RedDragonFreehol
Posts: 569
Joined: 1/12/2005
From: Denver, Colorado
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Tal nephandi,
The Free Companionship is based on hand-fasting. Marriage in the Gorean world, at least from the purely philosophical standpoint does not exist, and it does not exist because of what it has become in Western Civilization with its roots in the Christian idealism, and the unnatural state of monogamy. What is natural is the idea that a strong man would gather together as many women as he could protect, ensuring that his genes would be as widely disseminated as possible, and thereby ensuring the survival of the strongest human beings that nature could produce.
If you look to the books, you will find that all the major feast days within the Gorean ethos are placed on solstices and equinoxes, and that the calendar is based on sun and moon cycles. Even the names for the feast days are reminiscent of the old natural structures.....Sa Tarna, for instance, a feast day that is clearly one of thanks for the grain that brings life. Even the ritual of sacrificing grain to the Homestone, as described in Book 1, is clearly derived from Roman, Celtic, and Germanic harvest rituals.
Norman chose only pre-Christian societies to populate Gor, and I do not believe that this was an error. It is clearly, within Earth history, the point at which Europe embraced Christianity that mankind diverged from the path of nature, and began thinking of himself as being "created" in the imaged of "God", and above all the rest of the natural world. You can see Norman's actual take on Christianity by the manner in which he painted the Initiates, and it is most telling in Book 9 where he flatly states:
-----Begin Quote
Initiates often used their influence and their gold, and pressures on trade and goods, to spread their
beliefs and rituals. Sometimes a Chieftain, converted to their ways, would enforce his own
commitments on his subordinates. Indeed, this was not unusual. Too, often, a chief's conversion
would bring with it, even without force, those of his people who felt bound to him in loyalty.
Sometimes, too, the religion of the Priest-Kings, under the control of the Initiates, utilizing secular
rulers, was propagated by fire and sword.
Sometimes those who insisted on retaining the old ways, or were caught making the sign of the fist
of the hammer, over their ale were subjected to death by torture. One that I had heard of had been
boiled alive in one of the great sunken wood-lined tubs in which meat was boiled for retainers. The
water is heated by placing rocks, taken from a fire, into the water. When the rock has been in the
water, it is removed with a rake and then reheated. Another had been roasted alive on a spit over a
long fire. It was said that he did not utter a sound. Another was slain when an adder forced into his
mouth tore its way free through the side of his face.
---------End Quote
Which clearly hearkens back to the very same things that were done to those practicing the old beliefs during the Middle Ages, both at the level of their Kings, and to individuals under various "inquisitions". (Note that I do not use the word Pagan because that was a term that was coined by Catholocism to malign, and categorize, all of those who practiced a natural belief, whether that was Wiccan, Druid, or the dozens of others that graced the Earth for centuries prior to the rise of Christianity.)
Norman goes on to state:
--------Begin Quote
The initiates are an almost universal, well-organized, industrious caste. They have many
monasteries, holy places and temples. An initiate may often travel for hundreds of pasangs, and,
each night, find himself in a house of initiates. They regard themselves as the highest caste, and in
many cities, are so regarded generally.
There is often a tension between them and the civil authorities, for each regards himself as supreme
in matters of policy and law for their district. The initiates have their own laws, and courts, and
certain of them are well versed in the laws of the initiates.
Their education, generally, is of little obvious practical value, with its attention to authorized
exegeses of dubious, difficult texts, purporting to be revelations of Priest-Kings, the details and
observances of their own calendars, their interminable involved rituals and so on, but paradoxically,
this sort of learning, impractical though it seems, has a subtle practical aspect. It tends to bind
initiates together, making them interdependent, and muchly different from common men. It sets
them apart, and makes them feel important and wise, and specially privileged.
There are many texts, of course, which are secret to the caste, and not even available to scholars
generally. In these it is rumoured there are marvelous spells and mighty magic, particularly if read
backwards on certain feast days.
Whereas initiates tend not to be taken with great seriousness by the high castes, or the more
intelligent members of the population, except in matters of political alliance, their teachings and
purported ability to intercede with Priest-Kings, and further the welfare of their adherents, is taken
with great seriousness by many of the lower castes. And many men, who suspect that the initiates,
in their claims and pretensions, are frauds, will nonetheless avoid coming into conflict with the
caste. This is particularly true of civil leaders who do not wish the power of the initiates to turn the
lower castes against them.
---------End Quote
Such being the situation in the US today where no politician can get elected to office without the support of the Christian Right. Norman was nothing, if not prophetic, but truly this has been the case since the beginning of the society. All throughout US history there has been a support for the idea of the seperation of church and state, while all the while politicians have been pandering to the various Christian groups within the framework of the society.
And then Norman drives the points home with this:
---------Begin Quote
Incidentally, it is a teaching of the initiates that only initiates can obtain eternal life. The regimen
for doing this has something to do with learning mathematics, and with avoiding the impurities of
meat and beans. This particular teaching of the initiates, it is interesting to note, is that least taken
seriously by the general population. The Gorean feeling generally is that there is no reason why
initiates or only initiates, should live forever. Initiates, though often feared by lower castes, are also
regarded as being a bit odd, and often figure in common, derisive jokes. No female, incidentally,
may become an Initiate. It is a consequence, thusly, that no female can obtain eternal life.
I have often thought that the Initiates, if somewhat more clever, could have a much greater power
than they posses on Gor. For example, if they could fuse their superstitions and lore, and myths,
with a genuine moral message of one sort or another, they might appeal more seriously to the
general population: if they spoke more sense people would be less sensitive to, or disturbed by, the
nonsense; further, they should teach that all Goreans might, by following their rituals, obtain
eternal life; that would broaden the appeal of their message, and subtly utilize the fear of death to
further their projects; lastly, they should make greater appeal to women than they do, for, in most
Gorean cities, women, of one sort or another, care for and instruct the children in the crucial first
years. That would be the time to imprint them, while innocent and trusting, at the mother's or
nurse's knee, with superstitions which might, in simpler brains, subtly control them the length of
their lives.
--------End Quote
Where Norman, quite literally, calls religious belief a superstition, and paints a very telling portrait of Christianity, specifically, but it really applies to all of those religions, including Islam, that are derived from the belief in the God of Abraham. Couple a moral message to a concept of afterlife, and then indoctrinate the children so that it can control them the length of their days. Which, is exactly what Christianity, Islam, and Judaism do.
There are too many in the Gorean world who would gloss over these passages, and choose to ignore them so that they can retain a degree of irrationality, that despite Norman's manifold references to Darwinian concepts and the idea that first, and foremost, a Gorean should be rational. Worse yet, they try equating similarities within the Gorean Philosophy to various religious concepts, concepts that in some cases even bear the same name (Honor is one that immediately comes to mind), without seeming to realize that the underpinning ideas that frame the similar concepts are completely based on seperate paradigms.
Be well,
Master Omega
_____________________________
Omega
Master of Red Dragon Freehold
Chairman of the High Council
Colorado Gorean Society
www.coloradogoreans.com
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/coloradogoreans
www.fraternalorderofgoreans.com
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/fraternalorde
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