic rituals include purification ceremonies, sacrifices, services, baptisms, processions and cultic dances.

The origin of the cults is to be found in the mysteries; the practice exercised there was later adopted in modified form by the various religious communities. The cultus originally began with the sacrifices of Cain and Abel.

Literature

• Kultus. Ursprung - Gegenwart - Zukunft. Gespräche zwischen Bastiaan Baan und Verena Staël von Holstein, Flensburger Hefte 108. Flensburger Hefte Verlag, Flensburg 2010. ISBN 978-3-935679-55-8
• Bastiaan Baan: Alte und neue Mysterien, Urachhaus Vlg. 2010
• Kurt von Wistinghausen: Die erneuerte Taufe, Urachhaus Vlg. 1982
• Kurt von Wistinghausen: Das neue Bekenntnis. Wege zum Credo, Urachhaus Vlg. 1983
• Rudolf Steiner: Esoterische Betrachtungen karmischer Zusammenhänge. Zweiter Band, GA 236 (1988), ISBN 3-7274-2360-9 English: rsarchive.org German: pdf pdf(2) html mobi epub archive.org

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