Intergalactic Summit

I apologize in advance for what is basically a stream of consciousness, but I think it's time to try and put some of the ideas and notions about "witches and shamans" out there into a bit of perspective, given some recent posts on these boards and conversations in other fora. I can barely go a day without seeing claims, misunderstandings, outright fabrications and ignorance proclaimed as universal truths when it comes to our belief systems, mysticism and more. In order to perhaps dispel some of these things, we are going to have to explore a few things in order. To start with, let's have a look at the Tribes.

The Tribes come together, but they are not One.

Call it what you will. A Republic, the Tribes, the People, or whatever else you wish. Just don't fall for the illusion that we share much more than two things: The name and planet of origin. Minmatar may very well be the most diverse people of New Eden, even more so than the Federation. Every tribe is its own entity and culture, within which you'll find countless clans nurturing and developing their own culture and beliefs. From tribe to tribe, clan to clan, planet to planet, continent to continent, even just from a city to a nearby town, there are often significant differences in culture, beliefs and more. As an example, you can look at the Sebiestor on Matar, populating Mikramurka with its myriad clans. I can point to many distinctly unique and different belief systems, rituals and views even only among us northern clans and don't even get me started on the differences between us and the southerner clans. All of us Sebiestor, all of us making a home on the same continent, yet different enough from one another that without the Sebiestor tribe label unifying us, we would be considered distinctly separate 'nations'.

And that is merely a very small part of the Sebiestor tribe, which is a small part of the Tribes or Republic which encompasses worlds and regions vast enough to render a mortal mind numb if it ever tried to truly grasp the enormity of scale involved. Within "the Minmatar", you will find a wider spread of culture, religion, philosophy and mysticism than any other people in New Eden.

This is further exacerbated by the history of our nation. It is easily the youngest of them all, in this iteration. From the Day of Darkness and the almost successful attempts at eradicating our culture and history and until the new founding of our Nation so very recently, we have lost so much knowledge about who we were, what we believed, our philosophies and indeed mysticism and more. This was both a tragedy on its own, but much like a wildfire it prepared the soil for a rebirth of unprecedented scale. Many focused on rediscovering concrete parts of our lost past, others tried to reconstruct what was lost with the help of what we knew, and yet others created entirely new beliefs and philosophies or borrowed from those across New Eden to combine them with each other or our own. A culture and structure of beliefs so diverse and unique rose from the scorched earth as one of the most beautiful and oddly mixed forests you can imagine, comprised of every traditional fir and fern known to us with completely alien and beautiful growths intertwined with them all.

The end result giving the impression of one enormous and ever-changing entity, except on closer inspection it is more akin to an entire ecosystem where each entity lives, feeds upon one another and dies to make room for something else to grow in its stead, with no truly unifying aspect to it at all other than the overarching label of 'Minmatar'.

This makes any call for action encompassing something as vague as 'Minmatar' or 'Republic' fairly pointless. The Tribes can come together given sufficient reason, I'm sure. Something like that would be one of the most fearsome notions New Eden could ever face, and we can only hope it'll never come to pass for the sake of everyone involved.

Continued below...

The importance of belief and what is real.

Pretty much everyone in New Eden believes in something that is demonstrably not 'real' or capital T 'truth'. Take this entire cluster, grind it up to its most base elements and you won't find a single molecule of 'beauty' or 'dignity'. Give the most detailed analysis of an infomorph or the most detailed imagery taken of a brain to a million scientists and they won't be able to find 'mercy' or 'loyalty' in it. These things are not real in any truly measurable objective way, and yet they demonstrably are real in the minds of humanity across New Eden.

Are the spirits of the land and elements real? The spirits of the machine? The spirits of our ancestors? Some will say yes, some will say no and a few will say with complete certainty... we don't know. I have through my training and practicing of Volur arts discovered, felt and connected with the spirits of the lands. On the stage, as countless thousands of fervent believers and fans howl and shout before me, I have felt the overwhelming tidal wave of their spirits wash over me, blending and mixing with my own before we once more separate and go on our different paths through New Eden, renewed and strenghtened by each other. I have seen the shackles and chains around another's spirit, as the trance opened my Sight as a Volur. I have danced the shadow dance with the dozens of shades of my potential selves, some faded and barely visible as my past and choices have made those paths impossible, and others as visible and vibrant as a living breathing human being.

Do I believe these things are real? This does in fact not really matter.

We are, in spite of what certain numbskulls here on the IGS and other places try to portray us as - yes, I'm talking of Minmatar here - , one of the most advanced societies in New Eden. We have built a massive multiple region-spanning Nation in mere decades. We can do so much with so very little that some of our engineering feats are genuinely marveled at by outsiders. In short, primitives or savages we are not. As a people, we don't tend towards superstition.

So how does that blend with our enormous, diverse spread of eclectic and fanciful spiritualism and mysticism? Well, it's simple. We examine that just as we do everything else. Rationally.

Believe in the spirits or not, there's no denying the measurable and demonstrable effect of a ritual or a chant or a drug-induced vision or any other such thing you were to examine. Scans of the brain show the physical changes as someone devotes themselves to meditative trances, and performance metrics will show the impact of a battlechanter strengthening the resolve of the warriors about to go into battle. It doesn't matter if you believe that the Voluval is a manifestation of destiny or if it's a scientific reading of your neurology and genetics which then assigns you an archetype. It doesn't matter whether you believe the spirits are at your back, or if you attribute these effects to other psychological or sociological phenomena. What does matter, is identifying and appreciating what is demonstrably and objectively real. The effects.

Dignity doesn't have to be 'real' in order to recognize the importance of preserving it for the old mother in her twilight years. Beauty doesn't have to be 'real' to be appreciated. Religion, belief, spirits and more don't have to be real for us to use them all to rise higher and achieve more than we do now. What we do need to remember, is that the effects must be, and that there is so much difference between groups of people that what does have an effect on someone might not have any effect on another.

Calling for 'Minmatar' to start slinging 'curses and hexes' is calling for so many of them to engage in what they would consider false. This is the crux of it. This is why I detest such grand calls for unity, be it for or against anything, among our people. Every single such call further fractures and pushes us apart. Every claim about 'the Minmatar', 'Republic' or 'Tribes' will be a swing and a miss for an enormous amount of people lumped under that name and these people will likely resent it.

Which parts of our beliefs, philosophies or spirituality are real? All of them. Someone among us believes enough that it has a measurable effect on their lives, no matter which part of the forest you choose to question. Are any of them actually real? No one knows. And this then will have to be the conclusion of this rant, because I'm getting hungry and in dire need of coffee...

So to conclude...

Don't call for the Tribes, Republic or Minmatar to be or do any one thing. I was once one of those people who couldn't see past that name that bound us together to all the countless things that keep us apart. Even our subsets like 'practicing Minmatar mystics' will be diametrically opposed to each other in beliefs and viewpoints across the enormous vastness of our culture and nation. This is not the strength of our Nation. We do not unify from above.

We come together from a stronger place. Each other. The family that bonds together in belief, spirituality and strength. The family that bonds with another family in the same way. These families coming together with the guidance of a chosen Shaman, or a Volur, an Elder or whatever else. These groups coming together in the clan. The clans bound together by countless little bonds and Tribes bound together by the same.

Our unity is one of fierce individualism, clashing against other individuals until the bonds of family form and the cycle continues until you have built the Tribes.

The Tribes will not move because of a call to all. They move when we call to family and our kin, and the call goes upwards from the root. Not shouted down from orbit.

That is when our enemies have true cause to Fear the Tribes.

It is a fair criticism, given what I should really put at the end of every post I ever write: "Disclaimer, this poster could in fact be fallible and wrong, in spite of overwhelming indications to the contrary and the sudden and surprising classification of her posterior as an official divine entity on a minor world on the edge of Federation space."

... it's a legal matter after a concert broke open the crust of a volcano, insurance matters and 'acts of god' clauses. Don't ask.

I was going to do this the last time I spent any time with anyone resembling a Volur... but she tazed me, long before I ever got to the bonfire part of the evening.

If you were not able to tell, Literia was screwing with Nauplius.

Again, mark it down in the history books, I agree with Miz. Nauplius has no head for satire. Everything you tell him will be taken at face value.

I don't find that rambling at all, I find it very clearly and excellently put. (Ok, I admit I skipped the part about snoweater customs because well I would , and I don't know what this 'witches and hexes' context even is.)

This is, incidentally, part of my dislike of the current government. The rhetoric about a return to "a true Minmatar" or a "true Tribal" way as if 1) there was any one such way or 2) they knew what it was, irks me to no end.

Make a new way putting together some customs and traditions you know of and what seem to work in this situation? Fine. That's how traditions work between clans; when you need a new solution you look for ways that feel True to all involved, that you can put together to achieve whatever needs to be done. That's what we attempted with the Republic to begin with (though with variable success, it can be argued; including the Feds as an ally shaping it seems to have been a bit much for many).

Try and push your favorite way as the way? Go ef yourself, you don't get to tell me what my true way is. There have been feuds for less.

A new capsuleer coming to space from some sheltered clan background and imagining his/her clan's ways are universal, or a recently liberated person having taught one way and thinking that is the end of it, that I can take, though I'll roll my eyes a little and might use some harsh language if they persist. But a government doing the same? No thanks.

Is there hugging involved?

Do... do you not know how fire works?

Yes, I have seen what Mikramurka is like, I am from there. I can confirm that temperatures do reach above freezing point for months at end during summer and no, we do not tend to dress in dried leaves (insert your own joke about snow eaters here). And yes, hugging (and more) is definitely involved.

This is getting derailed now, sorry Mizhara.