The Lounge  
New
1996



THE ROOSTER CULT

In the late 1980's I participated in a verbal exchange on a computer bulletin board devoted to the topic of religion. At that time the board, titled "Religious Realms," was dominated by Christian fundamentalists, and their rather predictable input was copiously commented upon by a small band of people of assorted persuasions. As I recall, the group of non-fundamentalist "regulars" consisted of a Buddhist, a few mainstream Christians, a couple of Jews, a Wiccan or two, and maybe a trio of us atheist-agnostic types. Despite our considerable differences in belief and custom, we non-fundamentalists usually got along quite well among ourselves. But as can well be imagined, when it came to dealing with the fundies, tempers there were often short and feelings raw. But despite the general heatedness of the ongoing exchange (I hesitate to call it a "discussion"), one could occasionally find wee scraps of humor floating in the vitriol. One of these which I happen to recall involved an extemporaneous collaboration between another atheist (an acquaintance of mine, but not one of the religion board "regulars") and me. Unfortunately, I did not save a record of this exchange at the time. Nevertheless, it has stuck in my memory for a few years; and if I may be forgiven any errors in reconstructing it from memory, I'd like to share it with you.

I don't recall exactly what prompted this particular exchange, but I suspect it had something to do with an unkind and ill-informed comment about paganism by one of the fundamentalists. In response, my acquaintance (we shall call him "Phil"), contrived an ostensibly scholarly essay on the practice of "Rooster Worship." In his message he meticulously described various aspects of the rooster-god's influence over nature and his interaction with mankind. Though tongue-in-cheek, Phil's masterful touch gave the essay, despite its brevity, the air of a serious work. And, to judge from the immediate responses from some of the fundamentalists, the "Rooster-Worship" opus took in a number of the more gullible participants on the board, leaving the rest of us to chuckle under our breath.

A day or two after reading his message, I came up with an idea of my own to further the rooster ruse. Before proceeding, however, I contacted Phil by e-mail, to ascertain whether he had in mind any enhancements of his own, which he might be considering adding to the story. For the moment, he assured me, he had none; so I contrived and posted my own sequel to "Rooster Worship." As I have already said, memory is my only record of the exchange, so the following reconstruction might differ somewhat from the original bulletin board post in its details. Nevertheless, I am confident that its general tone and content are a reasonably accurate representation of the original.

Like most people posting on this board, I had been unaware of Rooster Worship until I read Phil's account of it here. Being a naturally curious person, I phoned a professor friend of mine, who happens to be something of an expert on ancient pagan customs, and asked whether she had any knowledge of such a religion. She told me that she vaguely remembered having studied something on the matter many years ago, but that she would have to dig through some of her books to refresh her memory on the subject. I told her there was no rush, but she assured me she would be delighted to do a quick bit of research for me, since she was not at the time engaged in giving classes.

A few evenings later she appeared at my door with a large manila envelope containing the fruits of her research. We sat down at the dining room table, where she could spread out the numerous Xeroxed pages, handwritten notes, photos, and sketches she had brought. And, over the next hour or two (and several cups of coffee), she expounded upon her discoveries, which I shall distill for the reader here.

"The only known religious system, in which the rooster acquired the status of a god, was an obscure Delaware Indian subculture, which, during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, inhabited part of what is now southern New Jersey. The rooster was one of two divine icons of this tradition, the other being the male of an indigenous breed of cattle, which was once common to the area but is now extinct. By its association with the rising of the sun, the rooster symbolized light, fertility, courage, and the hunt. The bovine, on the other hand, represented wisdom, strength, endurance, and the harvest. Special rites for each of these deities were performed at certain times of the year; for the rooster during the winter and summer solstices, and for the bull during the spring and fall equinoxes."

Having outlined the subject, my friend then went into considerable detail regarding the idiosyncrasies of the beliefs and customs of the Indians of the region, their interactions with other local natives and with white settlers, and their eventual move westward. When she had finished her presentation (remarkably detailed, I thought, considering the obscurity of the particular group in question), my friend and I settled back in our chairs and silently sipped at our coffee. She had obviously done a great deal of deep thinking about the subject during the few days she had devoted to researching it. And as I eyed her across the table she still seemed to be mulling the matter over in her mind. I thanked her for all the time and effort she had spent on the project, which she shrugged off as "just something I enjoyed doing, to keep 'in shape' mentally." She was about to rise from the table, when an afterthought occurred to her. Her wistful gaze wandered as she spoke slowly and thoughtfully.

"You know, farfetched though they may seem today, such animalistic beliefs were fairly common only a few centuries ago. But with the coming of Europeans to the Western Hemisphere, those ancient, native beliefs were ultimately trodden down by the onslaught of Christianity, just as similar pagan traditions had been trampled in Europe centuries before. The old gods represented by the bull and the rooster are no longer vibrant entities, nor even dim memories. Nowadays they exist only in dusty library archives."

I asked my friend if she thought that such beliefs could not still exist today.

"Are you kidding?" she said. "No one in this day and age would believe such cock-and-bull nonsense!"

I wasn't so sure about that.

=SAJ=