Why do animists have to have big annual rituals? I mean, some might, others might not.
> Here's how I came to this question: I think that you can propitiate
> evil spirits in advance, placate them when they arrive, or banish them
> when they arrive. Note that you could create a table out of this, but
> the "fight them before they arrive" cell would be empty. But then I
> was thinking that theists kind of do this. They dress up in fancy
> clothes and go re-enact the whole "beat up the bad guy" ritual during
> sacred time or whatever. And, like propitiation, they get some kind of
> boost throughout the year because of that.
>
I'm not sure that really matches propitiate in advance, though. And I don't think the Theists who do them get a boost throughout the year for the big Sacred Time ritual. They get to say the world wasn't destroyed. The annual rituals don't seem to be so much about getting something. Of course, IMG, I have yet to see any good reason why you can reasonably say "Theists do this" as that is FAR too broad a category to be useful. We know Orlanthi do them, and it does seem that Sacred Time is recognized just about everywhere since it seems to be recognizably the turn of the year regardless of culture. So while I am sure just about all cultures do something during Sacred Time, I'm not sure everyone does rituals that parallel each other.
>
> But theism works by emulating what the gods did. That's not how
> animism works. Animism works through personal relationships (even when
> they are antagonistic).
>
Agreed.
>
> So, what does an animist do in those annual rituals to help fight the
> evil spirits throughout the year?
>
> My thought is that they don't, per se. Since animism is about personal
> relationships, and the big evil spirits are so much bigger than
> people, animists can't really intimidate Black Eater or Wildfire in
> advance.
>
I could see that. You connect to your great spirit. If you re-enact a
myth of the Great Spirit making the world or something, perhaps it
doesn't look too different from a Theist ritual.
>
>
> Instead, what they do is ask for the blessings of the good spirits in
> advance. My initial thought was that you have to ask for the great
> spirit to assist some activity that the worshipper carries out. (So,
> it kind of works like an augment.) I don't think that it works to say,
> "Oh Eiritha, make our herds expand this year." But it might work to
> say, "Oh, Eiritha, help our women know when our cows are sickly." This
> kind of makes sense to me because animism relies on a personal
> relationship between spirit and person.
>
> But it also has problems. How, exactly, does the great spirit help her
> worshipper find sick cows?
>
The wyter (or equivalent) tells them when the cows are sick?
> Spirits require a home when they are in the natural world. Normally,
> this is a charm, but it can also be a possessed body or whatever. How
> is the great spirit manifesting? Does she send her helper spirits out
> to the worshipper? If so, they need bodies and no one has prepared
> charms or anything.
>
Animists don't have something like a wyter? Or maybe every person has a charm that has a helper spirit sent from the great spirit? (Eritha sends little spirits to help.) Those both strike me as options available if you have the "big ritual for a benefit throughout the year" as you local animist thing.
>
> So, my final thought was that the rituals make worshippers more
> suitable to great spirits. We all know that spirits are picky. After
> all, taboos are mainly about not doing the things that offend the
> spirits. So, maybe these rituals give you a little Lingering Benefit
> in your interactions with the spirits of the tradition. But the
> problem with that is one of game balance: if you got a +9 Lingering
> Benefit most years from making sure you got the annual ritual right,
> that just seems over the top.
>
Why would you get a +9 bonus? Why would you get any bonus. If this is the big sacred ritual to re-bind yourself with the spirit, then not doing it is taboo. Doing it is a necessary condition to stay part of the tradition and be acceptable to the Spirits, no?
LC
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