The Great and Glorious Saviour of the World
The troubles and victories of Our Wonderful Sedenya, who is called the Red Lunar Goddess.
Written in the year 6/7 of the Lunar Calendar to instruct and enlighten the people of the world.
Translated by Greg Stafford
Part 2 Issue 10, Autumn 2011
Part 3 Issue 11, Winter 2012
Part 4 Issue 12, Spring 2012
The Testimonial
“Tell who you are, of your first memory, your akindling, and your sevening,” she replied. Since then all persons who speak for her or about her have followed those instructions.
These four facts are the perspective from which Her teachings must be looked at and worked from. These things are stated in the Testimonial which every Lunar being declares whenever they speak of Her. These are the essential events which shape a Lunar. They are a person’s name, or external identity; first memory; a person’s first awakening to higher consciousness, called akindling; and a person’s sevening, or waking of the secret Lunar consciousness that leads to Enlightenment. This last is the most variable, for it changes throughout a person’s lifetime, while the others events generally do not. The document begins with the Testimonial of the Living Goddess, Teelo Estara.
The Lives of Sedenya
“Before telling you about myself, I will tell you of me. I am Teelo Imara, who has seven times seven other names. I was born in Jernamathalana, the Snow White Palace. My first thought was when I saw the Wanderer pass close to my palace, and it incited me to depart from my home. I never got back. I was akindled when Homura, the Gem, my first baby, was born. I was sevened by the eight arms of Taraltara, the face and the mask.”
Sedenya, ©Duck Nicholson
Early Mythology
Scarlet Verithurusa kept wandering about the Sky, and there She took as lover the god Shargash, who hated Her afterwards; Asyrex, who was the father of Gem; Orbryix, who slew himself when She left him; Urnion, who was turned into a star; Zedada, later a great warrior; and Mur, whose daughter and son were healers. At last, weary of the world, She returned to Her own father’s palace. Instead of finding welcome and affection from Yelm, She was rebuked and scolded, then cast from the palace forever. Grieving, She left, but a shadow remained behind, fluttering about in the Palace of Light on dark wings. They were not Her wings, and Yelm did not claim them, but they flapped around like a bat caught in the daytime. Those wings dimmed the eternal light of Yelm, so he did not see so clearly anymore and allowed his foes to enter and come close. Much later, he was killed, and afterwards his wife and his courtiers said it was the wings of Verithurusa that had caused his death. So ended the Creation Age, and so began the Storm Age.
Verithurusa cast off Her joyous red dress and donned one of blue. She found solace in the arms of Asyrex, a kind and loving god who was Her husband and the father of the Mernitan peoples. Their children took wives and husbands from among gods, spirits, mortals, and essences. Their land was Dosvolos. The Mernitans raised a great city, and to protect them, their divine Mother stood overhead, a radiant topaz blue. She was called Lesilla, Protecting Mother. Her brightest and wisest daughter was the Great Queen, Cerrulia. When the Emperor of the Center organized the world of mortals, Dosvolos was among those lands under his sway. They sent to him the High Crown of Mernita. When the Great Flood drowned the world Lesilla used Her powers of attraction and drew all of Dosvolos upward above the crashing waves. Her people were saved. Yet, for that sacrifice, She used so much of Her power that She was weakened and sank lower in the center of Her Sky.
Lesilla always shard her power into the many bodies of with Her descendants. Whichever of them was strongest was Cerrulia, and many others had specific titles as well. One of them was Demiska, the Contrary, and whichever one she inhabited most weakly was called Demiska. Demiska was given the wonderful Bow of Lesilla to compensate for her weakness.
After the Flood, the Emperor of the World took Demiska into his palace, because he wanted her bow. Of course, she gave it to him, and she became his wife. Alas, he kept it, and the Mernitans were angry. They asked for the High Crown back, but instead the Emperor bent the magical bow and with it drove an immortal arrow through the heart of Lesilla, their Mother in the Sky. The Goddess, weak and old, stumbled and fell from the Sky. A part of Her is still visible as the Blue Moon Plateau, haunted and devastated, inhabited only by ghosts, demons, and trolls. The armies of the Emperor then conquered Mernita and put its people into slavery.
When the Emperor died, his wife mourned him, despite the mistreatment She had received and the evils he had done. She took the name Sorrow, or Gerra, and went into mourning. She put away her beautiful clothing and jewels, and donned the black dress of mourning. Over the generations, Her power waned, both from Her unending sadness and because She was further stripped of power. The world continued to grow dark, miserable, and terrifying. The Storm Age ended, and the Darkness began.
Manarlarvus was a weak, miserable, and frightened Emperor. He built a dome to hide in, with his favorite people, and left everyone else to be devoured and tortured by the growing populations of monsters. He blamed everyone else for the problems and faults of the world.
Gerra was first refused admittance to the dome. However, she made the door keeper acknowledge his absolute responsibilities, and with her superior mastery of matematics made him admit she deserved to be present. However, She was allowed in only as a menial and drudge. She was overworked and subjected to terrible and outrageous misdeeds. When food ran short, they ate Her fingers, then Her arms and feet, and much else of Her as well. The vileness of these deeds poved that the rot and evil of the world were inside the stronghold as well.
The Emperor made everyone seek the cause of his troubles in the secure dome, and the perpetuators of the evil blamed it instead upon Gerra, labelled as an interloper and invader. She was dragged out of the protection and impaled upon a stake set upright into the ground to suffer forever. Then the dome cracked. Some say it was because of Gerra’s curse, or Her agonized screaming. Others say the cause was the righteous wrath of the Emperor, who was actually innocent and vastly offended. Others say it was the unrighout lies and evil of his underlines. Maybe it was just the monsters outside who broke in. The results were the same. The stronghold collapsed, all safety was lost, the Sky fell down upon the world, and Hell swallowed the remnants of both. Gerra was torn from Her stake and left to wander with the other unholy remnants of being.
Demons ruled. Vengeance and hatred dominated. They destroyed everything, and would have destroyed Gerra as well, but they recognized in Her their own Mother. The shadows from the Realm of Light would not destroy Her. The miseries and tortures would not touch Her, who had been victimized to make them. And the things which were of otherworld origin, like Kazkurtum, ate Her and shat Her out whole. Miserable being! She wandered the world, and whatever She touched was awakened for a moment, aware of its own suffering and misery. Truly, She was Gerra, or Grief.
But one time She found the stake which had impaled Her. It spoke to Her, and it said, “Rashorana, to live is to suffer, but to suffer is not to live.” She lived, and She realized that She was more than suffering. With those words, She saw Herself, both Her miserable self and the radiant being that She had been. She was still all of that, and so She ignited a tiny spark. Some say that spark was hope; some say it was just fire. Whatever it was, She treasured and loved it, and whenever She met others, instead of igniting them to grief, She shared this brightness with them. Slowly at first, but faster as the world warmed, life began anew. Babies were born whole; laughter was heard; storms of ash congealed and gods rose from the ashes. Fires revealed their souls; stars rose; Bijiif separated the living from the dead, the immortals from mortals, the spirits and essences and gods from each other. Animals, plants, and minerals were differentiated, and Rashorana showed the inner life and purpose of each. The world was reborn.
She called herself Ulurda. She found Her husband again, who had been lost so long ago and had been seeking the source of joy which was Her. Rashorana wove a new dress, sapphire blue this time, and with Her latest husband She rose into the Sky. She found Her bow, and they hunted the pieces of the universe across Sky, Underworld, and earth until everything was found and put into place once again. She taught of fire, of hunting, of love, and of the secrets of being. The sun rose. Nations separated, each to their own destiny. She began to become reborn in the world of mortals, from which all inspiration and change arises now. She was called Sethir, Verener, Morga, Sendaranpola, Urstenus, Davu, Nysalor, and Kerestus. Each of these men and women planted a portion of the knowledge that would be needed to dress Her in Her full glory.
In 1220, as the world knows, the Seven Mothers gathered and raised Her in all Her portions. The child Teelo Estara, clothed in red and glowing from within, led a band, then a league, then an association, and at last, a nation. And she learned about Her world, Her self, the Otherworlds, and Her other selves. At last Her time came; She stopped Her wandering and entered the Otherworlds to become complete with Herself. She conquered life, death, and Chaos, and returned in time to rescue Her loyal people. When the Old Gods resisted Her integration into the Cosmos, She proved Her presence. And when the time came, She rose again into the Sky, red and brilliant and shining.
That is Natha, whom we know today, and love.
We could tell ten stories about each of these phases She was in, and ten more about each of Her lifetimes. But however many times it is told, and however many beings She seems to be, She is One who is Many.
Part 1 Issue 5, Aug. 2010
Part 2 Issue 10, Autumn 2011
Part 3 Issue 11, Winter 2012
Part 4 Issue 12, Spring 2012