They say that a person is never closer to God than at the moment of creativity. And you can become a creator in almost any field: in art, science, sports, even in the household. There is also religious creativity. Once upon a time it was occupied by those powerful churches that count their age for millennia and have long since declared adherence to tradition as the main virtue. But now it also exists - mostly outside the sphere of influence of the main religions, somewhere on the outskirts of civilization …
Airplane worship science
Our regular readers, of course, know that from the end of the 19th century and throughout the entire 20th century, in the countries of the so-called third world, mainly on the islands of the Pacific Ocean, a kind of cargo cults appeared. The most ancient of them is considered the Tuka movement, which arose on the Fiji island back in 1885, and the most famous is the religious movement of Melanesia (parts of the Pacific islands located between the Malay archipelago and the islands of Polynesia), also called the cult of airplane worshipers, or Gifts of heaven. Actually, it gave the name to the phenomenon of cargo cults: cargo cult in English means "worship of cargo". The popularity of the term was ensured by the physicist Richard Feynman when he spoke from the department of the California Institute of Technology with a speech "The Science of Airplane Worshipers."
It is no coincidence that the cargo was at the center of the islanders' worship. During the Second World War, the military appeared on the Pacific Islands, first the Japanese, then the Americans. Unusually behaving newcomers made a great impression on the islanders, who had previously met only with civilian Englishmen, and brought a lot of new things into their lives. After all, the army was provided with canned food, clothing, tents, modern weapons and other useful items, some of which got to the local residents, for example, in exchange for the services of guides. The islanders quickly became accustomed to the gifts of civilization. However, the holiday was not eternal: the war ended, and along with it the cargoes - "cargo" disappeared.
In order to get another batch of Western goods, which, according to the Melanesians, created the spirits of their ancestors especially for them (and white people appropriated them dishonestly), the islanders took the most logical actions from their point of view: they began to imitate the lifestyle of the "usurpers". They built life-size airplanes out of wood, laid airstrips and lit them at night with torches. They put halves of coconut on their heads, like headphones. However, the planes did not arrive and the new cargo was not dropped. They still do not do this, but the Melanesians do not give up: they have completely abandoned their pre-war beliefs and are increasingly worshiping airplanes with great zeal.
From the outside, all these "Potemkin airfields" look funny. But only from the point of view of people who know how airplanes work and why coconut halves can never replace real headphones. And if you look at the situation with an open mind, this belief is beautiful in its own way, and who knows if it will not be taken seriously not only in Melanesia, but also in other countries, if it manages to stay afloat long enough?
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Vailal's Madness
However, most cargo cults were short-lived and disappeared as quickly and suddenly as they were born. For example, the mentioned Tuk movement existed exactly as long as it was preached by the shaman Ndugomoi. He called himself Navosavakandua (He Who Speaks Only Once), declared himself the supreme ruler and promised to bring back to life the long-deceased Fijian heroes who would put all white people (and especially missionaries) in their proper place, that is, in the service of dark-skinned people. The colonial authorities of the island did not like such statements, as well as their growing popularity among local residents. The troublemaker was first imprisoned, and then completely expelled from Fiji. Having lost its creator, the Took cult did not last even a few months.
The same fate befell the most famous pre-war cult that existed in the Australian territories of Papua at the turn of the twenties of the last century and known as the "Wailal madness". "Vailala" is a set of sounds, a symbol of meaningless imitation of the language of Europeans, which was an integral part of the religious rituals of the Vailalites. They imitated both some everyday actions and the habits of the colonialists - for example, they introduced brewing tea into the status of a ritual. The resulting drink, which had nothing to do with tea, was supposed to be eaten while sitting on wooden stools, while in their everyday life the islanders did not use furniture at all, only mats. They endured all these inconveniences in order to quickly attract a steamer with "cargo" - food, clothes and weapons of Europeans, as well as a team of "white dead", into their waters,acting messengers of the gods. It is not hard to guess that the supply of local colonists was carried out by sea …
February 15 of an unknown year
A recognized long-liver among cargo messiahs is a certain John Froome. His loyal followers, the inhabitants of the Tanna Island of the New Hebrides (Vanuatu) archipelago, located in the southwestern part of the Pacific Ocean, are still awaiting the second coming of their idol.
The first official mention of John Froom dates back to 1940. He is described as a short man with white hair and a coat with shiny buttons (most likely an outfit). Having appeared on the island, he began to speak very unfriendly about white missionaries, which immediately won the sympathy of the natives, and amazed the listeners with outlandish prophecies somewhat reminiscent of the biblical.
John Froome did not stay on Tanna for long, and before "going to the ancestors" (it is unclear whether he died or simply left the island), he promised to return on February 15 with a large amount of "cargo", as well as a new currency with the image of a coconut. Only those who get rid of white people's money in advance can get it.
The islanders believed in this so strongly that in 1941 they provoked a real economic crisis on their separate island: they spent all their cash, quit working and sat down to wait for their messiah with a bag of the promised gifts. The authorities managed to restore order, bring the economy back to life, but they could not destroy the cult. The legend of the great John Froome continued to live and develop, acquiring new details: at first it turned out that Froome was none other than the "King of America", then he significantly increased in height …
By the way, John Frum does not stop communicating with his flock, periodically communicating with his high priest on the "radio", the role of which is played by a half-insane old woman wrapped in wires. The high priest "translates" her incoherent delirium and passes it on to his fellow countrymen as a message from above. And they believe and every year on February 15 they arrange a celebration in anticipation of their messiah …
In the pantheon - Maradona and Prince Philip
Not all remake cults are based on the expectation of some kind of reciprocal gestures from the deity. On the same island of Tanna in the village of Yaohnanen, a tribe lives, which for some reason did not like John Frum. In the middle of the last century, they decided to independently find a living idol to worship and, in the end, opted for the wife of Queen Elizabeth II - the most respected and influential woman of that time. This is how the cult of the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Philip, which still exists today. The prince knew about it. In 1974, together with his wife, he visited his admirers and left several photographs as a souvenir.
Diego Maradona also got into the modern pantheon of idols. His church has over 120 thousand adherents. The main commandment they observe is, of course, a sincere and selfless love for football. Also, admirers of Maradona are obliged to take a middle name in honor of their idol - Diego, to worship his athletic form and himself.
There is a completely independent religious movement in the Urals. It is called bazhov and is based, as the name implies, on the tales of Pavel Bazhov with an admixture of the Roerichs' teachings. The key figure in the pantheon of the Bazhovites is, of course, the Mistress of the Copper Mountain, and the center of the world is the city of Arkaim in the Chelyabinsk region, which was opened in 1997.