What Is We Is, or, Yet Another (Neo)Pagan Path (YAPP)

	mark roth-whitworth, the Silverdragon, 1997-2000

Note: No scienterrific laws were violated in the making of this path. Faith not required. Contents may settle during shipping.

Kate and I created two religion-analogues in Her universe: one was the Travelers (as in, we're all just passing through here), and the other was the Kinship of the Living Worlds (or was it Fellowship? dunno which sounded better). At any rate, what I've jokingly called "Wiccan Science" is this. As opposed to the Church of *All* Worlds, this is one of the *many* worlds. It ought to be acceptable to many neoPagans and science-philics, as well as mystics (and may jes' gag Newagers, an' funnymentalist creationists of all stripes). Now, about three-quarters of a year after I wrote the above, I've decided that there are problems with the name "Kinship...", those being a) that we have only reached one living world (this one), though I *do* want to leave room ("This page deliberately left blank...") for the future, and b) everybody seems to need something short, pithy, and epithetical. So, to solve all that, I bethunk me that it's the biospheres that we're talkin' 'bout, and then stole an line from an old Pogo comic: "We have nothing to sphere but spere itself!"; so, let's call it Spherism. ("Hey, hey, we're the Spherists, and we've got something to say....") I s'pose we could also be Pagan Scientists....

This is draft version .7. I've taken into account the comments from the *one* person who gave me any (I guess everyone else in this opinionated group's too busy...). I still *think* it's getting closer to a final form.

mark

******************************************************************

Preface

These are the basic tenets to which all who ally with the organization whose current use-name is Spherism (for Biospherism). The symbols used to indicate specific portions of these understandings may vary, depending upon the symbolism of the participants, or of the relevant analogy for those who may not be of Homo Sapiens Terrestialis (hopefully, some day soon). In all cases, look to the forest, not the trees, and use, as my Beloved Kate has said, Bishop Occam's chainsaw: if the tenets are in agreement, then they are indeed of Spherism; if not, not.

Part One: Of Spherism

We accept the validity of the Gaia Hypothesis, that is, that an entire Biosphere may be perceived as a single organism. Given the current state of knowledge, rather than a matter of faith (which I *don't* do), it seems to be like the optical illusion where, depending solely on one's viewpoint, it is either two faces staring at one another, or a goblet. Either one is equally valid. Now, it may be that Gaia has some level of self-awareness - data insufficient. At any rate, this is what we speak of when we reference the Chief Diety...but *only* of that one biosphere. Each biosphere has Its own Chief Deity, and though it is possible that they may speak, one to the other, they are not all "One" (tm), but individuals. For one living world to speak to another, even within a single solar system (say, for example, if Mars, too, has a biosphere and an Intellegence), given all the static from the Sun, and the cosmic background radiation, as well as simple attenuation and degradation of the signal-to-noise ratio in just the *distance* from the Earth to Mars (even at their nearest), would be like having a "close interaction/private conversation" with someone that you were screaming to a quarter-kilometer away. Further, what is true for that "small" a distance is two and more orders of magnitude more true for such Intellegences to try to communicate across interstellar distances (to say nothing of the gulf between galaxies). They do not partake of some Universal ALL-Deity-Hood, nor do they have omniscient and omnipotent control over even their own bodies, no more than you or I do. Certainly, had Gaia such control, She *certainly* would have saved Her dearly beloved children, the dinosaurs (after all, She kept 'em around for around 250 *million* years or so, while we've only been around, in one form or another, for *maybe* a million or so. This lack of omnipotence is obvious: bad things *do* happen to good people, and vice versa. We, as individuals, aren't aware of what every cell in our body is doing, all the time, nor do we have control over most of them. We may be happy, or deplore, what any of 'em is doing, but.... Furthermore, no one individual speaks to the Chief Deity, directly. Such a conversation would take rivers of megawatts, and decades for a simple 'hello'. None of us directly deals with, for example, the 17th cell to the left of the dimple a millimeter below your joint, and 101 cells in. Instead, subsystems of your body, and the local group of cells deal with it. It is these subsystems that we deal with in ritual, when we speak to the deities, who are the subdeities, as it were, of the Chief Deity. ALL of these subdeities are local, though there may be some who travel the biosphere, or whose analogs do so. When we travel to other planets, we must seek out and meet the local deities, and learn of their Chief, and treat with them in their own symbols, so long as it does not violate our own metapatterns, as set forth in this document.

Part Two: Rituals

Our rituals may be for an event, such as to mark the passing of time, to celebrate a current joy, and not let that which is gone fade without a trace; or they may be to work change in either ourselves or the world around us, or for both. In no case are they done for spite, though should a quorum see the need or right, they may be performed in dispite or defence. Revenge may *never* be sought on one's own desire, but only undertaken after due consideration and consensus of both one's own group, and one that is aside from the cause. In the former case, we are there to celebrate or remember, not worship. How would you feel about the dozen cells half-way down your forearm worshipping *you*? Events to be celebrated or morned may include birth, death, handfasting, coming of age, joining together or breaking apart; the regular rituals should celebrate the seasons of the year, that their joys and sorrows be not forgotten in the stream of time. Working Change are the rituals of Magick, those psychological techniques that are used to control psi energies (or however they may be named or viewed). All rituals, per se, are Workings, at least for celebration, which do indeed change the participants..

Part Three: The Meaning and Metapatterns of our Rituals

There is a place for spontaneity in ritual, as the Deities direct. However, one does not make soup by pouring spices into a pot, and then adding the other ingredients. Likewise, one should not expect participants who are not impromptu actors to be able to read one's mind, and respond in a timely manner in ritual. Let all be told the form of the ritual, and the expectations. There is a tale of a man who had a house with complicated plumbing, that became stopped up. Finally, he called in a plumber, who walked around the house, looked at things, then went over and gave one specific twist of pipe a tremendous hit, and the plumbing ran clear. When the plumber presented his bill, and it was expensive, the man asked the plumber to itemize just what cost so much. The bill read, "hitting the pipe, .5%; knowing where to hit the pipe, 99.5%". The real work of ritual is the careful consideration of the meaning and effect of the one being designed. By the time the Sacred Space is made, almost all work is done. You have decided *where* to hit the pipe. Sacred space may be created by inviting the World in, as the Druids do, or by filter away the mundane; in either case, one is breaking away from the ordinary consensus reality, to create a place where one may deal with the real things of underlying importance, the things of True Will, not of "I will". Obtaining popular clothes is the latter, knowing one's life, in relation to another, is the former. The ritual purpose is accomplished by understanding how and where we are *now*, how we got *here*, and, by observing in the "proper" manner, changing the course of that which is observed to one closer to one's heart's desire. In truly understanding the meaning of the creation of the Sacred Space is the understanding of where we come from; in the observation of the *now* that is the active part of the ritual is the knowledge of the ways we may go (for there are not an infinite number of futures, though there is a *very* large number of them, and *all* possible futures are predetermined, as the West African tribe who views the future as a coral fan: one must stay on the coral, but end up in many different places, depending on the path one chooses, or is forced to take.

mark's commentary Passing On

First of all, this is all speculation, at least until we can do psi, or electromagnetic side-effects thereof. I, personally, can not deal with "faith", that is, unsubstantiated belief. I, personally require proof, which is defined in this case as evidence demonstrable to an unbiased third party.

******************************************************************************

What I say below (and in the ritual) has *way* too much Mystical Claptrap (tm), as well as a lot of mythmaking. I make an explicit analogy with light approaching a black hole. Letting go is like going straight in, with an even distribution of whatever makes up *you*, your memories and experiences, on the other side; you become (as the zen buddhist asked the hotdog vendor at the baseball game to make him) One with the Everything...part of the Akashic Oatmeal, the psionic cosmic background noise.

If one is, instead, fleeing this world, this may result in some significant part of *you* instantiating in someone/thing (dunno, so maybe there is *some* reincarnation, though it ain't all of *you*, since without all your memories, of all your experiences that *made* you *you*, you ain't the same person, and you *will* lose some of that due to psi interference, cosmic background noise, and other effects of the Three Laws of Thermodynamics. Note that a number of folks have mentioned Alzheimer's to me, and my response is that, even with Alzheimer's, you *still* have all your memories, even if you can't access all of them at once.

If you leave *clinging* to as much stuff as possible, your trajectory is going to scatter *you*, leaving, perhaps, a bunch of attitudes, and not much else (which may be where Classic Ghosts (tm) come from, patterns stuck in a loop, without much awareness of past or future: tapes replays, with no awareness.

Enough strength in this world, *and* the psi world, and some *focused* reason for staying aware of the worls, and perhaps you swallow the hole, rather than vice-versa, and become that-which-lives-on-in-self. Perhaps enough psi help from others helps in this, and in either this case or the former, enables something to live on, *not* just in others' memories (unless they can tap into some of the shared memories, and use those brain events to help maintain something of their own actual self-existance. Perhaps this is where the demigods and deities come from, or the lesser spirits that we find, all unknowing, when we *try* something. Perhaps even some of these that have gone before, that have some power, may help shape the trajectory. Data insufficient, though it *ought* to be possible, once we can detect the electromagnetic side effects of actual thought, to listen, and hear whether some of those who have gone before are indeed still there.

It may be that large groups of people create self-perpetuating fields of their own, so that there is an Islamic Garden, or Xian white-light- heaven...but they are localized epiphenomena, not a Cozmic Afterlife (tm).

In any case, when we pass that psi black/white hole, we take our best shot at it, and it's all physics past there. None of this "We *Choose* What Life We Incarnate Into, To Teach Ourselves Lessons <#insert sappy_ cozmic_music.h>"; it's just that same as the choices we make in *this* life (and that the deities, up to and including Gaia and her fellows); ain't no Omniscient Planner - let's be real, could these lives be "planned" by anything other than a committee?

The Beforetime

I covered "after" first, since this is a cycle, and affects "before". Certainly, we have good evidence as to where everything came from, and to deny this is to deny what is (if this looks like a slam against "Xian Creationists", it certainly is, those ignorant and terrifed fools.)

Now, most of my commentary about afterlives is speculation, not quite to the level of hypothesis. Whether this life is a beforetime to the group epiphenomena, which themselves may become as Gaia is, independant and self-aware...data insufficient, though such phenomena should be detectable. Time to start looking, guys. If one appeals to conservation laws to argue the conservation of the "soul", or whatever, then all known physical laws also apply. ***************************************************************************

Note that, in the time since I wrote that, I have realized that, to me, we are *not* a thing, to which conservation laws would apply, but rather an information structure (see mcts above re who we are, and memory), and information certainly *can* be lost or destroyed (so, who's been over to read the books in the Library at Alexandria lately?). If anything, the *I* may be like a hologram...and if any of it is transmitted to somewhen/someone else, all of it is...*except* that the less of the signal gets saved, unmangled, the fuzzier it is. In general, you wind up with not Akashic Records (tm), but rather the Akashic oatmeal (with an occasional raisin). This, of course, would surely account for the dolorous, and not very clear, Greek view of the underworld.

Appendix: a sample pattern/ritual ****************************************************************************

mark, the Silverdragon, and Kate. May She be strong enough to continue on, that I may yet join Her.

To be considered a draft Request for Comment.