How Do Religions Change?

"Star of the Sea."

Tacitus Two is an alternative text signaling a potential divergent timeline. Janne Floris tells Manse Everard:

"'Tacitus - Two - remarks near the end of the Histories that the religion of the wild Germans has changed since he wrote his book about them. A female deity is becoming prominent, the Nerthus he described in his Germania. Now he compares her to Persephone, Minerva, and Bellona.'" (2, pp. 490-491)

(An important planet is named Nerthus in Poul Anderson's Psychotechnic History. We project mythological names onto the heavens. "Woden" is a planet in the Technic History.)

The Tacitus Two Nerthus combines death, wisdom and war at a time when, as Everard observes, "'...the male sky-gods...'" (p. 491) should have become dominant. How do religions change, particularly when there is conflict between male and female figures? We see the beginning of this process when the warrior, Heidhin, begins:

"'The Anses -'" (3, p. 500)

- but the charismatic prophetess, Veleda, interrupts:

"'Let Woen and the rest grumble at Niaerdh, Nerha, if they like. I serve her.'" (ibid.)

Heidhin scowls but does not reply. One person can move the world - if she is standing in the right place.

The story culminates with a prayer to:

"Mary, mother of God..." (IV, p. 639)

The female in the highest place? The Catholic Church has resisted a move to have Mary declared Mediatrix. Years ago, a devout Irish Catholic fellow student embarrassingly said to me as someone else was walking past, "But in a way, Paul, the Blessed Virgin is the Mediatrix of all Graces because it was she who consented..." Of the four canonical Gospels, two contain different legendary Nativity stories. In one of these, Gabriel appears and "Announces" to Mary. My friend accepted this fairytale as a historical event. The original of Mary would have consented to nothing more than marital relationships with her husband. But belief is a powerful force. Veleda served the goddess. My friend revered the Mother of God. Poul Anderson dramatizes a historical progression from Germanic polytheism to the complex Christian synthesis.

The Ithagene And Hanno

The Boat Of A Million Years.

On Xenogaia, the Survivors, as foreigners, manage to prevent a war about reproductive rights among the trisexual Ithagene whose scaled, quadrupedal bodies are non-humanoid and sound fairly disgusting. Anderson is working on his aliens: no head with two eyes above a nose and a mouth here. I mention this because it seems to be the single exotic detail that I have not so far included from the climactic Chapter XIX. The Ithagene appear only in this single incident and nothing about them affects anything else in the novel so Poul Anderson could have written them any way he wanted. But he did come up with something reasonably alien. It remains to reread the historical chapters which I had just started to do last night when it hit me that our Hanno might be the historical Hanno. Always surprises.

Hanno lets slip to Pytheas that he knows that the heavens change over the centuries. Also, Hanno is a man of wide experience and with no kin. Readers slowly suspect his nature. We will follow Hanno and others through history at a leisurely pace.

The Cosmos And The Future

I am trying to refocus on Nicholas van Rijn but that has taken us through the League, Empire and Commonalty periods of the Technic History to Mars in Poul Anderson's Psychotechnic History to an interstellar crossing in an obscure, magazine publication only, work by James Blish. But sf is all one. It is about our relationships not only to each other and to our Terrestrial environment but also to our total cosmic environment as revealed by science. The laws of physics apply "...on Earth as in the heavens."

In a sense, we cannot go into space because going into space will change us so much that we will no longer be who we were before we went. In most sf, we continue to act in the same kinds of ways because we have not changed enough yet but give us more time. Daven Laure says that the people of the Commonalty do not get into wars and, indeed, if they have no reason to wage wars, then they will not, any more than most of us attack our neighbours here and now.

We need to imagine different futures because we will live into them.

Dennitza And Ys: Their Contrasting Fates

Swimming at Thurnham Hall (see here) inspires new posts. Immersing the body reminds us of mythical merfolk and sea gods. (When I say "us," I mean "me" but I invite vicarious participation by blog readers.)

Ys
The Gods end their covenant with Ys.

The Sea/Lir drowns and destroys Its/His fabulous city.

By divine design, Ys is forgotten except as legend and fiction.

Even the Three of Ys have, like the Olympians, withdrawn before the new God born in the reign of Augustus at the dawn of the Age of Pisces.

Ysan philosophers know that ancestral myths are symbols, not literal truths, that different Gods can represent a single Being as different words represent a single thing and that meanings and the very heavens change through the aeons although "'...the reality of Heaven endures.'" (See here.)

Dennitza
Dennitza is protected by St Kossara.

Shortly before she was martyred, Kossara, praying for her murdered family and household, asked the Father to receive them, Jesus to absolve them, Mary to comfort them and the Spirit to shine upon them.

She brings peace to Dennitza through the valor of Gospodar Bodin Miyatovich who raised and prayed at her tomb.

It is hoped that God will continue to send folk like these and that they will hearten every Dennitzan.

Crossroads

The previous post has inspired me to stay with the symbolism of the cross for a little longer. In Poul Anderson's heroic and historical fantasies, old gods withdraw before the advent of the White Christ. Ysan astrologers see changes in the heavens. They know that Gods represent Beings as words represent things and that, like languages, Gods change over time. See Lir II.

Christianity stands at the crossroads between the cyclical, seasonal time of agricultural societies and the linear, historical time of urban civilizations. Divine death and resurrection, originally a perennial process, was transformed into a unique and pivotal historical event with a specific date, "under Pontius Pilate." This was a transition. The next stage was fully secularized history, beginning with the Greeks.

In our seaside town, Morecambe, a "Dark Wiccan," told me about his seasonally changing deity. When I commented that this was cyclical, seasonal time and asked him how he responded to linear, historical time, he replied, "I don't." Every past stage of development is preserved somewhere, studied by scholars and lived by those who prefer the perspective of a previous era. Vicariously, we inhabit the past eras through fiction.

Old And Wise II

I am comparing longevity and/or immortality in sf by Poul Anderson and others. Rereading the conclusion of The Boat Of A Million Years also reminds us of Anderson's appropriate uses of Biblical quotations:

"'When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him?'"
-Poul Anderson, The Boat Of A Million Years (London, 1991), XIX, pp. 599-600.

Having survived through history into an indefinite future, the immortals plan to meet again after a further million years! That must be the longest lifespan of any fictional characters although, of course, Anderson cannot show us those million years. (I have just remembered that some fantasy characters live even longer.)

One of Brian Aldiss' characters says:

"'With more time...well, all our values would change, wouldn't they?'"
-Brian Aldiss, "The Circulation Of The Blood..." IN Harry Harrison, Ed., Four For The Future (London, 1974), pp. 5-32 AT p. 32.

My point, exactly. The closing phrase of the concluding sentence informs us that this woman and her husband will live "...for the next score and a half of centuries." (ibid.)

That Biblical phraseology almost conceals the meaning: three thousand years. That suddenly does not seem so long any more. My next task is to reread the sequel, "...And The Stagnation Of The Heart." (pp. 33-44)

Iambic Pentameter

Copied from here. (Rereading the Comics Appreciation blog, I realized that this post should be copied to here because of its concluding reference to Poul Anderson.)

Marlowe: I'll stick with boys...my horned "actresses."
Shakespeare: More wine! More ale! And buss me quick, my sweet!
Sweet Kit. The play I gave you. Did you read...?
Marlowe: I must confess I have. I thought it, well...
You act well, Will, but...listen, let me read...
"Hung be the heavens with black, yield day to night!
"Comets importing change of times and states,
"Brandish your crystal tresses in the sky,
"And with them scourge the bad, revolting stars."
At least it scans. But "bad revolting stars"?
Shakespeare: It's my first play.
Marlowe:                                And it should be your last.
Shakespeare: God's wounds! If only I could write like you!
In Faustus, where you wrote...
"To God! He loves thee not! 
"The God thou servest is thine own appetite, 
"Wherein is fixed the love of Beelzebub.
"To him I'll build an altar and a church,
"And offer lukewarm blood of new-born babes."
It chills my blood!
Marlowe:             And so it should, good Will!
Shakespeare: I would give anything to have your gifts.
Or more than anything to give men dreams,
That would live on long after I am dead.
I'd bargain, like your Faustus, for that boon.
Dream: Are you Will Shaxberd?
Shakespeare:                            Aye, sir. Have we met?
Dream: We have. But men forget, in waking hours.
I heard your talk, Will. Would you write great plays?
Create new dreams to spur the minds of men?
Is that your will?
Shakespeare:   It is.
Dream:                    Then let us talk.

Neil Gaiman says on p. 56 of Hy Bender's The Sandman Companion (London, 2000) that he wrote this dialogue (The Sandman: The Doll's House, New York, 1995, pp. 125-127) in iambic pentameter so I have tried to transcribe it accordingly but am not sure whether I have laid out the first three lines of the quotation from Faustus correctly.

This is another parallel with Poul Anderson. Anderson's Shakespearean novel, A Midsummer Tempest, is presented as prose although much of its text is blank verse, some is rhyming verse, one passage is a Shakespearean sonnet and several chapters end in rhyming couplets (and here).                

Myth

The Symposium, meeting in Star House, has a discussion that we recognize as a curious fusion of philosophy and mythology. They set out to discuss " '...the nature of God and Spirit, the meaning and destiny of Creation...' " (p. 324). First, it is explained that:

" '...we who are educated, do not take ancestral myths for literal truth, as if we were Christians. They are symbols. As different languages, or different words in one language, may denote the same thing - albeit with subtle variations of aspect - so, too, may different Gods represent the same Being. They change with time as languages do, They develop according to the evolving needs of their worshipers. The very heavens change through the aeons; nevertheless, the reality of Heaven endures.' " (p. 326)

I agree with most of that. In particular, the resurrection of a deity is a symbol, not a literal truth. In that context, we learn that in the Beginning, Tiamat, the Serpent of Chaos, Who threatened to destroy Creation but was slain by Taranis, had been the mother of Lir who therefore killed Taranis, plunging heaven and earth into darkness, until Belisama descended into the underworld to ransom Taranis and brought Him back to make peace with Lir. Taranis dies and is reborn every year until the End of All Things. Ysans enact this mystery because Taranis dies in the defeated King and is resurrected in the victor who fathers new life on the Nine who are chosen by the Goddess. It all makes sense, almost.
-copied from here.

I am reading a book called The Myth Of God Incarnate. Chapter 8 is "Myth in Theology" by Maurice Wiles, who proposes to consider the meaning of this term. Tomorrow, I will read Chapter 8 and will learn whether it helps to elucidate the Ysan understanding of myths as symbols. This evening, I will watch an episode of the Smallville TV series which is one contribution to a major American myth.

Outer Space: "Deep Heaven" Or "A Hell"

Ransom en route to Mars experiences space as filled with a life-giving radiance whereas Haertel on the same journey knows that cosmic radiation is lethal. Later, Ransom experiences “trans-sensuous life” while approaching Venus in an angelically propelled coffin whereas Haertel’s successor, Garrard, endures psychophysical “pseudo-death” while enclosed in the rigid, monotonous environment of an interstellar spaceship.^{14, 15}
-copied from here.

I quote this comparison of CS Lewis' soft sf with James Blish's hard sf because, even while writing fantasy, Poul Anderson remains "hard." After listing vacuum, ultraviolet, X rays, particle radiation, temperature extremes, Steve Matuchek remarks:

"'The Fair Folk themselves had to flee the sun. For us humans, raw space is a hell. The alien demons felt right at home...."
-Poul Anderson, Operation Luna (New York, 2000), p. 272. 

Ransom, traveling through what he now regards not as cold, dead "Space" but as "...the heavens which declared the glory -" approvingly quotes Milton:

"happy climes that ly
"Where day never shuts his eye
"Up in the broad fields of the sky."
-CS Lewis, Out Of The Silent Planet (London, 1963), p. 35. 

Other inhabitants of the Solar System speak of "Deep Heaven" (CS Lewis, Voyage To Venus, London, 1978, p. 5) and Ransom, when he has returned to Earth, wants:

"'...a change-over from the conception of Space to the conception of Heaven...'" (Out Of The Silent Planet, p. 180) 

But Blish and Anderson are right that that "Heaven" would instantly kill any Terrestrial organism - and Anderson's Steve Matuchek calls it "...a hell." 

Fantastic Reflections

Are you impressed or inspired by the contents of this blog? I am and I'm writing it. However, remember that I am not creating these contents, merely quoting them from the works of Poul Anderson and comparable authors.

Friedrick Engels wrote:

"All religion, however, is nothing but the fantastic reflection in men’s minds of those external forces which control their daily life, a reflection in which the terrestrial forces assume the form of supernatural forces."
-copied from here.

I would say "Much religion...," not "All religion..."

Another fantastic reflection is imaginative fiction. I have discussed certain works of fiction and have sometimes also referred to current affairs. Now let us see how the former reflect the latter:

in Poul and Karen Anderson's The King Of Ys, The Gods Themselves are troubled because the heavens have moved (see here) and the rulers of the city of Ys must prepare for the withdrawal of their Gods, which will mean the flooding of their city;

in Poul Anderson's The Broken Sword, ravens hover, gods stoop, the world trembles and "'The gods themselves are troubled...'" (p. 84);

in James Blish's Black Easter/The Day After Judgment, magicians and demons must cope with the death of God;

in Mike Carey's Lucifer, angels and demons must cope with the departure of God.

The common themes here are change, uncertainty and power vacuums on a supernatural level. And that is precisely what many of us are currently experiencing on the terrestrial level:

the UK has voted to leave the EU but the vote was close and there is uncertainty about the consequences;

other countries may follow;

the British Prime Minister has resigned and must be replaced both as PM and as Party Leader;

the Leader of the Opposition has been "no confidenced" by his colleagues and will be challenged for the Leadership;

most members of his Shadow Cabinet have resigned and had to be replaced (one of the replacements is the young, recently elected, Member of Parliament for Lancaster whom I met inspecting flood damage in the City last year);

Scottish constituencies voted to remain in the EU and now want a second referendum on their independence from the UK.

As I said, change, uncertainty and power vacuums - even including the flooding of a city.

Our Own God(s)?

(Quimper Cathedral, interior.)

When Gratillonius, a soldier, admires Christ's manliness, Bishop Corentinus responds:

"'We each of us see our own Christ...'"
-Poul and Karen Anderson, The Dog And The Wolf, Chapter XV, section 5, p. 296.

But that would mean that Christ was not real! We do not each of us see our own Baraka Obama or Donald Trump because those guys exist independently of us. Granted that how we see them is largely down to our own presuppositions but not entirely. If Obama says that he backs the European Union, then my views on the EU do not change what I hear him say. They just affect what I think about it. Christ is reported to have spoken on some issues but not on others. And what did he say? Are the poor blessed, the poor in spirit blessed or both?

When people imagine a deity, do they merely project their own qualities or ideals onto a celestial humanoid form, one like a (son of) man in the heavens? Certainly Rapture bigots confidently expect Christ to be exactly like themselves, sharing their contempt for liberals, infidels etc. More intelligent Christians are less complacent. As Corentinus says, we each see our own Christ.

A New Age

Gratillonius' father, Marcus, says:

"'...Rome endures, and that is what matters.'"
-Poul and Karen Anderson, Roma Mater (New York, 1989), p. 52.

It does not. He means the Roman Empire and that has not endured despite attempts to preserve or revive it. The City of Rome has endured so far, acquiring a different significance. But we have just seen that Romano-British society is changing around Marcus - and the Empire will soon withdraw.

Hivernian wisewomen and druids sense change:

"Wisewomen said [shifty weather signs] portended strange doings and great changes..." (pp. 31-32)

A druid says:

"'The signs I have read, in stars and staves and secret pools, are signs of mighty deeds, of a world in travail with a new birth.'" (pp. 35-36)

The new God's Patrician will soon enter Hivernia.

The Ysans also know that there will be a new age although not what will be in it. See here. The Nine know that changes in the heavens mean changes among the Gods. We are the heirs of those anticipated changes.

I am in Birmingham but with access to a computer.

"More Lasting Than Bronze"

If the two missing stories were to be included in a future edition of Poul Anderson's Starship, then the Psychotechnic History would be complete in five regular volumes: three collections and two novels. There are two ways to publish a future history series: either in single novels and standard-sized collections or in omnibus volumes.

In the thirty second century of this future history, the depopulated, forested Earth is the human center of scientific research, education, the arts and the Stellar Union Coordination Service. It follows that there are libraries of all surviving literature. A Nomad ship has a library and its captain's cabin has a shelf of well used micro-books in various languages. So what will still be read? I suggest at least:

Homer - epics, myths;
Shakespeare - drama (histories, comedies, tragedies), sonnets;
the Bible - many kinds of writing edited to present a continuous narrative from creation to new creation, albeit based in a prescientific cosmology.

Shakespeare was referenced and quoted earlier in this future history. When a Coordinator traveling with a Nomad sees the stars from space, he quotes:

"The heavens declare the glory of God...and the firmament showeth His handiwork."
-Poul Anderson, The Peregrine (New York, 1979), Chapter VII, p. 52.

The Nomad, puzzled, asks, "'What's that?'" and is told, "'An old Terrestrial book...Very old.'" (ibid.)

In fact, the Old Testament. The Nomad captain is familiar with the Bible. When reflecting that those who have enslaved a planet of barbarians are gradually becoming barbarized, he quotes:

"What shall it profit a man if he gaineth the whole world and loseth his own soul." (Chapter IX, p. 77)

Despite the change of cosmology, what could be more appropriate? They have gained a planet but are losing their identity.

Literature lasts. Horace (see image) wrote, "Exegi monumentum aere perennius," "I have erected a monument more lasting than bronze."

The Drinking Gourd

Poul Anderson, The Boat of A Million Years (London, 1991).

The immortal in Chapter XIII is neither the viewpoint character, Matthew Edmonds, nor any member of his family but Flora, the escaped slave whom they help. Matthew, urging silence on his son William, says that he will tell him about a boy who was called William the Silent. Not knowing this story, I googled and learned that this William the Silent was not only a William of Orange but also the great-grandfather of that William of Orange who became William III of England. (26/4/15: Correction made here. See comments.)

Flora mentions a slave owner's son who "'...done got killed in de waw.'" (p. 272) She cannot mean the Civil War because she is still a slave when she says this. Fortunately, Edmonds asks, "'What war?'" and is told, "'De Rebolution...'" (p. 273) Flora says that she "'...followed de Drinkin' Gourd...'" (ibid.) Again we are grateful that Jane later asks what this means and Edmonds replies that it is the Big Dipper, the only unmistakeable constellation.

As Edmonds drives Flora away from the farm, he sees the Dippers and Polaris "...that guided north toward freedom." (p. 274) This reminds us that, in 310 BC, Hanno had said that there was a star at the north celestial pole in the past and would be again in the future. Immortals know that the heavens change over the centuries.

"Thule" II

Poul Anderson, The Boat Of A Million Years (London, 1991).

I missed one example of experiential knowledge:

"'...that long hull would never survive the North Atlantic. My friend, you haven't seen waves or storms till you've been yonder.'" (p. 12)

Of course Pytheas has seen waves and storms, or he would not understand the words, but we also understand what Hanno means, that Atlantic weather must be experienced to be appreciated.

One of Pytheas' ships has a "...cutwater." (p. 13) The meaning is clear enough although I had not encountered the word before - except in previous readings when I did not notice it. Hanno wears a "...chlamys..." (p. 13). Pytheas tries to locate the north celestial pole with a "...goniometer..." (ibid.) Hanno, without access to ancient records, knows that the heavens change over the centuries.

Pytheas' expedition is threatened by Keltoi (p. 16). His soldiers include hoplites and peltasts (ibid.). The Keltoi turn out to be Pictones (p. 19). In narratives set on Earth in the past, Anderson always remembers seasonal weather:

"Autumn was in the wind, chill and loud. Leaves were turning yellow, brown, russet and beginning to fly away...Cloud shadows and pale sunlight sickled across immensities of sallow grass." (p. 20)

Pytheas and Hanno are shown Stonehenge. Pytheas knows that it is ignorance to say that "'...giants built it in the morning of the world.'" (p. 21) By sighting from the center of the complex, he deduces that the Sun will rise above an outer stone on Midsummer's Day but they cannot wait to verify this. Pytheas concludes:

"'I've learned as much as I can...It isn't enough! It never will be. Our lives are a million years too short.'" (p. 22)

He echoes James Blish's philosopher at the end of the universe pronouncing the epitaph for man: "We did not have time to learn everything that we wanted to know." (See the concluding section, here.)

When Anderson writes about autumn, we need no Internet but when he writes about a goniometer or a peltast, we wonder how we managed without it.

Conflicts In The Heavens

In Poul Anderson's Genesis (New York, 2001), each post-organic intelligence is both a node of the galactic brain and a self-conscious individual. In the latter capacity, each has specialized knowledge and a unique perspective:

"'...withdrawals are not unknown. A node may, for example, want to pursue a philosophical concept undisturbed, until it is ready for general contemplation.'" (p. 107)

No single mind can:

conceive of every possible interpretation of a body of data;
predict every possible outcome of a set of conditions;
follow every factor in observed processes -

- "'...and what is overlooked can prove to be the agent of chaotic change.'" (p. 127)

Wayfarer refers to "...the big continent south of Arctica..." (p. 132) We know from alternating chapters that Kalava hails from there. Gaia used to describe what sound like the earlier mentioned lyrehorns and lions on that continent. When asked by Alpha and other nodes why she had stopped mentioning them, she replied that they have become extinct but never explained why. When Wayfarer asks, she cites rising temperatures although he knows that warming cannot yet have had such significant consequences. She acknowledges that she lacks full knowledge because a living world is complex and chaotic but suggests that many small subtle changes, including new diseases, had broken a balance. However, she needs to learn more and he is too uninformed to be able to help.

Further, she thinks that more can be learned by watching the unforeseeable responses of Terrestrial life to changing conditions and ultimately to its own demise than by trying to preserve it. These do not sound like disagreements that will lead to a war in heaven but they will.

Lir II

Having established earlier that one god, Lir, was the father of another, Mananaan, I then asked about Lir's parentage but established only that he was " '...dawn-begotten...' " (Poul and Karen Anderson, Roma Mater (London, 1989), p. 124). That could have meant either "begotten by the dawn" or only "begotten in the dawn" but read further and the answer is given.

The Symposium, meeting in Star House, has a discussion that we recognize as a curious fusion of philosophy and mythology. They set out to discuss " '...the nature of God and Spirit, the meaning and destiny of Creation...' " (p. 324). First, it is explained that:

" '...we who are educated, do not take ancestral myths for literal truth, as if we were Christians. They are symbols. As different languages, or different words in one language, may denote the same thing - albeit with subtle variations of aspect - so, too, may different Gods represent the same Being. They change with time as languages do, They develop according to the evolving needs of their worshipers. The very heavens change through the aeons; nevertheless, the reality of Heaven endures.' " (p. 326)

I agree with most of that. In particular, the resurrection of a deity is a symbol, not a literal truth. In that context, we learn that in the Beginning, Tiamat, the Serpent of Chaos, Who threatened to destroy Creation but was slain by Taranis, had been the mother of Lir who therefore killed Taranis, plunging heaven and earth into darkness, until Belisama descended into the underworld to ransom Taranis and brought Him back to make peace with Lir. Taranis dies and is reborn every year until the End of All Things. Ysans enact this mystery because Taranis dies in the defeated King and is resurrected in the victor who fathers new life on the Nine who are chosen by the Goddess. It all makes sense, almost.

Other Ysan families claim legendary descent from other Gods. There is a mystery about what happens to the dead. The Temples of Mithras and Cybele have cooperated, as I suggested earlier, but Gratillonius dislikes the Cybelean cult and thinks that Christ is a better God for women.