>Does anyone know anything about the Shakers/Quakers of the U.S.A. (and
>possibly elsewhere)? I have in mind for my PCs a journey to Wintertop via
>the Shaker's Temple and thought the possibilities could be enormous -
>especially the idea of the HUGE high priestess (who has to be pulled around
>in a cart by six oxen - Dragon Pass) rocking around like jelly in the
>temple... Ideas? Anyone have any more on the Exiles and the Shakers?
The Shakers are an ultrasmall christian cult that believes Sex is the Original Sin. Thus they shun it and survive only by recruiting new converts. They gain their name through the shaking that takes place at their ceremonies. They also practice communal living and temperance. National Geographic did an article on them some time ago.
The Quakers (as in the Society of Friends, not the... well never mind) do not shake or quake religiously. They acquired their name because in a court case, the founder bade his followers to Tremble at the Word of the Lord to which the Judge called them Quakers. This had previously been applied to a sect whose adherents did quake and during the English Commonwealth, Quaker was a term of abuse.
Andrew Behan:
>I say this because according to the masters the philosophers stone could
>only be made by the pure of heart. To put it another way alchemy was as
>much a spiritual as a chemical exercise just as the end product was as
>much spiritual as material in its benefits.
But this could also work the other way: an alchemist could create a bath to make himself pure of heart so that he could attempt to make the philosophers stone. And of course to reach that stage, he would have to concoct an elixir that would allow him to percieve Omphalos and thus arrive at the knowlege to create the bath that will allow him to make the philosophers stone. And all the time, he would have to earn a living by churning out love philters for the hoi polloi...
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