Creator / Invisible God

From: Nick Brooke <100270.337_at_CompuServe.COM>
Date: 16 Nov 96 08:50:03 EST



Andrew B writes:  

> Does the Rokari church offer confession?

IMHO, yes: confession and absolution. (Greg's mandate to us was to make the Rokari like an evil mediaeval Catholic church). They are also unusual in believing in a Hell for naughty dead guys.

> Are the services carried out in Ancient Seshnegi?

That's "Brithini" to you and me. The Brithini language and script are used by the learned throughout the West, comparable to mediaeval use of Latin. Note that most classes at Sog City University are taught in the ancient Brithini tongue, by ancient Brithini sorcerer/scholars. Modern Western languages are related to Brithini like French, Spanish, Italian are to Latin.

> How does the average "joe" get out of the fact he is probably sure that he
> will not go to Solace as he is too prone to sinful thoughts if not the
> occasional action?

Knights know that God may be Merciful, even if his priests are not. Cf. the Malkioni "What My Father Told Me", and the stuff about Hrestol's martyrdom on my homepage: even if he's explicitly condemned by the letter of the Law and the words of the Wizards, a sinner can be saved. (But the wizards will tell you otherwise: seek absolution, penance and forgiveness).

If you *really* get worried about this, look for a heresy that offers certain personal salvation: the Flagellants, the Perfecti, the Boristi are all possibilities... maybe even the Guild of Chaos Monks? :-)



Nick E writes:

> ... the Creator is just another word for IG AFAIK (any Malkioni buffs wish
> to prove me wrong?).

OK, see my homepage articles on early Malkionism at

        <http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Nick_Brooke/>

This is all IMHO, so you know, but there's a fair amount to back it up there.

The Creator is a Prime Cause, First Mover, Transcendent, Impersonal, Great Architect of the Universe kinda guy: he/it set up the cosmos and then retired behind it. He/it doesn't manifest, or answer prayers or invocations. Though maybe there are rituals that are pleasing to him/it. The Creator defined the natural Laws, and therefore all Sorcery works through him. The Brithini and early Malkioni believed in a non-intervening Supreme Power; the Brithini thought of it as impersonal, the Malkioni as perhaps personal but certainly remote.

The Invisible God is a Caring, Sharing, Loving, Intervening, Immanent Deity, who watches over the lives of his followers and intervenes miraculously in response to proper intercession (by saints, wizards and worshippers). The Jrusteli God Learners of the Second Age determined that the Invisible God *was* the Creator, and modern mainstream Malkioni would agree with this formulation. But variant heretical sects (e.g: Aeolians, Stygians, Syanorans, Carmanians, etc.) and archaic proto-Malkioni (e.g: Brithini, Waertagi) wouldn't, and probably don't use the term "Invisible God".

The IG/Creator is the God of Logic, and is thus extremely unlikely to disappear in a puff of it. "Faith" is something Malkion added to the mix in the Great Darkness (the Ice Age), when people's brains got smaller and they weren't able to comprehend the logical necessity of the Creator's existence.

It may be just a YHWH/Adonai thing in the earliest scriptures, of course. But this gives me more room to have Fun With Theology. Why'd you think Creator and IG get separate entries in "What the Wizard Says" and the "Prosopaedia" from GoG?



Re: Euhemerism

> As non-mystical as this may sound, it's very, very interesting.... anyone
> have any ideas on who might believe this sort of thing?

Most modern Westerners ("There is no god but the Invisible God"), or Lunar Materialist Sorcerers.



Nick

Powered by hypermail