Memories of the 28th Century

I just made the mistake of clicking on a suggested video on YouTube; it is about strange religions. Just before that I watched one about secret societies. These were very inspiring. Most of the secret societies aren’t secret; although a few were interesting in times past, especially the Knights Templar.

The Templars have certainly created a long lasting stir. They were controversial eight hundred years ago, and they still are, but they were dissolved, and in many cases killed. The biggest reason for the ending of the order was so that some kings and bishops could seize their assets, and they were very rich. I think that the stories of great strangeness were dreamed up as excuses and to make the destruction of the order look reasonable.

The other secret societies mentioned were downright silly like the Illuminati. The Illuminati existed for about twenty years until they were ordered to dissolve by the local prince, and the group did. They were just some liberal Christians. The group didn’t do anything major, and the beliefs were quite ordinary; although they were classical liberals. And there are people who think the group was connected with world control and that it still exists.

Another secret society mentioned was The New World Order, a strange group that has never existed. The name is taken from the Great Seal of the United Stated of America, “Novus Ordo Seclorum, which can be translated as “A New Order of the Ages” or “The American Age”. There are people who believe that there is an order of monks (or whatever) who are working to eliminate the excess people and make the world better for people like Donald Trump. Maybe someone should ask Donald.

It is amazing how the popular imagination dreams up idiocy like the Illuminati and the New World Order. The late, great Umberto Eco wrote “Foucault’s Pendulum” about such people, and that novel hinged on the interpretation of an enigmatic bit or writing. While L. Ron Hubbard’s long time goal of creating a profitable religion worked for him, I haven’t thought of how to get it to work for me, but I think that the religion from which Yezidism was derived is central to it. I have to find a little more about its beliefs, but the basics I have already.

Before there was any written language all of its beliefs were handed down from generation to generation in the form of poetry and songs that were easier to remember than simple narrative. Pieces of those beliefs were included in the religions of the Ancient Greeks and Romans and other nations, and some of the beliefs were actively used until the sixteenth century by the Lithuanians.

Other pieces of the original beliefs were included in fairytales and ghost stories. Some of the stories are based on small prehistoric nations that were sometimes horrific and sometimes things of beauty. With more mixing of the peoples the strange, old tribes disappeared. And the Gods and Goddesses used to visit ordinary people for entertainment, so the stories had some bases in facts. Some of the beliefs came from memories that came from beyond death.

Souls drink from the River Lethe, and that causes them to forget the details of their earlier lives and clears the mind for a new life, but some people remember things from Hades or from a prior life.

Cthulhu is one of the odd restorations of ancient fears. Who knows what horrors might be out there beyond what we can see? Some of the old beliefs were dreams of the insane. It is sad people didn't have the wisdom to understand that some minds are damaged, but some of the maddest were considered prophetic. Alas, the custom continues even though we know that the delusions of the insane are not based in useful information, but there are people who follow the deluded. I hope that Trump won't be elected to anything, but he is an excellent example of how some people have nothing useful to say. In a way Trump is an incarnation of Cthulhu, and evil thing from beyond reality.

So maybe my religion should just be a matter of clear, logical matters based on actual, objective facts.

I'll think about this and finish in the morning, but what do you think?