When most people today hear the word cult, they immediately think of those like Jim Jones and David Koresh.
But when we look back to the ancient historical concept of the cult, we see a far different picture. A cult was simply a private group of worshipers who practiced apart from the mainstream society. The Mystery Rites of Eleusis, for instance, would have been a cult, but they were just a private Order, dedicated to the understanding and preservation of a specific sacred knowledge. They believed in the same Gods as everyone else even, but they were still set apart. A cult is therefore just that, a group or religion outside the mainstream society. One might even argue that all minority religions are cults because of this definition, but minority would depend on the kind of religious society one lives in. In a Muslim country, for instance, Christians would be a cult, whereas in the United States, they wouldn't be. The early Christians of Rome were most certainly a cult.
I'm not suggesting that people should join openly known cults. This post is merely about historical honesty and examination. In my own religion, there were numerous cults throughout history, but I have always shied away from that word in any context because of the modern stigma, even when I am just talking about historical record. So I want people to understand that some of the things we think of now as bad, were never meant to be that way. For instance, the swastika predates Hitler and the Nazis and goes back to many ancient cultures, even ancient Greek ones, as a symbol of motion and flow. But you can't use it today because of the Nazi stigma and the great harm that has been done to people under its banners. I think it's important we understand that humans can take anything and make it good or bad, it all depends on them, and I think understanding this will make us better thinkers.
In the Goodness of the Gods,
Chris Aldridge.