CULTURE continued from page 36 most Mandeans, never mind people outside the community. But the Mandeans’ alternative view has periodically attracted popular interest. In the 19th century, their most important sacred text, the Great Treasure, or Ginza Rba, was translated to Latin. That is believed to have contributed to the heightened interest in esoteric mysticism and spirituality in that era, although contrary to popular belief, Mandaeans do not practice magic of any form. The Mandaean religion entrusts priests with the responsibility of keeping religious knowledge and performing extremely complex rituals which help souls through this life and into the next. Few lay Mandaeans have any religious knowledge and there is a shortage of priests, whose number is believed to be fewer than 50 worldwide. John the Baptist The Mandaean community reveres John the Baptist, whom they call Yehyea or Yohanna, along with water’s purifying force. Baptism, or Masbuta, is the key ritual of this gnostic faith. Unlike Christians who receive the sacrament of Baptism once, the Mandaeans may be baptized hundreds of times over their lifetime. John the Baptist, who was born in the 1st century BC and died between 28-36 AD, was a Jewish prophet of the Jordan River region, celebrated by the Christian Church as the forerunner to Jesus Christ. He emerged from the wilderness preaching a message of repentance for the forgiveness of sins and offered a water baptism to confirm the repentant person’s commitment to a new life cleansed from sin. John the Baptist is one of the most significant and well-known figures in the Bible, described to be a “lone voice in the wilderness” as he proclaimed the coming of the Messiah to a people who desperately needed a Savior. Baptism The Mandaeans’ central ritual is baptism: immersion in flowing water, which is referred to in Mandaic as “living water,” a phrase that appears in the Bible’s New Testament as well. Baptism in the Mandaean faith is not a one-time action denoting conversion as in Christianity. Instead, it is a repeated rite of seeking forgiveness and cleansing from wrongdoing in preparation for afterlife. The purpose of the baptism is to contact the healing powers of the World of Light and to purify believers from sin. Without baptism, there is no hope of ascending to the Great Life. Unlike Christian baptism, which is only done once, Mandaeans are baptized when they are born, before marriage, after marriage and frequently in between, but always in fresh water. The fresh and flowing water symbolizes that life is always flowing. This is also the reason why many Mandaean temples are built next to rivers. Most temples also have a pool in their courtyard. Baptisms take place every Sunday and the performing priests are dressed in special white garments like those worn by the Levite priests. The ritual includes prayers, triple self-immersion, triple immersion by the priest, triple signing of the forehead with water, triple drinking of water, investiture with a myrtle-wreath, blessing by the priest laying his right hand on the head of the initiate, hymns, and formulas. Mandaean priests are dressed completely in white, considered pure and representing faith and the cleansing of the soul. After the ceremony, Mandaeans return to their homes for 36 hours, marking the time it took for God to create the world and the first man, Adam. Within those hours they teach Adam’s stories and continue in his path. Fasting is also key to this experience, but the word means more than abstention from food. Fasting does not mean fasting food and water, but real fasting is the great fast that includes fasting of the mouths (“shall not lie”), fasting of the eyes (“shall not see the wrongdoing”), and fasting of the legs (“we shall not walk into the wrong path”). An archived photo of a Mandaean man from the Library of Congress. Survival Since the outbreak of Iraq’s violence in 2003, most Sabean-Mandaeans have either fled the country or been killed. Today, there are fewer than 5,000 remaining in Iraq. As their small community is scattered throughout the world, the Sabean-Mandaeans’ ancient language, culture and religion face the threat of extinction, much like the Chaldeans’. In 2006, UNESCO listed the Sabean-Mandaean language in its Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger of Disappearing. The departure of many Sabean-Mandaean religious leaders from Iraq also threatens the ability of the remaining community to retain their rituals. Sabean-Mandaean families have also been affected by the rise of ISIS in Iraq since 2014. In Baghdad, they were targets for attacks and kidnappings. They also experience discrimination and negative stereotyping in all aspects of public life, with some reporting that other Iraqis will refuse to share food or drink from the same glass as a Sabean- Mandaean. These factors, combined with the effects of the ISIS advance, continue to drive them to leave Iraq. Like Chaldeans, Mandaeans nowadays live all around the world. It’s estimated there are between 60,000 to 70,000 Mandaeans worldwide. Australia is home to 10,000, around half of whom live in or near Sydney’s western suburbs. The UK, the community is tiny and has no priest to serve it. In Europe and the United States, they number in the thousands but in the Middle East, especially Syria, they now face a highly uncertain future in a context of civil war. This scattering, combined with Mandaeans’ dwindling numbers, has made it much harder for them to preserve their identity and pass their traditions along to the next generation. My desire to write about our Mandaean cousins and brethren is driven by a need to communicate, to stimulate, to comfort ourselves in the dark and to reflect on what it means to exist. This was a short summary of a people’s struggle to survive loss and an outline of the unfolding tragedy of an ancient Mesopotamian community. It is part of our sad and shared history in scope and human scale. Many, including this author consider the genocide of Iraqi minorities to be the most significant event of the twenty-first century. You can help keep family and friends informed by sharing this article. There is a reasonable chance that Mandaeans may be among your neighbors, whether you live in Sterling Heights, Warren, Rochester, West Bloomfield, Oak Park, or Southfield. Look for them, and you may get a chance to do more than catch a glimpse of living history. Sources: Wikipedia, Saad Salloum, Habib Hannona, Bashar Harbi, E. S. Drower, Siobhan Hegarty, Matthew Bell, James F. McGrath, Jimmy Joe, Valentinas Mite, and The Monitor. Special editing by Jacqueline Raxter and Rand Isaq. COURTESY OF MATSON (G. ERIC AND EDITH) PHOTOGRAPH COLLECTION, LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 38 CHALDEAN NEWS <strong>OCTOBER</strong> <strong>2022</strong>
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