4. The Creation Principles of the Sacred Numbers (聖數) 3 and 7 in the Mithra–Maitreya–Dangun Myths
The Mithra faith is the most universal savior faith appearing across the Indo-European world. The Mithra faith was the dominant religion of Rome before Christianity was officially recognized, and, going further back into the past, Mithra was one of the three supreme gods of Indian Brahmanism and also the supreme god of the ancient Middle Eastern culture represented by the Sumerian civilization. Mithra—related to mithra, mithtas, maitra, and maitri meaning "friend, friendship, mercy"; to Maitreya, adopted as the name of Maitreya, the "future Buddha," carrying the meaning of "salvation" and "covenant"; to Metatron of the Kabbalah, meaning the seat of the throne; and to Christ, the Greek translation of Messiah (Mashiah, Messiah), meaning savior in Hebrew—may be said to be a concept on a continuous line with the Supreme Lord, the Lord of Heaven, and Maitreya, common to Confucianism, Buddhism, Daoism, and the Western religion (Christianity).
With the development of internet video technology and of complexity science and the like, the commonality of the Mithra–Maitreya faith has recently been drawing attention. Mithra–Maitreya had early drawn attention as a representative thought of the trifunctional system, because, with the development of complexity science and the like, the complexity-scientific character inherent in the trifunctional system and archaeological discoveries were easily conveyed to the general public through internet videos.
Through the internet, the Mithra faith, which had early drawn attention as the forerunner of Christianity, became widely known even to the general public; and in particular, Campbell's monomyth—that the Mithra faith becomes the common root of Eastern Maitreya and Western Christianity and can be connected far back to the Mithra–Varuna faith of India, humanity's most ancient faith, or to the lion-and-bird of Sumer—came to draw attention.
The Maitreya faith is commonly known only as an Eastern thought that appeared within Buddhism, but, as seen in the word "Yonghwa (龍華)," its connection with Western thought appears very abundantly. Maitreya is very peculiar in origin even within Buddhism: unlike Avalokiteśvara and the like, it appears not only in the Lotus Sutra and the Avataṃsaka Sutra, which are Mahāyāna scriptures, but is also said to appear in the Sutta Nipāta (經集), which is called the oldest scripture. From its early period, Buddhism was very deeply connected with the thought of filial piety. The Maitreya faith may be said to be the only one among the Buddhas of the Mahāyāna faith already mentioned during the lifetime of Śākyamuni; and since the lotus symbolizing Śākyamuni already appears even in Egypt, there are many elements by which Maitreya can be regarded as the influence of India's Mithra faith, which goes back to a more ancient date than early Buddhism. The Mithra faith is a faith appearing commonly across the world's four great civilizations, and although the theory that the Maitreya faith is related to the Mithra faith has not yet been settled, the Maitreya faith can be examined in terms of its continuity with the global Mithra faith.
To find first the global universality possessed by the Maitreya faith: just as Korea's Maitreya faith is closely connected with the Okchugyeong, the Seven Stars, and Avalokiteśvara, in the West too the Mithra faith is deeply connected with the Seven Stars. Just like the passage in the Jeon-gyeong, the scripture of a Korean new religion, which says that when any one person comes, all say he is their own teacher, if the Mithra faith becomes the origin of Mahāyāna Buddhism, then Europe, Asia, and Africa, all influenced by the Mithra faith, may all be said to be religions of the same root, Maitreya–Mithra. The Book of Revelation, which is connected with the Mithra faith, sets out the relationship between the Seven Stars and Mithra in detail. The Book of Revelation is the only book of the Bible that possesses ancient mythic elements predating the Bible. John, foreseeing that the ancient mythic elements inherent in the Bible would disappear, is said to have left them in writing by means of wisdom. In the Jewish Kabbalah too, there is Metatron (metathrone, super-throne), which is related to Mithra, and the Metatron Cube, resembling a Go board, appears in the form of fractal geometry.
The research of Franz Cumont on Mithra, which had been studied in relation to the origin of Christianity and the Mithra faith of ancient Sumer and India, has recently met with the counterargument of Mithra as astronomy. For some time, in Mithra-related research, the counterargument prevailed that the Roman Mithra faith, which appears in the form of slaying a bull, is related to constellations rather than to a savior; today, a theory like the content of Campbell's research, which affirms both Franz Cumont and constellation research, is being recognized.
If astronomy is seen, as with Campbell, as the manifestation of circulation, then it is the same whether Mithra is seen as a savior like a hero or as a constellation. However, if astronomy is seen, as with Campbell, as the manifestation of circulation, the interpretation of the Seven Stars surrounding Mithra becomes easier. Until now, the Seven Stars appearing commonly in the world's savior myths could only be interpreted as constellations, and the grounds for interpreting them as the axis of cosmic circulation, like the heroic myth, could not be well found. If the Seven Stars are interpreted beyond constellations as the axis of cosmic circulation, like the cosmic tree, then the monomyth is understood, beyond the dimension of being the world's foundational myth, as a creation principle expressing a highly developed science and principle concerning the cosmos.
(2) The Creation Principle of 3 and 7 in the Dangun Myth
There is no religion of Korea researched as much as the Dangun faith, but recently the Dangun faith has been studied, apart from Campbell's monomyth, from the standpoint of a native Korean astronomical faith. As seen in the Mithra faith, all the world's myths have been studied in connection with astronomy; that the Dangun faith is only now being studied is late, yet very encouraging.
Scholars who study the Dangun faith as a creation principle cite, as grounds for seeing the Dangun faith as a creation principle, the universality of the Dangun faith, which appears as far as Turkey. Yi Eun-bong, who has studied the universality of the Dangun faith, cites the Tungusic Buga and the Mongolian Tengri as gods similar to Dangun. Almost the entire Tungusic region calls the supreme god Buga, who is said to be viewable as Heaven (天). He is the god of nomadic peoples. Buga is known as a god who regulates the life of humans and animals. He is said to hide himself and put a lower god at the fore. In our shamanic rites (gut) we can see divinities differentiated from the heavenly god and called Cheonsin-daegam or Cheonsin-janggun, and this case may be seen as similar. In Mongolia there is a god similar to Buga, Tengri. Tengri is seen by some as a phonetic variant of dangol, and by others as a phonetic variant of Dangun. Therefore it is said that he can be seen as the heavenly god Dangun.
Noh Jung-pyeong, who has studied the Dangun myth in relation to ancient Korean astronomy, holds that the Dangun myth is an exposition of our ancient astronomy and possesses a linking chain of astronomy, history, and myth. In the Ziwei Enclosure, the Five Stars of the North Pole float at the center, and there is the Lesser Bear constellation (小熊星), called the Little Bear asterism. This constellation is our progenitor constellation, and in this constellation there are the Empress, the Concubine's Son, the Heavenly Emperor, and the Crown Prince. The Empress is Mago, the Concubine's Son is Hwanung, the Heavenly Emperor is Hwanin, and the Crown Prince is Dangun Wanggeom. In fact, the astronomical records of Gojoseon are being verified by today's science.
Recently, as grounds for Noh Jung-pyeong's argument, the reappraisal of Manaism in Korean religion has been drawing attention. Manaism in Korean religion is the decisive difference between the much-contested Chinese Daoist thought and the Korean immortal (seon) thought, and is the decisive ground for the global universality of Korean religion represented by the Dangun faith and Maitreya faith. This is because, although the Dangun faith and Maitreya faith appear universally throughout the world, there is a very decisive difference, like the difference between Chinese Daoist thought and Korean immortal thought.
Manaism sees nature as a great mass of Qi (氣)—the writhing of the energy called Mana—and does not see spirit (靈) and flesh (肉) as separated. Manaism is precisely the primitive religion formed from the idea that people can rely wholly on nature and live within gratitude for it. The characteristic of Manaism may be called the ascending gate (上向門)—that is, "entering the divine, becoming an immortal (仙)"—which seeks to rise to the realm of the divine (神) and the Dao (道) through cultivation efforts such as accumulating refined energy in the body. If the spirit is inside, like an avatar, it is Manaism; if it is outside, it is Animism. Accordingly, Animism is close to shamanism and Manaism is close to Qi cultivation; but our country, under the influence of Eliade and others, has confused Manaism with shamanism. Manaism and Animism are easily confused, but they are opposites of each other, like yin and yang.
The places where Manaism appears are said to be, regionally, the whole of Eurasia in the region of 40 degrees north latitude. To confine the way of the immortals (seondo) and Daoism to East Asia would be an error, since cultures and myths similar to the way of the immortals and Daoism appear throughout Eurasia, the Americas, and Africa. Next, culturally, whereas the Manaism lineage expresses the culture of the Supreme Lord and of brightness, Animism is said to symbolize the culture of han (resentful sorrow).
It is said that Eurasian myth—especially Korean myth represented by Maitreya and Dangun—is a triadic-differentiation Manaism as Heaven (天), yang (陽), fire (火), and immortal (仙), while Chinese myth represented by Buddhism and Daoism is composed of the double structure of Animism as Earth (地), yin (陰), water (水), and Dao (道) teaching. The Dangun myth, Hae Buru, the Yuhwa of Go Jumong, and so on are all said to be composed of a structure in which the light and brilliance of Manaism meets the darkness of Animism. This holds identically as far as the Buryat by Lake Baikal. It is said that the same structure repeats in the Battle of Zhuolu of Chiyou, the birth of Jesus, ssireum (wrestling), Dano, the Miao people, Tibet, the Geser faith, Princess Bari, Danggeum-aegi, the way of pungnyu (elegant flow), alchemy, and even in the folk beliefs of the divine spirits and han.
In the Korean Manaism represented by the Dangun faith and in its astronomy, the Seven Stars appear, like the Seven Stars of Mithra and the seven characters of Campbell. In particular, the reason the Seven Stars of the Dangun faith are more noteworthy than the Seven Stars of Mithra is that the character of the seven stars transmitted to later ages is similar to the character of Campbell's seven characters. Campbell's seven characters, which appeared as characters of the heroic myth, appear in the Dangun faith as the characteristics of the seven stars.
In Eastern thought, the way the Big Dipper appears as Tanlang (Greedy Wolf)–Wenqu–Jumen–Lucun–Lianzhen–Wuqu–Pojun within the overlapping cosmic circulation of generation–growth–harvest–storage of the twelve—zi, chou, yin, mao, chen, si, wu, wei, shen, you, xu, hai—is similar to the way the seven characters appear in the cyclical structure of Campbell's heroic myth. In fact, the characters that Tanlang–Wenqu–Jumen–Lucun–Lianzhen–Wuqu–Pojun express in the constellation of the seven stars are similar to the seven characters appearing in Campbell's monomyth—the hero (protagonist), the mentor, the threshold guardian, the herald, the shapeshifter (trickster), the shadow, and the trickster (jester).
(3) Comparison of the Mithra–Maitreya–Dangun Myths
Centered on the discussion above, comparing the Mithra–Maitreya faith and the Dangun faith with a focus on the creation principle of 3 and 7 found in Campbell's monomyth yields the following. First, to summarize the creation principle of 3 and 7 found in Campbell's monomyth: the world's myths can be represented as the single cyclical narrative of the hero's return, and that narrative has the three stages of departure–crossing the threshold–return and the seven characters of the hero (protagonist), the mentor, the threshold guardian, the herald, the shapeshifter (trickster), the shadow, and the trickster (jester).
It appeared in both Eastern and Western astronomy, which can be represented by Campbell's monomyth. Since ancient myth also expresses the principle of the cosmos, the principle of the cosmos appearing in Eastern and Western astronomy can be expressed through Campbell's monomyth. The myth of the cosmos expressed through Campbell's monomyth can be expressed by the trifunctional system and seven axes. When the trifunctional system, excluding the center, is trisected once more, it becomes seven axes, like the seven characters. The seven characters found in Campbell's monomyth appear in Eastern astronomy as the Seven Stars and in the Mithra faith as seven serpents. The trifunctional system appears in the Dangun myth as Hwanin, Hwanung, and Dangun, and in the Mithra myth as Mithra, the bird, and the bull. In the Mithra myth the bull dies at Mithra's hand, yet dies rejoicing in the circulation of the cosmos. The Mithra faith connects also to the Maitreya faith, so that the trifunctional system may be said to appear as the Maitreya Triad and the Seven Stars as the Seven-Star Lords. Representing the discussion above in a figure and a table yields the following.
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Figure 6 – The Metatron Cube Figure 7 – The Seven Stars Figure 8 – The Four-Deities Painting (Sasindo)