Hello, everyone. I apologize for my recent absences, which were mostly related to me dealing with a series of mundane things. It happens to all of us.
Today we’re going to continue our journey through the impact the Octave has on itself- if you remember from last time, we were examining the integrations of each deity. Not just inspiration, compassion, balance: but the concept of these things being a virtuous loop, feeding back into itself. Deoch as both spark, and the collection of sparks. A flame which feeds itself, redefines what the spark is - both for us, and for Deoch.
Today we move onto Luathas: the knowledge of knowledge, so to speak. As we know, Luathas is primarily associated with gnosis, which a good dictionary will define as “direct, experiential, and mystical knowledge of the divine”. In other words: A transformative insight into one’s true, divine nature. “Liberation from the ignorance of the material world.”
Luathas is also associated with knowledge and wizards, for a number of historical reasons. We’ll talk about both knowledge and gnosis today.
Knowledge has a pretty straightforward definition: the sum of what is known. Not just by us, but by culture. Knowledge changes over time - for instance, consider our own Temuairan timeline. The discovery of the elements - such as light and darkness. The discovery of certain insights into the nature and production of wizardly tools: scrolls, potions, powders. But this knowledge is not guaranteed. Luathas relies on Gramail, chiefly, to create the space to carry this knowledge forward: which is to say, a well-organized, lawful society tends to be a better place for knowledge to continue to exist and be passed onwards to future generations.
We won’t pull at this thread just yet, but Gramail can also create the opposite scenario: when the knowledge is so deleterious to the established order that it must be suppressed.
So knowledge itself is already a recursive process. We use knowledge to gain more knowledge. We re-apply knowledge to itself to develop new skills, spells, tools…everything that might mark progress in a culture.
Gnosis, on the other hand, is something rather else. Gnosis is a lightning bolt. A sudden revelation. Not unlike inspiration, but a different vector: Inspiration tells us what may be possible on a journey. It’s the reason to embark. Gnosis, on the other hand, is a stark and undeniable shock of where we are. Gnosis is often totally disruptive to knowledge. Imagine a scenario where a wizard, after meditation, is struck by Luathas: Light, which we take to be of chief importance to keeping away the dark, is a finite source in the universe. Now we must re-examine everything we know about light itself. Finite in what way? Are we running out of it? Do we need to conserve it? How do we enforce such rules? Gnosis overturns knowledge like a mule kicking an apple cart.
In this process, knowledge reintegrates itself. Similarly - you can imagine the discovery of darkness being just as upsetting to the natural order. New elements means new interactions between the elements. It means rethinking what we know entirely. Four now becomes six now becomes…Each shock of gnosis requires knowledge to resettle, to reform, and to once again cohere.
This process is continuous, just like we’ve talked about with all of the deities in this series. Knowledge redefines itself, expands itself, may even contract. But it is constantly changing and evolving. And in the process, knowledge becomes more complex: we know more things, and those things can interact and change other things…the virtuous loop feeds complexity and new understanding. In this way: we may arrive at even more confusion. Gnosis therefore: clears away our fixed understandings, delivers shocks to it, kicks out the wall. Like a monk making their way through the forest: kick kick punch.
There is no end to this process, just like all of the processes we’ve discussed. That’s a very good thing. Luathas does his part in keeping our systems evolving, moving, living. We’ve talked in previous classes about the stagnant order of Chadul, the freezing of Temuair. Luathas’ bolts from the blue strike us, destabilizing systems, collapsing existing hierarchies, accelerating cultural progress. In this way, dynamism returns to the overall system. We are rejuvenated, at a cost. And we can continue on our journey again, with new tools, new paths, even new legends available to us.
Luathas more than anything is an invitation to examine our surroundings through a new lens. Luathas asks: is this true, in the light of new knowledge? Have we overturned every rock? Can we say for sure: we’ve examine every angle, thought every thought? The answer to that is obvious: unless we are ourselves frozen, no. Every moment with Luathas is a moment to seek better understanding, better integration, better and newer foundations.
Aislings are an inherent part of this process. Inspiration starts us out on the path. Gnosis is the challenge, the revelation. Through inspiration we begin the journey; through gnosis, we begin to be transformed. That transformation is often uncomfortable. We may not be able to live with certain truths. They may feel too heavy for us to bear, and may come to see them as a curse instead - Luathas has not given us a gift, but cursed us. More importantly: almost every important truth at some point was considered a heresy. Gnosis can alienate us from our larger society - and stricken, we again must progress to Gramail, to redefine, reintegrate, and rejuvenate that society with our revelation.
Sometimes we are successful. Sometimes we are not, and the knowledge may be lost; or settled - waiting again to be dropped in someone else’s lap from the infinite.
This, then, is the Great Work of Luathas: Divine revelations that force us to reconsider knowledge itself, to arrive at a new plateau from which we may continue to explore our world. His light changes what we see, and we cannot unsee it.
That is Luathas. The thing we cannot unsee, the word we cannot unlearn, the whisper in our ears that may come to seize our very spark and squeeze it.
Let us pray that when our divine revelations come, we are steadfast and ready to receive them - and that we may find others to help us carry these burdens.
Thank you.