Ceremony of Souls
From FiranMUX
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From 'news Ceremony of Souls'
The ceremony of souls is the coming-of-age ceremony for Firan youngsters, both male and female. It is one of the most important days in a person's life, religiously, as it decides their future. During the ceremony, their soul, which they have received at birth, is merged with a second soul of Unot's choosing, a soul of a deceased Firan. The process is considered to be reincarnation to the Firans, and sometimes it is hoped that you will receive the soul of a dead heroic relative.
The original soul is considered to be a training soul, giving the person the ability to learn how to worship their god (or gods), and to mature to the point where they can receive the next one, a soul to guide them through the rest of their life. It is believed that this soul decides the child's future, giving them abilities which will help them in their profession. Therefore, a part of the ceremony is to pray for a soul which will help the child specifically in the profession they are planning to enter.
During this ceremony is also the time when the child chooses their patron deity, usually determined by the job they hope to enter and excel in. Many families believe that the child should pick the same deity the rest of the family has chosen, at least until they have a strong enough devotion to a different deity.
The ceremony takes place around the child's thirteenth birthday, and by tradition may be held anytime between age 12 and 14. The ceremony is planned from the day the child was born and there are therefore very few conflicts for that day. The parents often pick to hold a child's ceremony on a weekend around the birthday, and many are planned to be held during one of the two annual festivals in the city. Tradition has dictated that everyone who can come attends the ceremony to join in the celebration, though in actuality only the child and one parent must participate. Usually, the mother is the participant for a daughter's ceremony, and the father is the participant for a son.
The child begins preperation for the ceremony upon his or her twelfth birthday, when they begin to attend lessons with a priest or priestess of their chosen deity to learn prayers of the ceremony. There are three main prayers the child is expected to know, which provide the outline of the traditional ceremony. First is the Prayer of Requesting, which begins the ceremony, followed by the Prayer of Receiving. Finally, the ceremony is completed upon the recital of the Prayer of Rejoicing.
The beginning of the ceremony occurs with the child reciting the Prayer of Requesting, in which they ask Unot to find them a soul of a certain type which will help them in their career. For instance, a boy planning to be a carpenter will use this prayer to request the soul of a great carpenter of ages past. For nobles, it is not uncommon to request a certain soul by name, especially if the child is a member of the royal family.
Due to the result of this prayer, it is strongly believed that a child is to have chosen their profession by the time the ceremony takes place, and that the parents agree with it. Once the soul is asked for and given, there is no other chance to receive a different soul for a different career.
Following the Prayer of Requesting, there is a short period of waiting for Unot to find the perfect soul. Unot may or may not provide a soul of the type asked for, depending on what he observes in terms of the child's devotion, faith, and potential. For this reason, if an apprentice is especially bad at his profession, it reflects badly on his religious upbringing, for it is assumed that Unot chose not to honor the family's request. However, there is the possibility that Unot may know better what Fate has planned for the child than the parents did, and their reputation can be redeemed if the child switches to a career they are more suited to and does well there.
Traditionally, this time of waiting is observed by the mortal participants by holding a feast. While it takes Unot only a short time to find the soul, he waits for the feast to finish and for the next prayer to begin.
Following the feast, the child stands to recite the Prayer of Receiving. During this time, any parent present is to go far enough away from the child to be out of sight, symbolizing to Unot that the child is prepared to receive the soul independantly, without any assistance from his or her parents. Any other people present traditionally circle around the child so that he or she is in the center to symbolize the support of the Firans for this child being ready to receive a mature soul.
The child begins to recite the Prayer of Receiving, a long prayer which is the bulk of the ceremony itself. They recite it with their eyes closed to emphasise the aspect of individuality, and must be said from start to finish with no mistakes. If a mistake is made, the child must return to the beginning of the section they failed to say perfectly.
At the completion of each of the prayer's four sections, Unot provides a piece of the new soul. When the last section has been recited, the child's eyes remain closed and everyone becomes completely silent for forty seconds, the priest or priestess counting and finally announcing when the time is up. At that point the crowd traditionally praises the child for a job well done, and the child may open their eyes to see the world with the eyes of a new soul.
The final prayer is said immediately after the child is praised for their recital of the previous one. The parents are allowed to return and the child leaves the center of the circle for any place among everyone that previously surrounded him or her, symbolizing the child's joining of adult society. From wherever they now stand, the child begins the Prayer of Rejoicing.
This prayer is recited with the child's eyes open, and with some participation by the parents. The theme of the prayer is that of the child asking to join his or her parents in the adult world, and the parents agreeing, while setting down the new rules for living that the child is to follow as part of adulthood. In this prayer, the child also chooses who they will worship as their patron deity. During this time, Unot performs his final part in the ceremony and actually merges the two souls into one, creating a complete being, now an adult. The child that has just gone through the ceremony is now no longer considered a child, and gains all rights and responsibilities that go along with adulthood.
Along with the benefits of adulthood, the former child now enters the next stage of life. This period of turmoil is called 'adolescence', and is caused by the struggle the child goes through to accomodate both his new and old soul. There will likely be certain external consequences of this period, such as rapidly switching from the maturity of the new soul to the immaturity of the old, and back.
Even though religious practice dictates that the child shall go through the ceremony and become an adult at the age that they do, parents tend to not always believe their child is mature enough to go through with it and complain that the ceremony should take place later in life. However, this is a belief that has been in existance for many generations, and the parents' parents probably thought the same about them. There seems to be no real religious movement to change the age at which the ceremony occurs, and there likely never will be.
The Prayer of Requesting
There are two variations of this prayer - one for polytheists, and one for monotheists. Both versions follow:
Polytheistic Prayer of Requesting:
Holy Unot, God of the Moon, Stars, and Death! In your grand wisdom, provide for me a new soul so that I may serve the gods and their chosen people, the Firans, as an adult! I have led a childhood of service to the gods as they instructed long ago, as my parents have taught me in the ancient and holy traditions! I have searched my heart and found my calling as Fate has decided for me, and will work hard as a <vocation*>! I pray to you, Holy Unot, to provide me with an adult soul which will aid me in my life to come!
Monotheistic Prayer of Requesting:
I call to you, Unot, messenger of the holy Zutiv, to deliver the new soul which He has found for me, so that I may serve Him and His chosen people, the Firans, as an adult! I have led a childhood of service to Zutiv as He instructed long ago, as my parents have taught me in the ancient and holy traditions! I have searched my heart and found my calling as Zutiv has decided for me, and will work hard as a <vocation*>! I ask of you, Unot, to provide me with the adult soul which has been selected for me to aid me in my life to come!
The Prayer of Receiving
The Prayer of Receiving is the second prayer in the Ceremony of Souls. It is said alone by the child, with his parents out of sight. This prayer's purpose is to tell Unot that they are ready to be receiving their new soul, and continues throughout the process until the soul is completely sent. It is a very long prayer that is broken up into 4 sections, each of which must be said perfectly or the child is to restart the section.
The prayer's words themselves are complex and make up what is the longest segment of the ceremony to be taught as well as performed, and will not be presented here. The four parts to the prayer are as follows:
1) Let the new soul travel from Unot to me 2) Let the new soul enter my body 3) Let the new soul merge with my old soul 4) Let the newly merged souls exist together well
When this prayer is completed, all the religious requirements of the Ceremony of Souls have been fulfilled. All that remains is the Prayer of Rejoicing.
The Prayer of Rejoicing
This is the final prayer of the Ceremony of Souls, thanking Unot for the soul and for the privilege of being an adult. This prayer is said by the child as well as the parents. The child begins the prayer, then the parents respond, and the child then ends. The sections tagged are not said in a monotheistic ceremony.
Child: Holy Unot (or Zutiv, if it is a monotheistic ceremony), I thank you for the soul which you have bestowed upon me! I am now prepared to join my elders in the world of maturity! May you accept the blessing of my parents to allow me to embrace my new role on Aerval!
Parents: Holy Unot (or Zutiv), our child is prepared for his new role! We promise (s)he has learned your laws and is ready to follow them to be in your favor.
- [(S)he can now choose which deity (s)he will worship in his new role as an adult on Aerval!]
Child: They have given their blessing, Lord! According to your laws, I may now participate in society as an adult! I thank you!
- I am prepared to worship Deity as my patron deity!
Ticanee Rites Of Passage
Unlike the Firans, the Ticanee did not have a formalized rite of passage ceremony. Though many have formally adopted the Firan ceremony of souls, traditionalists do not buy into the concept. They believe that it's not the soul that makes you a man or a woman, but deeds.
As such, when a Ticanee child is old enough, they go out into the world and begin looking for ways to prove themselves. As they are a proud people, Ticanee like to celebrate their achievements and life changing experiences with tattoos. Some even consider the first tattoo to /be/ the mark of passage into adult life. By decree of Clan Leader Taria Oshta, the tattoo that is received at the Rite of Passage has to represent some accomplishment achieved or hardship endured that entitles them to adulthood. If they cannot articulate both what they've done to earn adulthood and how their tattoo relates to that, they may not receive it nor become an adult.
Griffon Clan Combat Trials
In September of 39 AU, Lady Proxy Carana Sennet announced that children wishing to have their Ceremony of Souls must prove that they have some skill with a weapon. The Griffon Clan, afterall, has a great history of warriors. Children and their parents or guardians must contact the Griffon Clan minister of education or a proxy if the minister is unavailable about the combat trials. They will not be permitted to have their Ceremony of Souls without the trials.
The combat trials were put into place because it was found that parents failed to do their duty of teaching their children to fight and defend themselves, especially considering that every member of the Griffon Clan is conscripted into the clan military following their Ceremony of Souls. As such, parents who fail their children by denying their right to defend themselves will be fined and their fitness to raise their children will be evaluated.
