Cult of the Inner Light

Alinyoun taquu in 7633.

The cult of Inner Light is a new-age Wolgos faith that emerged in the southern Shangti archipelago, more precisely, the island of Khudat. The faith has some cosmological ideas from Dlroch'veldr and Akchacknism. From akchakanism, the faith borrows the ideas of a celestial firmament but expands on it by proposing the existence of a worldly firmament. Dlroch'veldr, the faith borrows the concept of ethereal spirits that inhabit both firmaments or realms as the faith calls them.

Unique to the faith is the lack of a conscious, powerful deity or deities; instead, the faith proposes that life, creation and the very essence of the soul and spirit arise from the conjunction of the essentially static and dead worldly realms. Both realms are intrinsically incompatible, and only through a will can they form a conjunction, the conjunction representing the creative chaos of existence with its manifestation of light. To the faith, light is the pure essence of existence, life and creation. Syncretic Wolgos view the conjunction as the emanation of Dlrocha and light as his manifestation and will of creation. Meanwhile, syncretic Akchacknism views the conjunction as the fire within the celestial deities coming into being and its light as permeating the cosmos and celestial firmament.

Hominidity is seen as occupying a tangent below the conjunction on the earthly realm, close to the conjunction to be alive and conscious but adjacent to the worldly realm, where all must return to a dead state through a process of physical and spiritual decay. Light cannot permeate the opaque worldly realm, and as such, within its sphere lies only death and spirits, staving off their demise by pulling hominid souls to the depths of the realm to devour. Only the celestial realm can be permeated by light, and its spirits glow and illuminate the hominid tangent.

The faith rejects emotions and physical drives that harm others and the hominid tangent, which it believes emanates from the will of worldly realm spirits. Practitioners must actively reject them and conduct rituals to purge the souls and achieve spiritual catharsis. The purity and enlightenment of the celestial spirits of light are sought through meditation and spiritual purging to seek exaltation from the tangent and closeness with the loci of the conjunction of the realms.

The faith has been described to adhere to Kathártis Dhǽromnis Wolgos political theory or to be an expression of the theory by external observers, nevertheless the faith makes no acknowledgement of this.

Cosmology

Diagram of the Inner light cult cosmology

Non-Existence

Non-existence is the metaphysical boundary of all there is. Beyond the realms, nothing lies, not even a void as understood by hominids, but truly nothing, no death, no life, no intelligence, just a complete lack of reality and a domain beyond conceptualisation. The light that pierces into non-existence nourishes nothing, fills nothing, lights up nothing, and loses all meaning and conceptualisation.

Celestial Realm

The celestial realm is a metaphysically translucent sphere and is the realm of dormant higher beings. Since creation, the celestial realm has been filled with the light and essence of life emanating from the conjunction. The realm has been awoken and the beings are active and exalted, serving as a guide and illumination for the path of exaltation to the loci of creation. The beings from the real do not interact with the beings of the tangent; they bear no ill will and serve as an example of harmony.

Worldly realm

The worldly realm is the sphere of the physical, the perpetually dead, and it is a realm metaphysically opaque that the essence of life light cannot penetrate beyond the shallows of the realm. The realm is home to beings that are eternally dormant due to the lack of life; only those closest to the conjunction are active and ravenous. They seek to thrive and beckon the souls of hominids that, having been bathed in light, will satiate the hunger; they beckon souls by obscuring their path to the loci of creation and sinking them beyond the tangent and surface of the worldly realm.

Dark impulses and emotions are the manifestation of their will, and only by purging them can the dark mist on the path to the loci be driven from one's path.

Conjunction

The conjunction is where both spheres of reality meet; the antithetical spheres of creation meeting produce metaphysical friction at the loci of creation where the spheres meet, and the infinite repulsion from the spheres and friction leads to the light, the essence of light that animates reality. Light is pure, and the chaos leads to renewal and dynamicity, which is what drives time, life, and nature.

Loci of creation

The Loci of Creation is the infinitely small point between the spheres and where the antithetical metaphysical forces of the spheres are at their strongest. A point whose infinite pureness and powers make it infinitely hard to reach, but only through this point can exaltation happen to the celestial side of the hominidity tangent. In the celestial side, exaltation has been achieved, and immortality as a serene being is lived at the highest point of catharsis for eternity.

The Tangent

The tangent is the surface point of the spheres where they meet, adjacent to the loci of creation. On the Worldly side of the tangent is where existence, as known by hominids, exists in the infinitely small point under the loci. The worldly side is perpetually hazardous as the souls of hominidity are the prey of the beings of eternally dead innards of the worldly sphere that liberate the soul through physical and spiritual decay into their maws of eternal death.

Only through exaltation via the loci of creation can a hominid reach the celestial tangent. In the celestial tangent, serene and wise beings achieve perpetual catharsis.

Light

Light is the manifestation of the ethereal force and chaotic energy emanating from the loci of creation. The energy that animates the tangent, the spheres and drives all processes such as nature, time, and thought. Light is not just experienced through visual, physical light but through metaphysical light experienced through earthly catharsis achieved in spiritual purging, sexual orgasm, oere and deep meditation.

Practices

Spiritual purging

Alinyoun taquu taught that the Wolgos and, to a similar extent, humans are perpetually challenged by the beings of the worldly realm who seek to feed on their souls. Hominids are actively corrupted by urges that lead to discord between each other, encouraging spiritual decay and physical decrepitude that hastens the path to death and the loss of one existence to the maws of the dark, worldly beings.

Hominids must push aside these emotions and urges, meditating to control them and achieve emotional composure, asceticism, and self-denial as the path to enlightenment. Nevertheless, the urge to hurt, destroy, enjoy suffering, perversely control and metaphysically consume each other and nature, and their many physical and emotional expression can cause inner conflict as they become overwhelming.

When urges and emotions become overwhelming, the soul becomes disorientated with pent-up energy, and one must not unleash and indulge as it will only decay the spirit. Wolgos and humans must purge. They must purge through careful, intense physical rituals to strain the physical and mental hold one's mind of worldly beings; when catharsis is achieved, the purge has achieved mental serenity.

- Meditative gauntlets

The faithful engage in physical gauntlets to exhaust their physical bodies and beyond, testing their limits of endurance, such as extraneous and daunting treks under hostile conditions with ascetic guiding principles of denying themselves indulgences in food or water and only consuming the bare essentials. The aim is to achieve physical exhaustion and mental release as a consequence of breaking one's limits of endurance to the point of losing control over one's body. A gauntlet can be undertaken in a more frequent and controlled manner as a form of meditation without going beyond physical endurance; Intensive exercise can be undertaken to the point of a more mundane exhaustion that will release the mental strain within and flood the mind with serene satisfaction.

- Upogesníspl̥h2wōs

It is the practice of using performative violence to release pent-up violent energy, urges that can be purged through performative violence, purged continuously to exhaustion and physical strain. Upogesníspl̥h2wōs is a discipline with different levels of practice. The faith at first encourages the faithful to build abstract effigies of a hominid out of straw around poles, which they can use to kick and punch to the satisfaction or till their knuckles bleed, limbs become bruised and blister, Hitting sacks of straw or husks is equally acceptable.

As practitioners' discipline increases, they begin training in a series of moves, kicks, and blows designed to maximise the pain given and obtained while minimising the risk of physical damage. The art is practised alone on effigies at first, but performance partners are used as they become more proficient. Partners engage in Upogesníspl̥h2wōs performances to cause each other pain while reducing the risk of serious damage; nevertheless, bleeding, bruising, scratching, and lacerations are not uncommon.

Upogesníspl̥h2wōs is not a martial art for personal defence; it is an art designed to achieve catharsis through inflicting violence to achieve safety.

- Swépleh1mós

It is the art of purging through self-flagellation and can take many aspects. Commonly, hitting oneself with a loop of rope, leather, or a long loop of blackberry vines is a widespread practice; other practices involve inserting thorns or bamboo splinters under the nails, cutting one's skin and massaging salt or other painful yet safe substances, are common. Some may consume folk remedies to induce incessant vomiting and pain or take a bowl of Shanti ants, which are ritually allowed to sting a believer's hands and feet to achieve an excruciating burning pain.

Not all practices can be conducted without supervision, as they can be dangerous, such as self-strangulation or peeling one's skin and self-stuttering pealed folds of skin.

Nevertheless, it's recommended that a partner is always available to console and soothe practitioners after catharsis has been achieved. Another wolgos or human is desired to help soothe or retain a wolgos or human after catharsis, though humans usually do not require it as much as wolgos do.

Sexual purging (seypleh1mós)

Seypleh1mós, or sexual purging, is the practice of free love as encouraged by the faith. The faith encourages practitioners to use sex and sexual meditation to achieve a cathartic orgasm. Believers are encouraged to practice sex freely with any other believer they wish, wolgos or human, but to consider each other's species' needs for mutual satisfaction, and in fact, there is guidance for mutually satisfactory inter-species encounters. Believers, both human and Wolgos, tend to focus on a diversity of partners, and some include some Swépleh1mós inspired practices during this type of purging as well. Seypleh1mós is an evolving and developing art that aims to achieve mutual catharsis while eliminating the risk of Wolgos-Human relations. Wolgos are encouraged to thoroughly sanitise their mouths regularly using a special routine to minimise the effect of their saliva on humans.

Consumption of Oere and other substances

Oere consumption and what might be considered indulgence are encouraged; other substances, such as psychoactive hemp, cacti and mushrooms, are also acceptable. The aim is to achieve serenity and celestial insight; Oere, in particular, can encourage a hypnotic serenity and stupor that can be thoroughly satisfying and viewed as a form of emotional catharsis.

Meditation

Meditation and contemplation are encouraged in natural and secluded places, and more intense forms of meditation are conducted in places constructed to reduce or eliminate all sensory stimulation to reduce mental noise. In Khudat, cliffs and caves have been transformed through the carving of paths and recesses on the rock surfaces to create meditation nooks. Nooks are often constructed along trails in beautiful natural areas or parks, a practice that has some similarities with Wolgos death trails of the Dlroch'veldr faith.

Criticism

Powers such as Sokoku and the exiled royals from the old Khudati kingdom paint a negative image of the Cult. They argue that Lughos H2regsunsunus, or Alinyoun taquu, as he is known in the Cult, is a rogue figure who mysteriously appeared out of nowhere. They doubt his origin as a left-behind exile son from a Second Treker family and argue that his appearance must be traced to some yet unknown or forgotten Wolgos expansion plan, harkening back to the early days of Hergom. Yet there is no conclusive evidence either way, and the mystery of his appearance on Khudat remains unsolved.

Alinyoun taquu is derided by supporters of the Khudati government in exile. They argue his skill in surviving and gathering supporters, or manipulating and brainwashing as called by his detractors, could only point to him being part of a late Bind or early Hergom Hlrike sleeper program. It is argued that his ideology surfaced rather quickly despite his young age, suggesting someone with extensive Dlroch'veldr and comparative theology education. It is not discounted that he may have acted entirely alone despite his purported origin described by detractors.

The Liberation Front of Khudat (LFK) NGO in Sokoku and Livaria have less academic and more current concerns about the Cult. They describe a manipulative and all-engrossing faith that takes hold of their followers to be, brainwashing them through ideological indoctrination and mild altering substances. They accuse the Cult of having systematically captured entire villages and forcing them to endure re-education through intense ideological propaganda, forced study and gruelling physical strain to break their resistance.

The LFK NGOs are alarmed by the faith practices, which they argue are entirely Wolgos-centric, and that humans are in grave physical danger when encouraged to participate in physical purges, which the LFK describes as pure forms of self-harm. The LFK argues that followers are, from a very young age, being encouraged to undertake daunting gauntlets followed by prolonged preaching and worship, leaving young followers completely vulnerable to indoctrination.

The LFK NGOs further highlight the troubling presence of Hergom on the islands and the covert presence of the Hlrike, who many consider a war criminal and hateful militaristic organisation. They argue their presence undermines the legitimacy of the Cult, which would be heathenism for the wolgos, yet Hergom is present assisting the Gate of Light government under the auspices of protecting exiles. The NGOs do, however, note that the cult has gained curious traction amongst a significant fraction of H2egmegh2 Wolgos servicemen, though they have determined its impact on the enigmatic Hlrike.

Foreign powers and neighbouring governments to the Gate of Light are concerned with the rise of the Cult not only in Khudat but also across the old second trekker Wolgos communities scattered along the Shanti archipelago and the growing number of human adherents. Some suggest that missionaries are preying on vulnerable humans, such as those with a criminal past or involvement and those who face trauma and tragic lives, offering them redemption and exaltation.