It may be a misnomer to speak of the "religion" of the Kadanë, if by this we imply something uniform, institutional, and creed-based, which the Kadanë religion definitely is not. It is instead an amalgam of myths, cults and ritual practices derived from all parts of Tihzanthi from all periods of history. There are dozens of theological schools, hundreds of cults, thousands of gods to be worshipped, all jumbled in happy confusion. The Kadanë mind is untroubled by this diversity, in fact, the only true "heresy" in Kadanë thought is that which proclaims one theology, god or cultic rite the "only true" one. Religious laisse faire has been developed to a high art among the Kadanë.
This being the case, it may seem impossible to write an article on the "Kadanë religion", but in fact, there are unifying features. The first and foremost is the Fire Sacrifice. The Kadanë sometimes call their religion tsunga polrata, or, the Rites of the Gods. This name reflects its basic nature, for Kadanë religion is primarily cultic: correct religion is observed so long as correct rites are performed. Theology is of lesser importance. Ritual came first, handed down by the priests, and theology came later, as an attempt to understand ritual. The Fire Sacrifice is the preeminent ritual of the Kadanë, practiced by all the cults of the gods.
Another unifying theme is the cult of Prabaset, last Emperor of the Kadanë and first among the Mountain Gods. All Kadanë pay homage to Prabaset and observe his rituals, even if they also worship other gods. A third theme, related to the second, is the acknowledgement of Wawatranu, Mountain Temple, as the spiritual center of the cult of the Mountain Gods.
Any Kadanë who adheres to the three principles listed above is considered a faithful practitioner of Kadanë religion.
According to the Kadanë, the world was created by the Good God (pol aslathap). This shadowy being left the cosmos under the charge of Arta, God of Order, and Ngamilya, God of Chaos. Unfortunately, these two almost immediately entered into a struggle for control of Creation. All the Sky Gods took sides in the conflict. Most of the Gatha is taken up with tales of battle. In the course of the Sundering War, Zyem (the Earth), previously perfect in its creation, was marred by the scars of valleys and mountains and polluted by disease and death.
No-one is sure which god was responsible for the creation of humankind. The Gatha is surprisingly silent on the topic. Be that as it may, as soon as humans appeared on Zyem, they were drawn into the Sundering War, fighting its battles on Zyem as proxies of either Arta's or Ngamilya's celestial forces. Ngamilya developed a special hatred for those who fought for Arta.
The Sundering War finally ended its active phase with the victory of Arta. Ngamilya and the Sky Gods who fought with him were driven out, and open combat ended. But Ngamilya and his representatives still exist, and they continue their war in secret. Ngamilya never forgot his hatred of the humans, and he is always ready to advance the cause of evil, disease or misfortune in order to hurt humankind.
One of the remarkable features of this whole story is the non-involvement of the Good God, the Creator, who seems to have vanished from the story after Creation was finished. Many attempts to explain this have been made, with limited success. The Gatha implies that the Good God will some day intervene, thoroughly vanquish Ngamilya and all things evil, and restore Creation to its initial perfection, but it cannot be said that this hope plays much part in everyday spiritual life. The average Kadanë pays the Good God little attention at all, directing prayers and worship to other gods of the pantheon. It is to these that we turn next.
We should note at the outset that only the good gods, those who sided with Arta in the Sundering War, are considered part of the pantheon. Indeed, one of the epithets for the gods is hasretyazat, or 'worthy of worship'; the evil beings loyal to Ngamilya are not worthy of worship, hence they are not recognized as gods. Although every Kadanë knows these spirits exist, they are almost never referred to and few have names. Some Kadanë feel that to even think of them is to give them power.
As we noted, there are three types of gods. Sky Gods are those mentioned in the Book of the Sundering War. These are primarily gods associated with celestial phenomena (such as Adur, the Sun God) or virtues and intellectual faculties (such as Bastis, Goddess of Peace, and Mazgda, God of Wisdom). Most of these are well-known from the myths contained in the Book of the Sundering War and lesser epics, and have well-developed cults. Earth Gods correspond to the 'elementals' and dryads of Greek mythology. They are primarily gods of natural phenomena or special locations. For many, there exists only a name, or minor rites of only regional importance. Major exceptions are Zyem, the Earth God, and Gurvan, god of wild animals, both of whom have extensive rites and many worshippers. Mountain Gods are those with a shrine at Wawatranu, Mountain Temple.
One will note that there are male and female gods, both referred to by the same term pol. Yet these gods and goddesses do not group themselves into spousal pairs or beget divine offspring as in the Greek and Roman pantheons. The Good God apparently created all the gods at once. Although they often engage in sexual activity in the myths, they do not procreate.
It is the purpose of the gods to protect Creation from the depredations of Ngamilya. In this, they are led by Adur, who commands the Heavenly Army. As part of their duties, the gods protect humankind. It is the purpose of the various cults to offer proper worship to the gods and thereby secure their aid and protection. Another epithet of the gods, hadar, 'generous', reflects this. All the gods perform this basic function for Humanity, but some division of responsibility is evident. Sky Gods are primarily dispensors of kvarena, 'divine grace', while Mountain Gods are viewed as protectors. Earth gods are less responsive, and are sometimes referred to as hatnam, 'hidden', but they cannot be ignored by the careful devotee.
There are also lesser spirits, jini, a kind of angel, and animal spirits, but these play a small part in most devotee's lives. The gods are the focus of most devotion, especially the Mountain Gods, and it is to these we turn next.
To understand Wawatranu, one must understand Kadanë history. After the Kadanë entered Tihzanthi, there was a period of consolidation, culminating in the founding of the Kadanë Empire in 1231 A.D. (by our reckoning). The great-grandsons of the first Emperor were (Prabaset and Snerzgdam. Upon their majority, the Empire was divided between them for administrative purposes. This proved the undoing of the Empire, for Snerzgdam grew ambitious and provoked a civil war with Prabaset, mirroring the primal conflict between Arta and Ngamilya. The parallel seemed even more striking because Prabaset was considered a model ruler and virtuous man, while Snerzgdam was a tyrant and a traitor. Prabaset tried to avoid war, but was eventually forced to fight.
The conflict was a bitter one, devastating the lands of the Empire. Prabaset and Snerzgdam eventually met on a final field of battle. Prabaset's forces were victorious in this fight, and Snerzgdam and most of his army destroyed, but Prabaset himself also died in the fray; moreover, Snerzgdam had previously dispatched assassins, who killed all of Prabaset's family even as he himself was overcome in battle. Only Prabaset's wife, Anasis, escaped, aided by loyal servants.
With the death of the principals in the conflict, the war ended, but the Empire could not recover, and eventually fell completely apart. The date of Prabaset's death in 1295 A.D./64 p.e (post-Empire) is the traditional date of its demise. In only a short time, these events took on a mythic significance. The similarities to the Sundering War were compelling.
One man, in particular, took a special interest in the situation. His name was Teacher Po, and almost nothing is known about him, except that he was a priest in the religion of that time, and he went deaf for a time. Teacher Po was so inspired by the events of the civil war that he totally transformed Kadanë worship. He began to preach that Prabaset had been a thobraz, or avatar, of Adur. While alive, taught Po, he had been the perfect man of virtue, and now that he was dead, he lived in Heaven, where he now ruled over a new Empire to which all the virtuous could come after death. Prabaset now commanded an army of the virtuous dead to aid the gods in their struggle against Ngamilya. By worshipping Prabaset and emulating his example, said Po, one could secure Prabaset's blessings in this world and the next, and help him in his battle against evil.
Evidently, the Kadanë had had no real concept of an afterlife previous to this. Even now, eternal life in the kachva kaslathap, 'Good Land' is available only to those who honor Prabaset; the rest of the dead apparently simply cease to exist.
How many of these ideas were original with Po is unknown, but it is known that his message struck a responsive chord in his hearers, and had become accepted doctrine long before his death.
Besides being a persuasive teacher, Po was a tireless organizer. He it was who collected the myths of the Kadanë and gathered them into the Book of the Sundering War. He codified Kadanë ritual practice in the gatha poritaf. He composed the Life of Prabaset, the gatha prabaseduku, in which his understanding of Prabaset's life and death was fully developed. But perhaps most significantly, he founded Mountain Temple.
The burial mound of Prabaset and his troups lies at the base of the Mountain Temple. Teacher Po built a shrine on the mound and a temple alongside, and from there preached the gospel of Prabaset and presided over his cult. When Prabaset's wife, Anasis, passed away some years later, Teacher Po added her remains to the mound, and built another shrine for her. In short order, she had been deified as the goddess of marriage, childrearing and sorrow (!), and her rites joined those of Prabaset. The historical record grows sparse after the death of Teacher Po, but presumably people continued the practice of enshrining the remains of especially admired persons and deifying them.
This is the origin of the Mountain Gods. Mountain Gods were originally mortal persons (with a few exceptions; the goddess Hatwor has a shrine at Wawatranu, but she is mentioned several times in the Book of the Sundering War and is clearly a Sky God in origin). After their death, their remains were taken to Wawatranu and a hwishpol, 'godhouse', constructed on the slopes of the mountain. In conjunction with this, they became the object of a cult, and were considered to have entered Prabaset's Heavenly Empire and joined his service.
This has continued over the centuries. In the ultimate expression of religious democracy, there is no central authority to control whose remains are placed at Wawatranu. Anyone can have a shrine at Wawatranu, so long as someone is willing to take the trouble to build one for them. And once installed at Wawatranu, the person is officially a Mountain God.
There are hundreds of Mountain Gods. Their shrines cover every foot of the slopes, sometimes built right on top of existing shrines, and are threaded with footpaths and corridors. At the summit is a plaza, and a shrine to Prabaset. Wawatranu has grown over the past 800 years, and is now almost 600 feet high.
The role of a Mountain God is similar to that of the other gods of the pantheon: to provide protection and blessings to those who correctly perform their rites. Many Mountain Gods, moreover, were the founders of particular spiritual practices, or Ways, and their devotees follow these Ways in pursuit of holiness or enlightenment. Other Mountain Gods practiced certain careers, and draw most of their devotees from the ranks of these professions (such as Yihshiles, patron goddess of medicine).
Wawatranu serves many purposes for the Kadanë. It is a destination for pilgrims, come to worship at the home of their gods. it is a place to honor the ancestors: a common practice is to bake some of the ashes of the dead into a brick called a yaktaretl and have this placed in one of the inner corridors of Wawatranu, thus assuring a share of Prabaset's blessing for those not virtuous enough to warrant an actual shrine. The Saambu people, oddly, use Wawatranu for their rituals, which they perform in secrecy deep in the interior of the structure. But perhaps its major function has been to forge a collective identity among the Kadanë during the long centuries of disorder after the fall of the Empire. Surely the Kadanë would have splintered again and again over the past 800 years, if not for the central place Wawatranu and its rituals have occupied in their hearts. Wawatranu and the Kadanë people have become identified in the minds of people all over the world. In recognition of this, the government of Hihowisen, the largest nation in Tihzanthi, has placed a representation of Wawatranu on its national seal.
The most important public ritual is the Fire Sacrifice, thunga adurata. This is held in a temple called a nastpol or nastadur. Within each temple is a central altar containing a brazier. The fire is kindled in the brazier from the lamp holding the sacred fire, the hwishdurna. There are special conditions governing the sacred fire: it must never be allowed to go out, and if it does, it can only be re-lit from another sacred fire or by fire from a natural source, such as a lightning strike.
The Fire Sacrifice is begun with prayers and hymns and perhaps a talk by the priest. The central act of the Sacrifice is the pouring of a liquid, water or wine, onto the fire in the brazier by the priest. Some scholars speculate that blood was originally used, but, if so, Teacher Po put a stop to that, for he decreed only the above named liquids. Only a small amount is poured on, not enough to extinguish the fire.
This ritual is common to all the rites of the gods. It is always performed for a god or group of gods, and is considered to be a way of nourishing them. The steam that rises from the fire is considered symbolic of the devotees' prayers. The rite can only be performed by a priest.
There are many private rituals observed by the Kadanë. Every home has a shrine with their favorite gods. A ngobraz, 'effigy', of Prabaset is always the centerpiece of the shrine. Candles are lit, incense is burned and prayers are offered at these shrines. Rituals are observed for the major turning-points of life: birth, entering one's majority, marriage, death. There are rituals, bordering on superstitions, to guide one's actions at many points throughout the day.
Festivals are a major feature of Kadanë life. Some are general festivals, such as jojyom nadarpaborata, Day of Thanks, a harvest festival, while others are devoted to particular gods, such as Prabaset's birthday. Festivals are accompanied by public celebrations. Work ceases for the larger festivals, and some take place in festival seasons that occupy several days.
Cults are another identifying feature of Kadanë religion. Not every god has a cult, and not every Kadanë belongs to one. In general, only Mountain Gods have cults; the Sky and Earth Gods do not. Only about a third of all Kadanë belong to cults. A cult proposes a special nunga, or Way: some particular set of rituals, or method of spiritual attainment, or else it pertains to a particular class of persons or a particular location. The cult's devotees will have chosen that cult because of the special importance its particular Way has for them.
Both temples and the priesthood come in "denominational" and "non-denominational" varieties. That is, some temples or priests are closely identified with a particular god, either cultic or otherwise, while others serve devotees of any god. Each Mountain God usually has a main temple somewhere from which the cult is maintained.
The first trend has been the linkage of ritual correctness with personal ethical behavior. The ethics practiced by the Kadanë would seem very familiar to us, being a combination of common sense and the Golden Rule. Teacher Po used the life of Prabaset as the premier example of virtuous behavior, and went so far as to assert that one who did not practice virtue could not perform a valid ritual, no matter how correctly done. Many subsequent Mountain Gods have been authors of their own ethical systems or held up as exemplars of virtuous behavior. The gods promote moral behavior through the Litany of the Ninety-Nine Qualities of the Gods; a common practice for those seeking moral perfection is to try to internalize these qualities. Today no Kadanë can ignore the ethical content of their religion.
Another trend has been the development of personal spirituality or mysticism. In this approach, the devotee seeks either a transcendent experience of the Godhead called nandadak, or 'not that' (a reference to the ineffibility of the experience), or a personal experience of a particular god, usually a Mountain God. Such approaches may involve prayer, ascetic practices or other spiritual techniques. A prime example of this is the cult of Paglatl, a Mountain God who lived about 300 years ago. His Way teaches a radical simplicity of heart, and utilizes estatic dancing and recitation of the Litany of the Qualities of the Gods in the pursuit of enlightenment.
A third trend is the movement towards social justice as an expression of arta. Although the Kadanë religion has always been involved in institutions that are unusual to our religious sensibilities (such as banking and insurance), the move towards purely charitable works or securing justice through social and political means is relatively new. This trend was begun about a hundred years ago by the New Thought Movement.
Together, these trends have enriched Kadanë religious life and kept it from becoming an empty series of mechanical rituals. This has in turn kept the common people involved in their faith, preventing it from becoming merely the domain of the priests.
The Kadanë first emerged as a people at the eastern edge of the Mediterranian Sea region around the first century A.D. At this time, the legends of the Sky Gods and their rituals seem to have been already in place. During the first centuries of the common era, the Kadanë came in contact with the nomadic tribes of the Udank. The Udank practiced animism; it is likely that the Kadanë picked up their Earth Gods from Udank shamans.
Continued migratory pressure by the Udank led the Kadanë to abandon their original home and move to the northwest, where they eventually settled among the Dunnek, who lived in the regions on both sides of the English Channel. The Dunnek practiced monotheism and the worship of the Good God. The Good God had revealed Itself, according to Dunnek belief, through the words written on the Golden Tablets. These were three tablets made of gold, inscribed with an archaic version of Dunnek. No-one knew the origin of the Golden Tablets or their age. The Good God Itself, it was believed, had inscribed the Tablets, and through them revealed Itself to humankind. This was the only revelation the Dunnek ever received, and on this they build their monotheistic religion.
The Book of the Sundering War at that time lacked any real concept of a Creator. In fact, at that time, it wasn't really a book, just a collection of oral tales about the Sky Gods and their battle with the evil gods. The Kadanë found the Dunnek belief in the Good God congenial, and grafted it onto their polytheistic beliefs. It provided a plausible Creation story for their mythos, and an explanation for the emnity between Arta and Ngamilya.
Once the Kadanë entered Tihzanthi, they embarked on a period of isolation from the rest of the world, and further developments were internal. The major innovation of this time was the founding of Mountain Temple and the development of the Mountain God cults, which we have discussed above. Since that time, the Kadanë religion has remained essentially the same, with development coming in the form of new cults and the social and ethical trends noted above. Their discovery of the Thisbo people in 1720 A.D./489 p.e. affected them not at all, since the Thisbo are an atheistic society.
Temples are independent entities. They are supported locally, receive no funds from and answer to no larger, oversight organization. The exception are the smaller temples of some of the newest Mountain God cults: the cult headquarters usually tries to maintain some influence on the subsidiary cult sites and sometimes provides financial aid to newer sites.
New temples are initiated by a group of devotees who see the need for one. They raise the money to build it, administer its grounds and its services, and solicit funds for its maintenance. The priests and priestesses of a Temple are considered employees of the Temple.
Since they depend entirely on their own resources, temples, especially the larger ones, often have auxiliary services connected to them, such as publishing houses, schools and other educational institutions. Temples historically were the developers of banking, health care provision and insurance, and remain major participants in these fields. Temples in agricultural regions often have extensive farmlands, which they lease to tenants. A few temples are involved in light manufacturing or food processing.
Cults we have noted above. Little more needs to be said about them. Devotees are responsible for getting their titular deity installed at Wawatranu, for building and maintaining the temple or temples of the cult, and for propagating the god's Way. Museums and other memorabilia of the god are also their responsibility. If a Mountain God cannot attract the devotees needed to maintain the cult, then the cult will wither away. This happens with some regularity, although the Mountain God retains the divine status.
Associations are groups of persons organized to perform a particular function in the Kadanë religion. Examples are the association which maintains Wawatranu, those which run the various hospitals and educational institutions of the temples, and those which perform charitable works. Associations may be spiritual in orientation or secular. Its members may be volunteers or paid, temporary or permanent. One spiritual association of interest is that of the ahakavtyo, who are pledged to honor all the Mountain Gods whose cults have vanished. Members are volunteers, most of whom spend a few weeks at Wawatranu each year to engage in devotions.
A word about the priesthood: there is no hierarchy of priests or institutional organization. A hematl, priest or priestess (the priesthood is open to both sexes), is self-selected; anyone may train for the priesthood. Training takes place at seminaries run by the larger temples. It is the function of a priest to know all the rituals of the Kadanë and to perform them or give advice on how to do so. Any graduate of a respected seminary who can do this can serve as a priest. Priests are hired by temples to administer the rites for them. This is a part-time position in all but the largest temples. Most priests and priestesses have other jobs, are married, and have families.
Some priests are devoted to particular cults, and may receive further training specific to that cult. There are also associations of priests with various purposes, but these are fraternal organizations only, with no binding authority.
Yet, powerless as they are institutionally, priests are essential to the Kadanë religion. No-one else can perform the rituals, both because they have been consecrated to the Sacred Fire and laypersons have not, and also because no Kadanë would trust anyone untrained for this important function. Further, their familiarity with all the arcane aspects of Kadanë ritual make them indispensible advisors and arbiters.
Listen to Me, O My people, for I am the Good God, your God. By this shall you know that I am your God: that I love you and provide for you. I am the Creator; without Me did nothing come to be. Through Me are all things. Love Me, O My people, for I want your love. Love your brothers and sisters, all things of this Earth, for I love them. By this shall you know that I am your God: that I will bless all those who cherish My creations. I am the Good God. My wisdom is supreme, and My laws are the glory and fulfillment of all things. I am very near, My people, as near as air to skin, as root to tree, as warmth to fire. Your hearts are My home, and your actions are My power. Listen to Me and you shall be blessed.
The Way of Arta,
How lovely and permanent.
Ah, how glorious was the clarity
Of Emperor Prabaset's virtue.
He inundates us with blessings;
We shall receive the blessings.
They are a great favor from Lord Prabaset.
The first time that I met Paglatl, he told how the gods had granted extraordinary grace in revealing to him all their mysteries, giving him a love and a reverence for them that had occupied him for almost 30 years.That at that time he was a footman in the service of Lord Sagyo, and was a large clumsy fellow, who was always smashing things...
That he considered times of prayer not different from other times; that he had fixed times for prayer, but neither wanted nor needed them, for he found that the most absorbing work did not divert him from the gods....
That our thoughts spoil everything, that all trouble begins with them. That we ought to reject them immediately we see they are neither necessary to our occupation nor conducive to our perfection, and return to our communion with the gods....
That when some outside occupation diverted his mind a little from the gods, some reminder would seize his spirit, giving it a strong sense of the Godhead and so kindling it that he sometimes cried aloud, singing and dancing like a lunatic.
- Life is Art.
- We suffer if we do not manifest ourselves.
- Our true self is revealed when our ego is effaced.
- All things exist in mutual relation to one another.
- Live radiantly as the Sun.
- All persons are equal.
- Bring mutual happiness through our expression.
- Practice at once whatever your first inspiration dictates.
- Live in Perfect Freedom.
At Festivals, we serve the deities by purifying ourselves, with sincerity revere the dignity of the deities, return thanks for their benefits, and offer earnest prayers. The sentiment in coming before the deities springs from the most fundamental element seen in the relationship between parents and children. In effect, it is found in drawing near to our ancestors by purifying ourselves of our sins and stains, in leaving self behind to unite within the community.And as a natural expression of a devout heart which has been purified, we find an example in a poem by Hoshi Sagyo:
What is enshrined I do not know, But the awe of a sense of gratitude Brings tears to my eyes.
From the gatha vovanguduku kagarta, or Book of Virtuous Lives:
In his later years, Teacher Po was sometimes called 'the Deaf'. This came about in the following way:Once an old woman came to Po to ask him a question. In the midst of her question, she unexpectedly broke wind in a most audible manner. She was, of course, mortified. Nothing abashed, Po immediately said, "Pray, speak louder; I am quite hard of hearing." He thus spared her feelings.
In order that she might not discover his deception, he continued to play deaf. So long as that woman lived, Po asked everyone who spoke to him to please speak louder. For five years, he acted as one deaf. But when that woman died, Po straightaway ceased to ask people to speak up, answering every question on its first posing. He could hear as well as anyone.
© 1997, Terrence Donnelly