Hey awesome blog here! I was wondering if you could help. See I'm writing about a religious group (or cult if you like) and I'm trying to make this 'group' a little different from any other religion, meaning it has hardly any links to Christianity and stuff like that, so how could I go about developing and creating it? Thank you for the help!
First let’s look at the differences between a religion and a cult.
A religion is a group of beliefs, acts, and rites which involves one or more deities. It implies obedience to a series of commandments. There is organization, symbolism, and devotion. Religion has its main foundation on faith, personal on a first instance, and collective, on a second one. Religion also implies a big group of people, some of them are born into it, some people convert to religion, there are also religions that don’t accept converts.
On the other side, cults are small gatherings which tend to follow the personal beliefs of their leader or prophet. Some cults are not recognized, not the same way religions are. Cults also involve rites, and there’s a separation from their members from society.
You have to know which one you want. A religion or a cult, because there are major differences between them. If we look at the structure, the raw structure, there are some common elements.
There will always be people involved. Religion and cults have a vertical structure. Not everyone is the same. Differences come from gender (some religions and cults recognize only male/female), age, ethnic background, and social class. People are probably the main ingredient when creating a religion or a cult. People from the past, the ones contemporary people hear and read about.
There have to be rituals involved. Many ceremonies can be deconstructed in rituals and rites. Baptism, weddings, funerals, among others. Usually they have an order, you can’t participate on a rite if you haven’t performed another one. They work as a ladder on which people climb to reach the top. Often these rituals are carried by people who work as a link between the common, and ordinary people and the deities.
People need a place where to gather and carry their rituals and meetings. Some of them are filled with symbolism. Statues, paintings, objects, the very structure of the building can hold symbolism. In some of them you can step in uninvited, in others, someone has to invite you in. Some temples are visible an recognisable by people who don’t belong to the religion the temples are from, in some other cases, temples remain hidden only for its members to know.
Think of myths as an additive to religion and cults. They contribute with mysticism and offer a different past. They can surround deities and/or real people. They work as a method, often efficient, of how deities do their will, how people survived hard times, or how they became someone, or something, else.
Symbols are one of the main pilars of religions and cults. Anything can be turned into a symbol. Think of the elements inside and outside a temple, many of them don’t necessarily represent what they are. The same with colors, clothes, ornaments, among others.
Books are not a must in religions or cults, but they do help to maintain an order inside the institution. Some of them can’t be read by anyone in or out the religion or cult, some of them can. Some have symbols, some are symbols. Some are written by people, some by the deities. Some are synonym of debate, some are more silent.
Not everyone is supposed to know everything from religions and/or cults. Some knowledge comes in codes, not the same as symbols. Codes are meant to be deciphered, but not by all. The can be used in rites, lectures, songs, books, or even they can be part of conversations among people.
The topics above are the surface when it comes to religions and cults, remember they are institutions linked to economic, political, social, racial, among others, issues. They are part of a context and do not exist in the void.
I hope this can give you a start for your creation.
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