Adelphiasophism
Our Religion: Principles and Practices
Abstract
© 1998 The Adelphiasophists and AskWhy! Publications. Freely distribute as long as it is unaltered and properly attributed
Contents Updated: Sunday, March 07, 1999
Eros: Living Principles
- To love and treasure our world which is beautiful to us because it is a mother to us—a Goddess within whose womb we have evolved. The only way to reach heaven is to bring heaven to earth. Our deeds reward us.
- To love all our fellow-creatures and treat them with kindness, because we are all children of the Goddess and we need our brothers and sisters and yet we do not understand what her purpose is in producing any of us.
- To be unselfish because selfishness erodes noble feelings and consumes every good desire. We cannot have peace when we give pain to others. When we do not love others, we hate ourselves. To be happy, make others happy. To be not wronged, do no wrong.
- To be kind to animals, children and the old, prevent cruelty to them, bear no malice and forgive injuries.
- To sympathize with those in trouble, comfort the sick and afflicted.
- To reject slavery of man or beast.
- To sustain the unemployed, the poor and the deserving subject to our own means.
- To avoid attributing unjust or bad motives to the actions of others.
- To exercise as much care for the reputation of others as for our own.
- To be peacemakers, and discourage quarrels and dissensions, though there can be no fault in any creature defending, with reasonable force, itself and its domain.
- To respect the lives, property, and opinions of others.
- To show respect for the dead because of their role in life and their significance to others still alive but also because their substance is being recycled by the Goddess to give birth to new things in the endless cycle of existence.
- To practice civility and courtesy to all, hospitality to strangers, and consideration to foreigners.
- To encourage education and self-sustaining industry and work for the support of ourselves, our families, and those lawfully dependent upon us such as to conserve the beauty and diversity of the earth for our descendants and produce harmony for all creatures today and tomorrow.
- To practice truth in word and deed because lies veil attacks on the Goddess. And so we shall avoid all pretence in life, deceptions in commerce and adulteration of food and drink.
- Not to be gluttonous in appetite or desire because gluttony consumes what is not rightfully our own need.
- To practice thrift and economy so that the produce of the Goddess is not wantonly destroyed. And so practice reasonable economy of resources, by avoiding excess or undue expenditure of goods, substance, or vital force; to be cleanly in habits and person.
- To give offence to no one because we all have the same permission to be here, nor to offend the earthdirectly or indirectly for to do so is to despoil ourselves and our own.
- To encourage our good and restrain our evil impulses because Good is what pleases the Goddess and Evil is what displeases her. And so exercise and so strengthen the faculties in man that are social and sympathetic: and to leave unexercised, and so weaken, those faculties the functions of which are adverse to social life.
- To obey laws providing they are just. And so help in the enforcement of the just laws of our community which are necessary for the protection of the rights, and the proper conduct and well-being of all creatures; refuse to accept and determine to repeal partial and unjust laws, instituted in the interests of faction or party, and against civil and religious liberty.
- To feed, clothe, and educate our children. People must value sex and its outcome as a blessing of the Goddess, but accepting that both have a duty to provide for the children which are conceived thereby as parents. If they cannot love and be true to each other then they must learn the forbearance needed to sustain domestic stability and provide for their children. They must resist the temptation to indulge their children too much and must encourage children to respect their parents, other people and animals.
- To assist individual and social efforts, by natural and human means, to preserve the planet by right living.
- To free the current ideal of what is right from all that is self-centred and thus to widen and perfect it.
- To construct a logical and intuitive science of Right which from the truth of the inter-connectedness of everything will provide for a self-sustaining and naturally evolving planet safe in our determination to preserve it.
- To bring into closer connexion people concerned with the assault of the ignorant on the Goddess to develop a proper regard for her while eschewing self-righteous piety for what we do.
Assistants of the Goddess
If we are fellow-slaves with the humblest creatures of the earth, and even with the elements, we are also fellow-workers with the Goddess, and assistants of her inscrutable designs. We are her human bees! If a part of cosmic evolution is the progress from fear and incomprehension to happiness and knowledge, does humanity have a role in it? Is it to cast off superstition, to extinguish the evil of supernatural belief, to be the Ormuzd that shall bind Ahriman, to comprehend by the powers of their intellect how to use natural laws without destroying Nature? If so, we are failing!
When humans fully understand and realize their mission, a new religion will animate their lives. It would be a religious duty to replace the evil which has divorced humanity from Nature with the goodness of a partnership in symbiosis of humanity and Nature to preserve the glory of the planet. Perhaps this is the reason we were placed upon the earth.
Intellect would be carefully trained. Selfishness and ignorance would be stigmatized as sins. The social interdependence of humans and all other species—both within and between species—would be accepted by us all. And everyone would abandon the delusion of personal immortality as a selfish craving at variance with planetary symbiosis.
Let us cast aside all thought of the fate of our supposed souls. The most pure and sublime religion is to labour and love here in this world without hope of reward in some fantasy elsewhere. For Christians, Jews, Moslems and even Buddhists the material world is an alien landscape, and life is an agonising test of our loyalty to the patriarchal god. But the world is a womb and all other creatures and plants our brothers and sisters constantly being reborn. Let us kiss the grass and flowers growing on the brink of the cliff, sing to the waters and the winds, and greet the beasts and the birds, saying: “Together we do the work of the Goddess, the work of Nature”.
Let us feel the rapture of love for all of Nature, and resolve to preach the New Gospel far and wide, proclaiming our noble mission as saviours and protectors of the Goddess. Let us discover our own religion and lay down rules of life which Adelphiasophists can gladly obey, knowing that they are right. Let us not be distressed by the problems of existence and yearn for the impossible paradise of heaven but try to bring heaven here, to earth.
I will listen to any one’s convictions, but pray keep your doubts to yourself. I have plenty of my own!Goethe
Goethe is not rejecting doubts, but declaring that one’s own doubts are what are important for one’s own search for truth. Let us, from the outset of our lives adopt as the work of our lives the “Humility of Doubt.” Human beings are not gods and never can be, so we can never be sure of anything we do or say. So, let us doubt and test and doubt some more and test again, being ever cautious.
Doubt is the way to truth. It is the attitude of the mind that wants to know things just as they are. They who are unwilling to be deceived are the ones to doubt, to inquire. The doubts of the world open the door of knowledge. To accept without question is to be a willing dupe. Doubters are people who can be depended upon. They do not build on a foundation of guesswork, and their structures will stand.
Doubt dissipates arrogance, erodes superstition, cancels creeds and mediates rancour. Without “Doubt” there can be no tolerance, and the history of tolerance is the history of “Doubt.” What is it that latterly has made the clergymen of established denominations so temperate in their views, so considerate for the opinions of others? It is their own “Doubt” arising from discoveries in science, and from the treatment of religious topics with freedom of spirit.The skepticism spread by Voltaire humanized the dogmata of the Roman Church.
Yet much religious persecution goes on, and bigotry abounds, notably among fundamentalists. The “Humility of Doubt” is the only remedy for these evils and though the pruning of morbid beliefs must cause anguish to some believers, anguish is less harmful than intolerance. Adelphiasophists must continue the doubting revolution despite the backlash from smug and sure critics.
Let us no longer be strangers to the Goddess in her manifestations and imagine that we can do better than she. Let us have peace; let us have contentment. Let us value and enjoy this life, not dreading death, because in our ultimate sacrifice others can have life.
Let us believe in the Goddess Nature, whose laws humanity must unfold in order to be able to live harmoniously with them. To “worship” this extraordinary power would be irrational, though to “admire” and “adore” it is inevitable. But to worship an idol, even if it is set up only in the mind, is not profound but stupid. Adelphiasophists have no need to speculate on transcendental mysteries. It is a waste of mental effort which might otherwise be usefully employed to know this world, for the transcendental can never be known.
Let us continue to gather knowledge till our last hour, for knowledge is the way to truth. Let us try to be good, and contain our tempers and our thoughts for when we do not, it is the Goddess who suffers. Let us seek the happiness of others, humans, animals and plant life. God is not a large human and humans are not small gods. No one should reject the only life we know we have in favour of a paradox—a life that only begins after death.
Let us not regret discarding these nonsensical inventions and instead seek genuine unselfishness in devoting ourselves to the planet and dying gladly that life might go on. Let us have no desire to begin a new existence but be grateful for the one the Goddess has given us. It is just and natural that we should rejoin the Goddess in the Earth whence we came so that the cycle of existence can continue.
One may cease to believe in a personal God and in the Immortality of the Soul, and yet not cease to be good and even religious. This “Religion of Unselfishness,” for those who are able to embrace it, is far more ennobling than any religion that holds out the hope of celestial rewards. Its need for unselfishness and purity means it might make few converts in the present state of humanity. Yet, it “must” become the religion of the world. More and more, as time goes on, it will give sound rest to troubled hearts, unlike the illusion of rest offered by the drug of immortality. Year by year the necessity of this religion will grow, or humanity will destroy the only heaven they can know.
You might reply: Suppose that a good person, converted by your arguments, gave, up the belief in their own immortality, loved others, worked for others, strove to purify their heart, but took no heed for their own soul, and died believing in annihilation. And there is a future life after all. What then?
All things must have an end, even a god. So any such event can only be a stage to ultimate death. But if it were to happen the unexpectedly living soul would be perfectly delighted at the pleasant surprise of an unanticipated life. This is the beauty of our religion. Adelphiasophists do not believe in future rewards and so eradicate all selfish longings from our hearts. But if there should be a future life offered as a reward for good deeds then no believer would be ahead of us in the queue. The Supreme Good is that which neither desires nor expects reward. It is true love—a mother’s love not a father’s.
Gods are made by human heads, as idols are made by human hands. The people of the churches and chapels worship an idol of base metal—the God of Hell Fire and retribution. If you must give your children a fictional parent, give them an idol of gold—a mother—a Goddess of the purest love and noblest ideals.
Adelphiasophist Personal Life List
Adelphiasophists learn:
- to endure hardship stoically and with grace, for Nature is not necessarily kind, but nor is she unkind;
- to have few needs, for by taking only the minimum, Nature is less disrupted and more is left for others in her kinunity;
- to do what you can for yourself, because it acts as a limit to the destruction of Nature;
- to accept blunt words, and ignore abuse and slander, for you will get them;
- to ignore trivia, because they all serve to unsettle or damage the earth while detracting from the important questions;
- to ignore priests and preachers of life after death and the supernatural, for they can only detract you from the living world of Nature;
- to ignore tribalistic pressures, because the kinunity of Nature goes far beyond any tribe or nation;
- to enjoy learning about the world, for the Goddess has allowed us to know her;
- to speak and write clearly and succinctly, so that we can pass on our Wisdom to future generations and make it easier for them;
- to be attentive to speakers and books, for the experience of others might help us achieve Wisdom sooner than otherwise;
- to seek reconciliation, for all dissension is a disruption of the kinunity of Nature;
- to be reasonable and look for rational explanations, for the Goddess has shown us that she can be understood through reason, but be intuitively cautious, for humility dictates that we might not know everything needed for the correct rational decision;
- to be sensitive, for sensitivity is being attuned to the needs of other creatures in Nature’s kinunity;
- to live in accordance with Nature, for only by living the life of a fish can we fully appreciate the importance of water;
- to consider others and be patient with the ignorant, for our place in Nature’s distribution is purely fortuitous;
- to accept criticism but answer it fairly if it is unreasonable, for none of us can assume perfection but a proper explanation can spread Wisdom to others;
- to love truth, justice and freedom of speech, for those who do not are enemies of Nature’s kinunity and particularly hope to enslave the human race for their own gain;
- to love your family, for if you do not love those closest to you in Nature’s kinunity, how can you love those that are far removed?
- to be cheerful and do not complain about personal ills, for there are others with worse afflictions that you should care for first;
- to say what you think without intimidation as long as it is constructive and not intended as malicious, for those who do not speak out will let the world die by default;
- to be ready to forgive, for, if we cannot forgive others, how can we expect to bond the kinunity of Nature?
- to consider all the children of the Goddess as equals, for otherwise they will be disposable, and if they are disposable to us, then we are disposable to the Goddess;
- to be gentle and caring, for Nature might seem huge compared with us but she has to be treated like a wounded sparrow if we are to preserve her;
- to persevere, for the greed of others will place obstacles in our path but we must succeed for the sake Nature’s kinunity;
- to find a job you love to do within Nature’s sphere for that way you will be content and fulfilled even if the material rewards are slight;
- to consider proposals of others for the common good, for none of us has a monopoly on Wisdom;
- give problems the care needed by their importance, for bicycle sheds are easy to repair but the world is not;
- to cultivate a healthy body without being obsessive about it, for our aim is the health of the planet but conceit is the first step to arrogance and disdain;
- to acknowledge and respect people with proven knowledge for they are propagators of Wisdom;
- to do what is necessary not what will give you acclaim, for acclaim is transient but what is necessary will reverberate forever;
- to remind yourself daily that however unreasonable and malicious people might be, they are capable of being shown the right path, for they are your immediate kin in Nature’s kinunity;
- to spend your life trying to understand and assist Nature by doing your utmost to make life better for all, for what is better for others in Nature are better for you;
- to see Nature as quite impartial, for fortune—life and death, success and failure, wealth and poverty—falls on good and bad alike but we all, and our children, benefit when we all try to make life better for every other creature in Nature;
- to see fortune not as a supernatural reward or punishment but the random aspect of Nature that will be less shocking if Nature’s balance is best preserved, for a stable and efficient ecosystem withstands random shocks more comfortably than an unstable one;
- to accept Good or Right is what sustains Nature, and Bad or Wrong as what destroys her;
- to be dignified, for Nature is dignified;
- to do everything in life thoroughly and to the best of your ability, for you have only this life and no other, and you are remembered in the consequences of your life in Nature;
- to relate your own nature to Nature as a whole, for what is good for Nature must be good for her parts;
- to take decisions by imagining that you were the Goddess and considering how you would regard it with the wide responsibilities she has, for selfish decisions are usually wrong ones;
- NOT to meddle univited in the affairs of others, for it often leads to strife and disunity;
- NOT to try to impress, because we are all nothing in comparison to Nature;
- NOT to be satisfied with superficial answers and explanations, for charlatans are always ready to fool the gullible with trite, shallow but easy explanations;
- NOT to be easily persuaded but do not be stubborn, for Nature can be understood, though it might not be easy or possible at any particular time;
- NOT to play the old-soldier, for we are then just imposing on others;
- NOT to be sentimental, for sentimentality these days is an affected and false attachment to emotional responses that is both insincere and detracts from the rational;
- NOT to be irritable when explaining something, for it inhibits the transmission of Wisdom and demeans yourself;
- NOT to waver in doing what is right, for the sad state of the world is because people have refused to stand up for the right things;
- NOT to say anything with a bad intent, for it can only spread disharmony in Nature and our pledge is to spread harmony;
- NOT to fawn on others however elevated, for its purpose can only be personal gain and it loses a voice in argument that might be crucial;
- NOT to act in haste, for we must consider the consequences of our actions;
- NOT to be conceited, for we have only what the Goddess has given us through evolution and upbringing, so conceit should translate into humility before her;
- NOT to resort to measures you might regret as an Adelphiasophist, for such measures cannot be in the wider kinunity interest;
Wrongdoing
Doing wrong through anger is an error but doing wrong through desire is far worse.
We should not punish people for their wrongs but should try to show them that their practice has been wrong, and ask them to correct it. Minor wrongs can be atoned for by the wrongdoer repairing the wrong. But for persistent offenders and serious offences, while we judge that wrongdoers are likely to continue in their destructive ways, then the kinunity must be protected from them and they must be restrained from their destructive ways.
If it is argued that by so doing we have taken away some Rights of the wrongdoer and that is a punishment, then so it must be, for they have abrogated their Rights by failing in their Duty to the kinunity of Nature. They must be kept restrained as long as they are a danger to the kinunity, but they have the Right to plead and show that they have changed their ways and to seek a release from restraint.
Moral Burden
Christians have accused Adelphiasophists of carrying too great a moral burden to enjoy life, which only goes to show that Christians consider any sort of moral burden as too much, as they have indeed historically done. Yet, for Christians life is supposed to be an awful trial whose only purpose is to decide whether you end up in boiling sulphur or in cool breezes. That would be a far greater burden than anything the Adelphiasophist carries, but though some Catholics are brought up with a deep sense of guilt, few Christians even bother whether their actions will lead them to the sulphur or the breezes. They all do just as they like confident that the breezes will be their reward.
The Adelphiasophist believes in the same, with one small proviso. “Do what thou wilt” was the motto of the witches but it was not the whole of the law as the Golden Dawn claimed. Properly it is qualified by a clause which is in essence, “provided that you do not offend the Goddess.” In practice it turns out to be the qualification that makes Nature religions so much more moral than Christianity. We are allowed to live as natural creatures within a Nature that we respect.
Nothing could be happier or easier, and it only seems difficult to Christians who mostly have the same rule without any qualification, and when they do accept a qualification it is only because they think their immortal life might be in danger. So, two millennia of Christian indoctrination with pseudo-sentimentality and pious lies makes a happy condition seem like a burden.
What greater joy could there be than living your life as part of an immense kinunity of similar creatures bonded through evolution and genes? What greater joy could there be than accepting the qualification that we should not harm or neglect other creatures wihin this living biosphere? If Christians taught this practical morality instead of their false morality based on false punishments and rewards and false gods and heavens, the world would be a happier place for all the human race—and the other creatures in it that Christians say are God’s but which they treat as nuisances taking up an unfair share of the planet.
It is time this one billion hypocrites they call Christians felt a moral burden on their backs, but one that did some good in “this” world.
Short Prayers
O Goddess, may the web of thine interwoven kinunity support us in our quest for Wisdom.
O Goddess, thou art unto us the pale disc of the moon whose silver shine of Wisdom will guide us out of the darkness of our ignorance.
O Goddess, we thank thee for allowing us consciences that we might choose how to live, and we pray that we have the humility to choose thy way.
We glory that we are born of thee, O Goddess, Our Mother, that we know not to seek to overpower you in our fancied might, but to seek to flow with thy currents and to feel thy kinunity about us.
O Goddess, we thank thee that in Wisdom we have learnt the error of worshipping supernatural spirits and have been born again in Nature to love and enjoy the warmth and comfort of kinunity with thee and thine.
O Goddess, we praise thee for the golden sun, which daily rises to warm us and heal us in its life-giving radiance.
Let us lie down no more!
Pagans have been traditionally attacked and insulted for their openness in belief and have been made to skulk in back rooms and secret conclaves out of fear of the believers in the “god of love.” Pagans are starting to fight back, to overcome the legacy of fear dealt out by Christians who burned anyone who disagreed with their dogmatic ideas. If Christians are hurt and offended by this, they should take a cool look at their own history and consider whether their god is worthy of their attention. If he is worth worshipping, how can he be responsible for such a cruelty from his adherents?
Adelphiasophists resent the Christian past and, though some are happy to let the aggressor believe what they want as Pagans have always done, others are refusing to deal pleasantly with Christians while they arrogantly and manifestly falsely claim the superiority of the damaging delusions they call religion. No longer will Adelphiasophists suffer the lies of the Christian fanatics who are destroying our world and our Goddess, at least in her existence here. Now, Pagans will stand by each other in the face of abuse and will counter it with reason. Evangelism is no part of Pagan beliefs but if Pagan evangelism is the only way of countering Christian lies and saving our planet, then the time has come for NeoPagans to be evangelical.
Refute the religion of the Fish Age, the NeoPagan millennium beckons, the millennium of pure water sanctity and the salvation of humanity from the selfishness of Christian personal salvation and self-destructive greed.
Let us lie down no more, lest humanity stays in the dust forever!
Imperatives: Needs of the Day
We venerate the cosmos and wish to preserve it in a beautiful form for our children to do the same. Adelphiasophism is therefore above all a practical religion of people committed to the world and its Goddess. We must be seen to be saving her, or we are hypocrites and armchair Amazons. Sisters, do not be afraid! Take action, now!
- Love the world, enjoy Nature, rejoice in Life.
- Defend the world, reject the exploiters, save the biosphere.
- Increase awareness through public work.
- Provide initiatives and leadership.
- Produce informative leaflets and pamphlets, posters, etc.
- Distribute information about us and sell pamphlets.
- Arrange meetings and events related to local offences against the Goddess or Nature.
- Write to the local press, radio and TV about matters of concern to the environment and the future of life on earth.
- Respond quickly to new situations.
- Co-operate with others who are concerned about the world.
- Improve communications with others and among ourselves.
- Discuss current issues when we get together for ritual or social occasions.
- Educate new members and people who are on the fringes about the Goddess.
- Raise funds to be used on publicising our causes.
- Publish a progamme of local activities.
- Heckle at local election meetings to make candidates reveal what their stance is on the exploitation of the planet.
- Organize! Once the local membership begins to grow, we must be co-ordinated—appoint Saviours for pressing tasks.
- Show that we exist, are concerned, mean business and are active.
Blest is She
Goddess? Nature personified, they say,
Gloating, as the world falls in disarray.
Appreciate what she has done for us!
And all with no intent, for she just “does,”
Giving no thought to plans beneficent;
Yet Moses’ God, with mind omniscient,
Could plan to cure His froward children’s ill
With seven angels, all but a few to kill.
Omniscient Gods alone expect belief
While drenching all around in abject grief,
Demanding thankful hymns as they destroy,
And making sins of what we should enjoy.
The Goddess, though, is neutral to our fate
And evolved love that we might procreate.
There are no sins, except ingratitude
Our life is but too brief an interlude,
And using it to harm our virgin earth,
The Goddess’ womb from which we had our birth.
In this, our certain life, they’re discontent,
And pray in selfish hope and sentiment
To enjoy everlasting life elsewhere
(As tangible as any wish or prayer
Which is to say, it lives within a head
And disappears for good when one is dead).
Who can, when dead, expose the priestly lie?
For life departs us all when once we die,
A snowflake gem we catch upon our sleeve
But melts away, whatever we believe.
Appreciate this gem while She allows,
And look with joy on Nature’s Golden Boughs.
And saw no more upon the bough you sit,
For when you fall Nature won’t care a bit.
Yet Her kind breast we suck in infant needs;
Hers is the womb from which all life proceeds;
And, in Her universe, who are we?
Nothing but plankton in Her endless sea;
No End-of-all-that-is, a polyp’s bud
Upon an endless reef of bad and good.
Our lives will tell which of the two we chose,
Whether awake or whether comatose.
The Patriarch’s legend measures our worth;
Heaven or Hell is what we make the earth.
They make it Hell and pray for salvation;
Thank God! they cry, For Christianization!
Not for us harmful and selfish fantasies:
Goddess, we love your earth, your sky, your trees.
We dance and chant our awe of Nature’s troves
’Neath vaults of stars and moon, in silent groves,
Then small we feel in Your infinity,
Our arrogance becomes humility,
For then we stop and know that blest are we
With Nature’s awesome gifts, and Blest is She!
