Episode 7
Travelling Light E007S01 Transcript
[Title music: rhythmic electronic folk.]
H.R. Owen
Travelling Light: Episode Seven.
[The music fades out.]
The Traveller
24th Shadoch 850.
To the community at Emerraine who carry the light.
My friends, I am very pleased to report that I have made contact with a community of fellow believers here on Varriel! I had been harbouring a quiet hope of being able to meet with them since I saw Varriel on the Tola's itinerary.
But I refrained from mentioning the possibility lest our schedule or some other matter might arise that made such a visit impossible. But as it happened, I need not have worried!
There was not a temple in the actual city in which we docked, but I was able to use the local directory to discover one just a few stops along the public transport line.
Annaliese was heading in that direction too – there is a species of orchid which grows in the wetlands about that area, and she was keen to collect samples – so we travelled together in cheerful companionship. We took our leave of each other at the terminal, and I walked up into the town to reach the temple.
I do not have the words to describe the wave of relief the washed over me as soon as I walked inside. From the moment I stepped over the threshold, I was struck by the overwhelming familiarity of not just the space, but the people.
There was an elderly Atorelli man who twitched his tentacles as he spoke in just the same way as our Deryn! And a person in skirts that looked hand-picked from Nilsi's fabulous wardrobe. [laughs]
Their manner of being with each other, their patterns of speech, the topics of their conversation. [sighs] I recognised them all. I could hardly pay attention to the service itself, I was so overwhelmed with love and fondness – for you all, and for all these familiar strangers.
After the service, I stood and gave some introduction of myself and the purpose of my journey. I was welcomed with great joy and enthusiasm, and told in no uncertain terms to pass on to you all the community's warmest greetings.
In particular, could you please tell Arhian that the community's study group read her monograph on the 140 Faithful not six months ago and found it highly informative and enjoyable, and that it sparked a good deal of vibrant discussion.
I had timed my visit well, it seemed, as it happened to coincide with the community's interfaith shared lunch, a monthly event held to bring together people from as many of Varriel's religious communities as are able to attend.
Annaliese and I had planned to travel back to the city for lunch, but instead I popped out to meet her at the transport terminal and invited her back with me.
She readily agreed, and was a particular favourite of the young people at the gathering, as she was wearing her powered leg-braces – they offer better agility than her chair when she's out in the field – and all the little ones wanted the chance to try them out for themselves. [laughs]
[sighs] The heady mix of familiarity and difference. The peace of recognition and the thrill of novelty. It all combined so beautifully in that busy, bustling hall. I could have stayed there forever.
It was getting dark by the time we left. Annaliese and I walked back to the transport terminal as the world turned blue around us, tilting softly into evening. She took my arm as we walked, her leg-braces whirring quietly along with the cicadas.
“They're good people,” she said, “your people.”
I smiled. “They do their best.”
[The click of a data stick being inserted into a drive that whirs as it reads]
The Traveller
Entry SH85024-7: An interview with a Yavkhi I met at the community temple on Varriel, concerting Yavkhati theology and the nature of identity.
Key words: community, identity, philosophy and theology, Varriel, Yavkhati, Yavkhi.
Notes:
I would be inclined to describe the subject of this interview as a follower of the Yavkhati faith whose name is Fariah. But I fear that this description would be inaccurate, at least from Fariah's perspective. Better perhaps to say that this is an account of the part of the universe which describes itself as Fariah. This is what they told me.
“Well, obviously, we're not going to be able to get into the nitty gritty of Yavkhati theological thought in one conversation. We can recommend some books for you though, if you'd like to read more.
The idea of unity – universal unity – is a good starting point, though. At the risk of oversimplifying, our faith holds that existence is made up of a single, indivisible substance. It isn't a collection of discrete parts but instead, one unified whole.
The words we use to refer to different parts of the universe aren't talking about things that really exist. Those words are just ways of speaking about particular expressions of the single, ultimate reality.
For example, if we were to speak of a rocky shoreline. The shore is not, in Yavkhati thought, made up of this rock and that, of water and of sand, of sky and earth, all coming together to make a new thing we call “the shore”.
Rather, all of these things are the shoreline itself. When we call this part a rock, it is a way of naming a certain expression of the shore, not a thing in its own right. Except that, for Yavkhis, the shore itself is also an expression. It is the part of the universe which has those qualities of being shore-like. Do you see?
One of the ways we live this belief is in our initiation practices. By undergoing the various rites of passage into the faith, we come to connect our consciousness fully and in totality with every other member of the community. We share a collective consciousness – a single mind, expressed and experienced in many bodies.
We introduced ourselves to you as Fariah, but like the rock, Fariah is only a facet of the whole. Fariah is the term we use to refer to this particular facet of the universe, because it happens to have the particular traits associated with the term.
But Fariah cannot be said to truly exist in any objective sense. There is no underlying substance that can be truly called Fariah, distinct from the community. Nor is the community itself distinct. We might talk about us and you, and the house, and the rock, and the water. But we're the same, really. It's all the same stuff. It's just the universe expressing itself in myriad ways.
Some people think that it is a subsumption to join the shared consciousness. That we are losing something of ourselves. But it is not that way at all. It is like a great dispersal. Everything that called itself Fariah has been taken up in this broader current, like ink being swirled into water until it is the water and the water is the ink.
It is… profoundly comforting. No matter where in the universe this body may be, no matter how far it may wander, we will never be alone. We cannot ever be alone. We are the universe experiencing itself.
Oh, dear. You are looking a little lost! [laughs] Come. There is food waiting. Let the universe go now and experience itself as a bowl of hot soup and some fresh buttered bread.”
[Title music: rhythmic instrumental folk. It plays throughout the closing credits.]
H.R. Owen
Travelling Light was created by H.R. Owen and Matt McDyre, and is a Monstrous Productions podcast. This episode was written and performed by H.R. Owen.
This week’s entry to the archives was based on a submission from Cal, with accompanying artwork available on our social media accounts.
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This podcast is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. The theme tune is by Vinca.
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