481 - Having Once Been Broken

“In my limited and mortal understanding, I can only speculate at the true nature of my God and His Goddess, however, I have some ideas. And I could, of course, be completely wrong.

“The fundamental emotion I wish to speak on, is joy.”

Itasas was a very different lecturer than any other dekinas I had heard, and of course completely different than any Mahid religious teacher I’d had.  He was animated, lively in fact.

“In Mikas’s book there are no less than two hundred repetitions of the word and a good two thirds of those are in direct reference to the Goddess.  I’m not going to repeat them all to you but the list, originally compiled by the prophet Enosas, is available should anyone wish to read them personally.

“No matter how frightening the Goddess is to human men, the God is fascinated with Her and what lies under Her tremendous precision and reserve.  As an artisan God, the embodiment of inspiration, I for one can see how He would be attracted to and perhaps enamored of precision. In Mikas 15 verses 27 – 36 the God says specifically that the vagueness and imprecision of all creation grieves Him.

He petitions the High God to destroy the world and try anew.  Now in verses 37 - 50 the High God instructs Him that creation is destroyed and recreated ever moment, so that every moment is a new attempt, a new creation, and need not be wholesale destroyed, as in the Fire. 

In the very next chapter, uncomforted, however instructed by the High Diety, the God says that in the Goddess’s House… Her labiras is His haven, a place where He can find the perfection He craves.  Let me say that again.  Mikas says Her labiras is Selestialis for Him.

“We are taught, over and over, in our Holiest of Books, that all fessas are creators.  The God and the men both are said, over and over, to be the wilder of the two sexes, the passionate ones, emotional ones, the fiery ones.”

I glanced sideways at Kyriala.  If this was true for our caste as well as fessas then I might not have repulsed her, or shocked her with that night in the hot tub.

“I have found that other priests of other castes, have mentioned similar teachings in their own Books.”

“It seems to me, the Mikas, the Cunning One, sees His wife, His Goddess as calmer and more careful.”

“Now, being a priest of the God instead of the Goddess, I cannot say that Risae is likewise drawn to inspiration, but what is precision if there are no new ideas, nor passion?  Both God and Goddess together, say the scriptures, are creation. 

“I find it interesting that there is an outcry lately in the Pages that tout the idea that our sacred traditions call for women to be severely controlled, with the very knives sacred to Risae.  How have we come to believe that the more calm sex need severe surgery?  I sat down and read the Book of Mikas from end to end and then looked at every verse in the Goddess’s chapters.

“I tell you,” He pulled up a chair and sat down, his elbows on his knees, hands together.  “I found not one chapter -- not one verse calling for the human chirurgery of Arkans of either sex.  Not one.  I found several references in the God’s own voice commanding imperfection be cut out of us, while we were in the stars, but the entity He commands is not a human being, not a priest, but His own Goddess.  And His commands do not single out women or men.  Let me repeat, the God commanded His Goddess to make us what we are.  To change what the Goddess cut into our bodies, into our souls, is to actually usurp the work and will of the divine.

“Mikas, Artificer, Modeller, Singer, Wrecker, Salvager, hailed Risae Herself as the chirurgeon, She who cut us into what we are.”  Itasas leaned back, thoughtfully.  “And the very next verse brings me back to my original idea of joy.”

“The God tells us that His wife’s joy, is not in our pain, but what we bore to become the best we could be;  as decided by the Artificer God and Goddess.  That, and our healing.  The whole book of the prophet Manklas is variations of how much in awe the Gods are of the human ability to be both heal and be joyful in the face of pain.

Verses 4 – 16 speak of how much the God is grieved if his Goddess is grieved.  “The tears My Goddess weeps, are like drops of molten metal in My heart.  The forge of Her grief steals the breath from My body, and the strength from My heart.”

Let me quote further, verse 19: “Let us rejoice in each other and be joyful in the ability of the sword to endure its forging.  Rejoice for reaching wholeness, having once been broken.”