Re. HW religion

From: Simon Hibbs <simonh_at_msi-uk.com>
Date: Thu, 13 Aug 1998 13:11:40 +0100


J K MacLaren raises an interesting issue. This is my interpretation of what was said.

>The basic premis was that in many cases your god calls you, as opposed
>to you choosing your god. The example mooted also re-opened an old >can
of worms, the question of pantheon worship.

The lesson from this is that we cannot choose who we are. By engaging with the otherworld, we open ourselves to divine inspiration. Was Macbeth pushed into doing what he did by supernatural forces? Or by opening himself to their influence, did he bring forth an aspect of his nature of which even he was not aware?

> Soon everyone realises that they were wrong and he is a full-blown
> Lhankor Mhy scholar after-all. Everyone that is except Horace who
> is much happier staying within the cosy confines of the Orlanth cult.

We can't just be who we want to be. We also have a duty to be what other people need us to be.

Many of the things we do have consequences we don't like. Similarly most of us I'm sure have aspects of our personality or behaviour which we'd rather not have. The divine call is the theists rationale for this. By opening themselves to contact with the otherworld during initiation, these natural tendencies are given divine (i.e. magical) force.

Think of the film The Unforgiven. An excelent example of a man who is called by Humakt so strongly, that to ignore it would lead to the destruction of everything he loves. Yet in heeding the call, he must do things which are abhorent to him.

Simon Hibbs


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