The L.A.W.
Religion-wiki — for all religions and none
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[edit] Definition
A choice to work toward being a good person in your life through both your actions and your attitudes including a variety of rituals that reinforce these beliefs. [Definition]
[edit] Basic Beliefs
There is an Ultimate Good which we refer to as AnceChay, which is where everyone strives to return to. However human beings by nature have both good and evil in them, so there is also an Ultimate Evil, which we refer to as AteFay. This is a power which is completely devoid of any good energy. Between these two opposite forces there are many levels. The basis of the religion is to strive to be “good” individuals by practicing perseverance, forgiveness, humility, loyalty, charity, and other related characteristics that are in themselves of good essense. [Berger] By being a good person you can hope to end up on a level close to AnceChay when you die. Though if you do not, you can continue to strive towards the top in the afterlife, but it takes a longer time since you have all eternity to work at it.
[edit] Basic Practice
Communicating and worship through role playing. Groups can range in size from a few people to a large gathering. They meet in the H.A.L.L. and are led by the eldest member of the H.A.L.L. Acting is a way to learn about the proper way to behave through observation and participation in an abstract situation, which allows for objective judgment. They learn from various situations and gain an appreciation for our ultimate fate being determined by something we have only limited effect on. This is also an oppurtunity to display what level you on in ways that you may not have a chance to in day to day life.
[edit] Non-L.A.W. Members
It is possible for people to maintain good energy and even reach the level of AnceChay without being a member of a H.A.L.L. but it may be more difficult since they have less guidance and no real support system helping them to actively be a good person, but there is the possibility of goodness out there for everyone, but not every person takes advantage of the ability to pursue it. [Otto] These people who achieve the different levels of goodness are not a part of the religion, as the religion is a conscious decision to follow the different ideas and beliefs of the L.A.W. and to participate it the activities and rituals of the H.A.L.L.
Some people who are not members of L.A.W. may have their own ideas of what is good and evil, so there is a possibility that things that are evil in essence may be done by these people in the name of a greater good that they believe that they are achieving. In essence they are using the desire to accomplish good in order to accomplish something than may be far from good itself. [9-11] After all what is good and what is evil is all in what perspective you are looking at things from.
[edit] Rituals
[edit] Typical "Worship" Ritual:
The members meet in the H.A.L.L (House of All Life and L.A.W.) and are led by the eldest member of the church. Being the leader the eldest member is the one who describes the situations and mediates the actions that the other participates wish to take. The participants play as characters from a level of their choice, and the goal is to depict the level so well that the eldest as well as the others present could accurately guess which level you were depicting. In order to represent the effect that AnceChay and AteFay have on our actions, the participant roles a die to perform different feats. The difficulty is determined by the judgment of the eldest. These rituals also serve to create a social support system that helps to encourage the members to keep making the right decisions and maintaining their good essence.
The levels of Good and Evil: [Geertz]
These levels are not set in static states where there is a definitive seperation between the different levels, rather there is a transitory "grey area" between each of the different levels. [Segal]
[edit] Initiation Ritual:
Prospective members of The L.A.W. go through classes that teach them about Good and Evil as well as other beliefs of the religion. They also learn the history and rules of the role-playing ritual, so that they can fully appreciate it once they are inducted. Once they have completed their training, the elite members of each class are tapped by the Elders and then interviewed, so that the Elders have a chance to get to know the prospective member better. They are told that they are being tapped and are given the rest of the day to decide whether they are indeed ready to join the H.A.L.L. After approximately a week they are brought together on an undisclosed day for the final step before initiation. They are illuminated so that their true self is apparent and are put through a number of role played scenarios and must respond accordingly. Those that pass this final test are then initiated. [Freud]
[edit] Marriage Ritual:
Marriage is done in either a open or closed format as decided by the couple being married. The ceremony is done in a role playing format, where the two speak to AnceChay and promise to be the best husband/wife that they can be, and tell what they will do for their spouse (ie. love, cherish, support, care for, etc.) The attire for the wedding is white for the wife and black for the husband to respresent the traditional colors of dice. The color of the tux may be varied as may the colors of dice, but the dress should be as close to white as possible, so as to represent purity and goodness. The distance away from white is determined by not only the actual color but how light it is. (ie. Yellow is better than purple, but a light lavender is better than violet, etc.) Also after the wedding many people have fun games where people role dice to guess how many children they will have, or how much money they will make, and other various ideas.
[edit] Funeral Ritual:
Good Person: Anyone who was considered to be a good person of any level is put on a funeral pyre and those in attendance at the funeral write the good deeds that they knew of the person. These papers are attached to small sticks and added to the pyre. The hope for burning the good person and their deeds is that their good essence will spread out and help others to be good people as well. The funeral is headed by the Elders of the H.A.L.L.
Evil Person: Evil people are sealed into a coffin and buried in a graveyard, though few members of L.A.W. are ever buried. The old tradition was to seal the person in a black metal box in order to hold in their evil essence and place them in a catacomb system that had levels corresponding to the level of evil that they were. These catacombs were not directly kept by the Elders but rather were presided over by a condemned person of some level of evil in order to atone for their evil and move back up the levels by experiencing a version of those evil levels on earth. [Going to Hell] In any instance the evil persons remains must be closed into a metal box to keep the evil essence from returning to the earth and negatively influencing people. [Zombies] This process of isolating the evil and spreading the good slowly helps to create a better world, full of more good than evil. [Eliade]
Martyrdom: Because the religion's main goal is to spread goodness in the world, there would be nothing accomplished by dying for the religion, but when a person does die, their good deeds contribute to the rest of the world. [Martyrdom/ Jihad]
[edit] Myths
[edit] Good and Evil:
Good and Evil, come from AnceChay and AteFay, who are polar opposite forces that govern the opposites of the universe such as light and dark, happiness and sadness, as well as other dichotomies. Both forces continually pull on human beings who are at birth pure of heart because their essence comes from AnceChay, and throughout their lives people can be tainted by the power of AteFay. We represent these opposite forces with dice, that the opposite numbers represent the two opposite forces.
Everything in the universe contains some good and some evil, but in varying amounts. Without evil, there is no good, and vice versa. In dichotomies one cannot truly exist without the other, because they are dependent on the opposites for their meaning. [Genesis]
[edit] The Lost Islands:
There was a time when the Bermuda Triangle was not feared. This time marks the beginning of L.A.W. There were once two islands there, one larger than the other, in the location that is now known as the Bermuda Triangle. These islands are where what is now known as “Pig Latin” originated and was what they spoke in during the earliest days of their inhabiting the island. The inhabitants of the larger island would role play as an entertaining pass time. Most of the themes of their role playing were about good and evil and how good would always triumph in the end. Soon this role playing turned into a belief system that many of the inhibitors of the island relied on for support in their lives. A group of the citizens realized that this was the way that the ultimate good was to be worshiped, so they decided that since they had discovered the truth that they were the most knowledgeable members and thus the Initial Elders were formed. [Manu's Creation] Soon this belief system grew into The L.A.W. The island was named Lawful because it was filled with residents that were believers of L.A.W. The Initial Elders moved to the smaller island and named it The Epic H.A.L.L. There they created a very large H.A.L.L. that encompassed the whole island which was also known as The Epic H.A.L.L. This H.A.L.L. contained everything about The L.A.W and all the details were carved and etched into the walls of The Epic H.A.L.L. While the Initial Elders lived there, the Lawful citizens would swim to The Epic H.A.L.L. once a year on their birthday as a pilgrimage. But one day, AteFay was very mad because everyone was good and evil had no place on the islands. This jealousy of AnceChay's power on the island was too much for AteFay to tolerate, so she conjured up an intense storm, which swallowed up Lawful and The Epic H.A.L.L. Ever since that storm swallowed the islands, and that location has had an extreme pulling power, which pulls anything and everything down that is around the location. [Buddhist Nuns] This location has this endless pull because AteFay is forever pulling everything down towards her evil core.
[edit] The Founder of Modern L.A.W.:
In the early 1500’s, Armando Cabeza de Baca was exploring the Caribbean region and decided to sail over the Bermuda Triangle just to explore the Triangle and its unnatural pulling power. Instead he discovered The Epic H.A.L.L. completely destroyed except for its detail etched wall. Through these walls Armando learned all about The L.A.W. The only reason he survived was because of his goodness that protected him from AteFay. He returned to Spain and tried to spread the word, but was excommunicated from the Catholic Church, so he and his followers left for America to begin their own religion.
[edit] Pilgrimage
[Virabhadra]
Originally the members of L.A.W. made a yearly pilgrimage to the Epic H.A.L.L. but now there are no pilgrimages made to the Epic H.A.L.L. for two main reasons:
- 1. The Epic H.A.L.L. is where AteFay's storm still rages so it is no longer safe to go near the area.
- 2. Because Armando Cabeza de Baca brought the knowledge and the teachings that were written on the Epic H.A.L.L. into the rest of the word, there is no longer a need for followers to make the pilgrimage to the H.A.L.L. to learn from the writings. In this way Armando made the pilgrimage for the rest of the followers.
[edit] Vocabulary
• Afterlife – A series of levels that are in themselves either a Good or Evil place where people of the equal essence reside after death
• AnceChay – The power of Ultimate Good
• AteFay – The power of Ultimate Evil (ie. The complete lack of Good)
• Closed – An event where you must be a member of the H.A.L.L. to attend
• Elder – The members that have reached a higher level of “goodness”
• Eldest – The highest level member, who is also leader of the H.A.L.L.
• Elite – Top of the learning class, well rounded member-to- be
• Epic H.A.L.L. – First H.A.L.L. ever known to have existed.
• Essence – The overall power emitted by a person whether Good or Evil.
• Goodness – Level of Morality and Pureness/ Closeness to AnceChay
• H.A.L.L. – House of All Life and L.A.W. The gathering and worship place for the members of L.A.W.
• Illumination – Process through which you expose the person’s “True Being”
• Levels – Degrees of Good and Evil as well of parts of the afterlife.
• Open – A ceremony/ event that is open to anyone who wants to attend
• Role Playing – Acting things out within a series of rules, with one person presiding over the activity to make judgments
• Tapping – Beginning of the formal process of joining the H.A.L.L.
• True Being – The very essence of your soul, whether good or bad
Note: the names of the ultimate good and evil were kept in their original form of language as a way of setting them apart from the rest of the words, showing their superior value and meaning. [Muller]
[edit] Symbols
Sacred: [Durkheim]
Dice of any color with white numbering shown with highest or even number up.:
Profane:
Multiple dice or inverted/ black numbered dice:
