All In for Anthuor (3)
A way forward
Read Part 2:
In many traditions some now refer to as “primitive,” ostracism was the only punishment for any kind of offense, no matter how large. In cultures based on principles of generosity, selflessness, and the kind of modesty required of functioning within a healthy biosystem, being forced to remove oneself from the community also forced one into the kind of introspection necessary to decide for one’s self whether a return to the community was worth it. Choosing solitude instead of return amounted to a kind of disconnect from the working networks and relationships necessary for survival in a system ingrained within the fabric of its ecology.
So it was in Ancient Quatria. Although there wasn’t too much “crime” in our sense of the word, there were occasionally those individuals who, for one reason or another, acted too boastful, arrogant, or greedy to function properly in Quatrian society. If enough members of a Quatrian settlement found one of these people (almost always men, because duh) unable to participate in society without being a jackass, that person would be democratically “cast out,” ritually shunned until either a set time, or until the time when he or she decided to stop being a jackass and try being nice for once.(1)
Being cut off from the greater community in this way also cut the offender from the relationships and networks that give life meaning. In a very real sense, being ostracized by the biosystem (which included, don’t forget, the Liminal world of Spirits) meant losing access to almost everything that kept one from being bored.
This state of ostracisation was referred to as the Outer Darkness.
Typically after an allotted time in the Outer Darkness, the offender, now realizing the value of participatory ecology in its many forms, would return and receive a new initiation into society.
When the Magicians had saved as many Quatrians as possible by taking them into the Hypogeum, Anthuor returned to address those who remained. Anthuor offered them a blessing in sadness, because the spirits and their ancestors still cared about them, and couldn’t understand why they wouldn’t join the rest.
If you’re going to stay, said Anthuor, you are casting yourselves away. Things will be very difficult for you, as you are removing yourselves from the People of Anthuor. Although not completely within the Outer Darkness, you are choosing to rest upon its Event Horizon, ostracizing yourselves from the places and ways of your ancestors.
Know this, though, continued Anthuor: we will not abandon you. All of the spirits will live with you, though separated from you, and you will always have the power to call upon your ancestors. To hopefully make life a little easier for you, I’m going to give you some advice now. You’d do best to listen. Times are going to be unusually rough for you, but here’s how to make things a little easier….
NEXT: THE FIRST PRINCIPLES OF ANTHUOR
(To be continued)
NOTES
(1) Ritual shunning seems terrible and unjust from our modern context because our selfish, aggressive society isn’t advanced enough to ostracize the jerks while they’re still acting like assholes. Eventually, the jerks get to be the ones doing the shunning, and you can see how well that works for us. Quatrian ostracisation, however, was more a kind of “time out.”
