doraddi animism

From: Jerome Blondel <bwbfc_at_yahoo.fr>
Date: Mon, 24 Jun 2002 23:26:28 +0200


Hi

First a question: Hero Wars had much about disembodied spirits and traditions that allow shamans to work with them. But how do animists work with natural spirits?

Then (a long then), i tried to write down the key notions about Doraddi animism, extracted from Revealed Mythologies and matched them with what i know of animism (mostly from the same book) and the GoG's "The Chieftain Speaks":
http://www.glorantha.com/library/priests/doraddi.html Comments welcome.

Doraddi animism

Pamaltela is the source of Animism. The whole material world is alive as Nature because Pamalt can feel the pulsation of his creator, Langamul, inside himself, although Langamul is dead.

The life force of the dead creator is called Amuron, which is seen in shamanic trances as the Great Horned Serpent or the Great Spirit. It emanates from the spirit world to animate the material world. All life, all magic, all spirits, have their source in the life force of Amuron.

The spirit world is dangerous and scary because only incomplete beings are there. As they have no body, they want one and thus are often hostile to the beings of the material world who have one. (In Gods of Glorantha, the spirit world is called the Breath World.) Natural spirits inhabit the material world (Nature).

Pamalt = Intelligence

Pamalt is the first person, who became the Great Chieftain of Pamaltela, and the source of the Mind. Because he first had the idea, now all intelligent beings know how to maintain the world alive. Pamalt taught the Doraddi the Right Footpath so they can live in intelligent harmony with Nature and be happy all the time.

The Phallus Dance

Pamalt's grandparents Yanmorla and Cronisper worked together and this is the way to bring Amuron to the material world. Cronisper is the male power, the Breath which brings the life force, and Yanmorla is the female power, the Body who is the recipient.

This is clearly about sex, but as the Right Footpath is focused on traveling, Body and Breath can also be seen as two opposed means of traveling: Material and Immaterial.

Ecstatic Worship

Even before the Phallus Dance, Pamalt's shaman Noruma first called the Great Horned Serpent by making a fire. Amuron taught Noruma how to control the spirits and this is how the Pamaltings do magic, because in the Fire, both natural and spirit worlds are connected. Through the Fire, their mind and breath can travel out of their body to the spirit world.

Mortality

Body, Breath, Fire and Mind are the Gray Ones, the four principles that make a person. But the Agi were immortal and dry at first. Only the Gods could create new life. Drinking Water is what gave their mortality to the Agimori. Now they can make children and be happy. Water is the life force present in living beings. Nyanka is the source and teacher of this.

According to GoG, when people die:
- Their body returns to earth and sprouts the lineage medicine plant.

Gods

They are powerful natural spirits led by the four Gray Ones so that they are like people. They live in the sacred mountain Um, in the Land of Fire. Pamalt is their chieftain there.

The gods are the teachers of people. They can be worshipped through Adoration (personal devotion by the current HW rules), which is a form of ascetic practice common to all three systems and close to mysticism. The devotee behaves like, and becomes part of, the deity (for example the Vangono warriors, the Keepers of the Oases, the Jmijie wanderers...) They can give spirits to other people through the rites of Pamalt's Necklace. They cannot partake in shamanic worship though. Shamans can also contact spirits of those beings. But devotees don't need the shamans.

The Trickster

Bolongo, the Trickster, is the source of all that is wrong, his mask covers nothingness. Pamalt always unmasked him to show the wrong in his way of lies and illusion, and this interaction made the world such as it is, with all its imperfections and bad examples to be shunned (murder, urban life, theism, sorcery, materialism, chaos, etc.)

Jerome

--__--__--

End of Glorantha Digest

Powered by hypermail