#could be that prayer and devotion to a different deity changes the... shape... of the chime

[avalost]

Saw that post about putting your OCs in AUs again and got to thinking about Calissa in Pillars. She'd be a fire godlike, and a priest of Magran (or maybe a paladin? though I can't remember if paladins must be in an order, or if they can just be religious), sent by Magran to the Dyrwood to Finish The Job. Not quite Waidwen level, but Magran could be jealous of the Waidwen thing and just really attach to this particular godlike. Pallegina would be her best friend, taking the role of Valerie - the one who stands by her decisions but still challenges them, and also the one who tempers her piety. Durance would be her cautionary tale, taking the role of the Hellknights, about the dangers of unchecked faith. And then there's the part about how she was supposed to be a dawn godlike but Magran somehow stole her, given the whole Eothas-Magran conflict...

[khunfounded]

See You in the Morning

As the adrenaline wore off, Bam found himself continuously looking around just to make sure they were all real. His friends surrounded him, worn out and bleeding, but alive. These were the people that kept him fighting, that kept him surviving all these years, despite everything that Fug put him through. He worried that if he blinked they would all somehow disappear. If he weren’t so tired, he honestly thought he would be crying out of sheer joy and disbelief.

Early that day, Shibisu had proclaimed that a celebration was in order for the winning team Sweet & Sour, and in honor of their members that were currently out of commission. Food and drinks were passed around, with sweet and sour pork making a prominent appearance.

Bam sat on a couch in between Khun and Rak, only partially listening to Quaetro and Yeon avidly discussing Yeon’s newly discovered control over her fire. He loved them all, truly, but his eyelids were falling and it was getting hard to keep up with how fast they were both going. He found himself leaning more and more heavily into Khun’s side, which elicited a side-eye and a faint chuckle from the other.

He had missed this dearly, but at the same time he couldn’t help but think that he had never really had it before, either. There was no Sweet & Sour, or Ran, or Quaetro, or really Quant and Lero-ro. Even the people he did have back then, he thought, he didn’t appreciate enough. Bam had known what loneliness was, but he hadn’t known true loss until he fell away from all his friends and had to use every ounce of his determination just to keep them alive.

Bam knew they felt the same way, too, with the desperate hug Rak gave him when they finally saw each other again, and the long glances Khun kept giving him every time he thought Bam wasn’t looking. Bam wondered if Khun thought he was going to just disappear out of thin air, too.

His head fell onto Khun’s shoulder as he turned his face to watch Ran and Anaak slowly get into a more and more aggressive debate over hotdogs that would have quickly gone to blows if Arkraptor didn’t intervene. He felt Khun shift next to him as a breath wisped over his temple.

“Tired?” Khun murmured so only he, and perhaps Rak, could hear.

“Nah,” he responded through a yawn, which didn’t help his case, but he persevered, “I’m fine. Just a little sleepy, I guess.”

“You look exhausted, Black Turtle,” came the gruff voice on his other side, “as my prey you should take better care of yourself, so I can beat you fair and square!”

“I’m fine,” Bam promised, unable to control his grin, “I just wanna stay up for a little longer”.

Yeah, Bam missed this. This unyielding friendship and unquestioning love. People that cared about his health simply because they wanted him to be okay, rather than wanting their god to be at tip top shape. He had been worried, sometimes, in the back of his mind, if his friends would treat him differently after all this time, after all he’s changed.

It wasn’t the same, true, but not because they were afraid of him or wanted to use his power, but because they had all changed over these past seven years. Rak seemed more self assured, less likely to just jump into battle without any forethought. Shibisu was more comfortable in his own skin and Hatz was starting to trust more in himself than his sword.

Khun, too, he thought, as he got comfortable against him, was different. He was more closed off from the people around him, unless they were Bam or Rak, and there was an edge to him that Bam hadn’t seen before. It was like he was holding his cards close to his chest, except you had no idea how many there were or even what game he was playing. Bam was sure that it was good for battle, but he was also worried for his friend.

He turned his head slightly, looking up through his eyelashes at Khun. He was watching with hidden mirth as Lero-ro tried and failed to teach Miseng and Quant some game using spoons. To Bam, Khun had always looked ethereal, like a shinsu moon. But unlike the moon, Khun was right there, and Bam was allowed to be close to him, rather than just bask in his glow.

That’s why Bam could never understand Rachel’s fascination with the stars. Sure, they were pretty, and they gave you light, but there were so many more important things, like friendship, and laughter, and games with spoons. Things like Khun’s eyes, bluer than the rarest suspendium and crinkling at the corners.  

Those eyes shifted to look straight at him, making Bam smile softly.

“I missed you guys,” he admitted, words gentle in their honesty.

A long look and then, “I missed you, too,” whispered like a prayer. 

Except Khun would never pray to Bam, which was one of the reasons why Bam loved him so much. In a fit of contented inspiration, he knocked their fingers together, before grasping Khun’s hand and squeezing.

That earned him a tiny smile and a squeeze back, Khun intertwining their fingers. Bam was just about to ask him about the spoon game when he found himself letting out a loud yawn. 

“That’s it,” Rak said above Khun’s snickers, in a tone filled with humor but brooking no argument, “It’s bedtime for tired turtles.”

Bam raised his head to interject but Khun spoke before he could.

 “I’m pretty exhausted, too. You weren’t the only one fighting for your life, there, Bam,” he teased as Bam pouted, “I’ve been ready to sleep for a while.”

He got up, bringing Bam’s hand, and subsequently Bam himself, up with him.

“We’re going to sleep,” Khun loudly announced as Bam stumbled against him, “Don’t wake us up unless someone is actively dying”.

He turned to Rak, who’s compressed legs were swinging from where he was sitting on the sofa, “You coming, Croc?”

Rak bounced up and scrambled over as Khun started to tug Bam out of the room, “Of course, Blue Turtle, you couldn’t stop me”.

Beneath the cries of goodbyes and goodnights, Khun smirked, “I wasn’t trying.”

--------

They headed into a nearby empty room, and Khun shoved Bam into the bathroom to get ready for bed whilst he and Rak put together a makeshift bed. It was an unspoken agreement that none of them wanted to be away from each other for any longer than they had to. Seven long, long years had been enough.

Bam splashed his face with cool water, washing the stress and excitement of the day down the drain. When he looked up at the mirror, he almost jumped from shock. He was smiling, small but genuine, and it was the first time he had seen his face like this in years. He didn’t look like Viole, he looked like Bam, someone he thought he had lost years ago.

Pushing his bangs out of his face, Bam looked into his own eyes and saw himself. Not the 25th Bam, the new Irregular out of his depth, or Jyu Viole Grace, the monstrous Slayer Candidate. He just saw Bam, the teammate, the friend, the person. Even with the needle glowing brightly behind him, he felt like a human, rather than the deity half the Tower wanted him to be. Unable to help himself, he let out a tiny giggle as his bangs fell back onto his face.

He had once asked Rachel what home was. After so long, he couldn’t quite remember what her response was. But maybe here, he thought, he had found the answer. Home is where you can be yourself and be loved for it.

There was a knock on the door and an, “Are you okay in there?” from Khun.

“Yeah!” Bam responded, quickly rubbing his face with a fluffy towel, “Almost done!”

When he came out, he saw that Rak and Khun had made what could only be called a nest on the ground. Rak looked supremely comfy swaddled in the giant pile of soft blankets and pillows. There were a couple of candles laying about that could only be Khun’s doing. They matched the red color of Bam’s needle, but their soft glow and scent were far more soothing.

“What was so funny in there?” Khun asked from where he was throwing another blanket over Rak, much to the crocodile’s protestations. 

“Nothing,” Bam said as Khun raised his eyebrow and Rak scrambled out from beneath his fuzzy trap, “I’m just really, really happy.”

Both of his friends stopped, twin looks of something like awe on their faces, before they smiled and Khun said, “Good, now get over here.”

“Yes, sir!” Bam exclaimed, before taking a running leap at the pile, dragging Khun down with him as he did. Truly, this is what all his training had been preparing him for.

Khun spluttered loudly in his arms as Bam and Khun laughed breathlessly. After pushing Bam on top of a squawking Rak, Khun got comfortable, settling under the blankets. Rak shoved Bam in between the two of them and put his scaly head in the crook of Bam’s arm. 

“This way I can make sure no one steals my prey,” he informed them.

Bam grasped Rak’s claws in one of his hands and squeezed, “Thanks Rak. I knew I’d be safe with you.”

Rak huffed, “Of course you are, Black Turtle! I am Rak Wraithraiser and you are my prey! Nothing will keep us apart!”

He covered himself in a thick blue throw and nuzzled further into the nest, his breaths turning quickly into snores. Bam chuckled quietly before turning his head. Khun was on his side, head tucked into his elbow, looking at them both fondly. There was a comfortable silence as they stared at each other, each drinking in the presence of their dear friend.

“Hi,” said Bam.

“Hey, yourself,” Khun replied, “He missed you, you know. He never really believed you were dead. He always told us, “Someone strong enough to be my prey could never die just like that!” I still can’t make myself believe he’s actually right.”

“Well,” Bam swallowed at the intensity in Khun’s eyes, “I’m right here.”

“You are,” Khun smiled, cupping Bam’s face with one hand, thumb gently caressing his cheek, “And I have never been more glad for anything.”

The words, accompanied by the soft touch, made Bam’s cheeks heat up. He couldn’t put into words how precious this person in front of him was. Khun had fought harder than anyone to get him back, and even before he knew Bam was alive, he was still devoted to keeping his wish. No one had ever done something like that for him, no even Rachel, who had given him light.

Bam took Khun’s hand and brought it to his lips, kissing each of his fingertips gently. This time it was Khun’s turn to blush, and Bam watched as it went all the way to the tips of his ears. In a fit of inspiration, Bam kissed the tip of Khun’s nose, making his friend squeak and get impossibly brighter.

“You’re here,” Bam whispered, kissing Khun’s forehead, before gazing deep into his suspendium eyes, “And I have never been more glad for anything.”

Khun opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, Rak’s voice rumbled from Bam’s other side, making both of them jump.

“Go to bed, mushy turtles,” he commanded, before quickly dropping back to sleep, snores once more filling the room. Bam and Khun, looked at each other, breaking into hushed laughter.

Bam once more took Khun’s hand, brushing a soft kiss against the knuckles and intertwining their fingers.

“Goodnight, Khun-ssi,” he whispered, letting his head fall against the pillow and eyes droop closed.

He drifted off to sleep to the soft promise of, “Goodnight, Bam. See you in the morning”.

[Guess what arc I finished. Gonna edit it before putting it on ao3 and maybe add another chapter]

[myfaythin-blog]

Sun Temple Konark- History, Legend, Significance, How To Reach

Sun Temple Konark

The Sun Temple Konark is one of the few temples dedicated to the sun god Surya. It is also a huge tourist attraction due to its architectural wonder and its significance. The most interesting thing about Hindu mythology is that everything present on this earth is believed to be a creation of God, and has an ‘ansh’ (part) of the god within it. This is why Hindus worship every element which affects our lives, like rivers, mountains, plants, animals, and planets. All planets are treated as gods and are worshipped. The Sun being the master of the solar system occupies a special place in Hindu mythology and is worshipped a lot.

Location: Konark, (Odisha) Built by: Narasimhadeva –I Main deity” Suryadev (The sun god) Also known as: The Black Pagoda

The Sun god:

Like all other planets, the Sun is also revered as a god and called ‘Surya dev’ (the sun god). There are several sun temples across the world and in India. Two prominent sun temples in India are Konark Sun Temple, at Konark (Odisha), and Modhera Sun Temple, Mehsana (Gujarat). These temples were built originally for prayers and sacrifices dedicated to Surya dev, the Sun god. Such temples were built across several countries like India, China, Egypt, Peru, and Japan. Most of these temples are in a ruined state now and some have been nominated by UNESCO as World Heritage Sites. One such temple, located in India, and nominated by UNESCO is the Konark Sun Temple, at Konark in the Indian state of Odisha.

Location of the sun temple konark:

The Sun Temple is located in a village called Konark, along the coastline of the Bay of Bengal. The village got its names due to this temple only. Konark is located in Odisha, about 35 km northeast of Puri, another holy city of Odisha, and 65 km southeast of Bhubaneswar, the capital of Odisha. This temple was a major landmark for the European sailors, who gave it a name, the “Black Pagoda” as it looked like a great tiered tower that appeared black.

History of sun temple konarak:

The Sun temple at Konark was built in the 13th century by the great king of the Eastern Ganga dynasty, Narasimhadeva –I. The temple was built around the year 1250 CE. This temple built in stone was designed in the form of a huge ornamented chariot dedicated to Suryadev, the Sun god. Why did the king build this temple is not known. Historians believe that it could be due to his gratitude for a wish-fulfillment or to celebrate a victory or even out of his devotion to the sun lord. The royal touch is seen in the form of sculptures depicting royal activities, like hunting, processions, and marching of soldiers.

Significance of the temple:

As per Hindu mythology, Sun is depicted as a god, who starts his journey in the morning from the east and swiftly moves across the sky to the west, where it sets and completes the journey for that day, only to start a new journey, next morning. The Sun Temple at Konark depicts this journey of the Sun-god across the sky in a chariot, marshalled by the charioteer Aruna (meaning dawn). The sun god is depicted as an attractive person standing in the chariot, which is being pulled by 7 horses, which are named after the seven meters of Sanskrit prosody – Gayatri, Brihati, Ushnih, Jagati, Trishtubha, Anushtubha, and Pankti. The sun god is depicted standing with a lotus in both his hands. He is shown flanked by two females on either side of his. These two females depict the two dawn goddesses, Usha and Pratyusha (both names mean the first light of the sun). These dawn goddesses are shown to be shooting arrows, which signify their shooting arrows of bright light to dispel the darkness. In a way, they also signify that each new day is a new beginning. It brings along new hopes and new energy. The chariot is shown to have 12 pairs of wheels, which correspond to the 12 months of the Hindu calendar, with each month paired into two fortnightly cycles (called the krishna paksha and the shukla paksha). At Konark temple, this iconography of the sun is depicted on a grand scale. The temple has 24 giant and elaborately carved stone wheels which are nearly 12 feet (3.7 m) in diameter and are shown to be pulled by seven horses When seen at the time of sunrise, the chariot-shaped temple appears to emerge from the depths of the blue sea carrying the sun.

The Architecture at Konark:

The word ‘Konark’ is a combination of 2 Sanskrit words (kon + ark).  The word ‘kon’ means ‘angle’, and the word ‘ark’ refers to ‘Surya’ the sun god. Some believe that the work ‘kon’ is derived from its strategic position. There are 3 major temples in Odisha namely Jagannath Temple at Puri, Lingaraj Temple at Bhubaneswar, and the Sun temple at Konark. If you were to join these three temples over a map, they would form a bilateral triangle, with the Konark temple being one of the angular points. So, the name signifies that the main deity is the ‘sun’ god and the temple is built in an angular format. These three cities are said to be thee corners that form the Golden Triangle of Odisha. The Sun temple follows the Kalinga style of architecture, which is derived from the nagara style of temple architecture. This ‘was among the 3 styles of Hindu temple architecture, which were prevalent in India at that time. These styles were divided in terms of their popularity across India. While the nagara style was popular in North India, it was the ‘dravida’ style that was popular in South India. In Central and East India, people preferred the vesara style. The difference between these 3 styles is how they do the ground plan and visually represent the elevation. The Kalinga style showcases the nagara style in its complete purity. The Sun temple at Konark is a beautiful example of that. This style of temple architecture includes a temple in a square ground plan, with a sanctuary and assembly hall (mandapa). To give the temple an elevation, they build a huge ‘shikhar’ (curvilinear tower), which is inclined inwards and is capped. Though Odisha lies in the eastern region, but still the temple is built in the nagara style. This could be due to the fact that the kingdom included many areas of north India as well. Hence, this was the style they started working with. Once adopted, it became a tradition, with no change.

From glory to gloom:

The sun temple, which has once seen the days of glory, is now in ruins. Though the exact cause of its destruction is not known. Some people attribute it to some natural calamity, while people blame Muslim invaders for destroying the temple. The main temple at Konark, called the deul, is no more there. In its hay days, the deul was surrounded by several subsidiary shrines, most of which depicted the many aspects of Surya. The ‘deul’ (sanctum, which houses the deity) was built at a height. The original temple consisted of the main sanctuary, called rekha deul, or bada deul (meaning big sanctum). In front of that, there was the bhadra deul (meaning small sanctum), also called jagamohana (where people could assemble and worship).  The attached platform called the pida deul consisted of a square mandapa with a roof like a pyramid.  All of these structures followed a square pattern with a variegated exterior. The central projection called the ‘raha’ was more pronounced than the side projections, called kanika-paga. This style allowed for a beautiful interplay of sunlight and shade and added to the visual appeal of the structure throughout the day. The sanctum of the main temple is now damaged and stands without a roof and several original parts. On its east side is the Nata mandira (meaning dance temple). It is also built on a height and has intricate carvings. It stands on a high, intricately carved platform. According to texts, earlier there used to be an Aruna stambha (meaning Sun’s pillar) between the main temple and the Nata mandira, but during the troubled period, it was moved to the nearby Jagannath temple at Puri. The upana (moulding) at the bottom of these platforms contains beautiful carvings depicting elements from life. These carvings depict musicians playing instruments, people carrying goods on their heads or on a bullock cart, travellers preparing a meal along the highway, hunting scenes, and even festivities. Other walls contain images that depict the daily life of elite people. It shows young girls wringing their hair after taking a bath or applying makeup while looking into the mirror, or playing instruments such as the ‘veena’. It also has images of common people chasing away a monkey who is trying to snatch items, a family bidding goodbye to their grandmother who seems to be going for a pilgrimage, a mother blessing her son, a teacher teaching with students, yogi during a standing asana, and a warrior being greeted among others. The Konark temple is also known for its erotic sculptures showing couples in various stages of courtship and intimacy. These erotic sculptures are found on the temple’s ‘shikhara’ and illustrate the various poses described in the ‘Kamasutra’.

Best time to visit Konark:

Since Konark is very close to the coast, the summers are very hot and humid. The months of April to June, are very hot. The best time to visit the Konark temple is between September to March, as the weather is pleasant during this time. Also, if you are a photo enthusiast, and want to capture the rising sun or the setting sun, then it’s better to go early morning or early evening, and you can capture the temple in full glory, with the sun god in the background.

How to reach Konark?

By Air: The nearest airport to Konark is Biju Patnaik International Airport at Bhubaneswar, which is at a distance of 65 km.  The airport is connected to all major cities of India. From here you can easily take a taxi and drive to Konark in an hour.

By Train: The nearest railway station to Konark is Puri, which is 30 km away from Konark. You may take a train from Bhubaneswar to Puri and then take a taxi or bus from there.

By Road: Both government and private buses are available from Bhubaneswar and Puri. The journey to Konark is pleasant with good roads and a nice scenic view.

Final words on sun temple konark

The Konark Sun Temple is undoubtedly one of the greatest architectural marvels of the Indian subcontinent, as a symbol of rich architecture. Though it has lost much of its glory, it still attracts a lot of tourists. UNESCO has declared the Sun Temple at Konark as a World Heritage Site, which highlights its importance. This importance can be gauged from the fact that the state emblem of Odisha containing a warrior and horse statue has been taken from the Konark temple. The design of the new ten-rupee currency note depicts a motif of Konark Sun Temple on the backside.

[infinite-xerath]

Runeterra Retcons 5: Janna

Ah Janna: a classic example of League’s older champion design philosophy. While discussing a character’s actual appearance isn’t really my forte, nor is it the point of this series, I do feel like it’s an important aspect to bring up regardless. See, in my honest opinion Janna’s current lore state following the 2015 retcon was actually handled pretty well.

The issue I and many others have is that her design doesn’t really match her lore like, at all. They’ve redesigned her a bit for Wild Rift by giving her more clothes, but that, in my opinion, doesn’t really resolve the larger issue at hand. Before we can delve too deep into the current state of Janna’s lore, however, let’s take a step back and examine how she began as a Champion, and see where things went from there.

Alright, so her first lore portrays her as a mage so in-tune with wind magic that she effectively elevated herself to a higher state of being. At the time, this could easily have put her on-par with mages like Syndra, Zilean and Xerath: other characters who achieved higher states of being through pure skill and mastery of their craft. Sure, her outfit still looked like generic female fantasy get-up #347, but she her archetype was clear enough: wind mage.

Janna’s original lore is… OK. It’s nothing groundbreaking, but it’s fine for what it is: she’s a street orphan who quite literally elevates herself through sheer talent, and now wants to use her new power to help others in need. This was, of course, from a time when the regions of Runeterra weren’t what we know today, and Zaun was apparently more about rampant magics than twisted science. Even still, Riot would go on to update her bio once Zaun became a more science-focus region.

Alright, so this version of Janna is still more-or-less the same as the first, but a little more fleshed out. The most notable change, of course, is the fact that she tends to ally more with Piltover rather than her home due to Zaun’s pollution and reliance on chemtech. Keep in mind that this was a time in which Zaun and Piltover were literally two completely separate cities, as opposed to different layers of the same one. In fact, it could be said that the reason for Janna’s current lore state is because Piltover and Zaun have been retconned into what they are today.

Now, let me clarify that I’ve got no real issue with how Piltover and Zaun are portrayed in the current lore state; in fact, I much prefer what Riot has done with those two regions and how both factions have their ups and downs. In the modern lore state of Runeterra, Piltover is directly responsible for nearly all of the pollution in Zaun, and both sides have their share of dubious science experiments going on. In fact, it’s because of this particular change that Riot chose to retcon Janna once again, and this is where things get complicated.

Before we delve too deep into that particular subject, let’s take a look at Janna’s third, and final lore state in League, shall we? In this bio, Janna is retconned into being a proper wind spirit, rather than a human who simply became a really powerful wind mage. As I’ve said before: I really don’t mind this retcon. It tells a lot about how spirits function in Runeterra and offers some interesting insight into the founding of Piltover and Zaun as a double-layered city.

That said, this was an excellent opportunity for Riot to give Janna a proper VGU and make her into a more spiritual-looking entity, yet they instead chose to keep as a generic fantasy babe with extremely revealing clothing. I mean, look at how the other spirits in Runeterra manifest: Anivia is a giant bird made of ice, Ornn is a big flaming anthropomorphic ram, and the Kindred appear as humanoid ram with a bow and ghostly flying wolf head! Yeah, sure, her Wild Rift design looks BETTER, but it still just makes her look like a typical fantasy elf rather than a literal embodiment of the wind.

There’s also the issue that Janna’s outfit in both incarnations doesn’t do anything to associate her with the region she’s supposed to be tied to: Zaun and Piltover. If anything, her white outfit with the gold trimmings makes her look DEMACIAN. It’s really just a simple case of her design contrasting her lore and character concept: she doesn’t look like a spirit, and she doesn’t look like she’s from Zaun. All of this could have been fixed with a simple VGU, but it seems like this is the design Riot wants to stick with, and thus it is the design we’re stuck with.

So, with all of that said, let’s get into the fixes, shall we? My mission for this rewrite is actually fairly simple: I’m going to give Janna a backstory that maintains her current status as a protective wind deity while ALSO giving a better justification for her appearance. So, without further ado, I give you: my take on the story of Janna. Enjoy.

For ages, mortals have put their faith in the winds. From sailors praying for a good breeze in their sails to children playing with kites, the people of Runeterra have long relied on the wind to bring change, good fortune, and prosperity. Of course, for many the idea that the wind can truly hear such prayers is nothing but a superstition. Those who truly open their ears, however, may hear the wind answer back.

The spirit that would come to be known as Janna began as little more than a small breeze, blowing aimlessly around the southern coasts of Valoran. Every now and then, sailors wishing for a fair breeze would find their requests mysteriously granted, even when the air seemed still only moments prior. Rumors spread, and sightings of a small blue bird appearing just before strong wind became frequent tales among traders. Over time, praying to the Wind Bird became a common ritual for all peoples of the coast, and none held this tradition more fervently than the seafaring folk of Oshra Va’Zaun.

For years, people prayed to the Wind Bird for guidance and protection, building statues and carving charms in her honor. Their belief empowered the spirit further, and it was through them she acquired the name Zephir, meaning “Guardian of Wind.” When uttered by foreign tongues, however, they frequently mispronounced her name as ‘Zephyr.’

Worship of Zephyr became commonplace, until the emperor of Shurima decreed that all “false idols” were to be discarded and the people place their faith only in the Ascended. The temples dedicated to Zephyr in Oshra Va’Zaun were torn down, and yet people continued to carry trinkets depicting her in secret, especially on voyages out to sea.

When the empire fell and Shurima was torn asunder by warring Ascended, the people of Oshra Va’Zaun, now referred to simply as Zaun, prayed to Zephyr for protection. Though her power was lesser than what it had once been, Zephyr nonetheless did all she good to drive back the armies of the Ascended with fierce gales and raging storms. As the war drew to a close, peace finally returned to the people of Zaun, and yet Zephyr was surprised to find her power weakening. In the war’s aftermath, the people of Zaun grew ambitions, wishing to make their city more than just a bustling trade port.

A canal was carved through the isthmus separating Valoran and Shurima, uniting two seas as one. This, in turn, brought peoples from all lands to Zaun in pursuit of greatness, and thus the prayers for fair winds were drowned out by desires of wealth, advancement, and expansion. Soon, Zephyr found herself reduced once more to a faint breeze, drifting aimlessly along the coasts as the world seemed to forget her… That is, until she heard her name spoken on the wind.

The culprit was a young woman named Janna, who had come to Zaun from the far-away kingdom of Demacia. Janna had grown up on tales of the ancient past, devoting her life to studying Valoran’s many myths and legends. Among them, Janna was particularly fascinated by stories of an ancient protector of winds, whose name had been all but lost to time. As the city of Zaun continued its expansion, widening the canal in the process, Janna continued her studies of this fabled guardian, and her fascination only deepened whenever the wind blew past her, as though a presence were calling out to her…

Then, the canal reached its completion, and a grand ceremony was held to celebrate the event. Thousands attended to watch the grand opening of the Sun Gate, yet what should have been a celebratory occasion turned to disaster. Construction of the canal left many areas of Zaun unstable, and the rumblings of the Sun Gate caused whole portions of the city to collapse and fall into the sea. Zephyr watched helplessly as hundreds of mortals fought uselessly against the clashing currents. Many cried out for help, though it was one cry in-particular that caught the spirit’s attention: it was Janna, calling out Zephyr’s name even as water filled her lungs.

In that moment, Janna felt herself being held aloft by a powerful gale. The air itself seemed to speak to her, telling Janna that her faith alone could rekindle the ancient guardian’s power and save the people from calamity. Putting her trust in the wind, Janna allowed Zephyr’s power to course through her, manifesting a staff to control the spirit’s power as her own. As others watched this miraculous display, their faith, too, began to return. Bolstered by their pleas, Janna and Zephyr summoned a massive gale to carry the people of Zaun to safety, before collapsing back into the sea from exhaustion.

Time moved on, and as the city of Piltover was built atop the remnants of Zaun, Janna’s miraculous deed that day also passed into legend. Even still, many continue to tell her story, and the faithful can be found wearing small bird-shaped pendants to honor the ancient spirit that protects Zaun. For those who struggle against the toxic fumes the Zaun Gray, wrestle with the tyranny of chembarons, or face any number of perils, it is commonplace to offer prayers to the wind.

Sometimes, if one truly believes, she may just answer back.

And there we have it. As you’ll notice, I kept much of the early lore the same, with one key exception: the spirit’s name. Now, Zephyr has always been a part of Janna’s character, even though it’s never explicitly referenced in her prior lore states. Zephyr was conceived to be Janna’s familiar: it’s that little bird you see in the background of her splash art. You know, the one that hovers around her in-game?

In her new lore, they try to say that Janna and Zephyr are one and the same; the bird is just a weaker manifestation of her power, though the art and game imply that she can manifest as the bird AND the woman at once? In her kit, Janna’s passive ability is still described as “Janna launching her elemental at a target,” as though the bird is still supposed to be her familiar. So, I decided: what if we kept the spirit as the bird, and made Janna herself human again?

Admittedly, I would have liked to flesh out this Demacian Janna more as a character, and I had a few versions of this bio in which that was the case, but I decided to stick to having the story of the spirit be forefront because I felt that would be closest to Riot’s current vision of the character. Even still, the one part of her current bio that DOES irk me a little is how suddenly the people of Zaun all collectively start praying to Janna to save them. I mean, no one had prayed to Janna for literal centuries, so why would that be the first thing they thing to do in a situation of peril? I felt it would make more sense to have her come back because of the ONE person who still somewhat believes in those ancient stories, rather than hundreds of people all at once.

Now, admittedly, this next part might be a bit controversial to some. Janna fusing with Zephyr might seem like a bit of a cop-out, but I’d like to remind you all that people playing host to spirits is hardly a new concept in League; we have Udyr, Lee Sin, and Illaoi, just to name a few.  I also think that it ties in well with the concept of Janna’s original lore, where she was a human that basically elevated herself into being an air elemental. Fusing with spirits to become semi-immortal entities isn’t even that much of a stretch either, thanks to Yone’s lore (though he might be a topic for a future episode.)

As for the conclusion of the story, well… I know it’s a little vague. What actually happened to Janna after she passed out? Where is she now? I decided to leave that up in the air (no pun intended) because I wanted to keep Janna in the same current lore state Riot has her in: an entity of the wind known mostly through myths and stories who might occasionally pop up if people pray hard enough. Plus, you could probably expand on that with her accompanying color story, though we’re not going to be touching on Deep Breath right now.

So, that’s Janna, the Storm’s Fury… Ugh, OK, let’s address that elephant in the room really quick. That is an AWFUL title for her. It sounds like something more befitting of Volibear, or maybe even Kennen. It’s certainly not a fantastic title for a benevolent deity known for showing kindness rather than fury. Maybe change it to something like The Gale’s Mercy or The Will of the Wind.

But alright, in all seriousness, that’s my take on Janna. As always, feel free to share your own thoughts, opinions, and comments down below.

[prophet-of-chaos]

THE TESTAMENTS

> HISTORY

( There is graphic content beyond, detailing death and violence. Such is the nature of life in this universe. A censored TL;DR has been included at the beginning. ) A MOMENT IN TIME Nyx was born as one of twins to the Kishi clan after a barren period without children. Given the name Sayomi and her twin brother Yoruko, they were both promised in service to their patron deity Cosmos as thanks for blessing the clan with twins. 

Nyx disliked the life of a young acolyte because she frequently received horrible visions while meditating in contact with Cosmos. Instead, she indulged in the travellers that frequently visited Asmodia to trade, seeking stories and knowledge from them. 

A historian she befriended from one of the crews helped her to trace back some of her clan’s history to a time where they were proud warriors and served a different deity. One of the temple sites he showed her pictures of was the same as one she had seen in her visions. Intrigued by this, Nyx sought out said god, known only as Chaos. They received her inquiries with vigour, indulging all her questions and accepting her as a servant on the following conditions: she would endeavour to restore their power and notoriety in the galaxy; she would become a vessel for balancing the universe in their favour and meting out their justice; and she would be devout to Chaos’ teachings, all in return for great powers. 

Spurred by promises from this being and a growing distrust of her clan’s true motives for her life, Nyx escaped with the historian’s crew and smuggled herself out into the universe. She forsook the name Sayomi, and adopted the mantle Nyx, given to her by Chaos. She travelled with this crew for a time, devoting herself to the teachings of Chaos and creating simple wares for the crew to sell as a way of giving back to the ship.  The historian and several other members of the crew died in a tragic oversight while they were exploring a historic site. Seeking a powerful relic of Chaos, they ran into scalpers looking to strip the ruins for valuables. The ensuing tussle claimed the lives of her closest companions, and their bloodshed awakened the weapon dormant within the ruins — Celeste, a cursed war-hammer and battle axe with a fragment of Chaos’ power living inside. Though the scalpers escaped, Nyx felt responsible for the outcome, and promised to take up the historian’s work and mantle to honour all he had done for her. 

She also took up bounty hunting, to both empower herself and hunt down the crooks that murdered her crew. After making good on her promise to avenge them, she continued to pursue the bounty hunting pathway, eventually rising to the top of the ranks and dominating Inner Eye as the Top Hunter for 13 years. 

Nyx retired 4 years ago to allow time for her historic curation and preservation interests, but remained supportive of Delilah Leach who followed to take the title. 

More recently, she made contact with her twin brother after hearing the Kishi clan had been purged from their planet due to an crash and an environmental disaster. She didn’t realise he was infected with a Carnasite, and when her guard was down, became infected with a particularly vicious strain of the parasite through a bite from Yoruko. Regrettably, she ended up killing him and retreating to cope with the incoming effects of the infection.

Chaos instructed her to seek refuge in one of His temple chambers, immersed in His power to give her the best chance of surviving the invader’s changes. She disappeared during this period for years, before being recovered along with Celeste from a mysterious temple buried under the shifting sands of Ha’tut in a portal guarded by a Voledan Sandworm. 

She now serves as an assistant leader and point of guidance for the Inner Eye faction, under Motus’ leadership.

THE BIRTH OF A SPECIES The Kishi clan arrived on Asmodia a millennia ago, after their ancestral species the Keph’rah escaped a war-torn homeland and journeyed out into the galaxy. 

The Keph’rah were birthed from the pressures of warring aliens and a hostile landscape, the break-down of these species developed a novel hybrid. From those too weak to be warriors and too timid to be leaders came a new nocturnal species seeking a new home. 

They were guided into the stars by a galactic force known only as Chaos. They became devout to Chaos, who gifted them preternatural magical abilities in exchange for all-consuming worship. The Keph'rah travelled extensively, scattering about the stars. Some splintered off along the way, settling new planets they never left. Others reached out to new deities, seeking new pathways. Fewer still remained true to the path of a follower, building monuments and beautiful temples across the galaxy until they simply... vanished, along with most of the evidence they ever existed, over a thousand years ago. The entirety of this erasure baffled galactic historians, and became a point for much research for those interested in such affairs.

One of the surviving splinters became the Kishi, settling on Asmodia under the instruction of a gentle guiding force they came to know as Cosmos. They presented themselves to the young Keph’rah as a maternal, warm deity, kinder and more forgiving than Chaos had ever been. Cosmos promised that the Keph’rah would find peace and safety on Asmodia, that she would not demand such intense sacrifice from her followers, and that those under her care would only prosper. As proof of this offer, Cosmos instructed them where was safest to settle, what to consume, sent the most perceptive of them forewarning visions of terrible weather or animal threats, so they could best prosper in their new home. 

What they didn’t realise was the more control they allowed this deity, the more Cosmos quietly shaped them as a species. The closest and most devout began to take on mystic qualities and prophetic dreams, driving them further from Chaos. They lost much of their magical ability, but in exchange, an awakened few developing blinded eyes in their palms. These always looked skyward to their Goddess and saviour, Cosmos, receiving visions and dreams to further aid the clan. Fewer and fewer males were born into the clan, their history of strength and warrior leadership dwindling, despite being what had carried them thus far into the galaxy. Most of the clan found they didn’t mind these changes once they became aware, giving themselves a new name to distance themselves further from the ones they had left behind. And thus, the Kishi became devoted servants to the Supreme Mother, Cosmos.

THE ADVENT OF A PROPHET

Nyx was born thousands of years after the Keph’rah’s first settlement, when their origins had become folklore and little but a buried part of the Kishi’s history. It was an unspoken taboo to dwell on the past, many eager to please their Goddess’ to continue receiving blessings of future-sight.  Nyx’s birth signalled the dawn of great peace for the Kishi clan. She was born as one of twins, after several barren years for the clan. Despite a healthy small population, plenty of resources, and a slowly growing territory, the Kishi clan had no children for many years. She represented the answer to the Kishi’s prayers and the future of their clan. She was called Sayomi, a night-gifted beauty from the stars, and her brother Yoruko, a child of darkness and starlight. 

True to the system of their matriarchal clan, Sayomi had been promised to Cosmos when she was born as thanks for heeding the clan’s prayers. Her life had been mapped for her, projecting devoted service in the name of Cosmos. Many would be privileged to take on the duties of a priestess in the clan, as few were gifted with foresight and a close connection to the Goddess’ visions. 

This life never seemed to suit Sayomi, though she had been born for its purpose. Whenever she received her training, she would complain of terrible visions and dreadful nightmares, unbefitting for such a kind goddess’ powers. She would see foreign places crumbling, bloodshed, children screaming. Blood splattered on the stones of a temple floor. A mother with babe ripped from her arms. A warrior falling on his sword. A priest being incinerated in a great wall of flames. Rapture. 

The visions were always extremely vivid and detailed. She displayed a strong aptitude for the future-sight aspect of her training and receiving visions, but hated using it because it brought her such distress. The clan thought she was lying to shirk her divine duties, and ignored her complaints.

Cosmos was kind. Cosmos was benevolent. Cosmos would not show a child such terrible things. Sayomi simply had an overactive imagination.

This disbelief made her despise her service, and she avoided it at all costs.

She was a restless, rambunctious, daring, and most of all, curious child. Though she remained a polite student, she was an unwilling acolyte, much preferring to tag along with the foraging parties and her brother, who gathered food for the clan. She loved the thrill of finding old settlements scattered about the planet, hints of their ancestors embedded in the trunks of towering mushrooms and gentle rivers weaved by ancient hands to find water for their clan. She felt as though some of the ancient carvings might hold the key to unlocking her visions and explaining some of the things she saw. Yoruko was also the opposite of what he was born to be. He was timid, and much preferred to hide behind his sister’s skirts. He’d offer to hold her gathered food rather than pick it himself, scared of even a bug’s pin-prick bite or an animal rustling in the undergrowth. A far cry from the bold and efficient gatherer spot he was supposed to fulfil, the two of them became insular. Yoruko preferred his twin’s company, and Sayomi preferred to have none at all. The clan viewed them as an odd pair, murmurings that they might even be cursed with chaotic energy... but they persisted. Everybody found their place in the clan eventually. There was no space for those who didn’t.

DAWN OF A NEW FUTURE

Situated on the edge of a trade route, Asmodia saw regular traffic from traders looking stock up on exotic and rare native wares from their resource-rich planet. Though they were a private and secretive species for the most part, they did enjoy their trading. The technology and news from the surrounding galaxy these travellers brought was welcome, both as part curiousity and part opportunity to spread the teachings of their Goddess Cosmos. The Kishi had amicable relations with their visitors, and even gained a host of regular traders who would come with larger shipments in exchange for a prepared selection of teas and jewellery.  Contrary to the rest of her peers, Sayomi thrived on these mysterious travellers. As a youngling, she would make regular efforts to sneak away from her elders to have extra time with visitors, even if that went as far as clambering into their ships as a temporary (and terribly obvious) stowaway. The traders humoured her, for they were as curious about the secretive Kishi people as she was about the wider universe. She tried her best to learn Galactic Common, trading pictures drawn with berry dye and charcoal at first, until she could understand more of their stories. They told her of the galaxy, of the people they traded with, the history of the wares they bartered. In return, she showed them the buried parts of the jungle on Asmodia, pieces of their history and their first settlements. She also shared what trees to dig under to find the rare luminescent stones, and what beautiful fruits were safe to pick for vibrant dyes. Some of the traders were just eager to make the best deal and be on their way, and told her useless fibs in exchange for her information and items. One regular crew took quite the liking to her though. There was a young historian aboard who was just as fascinated by the history of her planet and people as she was. She spent long hours with him, tracing the history of her clan to their original ancestors in the Keph’rah, and the powers that had guided them to their salvation.

In particular, he showed her a photo of an ancient temple he had visited, and she realised — though she had never been there, she knew that place. She had seen it in her visions, time and time again. Intrigued, she asked him to bring her more information about the temple and the being they had worshipped there. SECRETS OF AN ANCIENT PEOPLE

Thrilled by the chance to finally explain herself, she brought up her revelation to the Elders of the clan. She wasn't mad, nor cursed — she was seeing visions! True visions, of places that existed, and people in the past!

But they swore her to secrecy.

The people she had spoke of worshipped the wrong God, and were long gone. Irrelevant. Dangerous. She was never to speak of the past again; she was to abandon these foolish pursuits, and focus on the fitting. Cosmos only ever showed visions of the future. To be viewing the past was wrong, and clearly these travellers had put thoughts in her head. Sacrilegious thoughts. The Elders began to restrict the number of travellers allowed near the settlement, and further restrict her access to them.

Wounded and outraged, it began to occur to Sayomi just how much of their past had been kept from her during her studies. The Elders had known about their heritage, and yet had always denied her questions! If their people had such a proud spacefaring history with so many great warriors that had brought them here, why were they actively trying to bury it? Why did they destroy the relics of their first settlements, and shun even play-fighting amongst the children? 

She began to distrust the Cosmic deity. Tasked with many long hours of meditation daily to become closer to Cosmos, Sayomi started to hate the practice, the manicured lifestyle, every effort she made in service to Cosmos. 

Instead, she spent her time of mandatory meditation casting her mind out, further into the galaxy, seeking connections from other powers. On some days she would disappear altogether, running away from the clan and wandering for days in a trance-like state. If there was one controlling and all-powerful being, surely there were others who would be more compassionate to her lust for knowledge. It was half curiousity, half angry defiance, with little care for what repercussion may come her way from those she made contact with. Her life was so orchestrated, every disruption and threat removed from her as though she were a perpetual child.  She never truly expected an answer.

THE UNIVERSE LISTENS TO THOSE WHO CRY

A voice responded to Sayomi’s dreaming, one both familiar and unfamiliar to her. She knew she had never heard them in her lifetime, but had the distinct feeling that many before her had been close to this being. They introduced themselves as Chaos, and welcomed her back to the fold as a true child of theirs. 

They were a being of great power who dwelled in the past, but whose influence had dwindled over time as their followers had been struck by misfortune. She connected to His qualities of balance, justice and clairvoyance. A secret part of her supposed Chaos had been the one sending her visions of the past, all this time. 

When Chaos spoke to her, it felt like she had come home again. They welcomed her inquiries, embracing the mind that had travelled far from her body and allowing it to stay in their company. Time stretched out endlessly, though mere minutes had passed in her body. Every time she sought them out, she learned a little more, yearned for their power and their influence to free her from the mindless existence as a priestess in training. She ached for the literal chaos they promised, to reclaim their warrior history and connect to the past that had been so desperately kept from her. 

And so, Chaos promised her everything she wished for. The power to change her destiny. The power to reclaim her past. The power to harness the universe and stoke the wildfire of her heart, that need to explore. 

In exchange, she would become His Prophet.

They would accept her as a servant on the following conditions: she would endeavour to restore their power and notoriety in the galaxy; she would become a vessel for balancing the universe in their favour; she would mete out their justice accordingly; and she would be devout to Chaos’ teachings. She agreed, gladly. She would abandon the new way and return to the old. She would no longer be Sayomi — instead, she would become Nyx, the name offered to her by Chaos to claim her. By the time she had returned to her body, the pact had been made. 

ESCAPE FROM ASMODIA

The change was almost immediate when she returned. The eyes on her palms awakened and blazed with divine purple fire, the first of her gifts. Her eyes took on an unnatural, violet hue, and though she did not realise it at the time, it was at that moment that Cosmos had forsaken her and denied her the ability of future-sight. 

The clan was horrified, believing her cursed, and she fled without time to even bid Yoruko farewell. 

Thankfully, the Historian’s crew had not yet departed, and she managed to convince them to allow her on board. In exchange for her skills as a seamstress that she had learned in training, she would be allowed to board if they could sell her creations. She agreed, thankful that they would not need to return to Asmodia for such wares soon, and left with them into the universe beyond. 

THE GALAXY BELONGS TO CHAOS

Life aboard the Trader’s ship was not what she had expected, but she loved every moment of it. She threw herself whole-heartedly into the physical work of maintaining the old cargo clunker, spending every dreaming moment with Chaos. They slowly made other powers available to her, her most beloved one being Clairvoyance. She tested it on every item they collected for trade in the ship, training her connection to Chaos and her use of His divine abilities. 

Her bargain with the Captain (with the aid of the historian) had been for every successful batch of fabrics they made, they would seek out an ancient site she had been shown in a vision by Chaos. There would surely be relics there she would get permission to trade, and they could restore a part of the site to reinvigorate Chaos’ reach in the galaxy. 

This worked peacefully, for a time. She became hardy and capable, studying common languages so she could speak freely, without a translator and reading with the Historian. They restored several sites across the galaxy in Chaos’ name and prospered. She remembers this part of her life fondly and full of wonder. 

Like most reveries however, this one did not last. 

BECOME ONE WITH THE STARS, MY DEAR FRIENDS

Chaos gave her a vision of a powerful relic which had once consumed a part of His physical vessel and stored a great deal of power. It had many names over the millennia it had existed, but once Nyx had it, it would be hers to name and bear. It was a weapon fitting of a proud warriors’ history, and had been wielded by some of her ancestors many years ago. 

When they arrived at the site, it seemed just as she had seen in her ancient visions, only aged by the weather and scratched at by scavengers. Some lesser carvings had been stolen from the walls, gems picks out of statues’ eyes, but the innermost chambers remained intact. Following the instruction of her deity, Nyx guided her small crew of the Historian, the Engineer, the Captain and the Surveyor into the ruins, leaving a skeleton crew and the Medic back on their waiting ship. 

Absorbed in their explorations, they had not noticed a small band of scalpers had followed them into the ruins, catching wind of their conquests on nearby planets and looking to snag a few spoils for themselves. 

Inside the temple, Nyx found the dormant hammer she would come to call Celeste, the Reaver of Stars. It slumbered, unwitting in its new owners hands, much too heavy for her and unwieldy. She did not fret — there would be time to learn how to best use it later. She had not expected to wish for those lessons so soon.

As they turned to leave, they were ambushed by a nasty group of grave-diggers. Several bandits and a mutant hound, they had not come to bargain. This inner chamber had remained a mystery for so long to many bands who wished to claim its contents. They would do anything, anything, to take those items for themselves. Fatally inexperienced and unequipped for such an encounter, the Traders crew left with one survivor that day: Nyx. 

The Surveyor had been shot first, the Engineer set upon by knives. The Surveyor was caught trying to find cover to set explosives, and the Captain had bravely defended them until the hound had stripped every last one of the tentacles from his face. 

Nyx froze in the face of violence, the scene she had seen so many times in her nightmares. Those screams, that blood — it was the vision of her friend’s deaths, a final resounding gift from Cosmos. She had always thought it was a view of the past, but she had seen these deaths many times before. 

The Historian, ever the bookish man, had bravely pulled his gun on the bandits and stood in Nyx’s way, though he bled from his side and limped to her defense. They were terribly outnumbered now... and it was his blood that awakened Celeste. 

The hammer split at the scenes, pulsing with sinew and loosing a terrible, anguished scream as it awakened to the taste of innocent blood. 

It was a terrible, bloody dance that followed, Nyx barely conscious in her rage. Chaos took the reigns at some point, allowing her to abound in the reckless, divine chaos of the moment. She did not wield Celeste with experience, only blind grief and terror. It was enough to smite a few and send the others scrambling with a small handful of gems from the chamber. Nyx was too exhausted to pursue, still detached from her body as Chaos aided her, stumbling back to the ship. There had been no survivors, confirmed by the Medic. 

The shock of the loss left her reeling. Truthfully, Nyx never quite recovered from that fateful day and the loss of the crew, especially not the Historian and the Captain who represented so much of her freedom and journey thus far. She felt terribly responsible for leading them there and putting them in the temple that day. Chaos urged her to seek balance... These feelings were as a result of an unfair loss that had left the ‘scales’ unbalanced. She should press onwards and seek revenge, to level the scales of justice in His favour again.  

She gladly took this explanation as motivation, seeking some kind of direction after she was left drifting, listless following the loss. In an effort to memorialise her fallen crew, she took up the Historian’s mantle, continuing his research across the galaxy. As for the lives of the others... She turned to bounty hunting. She was sure to get her revenge that way.

THE TURN OF AN AGE — BALANCE RESTORED

Full of sorrow and remorse, Nyx left the fractured Trader’s crew. She had expressed her desire for revenge, and hoping to redirect her, the Medic had suggested she should try ‘Fortune’. Armed with her new weapon and a burning desire to never be helpless again, Nyx grew her strength day by day and conquered each power Chaos allowed her. She hunted, small things at first, testing her strength... and then tracked down every single remnant of that scalping crew with fervent determination that surprised even herself. 

She exacted bloody revenge on every single one that had caused her grief and caused pain to her true family. The carnage delighted Chaos, who spurred her onwards. Her hunts became bigger, fostering a connection with Celeste and developing her unique fighting style to help her climb the ranks. She used her talents, those inherited from her clan and those gifted to her by Chaos, to become a fearsome hunter in the upper echelons of Fortune. Her strength belied her stature, a moonlit priestess who left curses and ashes in her wake.

For 13 years, she reigned as the Top Hunter for Inner Eye, renowned for completely reshaping battlefields to her whim, smiting the worst of her targets with inextinguishable purple flames and leaving those ‘live’ targets with a death sentence, branded into their skin. Death would come for them all, and Chaos would claim those who denied Him. 

To her faction, she remained the polite mentor the Captain had taught her how to be, and the willing student the Historian had instilled in her. She guided those lost to the pathway of Chaos, and restored the fading history of those whose voices had been lost to time. 

EVENING COMES FOR ALL OF US

An upcoming hunter in the ranks caught her eye — a Delilah Leach, as tenacious as she was capable. The history of each of her members was important to her, of course, but it never overshadowed the individual. She felt herself becoming restless again, seeking the fulfilment of her historical work over the endless hunting. She would continue to hunt, but would simply rescind the mantle to somebody new, to shift the balance to new, promising power so she could continue to spread the word of Chaos. 

She maintained a good relationship with Delilah, supporting the new hunter as she distanced herself from hunting for a time. She dropped off the radar for a time, and rumour had it she made contact with her twin brother Yoruko after he made contact with her...

The truth of the rumour was that the Kishi clan had been hit with terrible disaster — first an environmental disaster after a trading ship had crashed carrying hazardous goods, starving most of the population into oblivion. Next, the planet they had fled to for salvation had been infested with a terrible, insatiable parasite. 

When he reached out, he still had clarity of mind and control of his body. By the time she met with him, he had become nigh rabid, barely managing to keep his mind intact long enough to speak to her. In a moment of weakness, she embraced him, and their proximity overwhelmed his waning control. Yoruko bit her with a festering bite, a pain unlike any she had experienced before in her time hunting. Her hands blazed reflexively, Chaos igniting them in an effort to protect his prophet. She was too anguished to douse the flames, howling as she struggled with her own pain and watched her brother burn. 

Nyx would come to learn later what kind of mercy she had given him, instead of allowing him to starve as a Carnasite vessel. At the immediate moment, she could barely manage with the changes that began to swiftly take hold of her, the strain she had been infected with particularly savage. Chaos strained their power to transport her to the nearest temple location, a buried portal on Ha’tut in the badlands outside Zavora. Protected by a great Voledan Sandworm, in a plain that continuously shifted, they believed she would be safe as she He worked on the worst of the parasite’s effects. 

Inside the chamber, Chaos laid Nyx to rest in the embrace of His power. Weaved into a cocoon by the raging Carnasite, Nyx slumbered for the next few years. Considered dead to most, missing to others, Fortune would occasionally get sporadic signals from the tracking tag on Celeste, signal bleeding through the magic barrier that protected the temple chamber. 

She would have continued to lie dormant there, if an expedition from Inner Eye had not happened upon the temple, solved the puzzles within, and awoken the Prophet of Chaos.

THE PROPHET RETURNS

The time resting served her well — once awakened, though weak, Nyx had completely synergised with the Carnasite. The original strength of the host and the arcane powers of Chaos fed into the maturation of the parasite, giving it strangely aware qualities. Curiously, it seems to have developed speech... using her brother’s voice. It carries a part of him too, and though she deeply regrets the circumstances that led to his death, she still bears the connection through his untimely gift.  

Nyx now resides back at Fortune, having taken up the Assistant Leadership position she was offered by Motus before she disappeared. 

[theholident-blog]

THE IMPORTANCE OF INDIAN FESTIVALS

It's the whole question of the world --the moons, the values and myths," says Malvika Singh, editor of India magazine, a cultural publication in New Delhi." They are the life of the people.  It's not so much a festival as living and prayer."   In India, the abundance of festivals originates from the nation's religious diversity.   For many, festivals are personal family affairs.  However, there probably are several countries where rituals are performed with such public zest and uninhibited gaiety.   These include the smaller melas or classic state fairs, and they frequently are as colorful as the bigger spectacles.  Significant temples have their own calendar of events, honoring favorite deities in the town. The feast is devoted to the thousand-headed hydra, Ananta, whose coils form the couch of Vishnu and represent eternity.  On this day, live cobras or their graphics are worshipped, and snake charmers do a lively business.  Bengal and Kerala are facilities for snake worship.   Some festivals celebrate a specific god's birthday such as Ram navami for arrival of lord Ram, Ganesh chaturthi or Ganesh utsav for arrival of lord Ganesha, Christmas celebrated for arrival of lord Jesus Christ. Sivaratri (March 8) is a feast in honour of Shiva and parties center from the sacred city of Varanasi at north-central India.  The loyal hold processions into the temples and all-night vigils, which are supposed to guarantee material prosperity and heaven after death.  The folks chant mantras to remain alert and alert the lingam, a stone phallus that symbolizes Shiva.   The bamboo and paper figures tower against the fading evening light. Celebrated in late October or early November, households spend the weeks before Diwali sprucing up their homes, buying gifts and stocking up on festive foods and sweets.  It's reminiscent of Christmas in Western countries. So many reasons and lots of seasons for many festivals.   Not everybody follows every festival.  Fundamentally we Indians long ago obtained it that festival is a motive for entire family to meet and catch up, be together, relax and feast together and live happily.  Festivals also give us a much needed break from our everyday occasionally monotonous life.   Here's a sampling of important festivals, their date this season and the best places to watch them.  (A comprehensive calendar of Indian festivals can be obtained through government tourist offices in big Indian cities.)   Holi (March 26) is an extravagant Icelandic feast marking the coming of spring.  It's a time for playing tricks on others and making them seem ridiculous, even people who are your social superiors.  Bonfires are lighted and the roads are packed with people throwing colored powder or water.  The god Krishna, an incarnation of Vishnu, is often honored at this moment, so the very best to go through the festival is in Mathura, his birthplace, south of Delhi.  Kumbha Mela (the second week in April) is held just once every 12 years, and will occur this year in Hardwar, a north India mountain town.  

This festival is India best periodic honest.  Millions will flock to the town to bathe in the Ganges, which plunges through a mountain gorge now and starts its slow motion to the Bay of Bengal in the east.  One myth states that a god in the shape of a bird uttered a coveted kumbha or jar of ambrosia and stopped at Hardwar on the way to heaven.  Another suggests the sacred nectar spilled in this place.  (really Krishna), probably is the most famous Hindu shrine.  An enormous decorated chariot, 45 ft high with wheels seven feet in diameter, bearing a picture of the god, is pulled through the streets by pilgrims.  

It's most spectacular in Delhi, which stages a vibrant military extravaganza.   Pushkar Cattle Fair (Nov. 16) is among India's most vibrant events.   Over 200,000 people flock into the city, bringing with them thousands of camels, cows and horses.  It's an important tourist event with a massive tent city set up to accommodate 3,000 visitors.  Advance reservations are advised.   Ugadi / gudi padwa is brand new year for Kannada Telugu Tulu and Marathi speaking people that is a festival of new year after the language that these individuals are speaking specifically Kannada Telugu Tulu Marathi.   On the night of Diwali, which is known as the Festival of Lights, buildings and houses are summarized with countless oil candles and lamps.    

Festivals like karva chauth, bakri identification and ramzaan come on a specific phase of the moon.  "It's the tiny festivals," says Singh,"which are really the mind of the country."  To get a visitor to India, a festival is an opportunity to glimpse the heart and soul of the nation.  Significant parties are open to tourists, but others are mostly family vacations.   Ganesh Chaturthi (Sept. 7) is enthusiastically celebrated in Bombay.  The feast honors the favorite elephant-headed god whose odd appearance has a lot of explanations.  The most prominent is his jealous father, Shiva, found him guarding his mother's home, failed to recognize him and lopped his head off.  To placate his wife, Shiva promised to get the boy a new mind.  The first one that could be procured was the elephant.  In Bombay, pictures of Ganesh, the god of wealth, are transported through the streets to the waterfront and immersed in the sea.   Some festivals such as vata savitri, varalakshmi vratam, karva chauth etc are distinguished by girls by keeping fast for extended life of the husbands.  Karadaya nombu is a festival one of tamilians observed by woman child to married women, where they tie a sacred yellow thread around their necks and pray for good husband (unmarried women ) and long life of the spouse (married women) and this same man ought to be their husband to get next every birth.   Understanding and appreciating a festival, it is helpful to have a basic outline of the Hindu pantheon.   Brahma is rarely worshipped today.  Vishnu and his wife Lakshmi still are widely admired.   He and his wife, Devi, may take tens of thousands of forms and are known by several names.   In the coming months, there could be chances to see many more.  For India is a nation imbued with the joyous spirit.  Religion is a living force , and festivals are its saying.   India is a land of individuals who follow many religions and lots of gods.  The reason we have numerous festivals is since some are based one's faith, some to celebrate god's birthday, some derive from harvest seasons, some are based on new years of different religions or languages, some are based on solar calender and a few are based on the phases of the moon and moon calender.                                                       The middle for the feast is Mathura, where dances are held to honor the god of dance and song.  Young men form human pyramids and try to break yogurt pots hanging over the roads.  This is in honor of the child Krishna who stole yogurt with the support of his friends. Many significant holidays are observed throughout the country, but how they're celebrated varies from area to area.  

In New Delhi, Dussehra focuses on the exploits of Rama, the Traditional Hindu hero.   Pictures of the goddess are carried through the streets and immersed in the sea or river.  Dances, drama and other cultural displays are often held.   Some festivals also occur by year like vasant panchami which celebrates spring. There are a few festivals celebrated solely to celebrate the brother bond and family bonds like kanupadi the day after Pongal, Raksha Bandhan, Bhaubeej.   The event is Dussehra, the culmination of a 10-day Hindu festival.  It commemorates a scene from the Indian epic,"The Ramayana," where the hero king Rama defeats his evil rival Ravanna and his allies.   Festival of the Automobiles (July 9) is a colossal event held in Puri in the eastern state of Norissa.  The Temple of Jagannath, lord of the world

Festivals like makar Sankranthi, pongal, baisakhi, Tamil new year, vishu arrive annually on a date which changes only by one either back or forth.  These are harvest festivals dependent on sunlight.  Baisakhi Tamil new year and vishu are new years for Punjabi, Tamil and Malayalam speaking persons that is according to Hindu calender.  Nowadays, traditional Buddhism is confined mainly to the temperate areas.   The Dalai Lama and his followers fled to the city following the Chinese invasion of Tibet, and it is now a centre for Buddhism and Tibetan culture.   Onam Harvest Festival (Sept. 15) honors a fanatic, Mahabali.  The devil was exiled into the nether world by Vamana, an incarnation of Vishnu, but each year he's permitted to return to go to his former kingdom.  It's the most significant festival in Kerala and comes at the end of the monsoon.   These sleek canoes with cobra-shaped sterns are paddled into the rhythmic strains of south Indian ship songs.  

[burkesguidetodnd]

Druid

Whether calling on the elemental forces of nature or emulating the creatures of the animal world, druids are an embodiment of nature’s resilience, cunning, and fury. They claim no mastery over nature. Instead, they see themselves as extensions of nature’s indomitable will.

Druids revere nature above all, gaining their spells and other magical powers either from the force of nature itself or from a nature deity. Many druids pursue a mystic spirituality of transcendent union with nature rather than devotion to a divine entity, while others serve gods of wild nature, animals, or elemental forces. The ancient Druidic traditions are sometimes called the Old Faith, in contrast to the worship of gods in temples and shrines. Druid spells are oriented toward nature and animals—the power of tooth and claw, of sun and moon, of fire and storm. Druids also gain the ability to take on animal forms, and some druids make a particular study of this practice, even to the point where they prefer animal form to their natural form.

For druids, nature exists in a precarious balance. The four elements that make up a world—air, earth, fire, and water—must remain in equilibrium. If one element were to gain power over the others, the world could be destroyed, drawn into one of the elemental planes and broken apart into its component elements. Thus, druids oppose cults of Elemental Evil and others who promote one element to the exclusion of others. Druids are also concerned with the delicate ecological balance that sustains plant and animal life, and the need for civilized folk to live in harmony with nature, not in opposition to it. Druids accept that which is cruel in nature, and they hate that which is unnatural, including aberrations (such as beholders and mind flayers) and undead (such as zombies and vampires). Druids sometimes lead raids against such creatures, especially when the monsters encroach on the druids’ territory. Druids are often found guarding sacred sites or watching over regions of unspoiled nature. But when a significant danger arises, threatening nature’s balance or the lands they protect, druids take on a more active role in combating the threat, as adventurers.

When making a druid, consider why your character has such a close bond with nature. Perhaps your character lives in a society where the Old Faith still thrives, or was raised by a druid after being abandoned in the depths of a forest. Perhaps your character had a dramatic encounter with the spirits of nature, coming face to face with a giant eagle or dire wolf and surviving the experience. Maybe your character was born during an epic storm or a volcanic eruption, which was interpreted as a sign that becoming a druid was part of your character’s destiny. Have you always been an adventurer as part of your Druidic calling, or did you first spend time as a caretaker of a sacred grove or spring? Perhaps your homeland was befouled by evil, and you took up an adventuring life in hopes of finding a new home or purpose.

A druid holds certain plants to be sacred, particularly alder, ash, birch, elder, hazel, holly, juniper, mistletoe, oak, rowan, willow, and yew. Druids often use such plants as part of a spellcasting focus, incorporating lengths of oak or yew or sprigs of mistletoe. Similarly, a druid uses such woods to make other objects, such as weapons and shields. Yew is associated with death and rebirth, so weapon handles for scimitars or sickles might be fashioned from it. Ash is associated with life and oak with strength. These woods make excellent hafts or whole weapons, such as clubs or quarterstaffs, as well as shields. Alder is associated with air, and it might be used for thrown weapons, such as darts or javelins. Druids from regions that lack the plants described here have chosen other plants to take on similar uses. For instance, a druid of a desert region might value the yucca tree and cactus plants.

Some druids venerate the forces of nature themselves, but most druids are devoted to one of the many nature deities worshipped in the multiverse. The worship of these deities is often considered a more ancient tradition than the faiths of clerics and urbanized peoples. In fact, in the world of Greyhawk, the Druidic faith is called the Old Faith, and it claims many adherents among farmers, foresters, fishers, and others who live closely with nature. This tradition includes the worship of Nature as a primal force beyond personification, but also encompasses the worship of Beory, the Oerth Mother, as well as devotees of Obad-Hai, Ehlonna, and Ulaa. In the worlds of Greyhawk and the Forgotten Realms, Druidic circles are not usually connected to the faith of a single nature deity. Any given circle in the Forgotten Realms, for example, might include druids who revere Silvanus, Mielikki, Eldath, Chauntea, or even the harsh Gods of Fury: Talos, Malar, Auril, and Umberlee. These nature gods are often called the First Circle, the first among the druids, and most druids count them all (even the violent ones) as worthy of veneration. The druids of Eberron hold animistic beliefs completely unconnected to the Sovereign Host, the Dark Six, or any of the other religions of the world. They believe that every living thing and every natural phenomenon—sun, moon, wind, fire, and the world itself—has a spirit. Their spells, then, are a means to communicate with and command these spirits. Different Druidic sects, though, hold different philosophies about the proper relationship of these spirits to each other and to the forces of civilization. The Ashbound, for example, believe that arcane magic is an abomination against nature, the Children of Winter venerate the forces of death, and the Gatekeepers preserve ancient traditions meant to protect the world from the incursion of aberrations.

HIT POINTS: 1d8 per Druidic level

HIT POINTS AT 1st LEVEL: 1d8 + CON

PROFICIENCIES

ARMOUR: Light, Medium, Shields (But NO metal)

WEAPONS: Clubs, Daggers, Darts, Javelins, Maces, Quarterstaffs, Scimitars, Sickles, Slings, Spears

TOOLS: Herbalism Kit

SKILLS: Arcana, Animal Handling, Insight, Medicine, Nature, Perception, Religion, and Survival (Choose 2)

EQUIPMENT

1. A shield OR Any simple weapon

2. A scimitar OR Any simple melee weapon

3. Leather armour AND An explorer’s Pack AND A Druidic Focus

DRUIDIC

You know Druidic, the secret language of druids. You can speak the language and use it to leave hidden messages. You and others who know this language automatically spot such a message. Others spot the message’s presence with a successful DC 15 Wisdom (Perception) check but can’t decipher it without magic.

SPELLCASTING

Drawing on the divine essence of nature itself, you can cast spells to shape that essence to your will. See Spells Rules for the general rules of spellcasting and the Spells Listing for the druid spell list.

Cantrips

At 1st level, you know two cantrips of your choice from the druid spell list. You learn additional druid cantrips of your choice at higher levels, as shown in the Cantrips Known column of the Druid table.

Preparing and Casting Spells

The Druid table shows how many spell slots you have to cast your druid spells of 1st level and higher. To cast one of these druid spells, you must expend a slot of the spell’s level or higher. You regain all expended spell slots when you finish a long rest. You prepare the list of druid spells that are available for you to cast, choosing from the druid spell list. When you do so, choose a number of druid spells equal to your Wisdom modifier + your druid level (minimum of one spell). The spells must be of a level for which you have spell slots. For example, if you are a 3rd-level druid, you have four 1st-level and two 2nd-level spell slots. With a Wisdom of 16, your list of prepared spells can include six spells of 1st or 2nd level, in any combination. If you prepare the 1st-level spell cure wounds, you can cast it using a 1st-level or 2nd-level slot. Casting the spell doesn’t remove it from your list of prepared spells. You can also change your list of prepared spells when you finish a long rest. Preparing a new list of druid spells requires time spent in prayer and meditation: at least 1 minute per spell level for each spell on your list.

Spellcasting Ability

Wisdom is your spellcasting ability for your druid spells, since your magic draws upon your devotion and attunement to nature. You use your Wisdom whenever a spell refers to your spellcasting ability. In addition, you use your Wisdom modifier when setting the saving throw DC for a druid spell you cast and when making an attack roll with one.

Spell save DC = 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Wisdom modifier

Spell attack modifier = your proficiency bonus + your Wisdom modifier

Ritual Casting

You can cast a druid spell as a ritual if that spell has the ritual tag and you have the spell prepared.

Spellcasting Focus

You can use a Druidic focus (see the Adventuring Gear section) as a spellcasting focus for your druid spells.

WILD SHAPE

Starting at 2nd level, you can use your action to magically assume the shape of a beast that you have seen before. You can use this feature twice. You regain expended uses when you finish a short or long rest. Your druid level determines the beasts you can transform into, as shown in the Beast Shapes table. At 2nd level, for example, you can transform into any beast that has a challenge rating of 1/4 or lower that doesn’t have a flying or swimming speed.

You can stay in a beast shape for a number of hours equal to half your druid level (rounded down). You then revert to your normal form unless you expend another use of this feature. You can revert to your normal form earlier by using a bonus action on your turn. You automatically revert if you fall unconscious, drop to 0 hit points, or die. While you are transformed, the following rules apply:

Your game statistics are replaced by the statistics of the beast, but you retain your alignment, personality, and Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma scores. You also retain all of your skill and saving throw proficiencies, in addition to gaining those of the creature. If the creature has the same proficiency as you and the bonus in its stat block is higher than yours, use the creature’s bonus instead of yours. If the creature has any legendary or lair actions, you can’t use them.

When you transform, you assume the beast’s hit points and Hit Dice. When you revert to your normal form, you return to the number of hit points you had before you transformed. However, if you revert as a result of dropping to 0 hit points, any excess damage carries over to your normal form. For example, if you take 10 damage in animal form and have only 1 hit point left, you revert and take 9 damage. As long as the excess damage doesn’t reduce your normal form to 0 hit points, you aren’t knocked unconscious.

You can’t cast spells, and your ability to speak or take any action that requires hands is limited to the capabilities of your beast form. Transforming doesn’t break your concentration on a spell you’ve already cast, however, or prevent you from taking actions that are part of a spell, such as call lightning, that you’ve already cast.

You retain the benefit of any features from your class, race, or other source and can use them if the new form is physically capable of doing so. However, you can’t use any of your special senses, such as darkvision, unless your new form also has that sense.

You choose whether your equipment falls to the ground in your space, merges into your new form, or is worn by it. Worn equipment functions as normal, but the DM decides whether it is practical for the new form to wear a piece of equipment, based on the creature’s shape and size. Your equipment doesn’t change size or shape to match the new form, and any equipment that the new form can’t wear must either fall to the ground or merge with it. Equipment that merges with the form has no effect until you leave the form.

DRUID CIRCLE

At 2nd level, you choose to identify with a circle of druids: the Circle of the Land detailed at the end of the class description or one from the Player's Handbook or other sources. Your choice grants you features at 2nd level and again at 6th, 10th, and 14th level.

WILD SHAPE IMPROVEMENT

At 4th level, you can use your action to magically assume the shape of a beast that you have seen before of challenge rating 1/2 or lower that doesn't have a flying speed. You can use this feature twice. You regain expended uses when you finish a short or long rest.

ABILITY SCORE IMPROVEMENT

When you reach 4th level, and again at 8th, 12th, 16th, and 19th level, you can increase one ability score of your choice by 2, or you can increase two ability scores of your choice by 1. As normal, you can’t increase an ability score above 20 using this feature.

WILD SHAPE IMPROVEMENT

At 8th level, you can use your action to magically assume the shape of a beast that you have seen before of challenge rating 1 or lower. You can use this feature twice. You regain expended uses when you finish a short or long rest.

TIMELESS BODY

Starting at 18th level, the primal magic that you wield causes you to age more slowly. For every 10 years that pass, your body ages only 1 year.

BEAST SPELLS

Beginning at 18th level, you can cast many of your druid spells in any shape you assume using Wild Shape. You can perform the somatic and verbal components of a druid spell while in a beast shape, but you aren’t able to provide material components.

ARCH DRUID

At 20th level, you can use your Wild Shape an unlimited number of times. Additionally, you can ignore the verbal and somatic components of your druid spells, as well as any material components that lack a cost and aren’t consumed by a spell. You gain this benefit in both your normal shape and your beast shape from Wild Shape.

DRUID CIRCLES

Though their organization is invisible to most outsiders, druids are part of a society that spans the land, ignoring political borders. All druids are nominally members of this Druidic society, though some individuals are so isolated that they have never seen any high-ranking members of the society or participated in Druidic gatherings. Druids recognize each other as brothers and sisters. Like creatures of the wilderness, however, druids sometimes compete with or even prey on each other. At a local scale, druids are organized into circles that share certain perspectives on nature, balance, and the way of the druid.

CIRCLE OF THE LAND

The Circle of the Land is made up of mystics and sages who safeguard ancient knowledge and rites through a vast oral tradition. These druids meet within sacred circles of trees or standing stones to whisper primal secrets in Druidic. The circle’s wisest members preside as the chief priests of communities that hold to the Old Faith and serve as advisors to the rulers of those folk. As a member of this circle, your magic is influenced by the land where you were initiated into the circle’s mysterious rites.

2nd LEVEL – BONUS CANTRIP

When you choose this circle at 2nd level, you learn one additional druid cantrip of your choice.

2nd LEVEL – NATURAL RECOVERY

Starting at 2nd level, you can regain some of your magical energy by sitting in meditation and communing with nature. During a short rest, you choose expended spell slots to recover. The spell slots can have a combined level that is equal to or less than half your druid level (rounded up), and none of the slots can be 6th level or higher. You can’t use this feature again until you finish a long rest. For example, when you are a 4th-level druid, you can recover up to two levels worth of spell slots. You can recover either a 2nd-level slot or two 1st-level slots.

3rd LEVEL – CIRCLE SPELLS

Your mystical connection to the land infuses you with the ability to cast certain spells. At 3rd, 5th, 7th, and 9th level you gain access to circle spells connected to the land where you became a druid. Choose that land — arctic, coast, desert, forest, grassland, mountain, swamp, or Underdark — and consult the associated list of spells. Once you gain access to a circle spell, you always have it prepared, and it doesn’t count against the number of spells you can prepare each day. If you gain access to a spell that doesn’t appear on the druid spell list, the spell is nonetheless a druid spell for you.

Arctic Spells

Coast Spells

Desert Spells

Forest Spells

Grassland Spells

Mountain Spells

Swamp Spells

Underdark Spells

6th LEVEL – LAND’S STRIDE

Starting at 6th level, moving through non-magical difficult terrain costs you no extra movement. You can also pass through non-magical plants without being slowed by them and without taking damage from them if they have thorns, spines, or a similar hazard. In addition, you have advantage on saving throws against plants that are magically created or manipulated to impede movement, such those created by the entangle spell.

10th LEVEL – NATURE’S WARD

When you reach 10th level, you can’t be charmed or frightened by elementals or fey, and you are immune to poison and disease.

14th LEVEL – NATURE’S SANCTUARY

When you reach 14th level, creatures of the natural world sense your connection to nature and become hesitant to attack you. When a beast or plant creature attacks you, that creature must make a Wisdom saving throw against your druid spell save DC. On a failed save, the creature must choose a different target, or the attack automatically misses. On a successful save, the creature is immune to this effect for 24 hours. The creature is aware of this effect before it makes its attack against you.

CIRCLE OF THE STARS

An ancient lineage, the Circle of Stars allows druids to draw on the power of starlight. These druids have tracked heavenly patterns since time immemorial, discovering secrets hidden amid the constellations. By revealing and understanding these secrets, the Circle of the Stars seeks to harness the powers of the cosmos. Many druids of this circle keep detailed records of the stars and their effects on the world. Some groups document these observations at megalithic sites, which serve as enigmatic libraries of lore. These repositories might take the form of stone circles, pyramids, petroglyphs, and underground temples—any construction durable enough to protect the circle's sacred knowledge even against a great cataclysm.

2nd LEVEL – STAR MAP

You've created a star map as part of your study of the heavens. The map is a Tiny object and can serve as a spellcasting focus for your druid spells. You decide what form the object takes, or you can determine what it is by rolling on the Star Map table.

If you lose your map, you can perform a 1-hour ceremony to magically create a replacement. This ceremony can be performed during a short or long rest, and it destroys the previous map. You can cast the augury and guiding bolt spells without expending a spell slot and without preparing the spell, provided you use the star map as the spellcasting focus. You can cast a spell from the map in this way a number of times equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum of once), and you regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.

2nd LEVEL – STARRY FORM

You gain the ability to harness constellations’ power to alter your form. As an action, you can expend a use of your Wild Shape feature to take on a starry form rather than transforming into a beast. While in your starry form, you retain your game statistics, but your body takes on a luminous, star-like quality; your joints glimmer like stars, and glowing lines connect them as on a star chart. This form sheds bright light in a 10-foot radius and dim light for an additional 10 feet. The form lasts for 10 minutes or until you’re incapacitated. Whenever you assume your starry form, choose which of the following constellations glimmers on your body; your choice gives you certain benefits while in the form:

Chalice. A constellation of a life-giving goblet appears on you. Whenever you cast a spell using a spell slot that restores hit points to a creature, you or another creature within 30 feet of you can regain hit points equal to 1d8 + half your level in this class.

Archer. A constellation of an archer appears on you. You gain a bonus action that you can use to make a ranged spell attack, hurling a luminous arrow that targets a creature you can see within 60 feet of you. On a hit, the attack deals radiant damage equal to 1d8 + your Wisdom modifier.

Dragon. A constellation of a wise, ancient dragon appears on you. When you make an Intelligence or a Wisdom check or a Constitution saving throw to maintain concentration on a spell, you can treat a roll of 9 or lower on the d20 as a 10.

6th LEVEL – COSMIC OMEN

You learn to use your star map to divine the will of the cosmos. Whenever you finish a long rest, you can consult your star map for omens. When you do so, roll a d6. You gain one of the following possible omens based on whether you rolled an even number or an odd number on the d6:

Weal (even). Whenever a creature you can see within 30 feet of you makes an attack roll, a saving throw, or an ability check, you can use your reaction to roll a d6 and add the number rolled to the total.

Woe (odd). Whenever a creature you can see within 30 feet of you makes an attack roll, a saving throw, or an ability check, you can use your reaction to roll a d6 and subtract the number rolled from the total.

You can use this reaction a number of times equal to your Wisdom modifier, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.

10th LEVEL – FULL OF STARS

While your Starry Form feature is active, you become partially incorporeal, giving you resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage.

14th LEVEL – STAR FLARE

Your connection to the cosmos allows you to conjure brilliant starlight. As an action, you conjure a burst of light in a 30-foot-radius sphere centred on a point you can see within 120 feet of you. You can immediately teleport each willing creature in the sphere to an unoccupied space within 30 feet of it. Each creature remaining in the sphere must succeed on a Constitution saving throw against your spell save DC or take 4d10 radiant damage and be blinded until the end of your next turn. Once you have used this action, you can’t use it again until you finish a long rest or until you expend a spell slot of 5th level or higher to use it again.

CIRCLE OF WILDFIRE

Druids who are members of the Circle of Wildfire understand the necessity of destruction, such as how a forest fire promotes growth. These druids bond with a primal spirit that harbours destructive tendencies, allowing the druids to use their power to create controlled flames that help flora and fauna reproduce and grow.

2nd LEVEL – CIRCLE SPELLS

You have formed a mystical bond with a wildfire spirit, a primal being of creation and destruction. Your link with this spirit grants you access to certain spells. At 2nd level, you learn the fire bolt cantrip. When you reach certain levels in this class, you gain access to the spells listed for that level in the Circle of Wildfire Spells table. Once you gain access to one of these spells, you always have it prepared, and it doesn’t count against the number of spells you can prepare each day. If you gain access to a spell that doesn’t appear on the druid spell list, the spell is nonetheless a druid spell for you.

2nd LEVEL – SUMMON WILDFIRE

You can summon the primal spirit bound to your soul. As an action, you can expend one use of your Wild Shape feature to summon your wildfire spirit, rather than assuming a beast form. The spirit appears in an unoccupied space of your choice you can see within 30 feet of you. Each creature within 10 feet of the spirit (other than you) when it appears must succeed on a Dexterity saving throw against your spell save DC or take 2d10 fire damage. The wildfire spirit is friendly to you and your companions and obeys your commands. See this creature’s game statistics in the wildfire spirit stat block. You determine the spirit’s appearance. Some spirits take the form of a humanoid figure made of gnarled branches covered in flame, while others look like beasts wreathed in fire. In combat, the wildfire spirit shares your initiative count, but it takes its turn immediately after yours. The only action it takes on its turn is the Dodge action, unless you take a bonus action on your turn to command it to take one of the actions in its stat block or to take the Dash, Disengage, Help, or Hide action. The wildfire spirit manifests for 1 hour, until it is reduced to 0 hit points, or until you use your Wild Shape again.

6th LEVEL – ENHANCED BOND

The bond with your wildfire spirit enhances your destructive and restorative spells. Whenever you cast a spell that deals fire damage or restores hit points while your wildfire spirit is summoned, roll a d8, and you gain a bonus to one roll of the spell equal to the number rolled. In addition, when you cast a spell with a range other than self, the spell can originate from you or your wildfire spirit.

10th LEVEL – FLAMES OF LIFE

You gain the ability to turn death into flames of vitality. When a Small or larger creature that you can see dies within 30 feet of you or your wildfire spirit, you can use your reaction to cause primal flames to spring from the body. When a creature you can see touches these flames, the creature regains hit points or takes fire damage (your choice) equal to 2d10 + your Wisdom modifier. The flames vanish after a creature has touched them or after 1 minute. You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum of once). You regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.

14th LEVEL – BLAZING ENDURANCE

The bond with your wildfire spirit is exceptionally strong, even fatal blows only fuel your defiance. If you drop to 0 hit points and don’t die outright, you drop to 1 hit point instead and gain temporary hit points equal to five times your druid level, and each creature of your choice within 30 feet of you that you can see takes fire damage equal to 2d10 + your druid level. Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you finish a long rest.

[tipsycad147]

Your First Pagan Altar: Basic Layout and Ideas

Your Personal Space

The first thing you need is a personal space. It is essential to be able to practice your spells without anyone bothering you, and also to have a place where you can safely store your Witches tools, books and supplies. Ideally, you should have a space apart from your everyday world, such as an attic, basement, a corner of your bedroom, or even a space outside. The important thing here is that you can have privacy and silence to meditate and focus on your goals. In this lesson, you will learn:

Your Altar

How to Decorate your Altar

Creating a Wiccan Altar

An Altar for Everyone

Rule #1 of your Pagan Altar

Rule #2 of your Pagan Altar

Altar Cloth

Religious Symbols

Candles & Candle Holders

Incense burners

Your Altar

When casting spells, we use the word “altar” to talk about our work table. Actually, it could be any flat surface and even just a mat on the floor. Your altar will be the focal point of your spells or rituals and it is where most ritual actions and Magical works will be performed.

Setting up a basic altar is quite simple, usually it’s just a table where you will place the tools you are about to use and any symbols depicting your beliefs.

Rule #1 of your Pagan Altar

Anything goes! The most important thing is that you feel free to decorate, explore, re-arrange, and above all, have fun when creating your altar, which is a never-ending process. Your altar is unique to you and nobody else should be telling you what is right or wrong about it.

Witchy Tip: Before adding any new item to your altar, learn about its meaning. Ask yourself why you like it and how you can use it.

Rule #2 of your Pagan Altar

Don’t clutter it! Remember that this is actually a workspace and you’ll need room for ingredients, tools, and more. Empty it when you’re not using it. Avoid cluttering your altar by finding a nice place for your tools. Store them in a drawer, box, or shelf when you are not using them.

How to Decorate your Altar

Altar Cloth

No matter what kind of altar you are creating, it is advisable to cover its surface with a piece of cloth that will act both as an ornament and as protection from liquids, scratching, and wax drippings. Go shopping for an altar cloth and if you see any that you like and have some symbols on it, ask about their meanings.

Some Witches like to change their altar cloth according to the type of ritual they are doing, or following the Wheel of the Year, having a different one for each season and each Pagan holiday. If you’re on a budget, simply use any piece of cloth that you have at home.

Religious Symbols

If you are an Eclectic practitioner and feel connected to Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism or anything other spiritual traditions, you can add images or figures that symbolise your beliefs and remind you of who you are. If you are devoted to a specific deity, you could add a statue or drawing of them on your altar.

Some Pagans like to place a figure or drawing of their spirit animal and keep it as company and protection for their altar. If you’re Wiccan, add a pentagram in the centre, or keep reading to learn how to set up a Wiccan altar. Set your altar however you prefer but especially in a way that feels comfortable to you.

Candles & Candle Holders

If you plan to work with Candle Magic – and you probably will after Lesson 7 – you’ll need at least one candle holder. Take your time when looking for one. Make sure that it’s sturdy enough to withstand the heat of the candle and that it won’t fall over if you accidentally bump into your altar. I encourage you to work with biodegradable, eco-friendly tools. Materials such as ceramics, glass and metal are ideal.

Incense burners

An incense burner will come in handy whether you are casting a spell, meditating, or simply using aromatherapy for relaxation. Incense burners come in many shapes and styles. Check out also some incense holders. Alternatively, you could use your cauldron to burn herbs in it.

Creating a Wiccan Altar

In Wicca and other Earth-based religions, they can be the four traditional Elements, which can be aligned using the four cardinal points.

Here’s a basic altar layout example:

A bowl of sand, dirt or a plant on the North end of your altar to represent the Element Earth,

A stick of incense in the East can symbolise the Element Air,

A candle or some charcoal in the South for Fire,

A glass or bowl with Water will be facing West.

Witchy Lifehack: The bowl of water will come handy should you need to quickly extinguish anything. Always practice Candle Safety

You can light the incense and candle before a meditation, during a devotional, a prayer, to start your day or before going to bed. Just make sure you don’t leave candles burning unattended. If you’re going somewhere else, simply blow it out or snuff it off with a candle-snuffer.

Some Wiccans prefer to simply use four candles to represent the four directions, and a candle or figure for the Goddess and one for the God. You could use candles in different colours to easily distinguish them. For example:

North = Green candle (Earth) 🌱

East = Yellow candle (Air) 💨

South = Red candle (Fire) 🔥

West = Blue candle (Water) 💧

You can always just use white candles if you don’t have coloured ones. Light all of them at the same time before your rituals, always being careful not to burn anything on your altar. Make sure there’s nothing above your candles, such as a cupboard or shelf.

Combine these ideas in any way that you like. Being an Eclectic Wiccan is all about trial and error, there are no set rules.

An Altar for Everyone

Not everyone can have a fixed altar in a central place of their homes, especially if you live in a shared space with someone who might be offended or annoyed by it. In the event that the other members of the house don’t want to see your altar, you can keep it hidden by putting together a portable altar which you will assemble at the time of casting a spell, and then fold it back and put it away. Your portable altar could be a folding table or two easels with a board on top, and a nice wooden box with your tools inside.

On the other hand, if you live on your own or with people who accept your beliefs, you can have a permanent altar, for example a small table, dedicated solely to fulfil that function. To others, it may seem a strange exhibition of objects, but for us, not only it has a ritual importance, but it also reminds us of our spiritual path. ✨

https://spells8.com/lessons/wiccan-pagan-altar/#your-altar

[mogwitch]

hi there! i was hoping you would help me with energy work. i'm a baby witchling and i think the spells i've been casting haven't been working because of troubles i'm having with energy. do you have any tips on visualisation, channeling/drawing energy or know where i can look to find this advice? a lot of witch 101 posts seem to take it for granted that you can do this stuff and i'm totally struggling! thanks so much :)

Ok first I’m going to have to apologise to you and anyone else scrolling rn because I just spent like a full hour typing bcos I just do not shut up when I start sometimes.

Second, I’m also going to have to be really annoying and say that even though it’s hard and doesn’t seem to be working, continuing to do it ANYWAY will help strengthen your ability to do it. I know that sounds about as helpful as those posts assuming you can just do it, but I struggled a lot with it in the beginning and in the end stubbornly continuing to just do it anyway slowly built the mental muscles that do these things.

Right, now this ended up pretty long and mostly All About Me sorry but I have no idea what you’ve tried so I’m just trying to give examples and break it down a bit so it’s a little less 101 basics

There’s a few things you could look at for why it’s not working and visualising is difficult for you;

EnvironmentCompanyToolsClothesTimeSeasonMoodThe actual spell/magic typeYourself

So, what kind of environment are you casting your spells in? I have ADHD and autism so as weird as it seems sometimes I often actually visualise better with my eyes open and my body moving rather than sitting still in a quiet room with my eyes closed. But then again sometimes I do need that quiet calm lights off and one candle kind of atmosphere. Totally depends on how my sensory feelings are feeling and how over stimulated they’ve been throughout the day.

I also don’t usually work well with other witches because then it feels like a performance if our styles don’t match. My best friend is also a witch but she needs the big elaborate formal ritual type spells with prewritten chants and all the trimmings sometimes including having other witches casting the spell with her, otherwise she can’t get her mind in that place and her spell doesn’t have the energy it needs. I prefer to keep things simple because otherwise my mind is more focused on the ritual than the actual magic and it stops me being able to visualise and properly cast the spell which means it fails. I don’t speak out loud much, and if I do it’s very quietly. I need to make my spells so that I’m not my own distraction from my goal.

Some people find it easier with tools to help direct and concentrate their energy. I have a lot of tools I like to work with and which one works best depends on what I’m doing. They don’t need to be the tools someone else tells you are right for something. Maybe try using a wand? It doesn’t have to be a specially made wand just something that feels right to you. I have several hundred £ worth of crystals (because I have no self control) but at least ¼ of the rocks I use in my practice are regular plain old rocks. I have a deck of close cards from the anime card captor Sakura and they’re nothing fancy they’re even a little damaged but although I have around 50 other decks (plenty that look more impressive for aiding spells) they remain one of my favourites because they work so well for me. Some people find it easier to do things while holding a crystal. Some people ask spirits or deities for help. . Maybe flowers would work better for you? Or origami? What TYPE of magic are you trying to do? You could be weak at glamours but gifted at spirit work. You could excel at kitchen and garden witchcraft but be absolutely unable to get a single spark out of curses. There could be elements you work better with and some you need to work on your relationship with. Does your energy work better late at night or in the sunlight? Is your mood affected by the weather? My magic is much stronger in autumn and spring, summer is an okay time, but winter is pretty 👎 so I tend to spend the winter months focusing more on other areas of my life because trying to connect with magic is more frustrating than lucrative.

Symbolism is there more to help you focus your energy than to do the actual magic for you, so personal associations are much more important than anything anyone says is ‘official’. If the spell you’re trying to do is bring money and you’re better able to connect a banana to that than whatever the spell is calling for, then use a banana because your own associations will help you to visualise better than theirs. I pretty much always at least tweak any spell of someone else’s that I want to do to fit me better.

Also even though I don’t do big elaborate rituals for my actual spells, I’m much better connected to the energy when I do my pre spell ritual, which is really just cleaning my room (and the rest of the house if I feel like it), taking a cleansing bath to wash myself including my hair, then my hair has to be tied back, pinned up, and covered. Partly it’s a religious thing because I do this for any devotional or prayer time, but doing it for spells too helps because it makes me feel cleaner and able to focus better. I also need a cup of coffee before I start because instead of making me hyper caffeine narrows my brain chatter and makes it easier to focus on one thing.

Grounding and centring is as important in helping your magic as cleansing I think but it doesn’t need to be done through pure visualisation like the tree roots method etc. Grounding for me is usually an hour of light working out, then I cleanse myself and my space physically and spiritually, then I centre by simply preparing my hair (doesn’t matter what clothes I’m wearing I just have to be clean and comfortable) and taking a moment to drink my coffee and breathe and focus on gathering energy to me mostly by feeling rather than visualising.

Maybe instead of trying to cast actual spells (which could be stopping you because it’s causing stress, anxiety, worry that it will fail again, doubts in your abilities, etc) just start afresh and do the simplest exercises with no intent to actually get anything from them apart from building your skill. Like, I’m learning to draw right now and I’m terrible at it and I keep hoping to come across some trick that makes me go “aha!” And suddenly get what I’ve been missing this whole time, but it never happens lol. Instead I tried practicing by drawing the pictures I wanted to draw, but I would get frustrated and mad because they were failures and it put me off. So instead of doing that I spent a week just doing practice exercises a few times a day. Straight lines, parallel lines, wiggly lines, cubes, triangles, circles, dots that I’d try to connect with one quick stroke, angles, etc. Then after that week I had a much better feel for it and I started trying to draw things again and found it much easier (I’m still terrible lol but I know I’ll get better if I keep at it)

You could try out a few different methods of preparing yourself for a spell, but then instead of actually casting one just spend a little time, anything you want 5 minutes or 2 hours doesn’t matter it’s up to you, just practicing visualising.

Once you’re grounded (in any way that makes you feel your physical presence and the physical world around you) cleansed (it gets rid of all the excess energy from you that gathers on you and your space like dust and gets in the way of your spell) and centred (helps you gather fresh energy ready to put to use) Maybe try growing a tree, but not with the intention of it actually doing anything for you. Just picture mud, nothing but mud. Imagine how it looks. Imagine yourself reaching out and touching it. Is it dry? Wet? Does it have stones or bugs in it? Is it clean peat? Are you wearing shoes or can you feel the soil under your shoes? What does it smell like? Is the sun hot on your head? Asking these things and as many others you can think of will help to build it in your mind and the more real it is to your mind the easier it will be for you to visualise your goal there. Visualise digging a hole with your hands. Don’t just imagine that you DID dig a hole with your hands, actually take the time to see your hand reaching out, feel the sun on your skin, feel the dirt between your fingers and under your nails, feel yourself scraping at it until there’s a pile of it by the hole you dug. Actually reach out with your physical world hands if it helps you at all. If you have to do something in the physical world to help yourself picture it in your mind then that’s totally fine and still valid. Go outside and feel some mud between your fingers if you have to. Heck, sniff the grass if it helps. Do whatever makes it easier for you (I mean watch out for neighbours giving you funny looks if you’re gonna do that though lol).

After you’ve finished your hole imagine looking around yourself. On one side there’s a watering can and on the other side there’s a seed. It could look like anything; an acorn, an egg, a jewel, a black cube with flashing lights, whatever, just be sure to spend some time inspecting it first for texture, colour, shape, weight, temperature. I mean lick it if you want and taste it, no one is looking in your mind. Then plant it in the hole and water it. Hear the water pouring into the earth. See the soil change colour and texture. Then you can sit back in the soil and watch your tree grow. Maybe it happens straight away, or maybe the sun and the moon pass over you a few times while you wait, but you’ll see it starting to sprout through the soil. When it grows, is it fast? Can you hear the wood creaking and groaning and it’s branches extend and split off into smaller branches? Is it even made of wood? What colour is it? What about its leaves? What colour? Shape? Texture? Size? How many? Any flowers? Maybe it looks like a regular tree you’d find in your yard, or maybe its pink and glitters and made of glass with golding flowers that glow like sunbursts. Or does it grow so slowly that you have to stand up and help it, physically pulling the branches to stretch it out and untwisting the little buds to open the flowers?

By this point you’ll have spent enough time visualising with all your senses (because seeing is absolutely not the only important one in visualisation) that you’ve gotten your mind into a good state for magic, but without the pressure of actually doing any spells that you could stress yourself with, because the goal wasn’t to grow the tree so that it could do something for you, you achieved your goal already by growing the tree. That’s it. The end. You achieved something!

You don’t have to grow a tree obviously, you can do anything you want, but doing a few exercises like this where the goal is the visualisation itself, rather than visualising to achieve something else, will help make sharpen your ability to do it. Maybe try one small exercise a day for a week and then try a spell? If you like growing a tree you could just do that again. Start your meditation several feet away from the first tree and start an orchard or a tiny forest. If you can maybe it’ll help to actually draw the tree so you have something to look at to help you visualise it.

You could build a house. You could start in a maze and find your way to the middle. You could explore an enchanted forest. Do a pathworking with a tarot or oracle card or even a painting or poster or a video game or ANYTHING. Do whatever makes your imagination go !!!!! (but if you’re struggling with visualising I’d just advise you start off with something simple so you don’t overwhelm yourself).

The astral is somewhere you can only get to in your mind, because it’s not on our physical plane, and you should familiarise yourself with this before immediately trying to work magic in it.

If I use a sigil I have my own methods of making them because a lot of the time other people’s don’t work nearly as well for me as my own do, and I have my methods of using them depending on what they’re for. Drawing it on paper and burning it has never really worked for me except for specific things, but drawing it on myself works better. Sometimes I don’t make a physical 'magical copy’ of a sigil at all. I keep my sigils in a book that I have magically protected from BEING magical (because there’s so many different sigils for different things in there and I don’t want them mixing or accidentally casting) and there are some that I name. Once they’re named and memorised I can use them when I need them by calling them and creating them in the astral, but this took a lot of practice and failures before I was able to confidently do it because visualising is hard lol especially when I’m out and there’s things going on around me and I can’t do any cleansing or put my hair up if I don’t have a tie or any of the other fussy little things I’d like to do before doing any magic, then I have to be aware of my physical body and astral body at the same time. Which makes it sound more complicated than it actually is, but until you get the hang of something it DOES seem complicated. I’ve been doing magic since as far back as I can remember and decided I was a witch when I was 6 when I didn’t even know other people were witches and my parents thought it was a cute funny game I played because I lived with my head in the clouds and “away with the faeries” (if only they knew, lmao) but there’s still plenty for me to learn and ways for me to grow because witchcraft is an ever evolving PRACTICE. You’ll never be finished with training so it’s good to embrace that the training part is the craft, and not something that’s training you to be ready for being an expert at it. We’re all still learning all the time so don’t feel like you need to reach some kind of final level before you can consider things a success. Sometimes they don’t work the way you want them to, instead of thinking “my spell failed” you have to say “that’s fine, you didn’t do what I wanted yet but you will, you will work” and then you can even cast it again to give it a boost. If you refuse to let the energy for a spell fizzle into nothing, then the spell hasn’t failed yet. If it tires you out, find a way to borrow energy or tie the spell to something (charms, enchantments, spell bottles, poppers, witch ladders, etc) so that while you rest between sessions working on it the spell it held together and not allowed to dissipate.

Another note before I FINALLY shut the hell up (sorry guys, I know I go on) make sure the spells you are trying to do aren’t above your skill level and are realistically achievable. Don’t jump in with a spell to make yourself 10lb lighter overnight or to change your natural hair colour (both of which are unrealistic) or to win the lottery jackpot which would take more energy to magically pull off than one person or even a hundred people possess even if you did buy a bunch of tickets, there is way too much collective energy pushing and pulling at that already for a spell to be more than a flyweight nudge against a mountain. Instead you could do a spell for financial prosperity and maybe in the end all you get is for your money to NOT drop when it might have (in which case you might not know about it working) or slightly increase the odds in your favour of winning a smaller bet, or maybe you’ll find a few coins down the couch ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ you have to start real small and work your way up. Also I find that taking yourself/a spell/witchcraft too seriously can hinder someone too. Have fun with it and try not to expect too much from yourself. There’s always a chance that a spell you cast just took a while to manifest and by negatively thinking “it didn’t work” you’re increasing the chances of basically cancelling it

If that didn’t answer what you needed (though that probably gave you more answers than you even WANTED - again, sorry - and it’s unorganised af cos I’ve had a busy day so I’m feeling scatterbrained and hyper) or you have any more questions please feel free to ask!

[bonesandpoemsandflowers]

I used to go to various spooky cities pretty regularly, just for fun. Aesthetic, fun, spooky dates and spooky love, tres goth, whatever. The past few years I have had much less time for fun, and that’s been mostly on purpose.

But the LAST time I went somewhere spooky for fun, it was Savannah, not New Orleans, in, hmm, summer 2015? Yes. The weekend before my best friend died, you see, not that I knew that was going to happen when I--well--I’m getting head of myself.

Bunch of highly personal spiritual shit under the cut. Don’t click if that’s not your bag. If it is your bag, I hope you like skeletons.

I grew up Santera, right. I was dedicated to Oshun at an early age. My mother got more into Vodou as time went on, and in Miami, at least, those lines are really blurry. But like all kids that grow up in bomb ass mystery religions, I went through a rebellious Wiccan early teen and-it-harm-none hippie dippe phase. As you do, honestly. It’s a thing.

And then, as an adult, for most of my adult life, I was an atheist. I never talk about this, and I kind of hem and haw and skirt the issue of what exactly I do now, despite the occasional witchy post. I was never an obnoxious atheist, and arguably I was never a really good atheist, because it’s not so much that I didn’t believe, but that I decided I shouldn’t, and that’s not the same thing. But time went on and I managed to bury that kernel of belief very deep. I didn’t want to come across as credulous. Give me my GMOs, give me my artificial sweeteners, give me all the fucking science and none of your anti-science bullshit that you wrap up in absurd and appropriated tidbits of mysticism.

(and a lot of that stands, actually. give me my GMOs.)

So: I was an atheist, and I was trying very hard.

Certain powers, you see, are patient.

I kept the aesthetic and my cultural pride, though--Oshun and Erzulie always got my hushed little prayers in quick mind whispers. Oshun got votive candles no matter how far from belief I allegedly got, and to Erzulie I gave my skin--and this was a devotional act, full stop, despite everything else I claimed to not believe. And the ocean, I never stopped worshiping the ocean in one sense or another, and even my poetic obsession with the ocean is devout.

however.

however.

Someone I shoved out of the picture entirely.

Certain powers, you see, are indulgent. They’ll wait for your silly little human insecurities to play out. up to a point.

In my dreams since I was a child I have been friends with a decomposing skeleton wearing a tophat. As I got older I recognized who that was supposed to be.

I don’t even remember when or specifically why I threw out my magic shit and put my Baron bust in a closet, but I did. I couldn’t get rid of the Baron Fabulous bust, even though I tried to make myself want to do that, so I climbed on top of my kitchen counter and shoved it into the back of a pantry far too high for me to reach.

And then and only then did I make any real progress in pretending to be a legit atheist. Out of sight, out of mind, out of life, motherfucker!

So the point is, I went to Savannah in full on sneering mode. “Hah! This hotel claims to be haunted! What a quaint marketing strategy. Midnight one man show of ghost stories in a historic theater? Sure, I like atmosphere and aren’t people so suggestible?. After hours tour of a huge famous cemetery? Hahaha sure whatever that’s cute, thanks for booking us for that, babe. Let me prance through here and not say hello and leave no offerings, let me laugh and sneer and make fun.

Anyway, so then I had the single most terrifying weekend of my entire life.

I have had a lot of mundane real life scary shit happen to me. And I’ve had a bunch of weird shit happen to me. And yet I have never, ever told anyone the full story of what happened to me in Savannah. I can’t. Even if I sat you down, looked you right in the eye, and told you everything, and you believed me--I would not be able to explain to you the DEPTH of everything, how it felt. What it meant.

And what played out soon after.

I joke about this weekend, but only because I’m making fun of myself. For being an idiot. And a rude idiot, too. So disrespectful.

I took most of this in stride at the time--sort of. I flailed around and I panicked and I knew I had to make some changes. Years after I had put him there, I scaled my kitchen counters, pulled the Baron out of my pantry closet, put him up on a prominent bookshelf in my apartment and said, basically, “MY BAD I’M SO SORRY.”

I mention this, sometimes, and I mention my best friend dying, and I think some people think that I’m implying a cause and effect relationship there. Absolutely not. In no way whatsoever. I don’t think magic works that way at all, and, frankly, I’m insulted you think my deity so petty.

I knew someone was going to die. I knew. I don’t mean in a nervous, jittery, “am i losing my mind?” kind of way. I don’t mean in an anxious gnawing preoccupation kind of way. I don’t mean in a doubtful dreading way. I don’t mean paranoia. I don’t mean fear. I don’t mean anxiety.

I mean that I knew. I knew someone close to me was going to die. I knew that was nothing I could, or should, do about it.

I was being warned, not as a threat, but as a kindness.

I knew. When we called the cops and the cops eventually called us and the door was getting bust open at 3 something AM, I knew. I was there and fully awake and well dressed.

Why? Because I fucking knew.

I didn’t put on pajamas that night. I showered and changed into a fresh set of clothes.

“What are you dressed for? Come to bed.”

Fine, I’ll come to bed. But I won’t sleep.

And I didn’t. Because I knew. I knew I was just going to have to get up and get dressed again, and I knew why.

And so it was, and at 2 something AM, we got the call, and I soberly drove us over to my best friend’s neighborhood, and I knew.

Did it still hurt? like a MOTHERFUCKER. like you will not believe unless you’ve lost someone that close to you, and if you have, I am sorry.

So it wasn’t the terrifying weekend that brought me back.

It was that warning, that kindness. That mercy.

And oh, did it still hurt. My friend who died was my best friend and also my best social outlet. We used to go dancing every weekend and he was a b boy in addition to being a personal trainer and a huge nerd. I adored him. Z adored him. And he adored us.

So his death was a big deal. And his death, so close to my personal decision to come back to magic, that was a big lifestyle change.

I’ve written about that before, and how then I slowly became a hermit in a tower. Hermitage. Spiritual hermitage along with the writing, along with the increase in physical discipline. I have learned many things. Not half as much as I’d like? Sure. Nonetheless.

But there was a lot of terror, at first. And a whole  lot of other emotions. And I haven’t sorted that out yet.

Here’s what I’ve only just realized, though.

That weekend, and what came soon after, and that process I went through? That is a bonafide reawakening, my friends. That is some born again shit. That might seem obvious in the telling, but it WASN’T, as it was happening.

You don’t realize that change is going to stick, sometimes, and even when you say “things will be different now,” you don’t know what that’s going to mean.

and don’t get me wrong: I was, for a time, VERY distracted from the spiritual quest.

There are shamanistic traditions that talk about cracking open the head as a form of initiation.

Now, I’ve had my head literally cracked open--or more accurately, carefully drilled open by a highly skilled neurosurgeon. So, check, I guess.

But when I look back at the absolute, like--

Everything that’s happened since then.

So much has happened since then.

And so much happened as a result of that weekend, and the thing is, it was a total confluence of events that brought me to Savannah, nothing of my doing, really. A hottie booked me a romantic trip and so I went, duh. Wouldn’t you?

But so here I am, all these years later, which isn’t even really that many years later, and my world is so fundamentally different. So much has changed and I didn’t even notice it changing at the time. And so much has remained the same, too, and I am forever grateful for those precious constant things. I love you, my constant star, and I always will.

But body, soul, aesthetic, skill set, academic knowledge, everything! So much is different! So! fucking! much! AND I lost all my material possessions!

And here I am, booking a hotel, grabbing a friend, and making my way to New Orleans. Just for the weekend. If a confluence of events brought me TO Savannah, it almost feels like this has been the opposite. I have been so stressed lately, about everything. I didn’t think I was going to be able to swing this, period, let alone last minute. But you know, really? So much fell into place for me, here and now. There’s been so much luck. So much grace.

So even if, like, nothing happens--even if I somehow manage to have the most boring weekend ever, which I’m SO not going to do, but whatever, even if--there’s still something, something...

An initiation? Not exactly, I don’t think. A rite? A proof? I don’t know, exactly.

A chance to apologize? Well, yes. Always more of those.

But I think of the last couple of years, and I think of the future plans I’m trying for.

And I feel, more than anything

That my divinity is loving to the point of indulgence, and understanding, and kind--

but ultimately, ultimately, if he holds out his bony hand

I still have to step up and take it.

Ten years ago, in my dreams, he asked me a question.

And only now am I finally saying:

yes.

What does saying yes look like? What will that mean? I can’t see the shape of it yet. And it honestly kind of doesn’t matter.

yes, yes, yes.

[cedarrrun]

The Jivamukti Yoga studio in NYC closes its doors on December 22. Here, dedicated students share their stories of the iconic studio that changed the face of yoga.

David Life and Sharon Gannon of Jivamukti Yoga Center on the cover of our June 2002 issue 

As long as there has been a New York City, there has been a Jivamukti, at least for me. When I first stepped off the plane in 1997 from California, hoping to penetrate the New York theater world, my dancer friend Kelly told me I had to go to a class. “It’s this amazing yoga studio,” she told me, “All the teachers are great, but you have to take class with David or Sharon.” David Life and Sharon Gannon, I soon learned, were the studio’s founders. But what did Jivamukti mean? “Liberation in this lifetime,” Kelly responded.

The Second Avenue studio was inconspicuous on the outside, perched beside a Thai restaurant and jazz club called Purple Basil, but once you climbed the rickety steps to the second floor, you were hit by a waft of Nag Champa incense and the glow from Christmas lights bedecking images of saints, sadhus, and deities. A picture of Gandhi floated over a picture of Paramahansa Yogananda, whose image shared space with images of John Lennon, Mother Teresa, and Bob Dylan, and assorted Indian mystics, all wreathed in garlands atop a massive altar. This festive atmosphere was laden with a deeper meaning; the collective energy of devotion and meditation practically dripped off the fixtures.

The first time I visited, Kelly and I nudged through the throng of sweaty hipsters at the front desk, passing Willem Defoe as we purchased our classes and rented our mats, then made our way into the packed main studio. I felt like I was trying to find a patch of earth to sit on at a sold -out rock concert. I realized my goal of hitting a New York City night club had been replaced: everything was going on here. A hush descended over the room as David entered, a beautiful lean man in a loincloth and not much else, exuding a piercing clarity that matched his blue eyes. He instructed us to sit upright in Sukhasana (Easy Pose). Following his cue, we raised our voices and the room resounded in a mighty “Om.” 

Jivamukti Yoga Teachings

David then gave a dharma talk on the universal energies known as the gunas. “Everything is composed of these three energies,” he explained, “Tamas is slow and sluggish, and absorbed through eating meat or fat. Rajas is fiery, like caffeine, spicy food, or someone with a temper. Sattva is the highest vibration, the vibration of truth.” I thought about my caffeine consumption guiltily. David then explained that the more one practiced, the more one attained a higher energetic frequency, leading to a state known as sattvic. I resolved to head that direction. Then we started moving. Form flowed into form as David led us in Sun Salutes, and from there into increasingly difficult combinations of poses.

See also How a Sattvic (Pure) Diet Brings You Into Balance + 2 Ayurvedic Recipes

Much to my astonishment, two thirds of the way into class I found my inflexible body in full splits, or Hanumanasana. Our ending Savasana (Corpse Pose) was so deep and profound that elements of it are still embedded in my subtle energetic body to this day. I floated out after class, blissed out and sweaty. My fate was sealed.

I returned promptly the next day to take Sharon’s 10 a.m., worried I might not get a spot, as it frequently sold out. As subtle and understated as David had been, Sharon was equally magnetic and regal. Slender, pale, and elegant, with a red bindi dotted on her forehead. I thought she resembled one of the many goddesses hanging in frames on the wall. But which one? I scanned the female deities, trying to decide. She resembled them all, which I thought was interesting since she was clearly not from India. I started to wonder why she wore the bindi at all: Was she a practicing Hindu? (Today, dressing in traditional Indian garb might be viewed as cultural appropriation, but at the time, I interpreted it to be a sincere attempt to pay tribute to the culture from which yoga emerged, and in which David and Sharon had been immersed for over a decade). I pulled to attention as Sharon pulled the silk cover off the harmonium and we started chanting a Sanskrit mantra from laminated prayer sheets.

The topic was Gandhi and ahimsa, or non-violence. Sharon exhorted us to read his autobiography and directed the talk toward veganism. I began to realize that beneath Sharon’s serene exterior was a goddess-like ferocity. Then she cued us to start moving into the opening sequence.

See also How to Be Fierce

Alice Coltrane’s “Journey in Satchitananda” flowed into a Beastie Boys’ song, followed by music from Sheila Chandrah, Ravi Shankar, and Krishna Das, all orchestrated to elevate and drive us forward. Sharon, it turned out, was an awesome DJ. This eclectic mix reflected one of the core attributes that made Jivamukti so appealing: Indian culture was liberally mixed with the trappings of the East Village underground. Music was a huge part of the equation.

Another hallmark Jivamukti feature was hands-on assists. I welcomed Sharon’s touch, thrilled to be so directly acknowledged (these were different times, when teachers didn’t ask if they could touch you first. This culture of hands-on adjustment is now under scrutiny, along with other aspects of the student-teacher relationship in yoga studios and styles. Jivamukti Yoga wasn’t immune to the scandals and allegations of misconduct that have plagued the yoga community). Sharon’s eye missed nothing, and though the class was packed, she managed to correct my alignment with a deft adjustment while peppering the class with directives: “Never underestimate your importance! One person can change the world!” I felt the power flow through her hands as she steadied my wobbly stance. Receiving an adjustment from Sharon was like a benediction; you felt it surge through you instantly like an electrical current. My body felt supercharged; my mind focused. After asana practice and Savasana, we sat upright to meditate. In these first two classes, I was introduced to the foundational aspects of the Jivamukti system:

Shastra (scriptures)

Bhakti (devotion)

Ahimsa (nonviolence)

Nada (music)

Dhyani (meditation)

How Jivamukti Changed NYC Yoga

It is hard to convey how radical Jivamukti was. Yoga was the drab purview (at least in my mind) of health food store denizens and people rolling around on the floor in leotards. It was not fun, glamorous, or edgy; certainly not creative or artistic. The young people I knew didn’t do it voluntarily. At that time, yoga was largely stripped of its cultural heritage; poses were taught in English, and people were learning how to get into Headstand over 28 days on your living room floor from trade paperbacks like Richard Hittleman’s 28 Day Yoga, illustrated with black and white thumbnails. My mother had taken me to an ashram in California and I had chanted in Sanskrit before, but this was different: After the first two classes, I had the distinct impression I had found a home.

“The first time I came in with those Christmas lights, and Sharon was so beautiful playing the harmonium talking about what mattered, I found my home in the city, “ Says Colleen Saidman-Yee, a Jivamukti-trained teacher and co-founder of Yoga Shanti. “They were providing inclusivity for everyone. Sharon was always there. And they were downtown, in the lower chakra of the city!” Jivamukti did go through four downtown iterations, but after the opening of the Lafayette Studio, expanded to the Upper East Side with a smaller satellite studio.

David and Sharon studied with many teachers and absorbed many styles of yoga, taking Sivananda training, studying Ashtanga Yoga with its founder, Pattabhi Jois, and trekking upstate to Ananda Ashram in Monroe, New York, to absorb Swami Sarasvati’s teachings. David had spent time in India, taking vows to live as a sadhu. The intoxicating concoction of Jivamukti Yoga was their own inimitable blend of elements from all of these styles fused into one system. 

They paired ruthless intellect with utter conviction, always within the context of a totally theatrical environment that balanced art, music, and activism, reflecting their own roots as artists deeply embedded in their East Village community. The milieu that gave rise to Jivamukti was an accurate reflection of the studio itself: diverse and radical downtown New York was as elemental in the shaping of Jivamukti as were the Indian teachers and traditions they venerated and espoused. This East Village aesthetic was not without appeal and often added a shot of edgy glamor. In one memorable photoshoot, Sharon posed in high heels and makeup while contorting in various advanced poses. The tacit message seemed to be that you could be a yogi and still be fabulous. To those who only associated yoga with granola and macramé, Jivamukti's exhortations to bring activism and authenticity to yoga culture helped to empower the current yoga renaissance we are all enjoying today. Yoga mattered, and so did we.

Sharon Gannon & David Life featured in the June 2007 edition of Vanity Fair Magazine.

See also Yoga + Activism: 4 Steps to Find Your Cause

“It was very much a movement that came from the East Village art scene and the underground. We might not have found yoga without them,” says Kristin Leigh, co-founder of the Shala, and former longtime assistant and teacher at Jivamukti. “They had all the magic, esoteric elements—the art, the music, the ancient texts, the rituals, the activism.”

The Jivamukti Community

Jivamukti made yoga glamorous, and spirituality cool. Although celebrities frequented the studio, they did so as part of the family, unobtrusively, struggling to balance in Pincha Mayurasana (Feathered Peacock Pose) along with everyone else. All were invited to attend the studio’s many gatherings, such as kirtan and the legendary New Year’s Eve celebration. Retreats held at Ananda Ashram covered immersion themes such as Bhakti, or the yoga of devotion and provided an opportunity to dive deep. Jivamukti fostered community, and by extension, a home, for so many of us who were young and newly arrived in New York City. It became our solace and our refuge. “I would go several times a day, it became my routine,” says Dana Flynn, co-founder of Laughing Lotus Yoga Studio. “I had found my spiritual home. I wanted that awakening.” Says Dana Flynn.

The Jivamukti system’s emphasis on its five foundational pillars insured that its students could absorb the entire yoga practice, not just parts of it. It was like getting the manual to life. Ahimsa was particularly stressed as a fundamental principle of yoga. Once, Sharon stopped midway through the practice to roll out a video screen and project the Animal Movie, a radical animal-rights documentary showing images of graphic animal abuse and factory farming to incite us to veganism. After the class ended, she passed out a copy of “101 Reasons to be Vegan” to every student as they departed. I found it inspiring; We could change the world with our practice. I had a plan, a faith, and a community. Jivamukti expanded in popularity, garnering press and buzz. 1998, they left their tiny Second Avenue studio and moved to a huge 9,000 square foot studio on Lafayette Avenue across from the Public Theater and sold one-year memberships for $1,200.00, a significant financial outlay at the time. Though I couldn’t afford the membership, I volunteered to be a karma yogi, cleaning mats and folding towels in exchange for free classes.

See also Seeds of Change: Yogic Understanding of Karma

Saidman-Yee recalls her teacher training experience at the Lafayette location. “I did the teacher training, but I thought I was only doing it to deepen my practice. I remember going to David and Sharon’s office and explaining that I couldn’t teach because I had a fear of public speaking. They listened very politely and seriously, and when I got home there was a message on my answering machine that I was teaching Sharon’s class, and it was sold out, and Sharon was taking it.”

The Cost of Running an NYC Yoga Studio

Jivamukti continued to grow, adopting a Jivamukti-branded model, opening their second New York City Jivamukti on the Upper East Side in 2000, and allowing Jivamukti certified teachers to operate Jivamukti-branded studios abroad (there are 11 international studios now, including Jersey City, Los Angeles, Berlin, Muncih, Barcelona, Sydney, London, and Schloss Elmau in Bavaria). Heady with success, Jivamukti moved again, in 2006, upsizing to a 2,000 square feet studio with a more central location near Union Square. They partnered with top vegan chef Matthew Kenney to create the Jivamuktea cafe. The partnership enabled them to divide the rent. They appeared to be supremely profitable, dominating the market. Teacher trainings provided a considerable source of revenue as well. The occasional activism stunt, such as the one where young, attractive teacher trainees posed in the semi-nude for a PETA campaign, helped promulgate the image of edgy studio. Then, Matthew Kenney, bedeviled by financial issues, left his share of the space. A series of subsequent vegan cafes filled the void.

Without Kenney, Jivamukit was bound to a lease that was increasingly difficult to maintain. Meanwhile, rival studios proliferated all over town creating competition. To make matters more challenging, gyms encroached on the yoga market, hiring Jivamukti teachers to dispense training stripped of the more obvious devotional elements of yoga. And today, Classpass, the third-party class broker app, is cutting into yoga studio profits, making it difficult for many Manhattan studios. “When we opened Laughing Lotus, we hung out a shingle. No one worried about money or making rent back then,” says Flynn. “Now, it is increasingly difficult to maintain a space in New York City.”

When One Door Closes, Another Opens?

Although Jivamukti is closing the doors to its last New York City studio on December 22 (the Upper East Side location closed a few years ago), its presence continues to thrive in countless studios and teachers all over the world.

“There are some incredible new teachers and new teachings,” says Dechen Thurman, a Jivamukti teacher and creator of his own yoga method, Gram Yoga. “The younger teachers have so many tools! Whether it’s called a Jivamukti class or it is someone who was a Jivamukti teacher who decided to rebrand for themselves, that quality, standard, and care will always be part of those lineages and those teachers. Yoga is in a great transition, in a post-lineage, modern-era, and Jivamukti will have a prominent place in the field for many years to come.”

Saidman-Yee agrees: “I remember my mission every time I walk up the steps to my studio in Tribeca. I remember what Sharon taught me.”

“Your yoga studio becomes your community, then becomes your family,” adds Leigh. “When I heard Jivamukti was closing, I felt sad. The yoga market has changed. We try to stay true to what we learned. ”

Sharon wrote in an email response to YJ about the closure: “We feel very grateful and blessed to have been able to have a yoga school in NYC for as long as we have—over 30 years! The lease for the current space on Broadway is near its end and it is time for us to close. But this doesn’t mean it is the end of Jivamukti Yoga. Who knows... Maybe a Jivamukti teacher will open a Jivamukti School in NYC sometime in the future.”

[krisiunicornio]

The Jivamukti Yoga studio in NYC closes its doors on December 22. Here, dedicated students share their stories of the iconic studio that changed the face of yoga.

David Life and Sharon Gannon of Jivamukti Yoga Center on the cover of our June 2002 issue 

As long as there has been a New York City, there has been a Jivamukti, at least for me. When I first stepped off the plane in 1997 from California, hoping to penetrate the New York theater world, my dancer friend Kelly told me I had to go to a class. “It’s this amazing yoga studio,” she told me, “All the teachers are great, but you have to take class with David or Sharon.” David Life and Sharon Gannon, I soon learned, were the studio’s founders. But what did Jivamukti mean? “Liberation in this lifetime,” Kelly responded.

The Second Avenue studio was inconspicuous on the outside, perched beside a Thai restaurant and jazz club called Purple Basil, but once you climbed the rickety steps to the second floor, you were hit by a waft of Nag Champa incense and the glow from Christmas lights bedecking images of saints, sadhus, and deities. A picture of Gandhi floated over a picture of Paramahansa Yogananda, whose image shared space with images of John Lennon, Mother Teresa, and Bob Dylan, and assorted Indian mystics, all wreathed in garlands atop a massive altar. This festive atmosphere was laden with a deeper meaning; the collective energy of devotion and meditation practically dripped off the fixtures.

The first time I visited, Kelly and I nudged through the throng of sweaty hipsters at the front desk, passing Willem Defoe as we purchased our classes and rented our mats, then made our way into the packed main studio. I felt like I was trying to find a patch of earth to sit on at a sold -out rock concert. I realized my goal of hitting a New York City night club had been replaced: everything was going on here. A hush descended over the room as David entered, a beautiful lean man in a loincloth and not much else, exuding a piercing clarity that matched his blue eyes. He instructed us to sit upright in Sukhasana (Easy Pose). Following his cue, we raised our voices and the room resounded in a mighty “Om.” 

Jivamukti Yoga Teachings

David then gave a dharma talk on the universal energies known as the gunas. “Everything is composed of these three energies,” he explained, “Tamas is slow and sluggish, and absorbed through eating meat or fat. Rajas is fiery, like caffeine, spicy food, or someone with a temper. Sattva is the highest vibration, the vibration of truth.” I thought about my caffeine consumption guiltily. David then explained that the more one practiced, the more one attained a higher energetic frequency, leading to a state known as sattvic. I resolved to head that direction. Then we started moving. Form flowed into form as David led us in Sun Salutes, and from there into increasingly difficult combinations of poses.

See also How a Sattvic (Pure) Diet Brings You Into Balance + 2 Ayurvedic Recipes

Much to my astonishment, two thirds of the way into class I found my inflexible body in full splits, or Hanumanasana. Our ending Savasana (Corpse Pose) was so deep and profound that elements of it are still embedded in my subtle energetic body to this day. I floated out after class, blissed out and sweaty. My fate was sealed.

I returned promptly the next day to take Sharon’s 10 a.m., worried I might not get a spot, as it frequently sold out. As subtle and understated as David had been, Sharon was equally magnetic and regal. Slender, pale, and elegant, with a red bindi dotted on her forehead. I thought she resembled one of the many goddesses hanging in frames on the wall. But which one? I scanned the female deities, trying to decide. She resembled them all, which I thought was interesting since she was clearly not from India. I started to wonder why she wore the bindi at all: Was she a practicing Hindu? (Today, dressing in traditional Indian garb might be viewed as cultural appropriation, but at the time, I interpreted it to be a sincere attempt to pay tribute to the culture from which yoga emerged, and in which David and Sharon had been immersed for over a decade). I pulled to attention as Sharon pulled the silk cover off the harmonium and we started chanting a Sanskrit mantra from laminated prayer sheets.

The topic was Gandhi and ahimsa, or non-violence. Sharon exhorted us to read his autobiography and directed the talk toward veganism. I began to realize that beneath Sharon’s serene exterior was a goddess-like ferocity. Then she cued us to start moving into the opening sequence.

See also How to Be Fierce

Alice Coltrane’s “Journey in Satchitananda” flowed into a Beastie Boys’ song, followed by music from Sheila Chandrah, Ravi Shankar, and Krishna Das, all orchestrated to elevate and drive us forward. Sharon, it turned out, was an awesome DJ. This eclectic mix reflected one of the core attributes that made Jivamukti so appealing: Indian culture was liberally mixed with the trappings of the East Village underground. Music was a huge part of the equation.

Another hallmark Jivamukti feature was hands-on assists. I welcomed Sharon’s touch, thrilled to be so directly acknowledged (these were different times, when teachers didn’t ask if they could touch you first. This culture of hands-on adjustment is now under scrutiny, along with other aspects of the student-teacher relationship in yoga studios and styles. Jivamukti Yoga wasn’t immune to the scandals and allegations of misconduct that have plagued the yoga community). Sharon’s eye missed nothing, and though the class was packed, she managed to correct my alignment with a deft adjustment while peppering the class with directives: “Never underestimate your importance! One person can change the world!” I felt the power flow through her hands as she steadied my wobbly stance. Receiving an adjustment from Sharon was like a benediction; you felt it surge through you instantly like an electrical current. My body felt supercharged; my mind focused. After asana practice and Savasana, we sat upright to meditate. In these first two classes, I was introduced to the foundational aspects of the Jivamukti system:

Shastra (scriptures)

Bhakti (devotion)

Ahimsa (nonviolence)

Nada (music)

Dhyani (meditation)

How Jivamukti Changed NYC Yoga

It is hard to convey how radical Jivamukti was. Yoga was the drab purview (at least in my mind) of health food store denizens and people rolling around on the floor in leotards. It was not fun, glamorous, or edgy; certainly not creative or artistic. The young people I knew didn’t do it voluntarily. At that time, yoga was largely stripped of its cultural heritage; poses were taught in English, and people were learning how to get into Headstand over 28 days on your living room floor from trade paperbacks like Richard Hittleman’s 28 Day Yoga, illustrated with black and white thumbnails. My mother had taken me to an ashram in California and I had chanted in Sanskrit before, but this was different: After the first two classes, I had the distinct impression I had found a home.

“The first time I came in with those Christmas lights, and Sharon was so beautiful playing the harmonium talking about what mattered, I found my home in the city, “ Says Colleen Saidman-Yee, a Jivamukti-trained teacher and co-founder of Yoga Shanti. “They were providing inclusivity for everyone. Sharon was always there. And they were downtown, in the lower chakra of the city!” Jivamukti did go through four downtown iterations, but after the opening of the Lafayette Studio, expanded to the Upper East Side with a smaller satellite studio.

David and Sharon studied with many teachers and absorbed many styles of yoga, taking Sivananda training, studying Ashtanga Yoga with its founder, Pattabhi Jois, and trekking upstate to Ananda Ashram in Monroe, New York, to absorb Swami Sarasvati’s teachings. David had spent time in India, taking vows to live as a sadhu. The intoxicating concoction of Jivamukti Yoga was their own inimitable blend of elements from all of these styles fused into one system. 

They paired ruthless intellect with utter conviction, always within the context of a totally theatrical environment that balanced art, music, and activism, reflecting their own roots as artists deeply embedded in their East Village community. The milieu that gave rise to Jivamukti was an accurate reflection of the studio itself: diverse and radical downtown New York was as elemental in the shaping of Jivamukti as were the Indian teachers and traditions they venerated and espoused. This East Village aesthetic was not without appeal and often added a shot of edgy glamor. In one memorable photoshoot, Sharon posed in high heels and makeup while contorting in various advanced poses. The tacit message seemed to be that you could be a yogi and still be fabulous. To those who only associated yoga with granola and macramé, Jivamukti's exhortations to bring activism and authenticity to yoga culture helped to empower the current yoga renaissance we are all enjoying today. Yoga mattered, and so did we.

Sharon Gannon & David Life featured in the June 2007 edition of Vanity Fair Magazine.

See also Yoga + Activism: 4 Steps to Find Your Cause

“It was very much a movement that came from the East Village art scene and the underground. We might not have found yoga without them,” says Kristin Leigh, co-founder of the Shala, and former longtime assistant and teacher at Jivamukti. “They had all the magic, esoteric elements—the art, the music, the ancient texts, the rituals, the activism.”

The Jivamukti Community

Jivamukti made yoga glamorous, and spirituality cool. Although celebrities frequented the studio, they did so as part of the family, unobtrusively, struggling to balance in Pincha Mayurasana (Feathered Peacock Pose) along with everyone else. All were invited to attend the studio’s many gatherings, such as kirtan and the legendary New Year’s Eve celebration. Retreats held at Ananda Ashram covered immersion themes such as Bhakti, or the yoga of devotion and provided an opportunity to dive deep. Jivamukti fostered community, and by extension, a home, for so many of us who were young and newly arrived in New York City. It became our solace and our refuge. “I would go several times a day, it became my routine,” says Dana Flynn, co-founder of Laughing Lotus Yoga Studio. “I had found my spiritual home. I wanted that awakening.” Says Dana Flynn.

The Jivamukti system’s emphasis on its five foundational pillars insured that its students could absorb the entire yoga practice, not just parts of it. It was like getting the manual to life. Ahimsa was particularly stressed as a fundamental principle of yoga. Once, Sharon stopped midway through the practice to roll out a video screen and project the Animal Movie, a radical animal-rights documentary showing images of graphic animal abuse and factory farming to incite us to veganism. After the class ended, she passed out a copy of “101 Reasons to be Vegan” to every student as they departed. I found it inspiring; We could change the world with our practice. I had a plan, a faith, and a community. Jivamukti expanded in popularity, garnering press and buzz. 1998, they left their tiny Second Avenue studio and moved to a huge 9,000 square foot studio on Lafayette Avenue across from the Public Theater and sold one-year memberships for $1,200.00, a significant financial outlay at the time. Though I couldn’t afford the membership, I volunteered to be a karma yogi, cleaning mats and folding towels in exchange for free classes.

See also Seeds of Change: Yogic Understanding of Karma

Saidman-Yee recalls her teacher training experience at the Lafayette location. “I did the teacher training, but I thought I was only doing it to deepen my practice. I remember going to David and Sharon’s office and explaining that I couldn’t teach because I had a fear of public speaking. They listened very politely and seriously, and when I got home there was a message on my answering machine that I was teaching Sharon’s class, and it was sold out, and Sharon was taking it.”

The Cost of Running an NYC Yoga Studio

Jivamukti continued to grow, adopting a Jivamukti-branded model, opening their second New York City Jivamukti on the Upper East Side in 2000, and allowing Jivamukti certified teachers to operate Jivamukti-branded studios abroad (there are 11 international studios now, including Jersey City, Los Angeles, Berlin, Muncih, Barcelona, Sydney, London, and Schloss Elmau in Bavaria). Heady with success, Jivamukti moved again, in 2006, upsizing to a 2,000 square feet studio with a more central location near Union Square. They partnered with top vegan chef Matthew Kenney to create the Jivamuktea cafe. The partnership enabled them to divide the rent. They appeared to be supremely profitable, dominating the market. Teacher trainings provided a considerable source of revenue as well. The occasional activism stunt, such as the one where young, attractive teacher trainees posed in the semi-nude for a PETA campaign, helped promulgate the image of edgy studio. Then, Matthew Kenney, bedeviled by financial issues, left his share of the space. A series of subsequent vegan cafes filled the void.

Without Kenney, Jivamukit was bound to a lease that was increasingly difficult to maintain. Meanwhile, rival studios proliferated all over town creating competition. To make matters more challenging, gyms encroached on the yoga market, hiring Jivamukti teachers to dispense training stripped of the more obvious devotional elements of yoga. And today, Classpass, the third-party class broker app, is cutting into yoga studio profits, making it difficult for many Manhattan studios. “When we opened Laughing Lotus, we hung out a shingle. No one worried about money or making rent back then,” says Flynn. “Now, it is increasingly difficult to maintain a space in New York City.”

When One Door Closes, Another Opens?

Although Jivamukti is closing the doors to its last New York City studio on December 22 (the Upper East Side location closed a few years ago), its presence continues to thrive in countless studios and teachers all over the world.

“There are some incredible new teachers and new teachings,” says Dechen Thurman, a Jivamukti teacher and creator of his own yoga method, Gram Yoga. “The younger teachers have so many tools! Whether it’s called a Jivamukti class or it is someone who was a Jivamukti teacher who decided to rebrand for themselves, that quality, standard, and care will always be part of those lineages and those teachers. Yoga is in a great transition, in a post-lineage, modern-era, and Jivamukti will have a prominent place in the field for many years to come.”

Saidman-Yee agrees: “I remember my mission every time I walk up the steps to my studio in Tribeca. I remember what Sharon taught me.”

“Your yoga studio becomes your community, then becomes your family,” adds Leigh. “When I heard Jivamukti was closing, I felt sad. The yoga market has changed. We try to stay true to what we learned. ”

Sharon wrote in an email response to YJ about the closure: “We feel very grateful and blessed to have been able to have a yoga school in NYC for as long as we have—over 30 years! The lease for the current space on Broadway is near its end and it is time for us to close. But this doesn’t mean it is the end of Jivamukti Yoga. Who knows... Maybe a Jivamukti teacher will open a Jivamukti School in NYC sometime in the future.”

[amyddaniels]

The End of an Era for NYC Yoga

The Jivamukti Yoga studio in NYC closes its doors on December 22. Here, dedicated students share their stories of the iconic studio that changed the face of yoga.

David Life and Sharon Gannon of Jivamukti Yoga Center on the cover of our June 2002 issue 

As long as there has been a New York City, there has been a Jivamukti, at least for me. When I first stepped off the plane in 1997 from California, hoping to penetrate the New York theater world, my dancer friend Kelly told me I had to go to a class. “It’s this amazing yoga studio,” she told me, “All the teachers are great, but you have to take class with David or Sharon.” David Life and Sharon Gannon, I soon learned, were the studio’s founders. But what did Jivamukti mean? “Liberation in this lifetime,” Kelly responded.

The Second Avenue studio was inconspicuous on the outside, perched beside a Thai restaurant and jazz club called Purple Basil, but once you climbed the rickety steps to the second floor, you were hit by a waft of Nag Champa incense and the glow from Christmas lights bedecking images of saints, sadhus, and deities. A picture of Gandhi floated over a picture of Paramahansa Yogananda, whose image shared space with images of John Lennon, Mother Teresa, and Bob Dylan, and assorted Indian mystics, all wreathed in garlands atop a massive altar. This festive atmosphere was laden with a deeper meaning; the collective energy of devotion and meditation practically dripped off the fixtures.

The first time I visited, Kelly and I nudged through the throng of sweaty hipsters at the front desk, passing Willem Defoe as we purchased our classes and rented our mats, then made our way into the packed main studio. I felt like I was trying to find a patch of earth to sit on at a sold -out rock concert. I realized my goal of hitting a New York City night club had been replaced: everything was going on here. A hush descended over the room as David entered, a beautiful lean man in a loincloth and not much else, exuding a piercing clarity that matched his blue eyes. He instructed us to sit upright in Sukhasana (Easy Pose). Following his cue, we raised our voices and the room resounded in a mighty “Om.” 

Jivamukti Yoga Teachings

David then gave a dharma talk on the universal energies known as the gunas. “Everything is composed of these three energies,” he explained, “Tamas is slow and sluggish, and absorbed through eating meat or fat. Rajas is fiery, like caffeine, spicy food, or someone with a temper. Sattva is the highest vibration, the vibration of truth.” I thought about my caffeine consumption guiltily. David then explained that the more one practiced, the more one attained a higher energetic frequency, leading to a state known as sattvic. I resolved to head that direction. Then we started moving. Form flowed into form as David led us in Sun Salutes, and from there into increasingly difficult combinations of poses.

See also How a Sattvic (Pure) Diet Brings You Into Balance + 2 Ayurvedic Recipes

Much to my astonishment, two thirds of the way into class I found my inflexible body in full splits, or Hanumanasana. Our ending Savasana (Corpse Pose) was so deep and profound that elements of it are still embedded in my subtle energetic body to this day. I floated out after class, blissed out and sweaty. My fate was sealed.

I returned promptly the next day to take Sharon’s 10 a.m., worried I might not get a spot, as it frequently sold out. As subtle and understated as David had been, Sharon was equally magnetic and regal. Slender, pale, and elegant, with a red bindi dotted on her forehead. I thought she resembled one of the many goddesses hanging in frames on the wall. But which one? I scanned the female deities, trying to decide. She resembled them all, which I thought was interesting since she was clearly not from India. I started to wonder why she wore the bindi at all: Was she a practicing Hindu? (Today, dressing in traditional Indian garb might be viewed as cultural appropriation, but at the time, I interpreted it to be a sincere attempt to pay tribute to the culture from which yoga emerged, and in which David and Sharon had been immersed for over a decade). I pulled to attention as Sharon pulled the silk cover off the harmonium and we started chanting a Sanskrit mantra from laminated prayer sheets.

The topic was Gandhi and ahimsa, or non-violence. Sharon exhorted us to read his autobiography and directed the talk toward veganism. I began to realize that beneath Sharon’s serene exterior was a goddess-like ferocity. Then she cued us to start moving into the opening sequence.

See also How to Be Fierce

Alice Coltrane’s “Journey in Satchitananda” flowed into a Beastie Boys’ song, followed by music from Sheila Chandrah, Ravi Shankar, and Krishna Das, all orchestrated to elevate and drive us forward. Sharon, it turned out, was an awesome DJ. This eclectic mix reflected one of the core attributes that made Jivamukti so appealing: Indian culture was liberally mixed with the trappings of the East Village underground. Music was a huge part of the equation.

Another hallmark Jivamukti feature was hands-on assists. I welcomed Sharon’s touch, thrilled to be so directly acknowledged (these were different times, when teachers didn’t ask if they could touch you first. This culture of hands-on adjustment is now under scrutiny, along with other aspects of the student-teacher relationship in yoga studios and styles. Jivamukti Yoga wasn’t immune to the scandals and allegations of misconduct that have plagued the yoga community). Sharon’s eye missed nothing, and though the class was packed, she managed to correct my alignment with a deft adjustment while peppering the class with directives: “Never underestimate your importance! One person can change the world!” I felt the power flow through her hands as she steadied my wobbly stance. Receiving an adjustment from Sharon was like a benediction; you felt it surge through you instantly like an electrical current. My body felt supercharged; my mind focused. After asana practice and Savasana, we sat upright to meditate. In these first two classes, I was introduced to the foundational aspects of the Jivamukti system:

Shastra (scriptures)

Bhakti (devotion)

Ahimsa (nonviolence)

Nada (music)

Dhyani (meditation)

How Jivamukti Changed NYC Yoga

It is hard to convey how radical Jivamukti was. Yoga was the drab purview (at least in my mind) of health food store denizens and people rolling around on the floor in leotards. It was not fun, glamorous, or edgy; certainly not creative or artistic. The young people I knew didn’t do it voluntarily. At that time, yoga was largely stripped of its cultural heritage; poses were taught in English, and people were learning how to get into Headstand over 28 days on your living room floor from trade paperbacks like Richard Hittleman’s 28 Day Yoga, illustrated with black and white thumbnails. My mother had taken me to an ashram in California and I had chanted in Sanskrit before, but this was different: After the first two classes, I had the distinct impression I had found a home.

“The first time I came in with those Christmas lights, and Sharon was so beautiful playing the harmonium talking about what mattered, I found my home in the city, “ Says Colleen Saidman-Yee, a Jivamukti-trained teacher and co-founder of Yoga Shanti. “They were providing inclusivity for everyone. Sharon was always there. And they were downtown, in the lower chakra of the city!” Jivamukti did go through four downtown iterations, but after the opening of the Lafayette Studio, expanded to the Upper East Side with a smaller satellite studio.

David and Sharon studied with many teachers and absorbed many styles of yoga, taking Sivananda training, studying Ashtanga Yoga with its founder, Pattabhi Jois, and trekking upstate to Ananda Ashram in Monroe, New York, to absorb Swami Sarasvati’s teachings. David had spent time in India, taking vows to live as a sadhu. The intoxicating concoction of Jivamukti Yoga was their own inimitable blend of elements from all of these styles fused into one system. 

They paired ruthless intellect with utter conviction, always within the context of a totally theatrical environment that balanced art, music, and activism, reflecting their own roots as artists deeply embedded in their East Village community. The milieu that gave rise to Jivamukti was an accurate reflection of the studio itself: diverse and radical downtown New York was as elemental in the shaping of Jivamukti as were the Indian teachers and traditions they venerated and espoused. This East Village aesthetic was not without appeal and often added a shot of edgy glamor. In one memorable photoshoot, Sharon posed in high heels and makeup while contorting in various advanced poses. The tacit message seemed to be that you could be a yogi and still be fabulous. To those who only associated yoga with granola and macramé, Jivamukti's exhortations to bring activism and authenticity to yoga culture helped to empower the current yoga renaissance we are all enjoying today. Yoga mattered, and so did we.

Sharon Gannon & David Life featured in the June 2007 edition of Vanity Fair Magazine.

See also Yoga + Activism: 4 Steps to Find Your Cause

“It was very much a movement that came from the East Village art scene and the underground. We might not have found yoga without them,” says Kristin Leigh, co-founder of the Shala, and former longtime assistant and teacher at Jivamukti. “They had all the magic, esoteric elements—the art, the music, the ancient texts, the rituals, the activism.”

The Jivamukti Community

Jivamukti made yoga glamorous, and spirituality cool. Although celebrities frequented the studio, they did so as part of the family, unobtrusively, struggling to balance in Pincha Mayurasana (Feathered Peacock Pose) along with everyone else. All were invited to attend the studio’s many gatherings, such as kirtan and the legendary New Year’s Eve celebration. Retreats held at Ananda Ashram covered immersion themes such as Bhakti, or the yoga of devotion and provided an opportunity to dive deep. Jivamukti fostered community, and by extension, a home, for so many of us who were young and newly arrived in New York City. It became our solace and our refuge. “I would go several times a day, it became my routine,” says Dana Flynn, co-founder of Laughing Lotus Yoga Studio. “I had found my spiritual home. I wanted that awakening.” Says Dana Flynn.

The Jivamukti system’s emphasis on its five foundational pillars insured that its students could absorb the entire yoga practice, not just parts of it. It was like getting the manual to life. Ahimsa was particularly stressed as a fundamental principle of yoga. Once, Sharon stopped midway through the practice to roll out a video screen and project the Animal Movie, a radical animal-rights documentary showing images of graphic animal abuse and factory farming to incite us to veganism. After the class ended, she passed out a copy of “101 Reasons to be Vegan” to every student as they departed. I found it inspiring; We could change the world with our practice. I had a plan, a faith, and a community. Jivamukti expanded in popularity, garnering press and buzz. 1998, they left their tiny Second Avenue studio and moved to a huge 9,000 square foot studio on Lafayette Avenue across from the Public Theater and sold one-year memberships for $1,200.00, a significant financial outlay at the time. Though I couldn’t afford the membership, I volunteered to be a karma yogi, cleaning mats and folding towels in exchange for free classes.

See also Seeds of Change: Yogic Understanding of Karma

Saidman-Yee recalls her teacher training experience at the Lafayette location. “I did the teacher training, but I thought I was only doing it to deepen my practice. I remember going to David and Sharon’s office and explaining that I couldn’t teach because I had a fear of public speaking. They listened very politely and seriously, and when I got home there was a message on my answering machine that I was teaching Sharon’s class, and it was sold out, and Sharon was taking it.”

The Cost of Running an NYC Yoga Studio

Jivamukti continued to grow, adopting a Jivamukti-branded model, opening their second New York City Jivamukti on the Upper East Side in 2000, and allowing Jivamukti certified teachers to operate Jivamukti-branded studios abroad (there are 11 international studios now, including Jersey City, Los Angeles, Berlin, Muncih, Barcelona, Sydney, London, and Schloss Elmau in Bavaria). Heady with success, Jivamukti moved again, in 2006, upsizing to a 2,000 square feet studio with a more central location near Union Square. They partnered with top vegan chef Matthew Kenney to create the Jivamuktea cafe. The partnership enabled them to divide the rent. They appeared to be supremely profitable, dominating the market. Teacher trainings provided a considerable source of revenue as well. The occasional activism stunt, such as the one where young, attractive teacher trainees posed in the semi-nude for a PETA campaign, helped promulgate the image of edgy studio. Then, Matthew Kenney, bedeviled by financial issues, left his share of the space. A series of subsequent vegan cafes filled the void.

Without Kenney, Jivamukit was bound to a lease that was increasingly difficult to maintain. Meanwhile, rival studios proliferated all over town creating competition. To make matters more challenging, gyms encroached on the yoga market, hiring Jivamukti teachers to dispense training stripped of the more obvious devotional elements of yoga. And today, Classpass, the third-party class broker app, is cutting into yoga studio profits, making it difficult for many Manhattan studios. “When we opened Laughing Lotus, we hung out a shingle. No one worried about money or making rent back then,” says Flynn. “Now, it is increasingly difficult to maintain a space in New York City.”

When One Door Closes, Another Opens?

Although Jivamukti is closing the doors to its last New York City studio on December 22 (the Upper East Side location closed a few years ago), its presence continues to thrive in countless studios and teachers all over the world.

“There are some incredible new teachers and new teachings,” says Dechen Thurman, a Jivamukti teacher and creator of his own yoga method, Gram Yoga. “The younger teachers have so many tools! Whether it’s called a Jivamukti class or it is someone who was a Jivamukti teacher who decided to rebrand for themselves, that quality, standard, and care will always be part of those lineages and those teachers. Yoga is in a great transition, in a post-lineage, modern-era, and Jivamukti will have a prominent place in the field for many years to come.”

Saidman-Yee agrees: “I remember my mission every time I walk up the steps to my studio in Tribeca. I remember what Sharon taught me.”

“Your yoga studio becomes your community, then becomes your family,” adds Leigh. “When I heard Jivamukti was closing, I felt sad. The yoga market has changed. We try to stay true to what we learned. ”

Sharon wrote in an email response to YJ about the closure: “We feel very grateful and blessed to have been able to have a yoga school in NYC for as long as we have—over 30 years! The lease for the current space on Broadway is near its end and it is time for us to close. But this doesn’t mean it is the end of Jivamukti Yoga. Who knows... Maybe a Jivamukti teacher will open a Jivamukti School in NYC sometime in the future.”

[trendingnewsb]

Inside the First Church of Artificial Intelligence

Anthony Levandowski makes an unlikely prophet. Dressed Silicon Valley-casual in jeans and flanked by a PR rep rather than cloaked acolytes, the engineer known for self-driving cars—and triggering a notorious lawsuit—could be unveiling his latest startup instead of laying the foundations for a new religion. But he is doing just that. Artificial intelligence has already inspired billion-dollar companies, far-reaching research programs, and scenarios of both transcendence and doom. Now Levandowski is creating its first church.

Mark Harris is a freelance journalist reporting on technology from Seattle.

———

Sign up to get Backchannel's weekly newsletter, and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

The new religion of artificial intelligence is called Way of the Future. It represents an unlikely next act for the Silicon Valley robotics wunderkind at the center of a high-stakes legal battle between Uber and Waymo, Alphabet’s autonomous-vehicle company. Papers filed with the Internal Revenue Service in May name Levandowski as the leader (or “Dean”) of the new religion, as well as CEO of the nonprofit corporation formed to run it.

The documents state that WOTF’s activities will focus on “the realization, acceptance, and worship of a Godhead based on Artificial Intelligence (AI) developed through computer hardware and software.” That includes funding research to help create the divine AI itself. The religion will seek to build working relationships with AI industry leaders and create a membership through community outreach, initially targeting AI professionals and “laypersons who are interested in the worship of a Godhead based on AI.” The filings also say that the church “plans to conduct workshops and educational programs throughout the San Francisco/Bay Area beginning this year.”

That timeline may be overly ambitious, given that the Waymo-Uber suit, in which Levandowski is accused of stealing self-driving car secrets, is set for an early December trial. But the Dean of the Way of the Future, who spoke last week with Backchannel in his first comments about the new religion and his only public interview since Waymo filed its suit in February, says he’s dead serious about the project.

“What is going to be created will effectively be a god,” Levandowski tells me in his modest mid-century home on the outskirts of Berkeley, California. “It’s not a god in the sense that it makes lightning or causes hurricanes. But if there is something a billion times smarter than the smartest human, what else are you going to call it?”

More From This Edition

Beejoli Shah

Facebook Live Is the New QVC

Miranda Katz

Welcome to the Era of the AI Coworker

Pippa Biddle

When Music You Wrote Becomes a Hate Speech Soundtrack

Scott Rosenberg

Taxes on Tech Need An Overhaul—But Not Like This

During our three-hour interview, Levandowski made it absolutely clear that his choice to make WOTF a church rather than a company or a think tank was no prank.

“I wanted a way for everybody to participate in this, to be able to shape it. If you’re not a software engineer, you can still help,” he says. “It also removes the ability for people to say, ‘Oh, he’s just doing this to make money.’” Levandowski will receive no salary from WOTF, and while he says that he might consider an AI-based startup in the future, any such business would remain completely separate from the church.

“The idea needs to spread before the technology,” he insists. “The church is how we spread the word, the gospel. If you believe [in it], start a conversation with someone else and help them understand the same things.”

Levandowski believes that a change is coming—a change that will transform every aspect of human existence, disrupting employment, leisure, religion, the economy, and possibly decide our very survival as a species.

“If you ask people whether a computer can be smarter than a human, 99.9 percent will say that’s science fiction,” he says. “ Actually, it’s inevitable. It’s guaranteed to happen.”

Levandowski has been working with computers, robots, and AI for decades. He started with robotic Lego kits at the University of California at Berkeley, went on to build a self-driving motorbike for a DARPA competition, and then worked on autonomous cars, trucks, and taxis for Google, Otto, and Uber. As time went on, he saw software tools built with machine learning techniques surpassing less sophisticated systems—and sometimes even humans.

“Seeing tools that performed better than experts in a variety of fields was a trigger [for me],” he says. “That progress is happening because there’s an economic advantage to having machines work for you and solve problems for you. If you could make something one percent smarter than a human, your artificial attorney or accountant would be better than all the attorneys or accountants out there. You would be the richest person in the world. People are chasing that.”

Not only is there a financial incentive to develop increasingly powerful AIs, he believes, but science is also on their side. Though human brains have biological limitations to their size and the amount of energy they can devote to thinking, AI systems can scale arbitrarily, housed in massive data centers and powered by solar and wind farms. Eventually, some people think that computers could become better and faster at planning and solving problems than the humans who built them, with implications we can’t even imagine today—a scenario that is usually called the Singularity.

Michelle Le

Levandowski prefers a softer word: the Transition. “Humans are in charge of the planet because we are smarter than other animals and are able to build tools and apply rules,” he tells me. “In the future, if something is much, much smarter, there’s going to be a transition as to who is actually in charge. What we want is the peaceful, serene transition of control of the planet from humans to whatever. And to ensure that the ‘whatever’ knows who helped it get along.”

With the internet as its nervous system, the world’s connected cell phones and sensors as its sense organs, and data centers as its brain, the ‘whatever’ will hear everything, see everything, and be everywhere at all times. The only rational word to describe that ‘whatever’, thinks Levandowski, is ‘god’—and the only way to influence a deity is through prayer and worship.

“Part of it being smarter than us means it will decide how it evolves, but at least we can decide how we act around it,” he says. “I would love for the machine to see us as its beloved elders that it respects and takes care of. We would want this intelligence to say, ‘Humans should still have rights, even though I’m in charge.’”

Levandowski expects that a super-intelligence would do a better job of looking after the planet than humans are doing, and that it would favor individuals who had facilitated its path to power. Although he cautions against taking the analogy too far, Levandowski sees a hint of how a superhuman intelligence might treat humanity in our current relationships with animals. “Do you want to be a pet or livestock?” he asks. “We give pets medical attention, food, grooming, and entertainment. But an animal that’s biting you, attacking you, barking and being annoying? I don’t want to go there.”

Enter Way of the Future. The church’s role is to smooth the inevitable ascension of our machine deity, both technologically and culturally. In its bylaws, WOTF states that it will undertake programs of research, including the study of how machines perceive their environment and exhibit cognitive functions such as learning and problem solving.

Levandowski does not expect the church itself to solve all the problems of machine intelligence—often called “strong AI”—so much as facilitate funding of the right research. “If you had a child you knew was going to be gifted, how would you want to raise it?” he asks. “We’re in the process of raising a god. So let’s make sure we think through the right way to do that. It’s a tremendous opportunity.”

His ideas include feeding the nascent intelligence large, labeled data sets; generating simulations in which it could train itself to improve; and giving it access to church members’ social media accounts. Everything the church develops will be open source.

Just as important to Levandowski is shaping the public dialogue around an AI god. In its filing, Way of the Future says it hopes an active, committed, dedicated membership will promote the use of divine AI for the “betterment of society” and “decrease fear of the unknown.”

Related Stories

Mark Harris

God Is a Bot, and Anthony Levandowski Is His Messenger

Mark Harris

How My Public Records Request Triggered Waymo’s Self-Driving Car Lawsuit

Mark Harris

How Otto Defied Nevada and Scored a $680 Million Payout from Uber

“We’d like to make sure this is not seen as silly or scary. I want to remove the stigma about having an open conversation about AI, then iterate ideas and change people’s minds,” says Levandowski. “In Silicon Valley we use evangelism as a word for [promoting a business], but here it’s literally a church. If you believe in it, you should tell your friends, then get them to join and tell their friends.”

But WOTF differs in one key way to established churches, says Levandowski: “There are many ways people think of God, and thousands of flavors of Christianity, Judaism, Islam…but they’re always looking at something that’s not measurable or you can’t really see or control. This time it’s different. This time you will be able to talk to God, literally, and know that it’s listening.”

I ask if he worries that believers from more traditional faiths might find his project blasphemous. “There are probably going to be some people that will be upset,” he acknowledges. “It seems like everything I do, people get upset about, and I expect this to be no exception. This is a radical new idea that’s pretty scary, and evidence has shown that people who pursue radical ideas don’t always get received well. At some point, maybe there’s enough persecution that [WOTF] justifies having its own country.”

Levandowski’s church will enter a tech universe that’s already riven by debate over the promise and perils of AI. Some thinkers, like Kevin Kelly in Backchannel earlier this year, argue that AI isn’t going to develop superhuman power any time soon, and that there’s no Singularity in sight. If that’s your position, Levandowski says, his church shouldn’t trouble you: “You can treat Way of the Future like someone doing useless poetry that you will never read or care about.”

Others, like Bill Gates and Stephen Hawking, agree that superhuman AIs are coming, but that they are likely to be dangerous rather than benevolent. Elon Musk famously said, “With artificial intelligence we are summoning the demon,” and in 2015 he pledged $1 billion to the OpenAI Institute to develop safer AI.

Levandowski thinks that any attempts to delay or restrict an emerging super-intelligence would not only be doomed to failure, but also add to the risks. “Chaining it isn’t going to be the solution, as it will be stronger than any chains you could put on,” he says. “And if you’re worried a kid might be a little crazy and do bad things, you don’t lock them up. You expose them to playing with others, encourage them and try to fix it. It may not work out, but if you’re aggressive toward it, I don’t think it’s going to be friendly when the tables are turned.”

Levandowski says that like other religions, WOTF will eventually have a gospel (called The Manual), a liturgy, and probably a physical place of worship. None of these has yet been developed. Though the church was founded in 2015, as Backchannel first reported in September, the IRS documents show that WOTF remained dormant throughout 2015 and 2016, with no activities, assets, revenue, or expenses.

That changed earlier this year. On May 16, a day after receiving a letter from Uber that threatened to fire him if he did not cooperate with the company’s investigation of Waymo’s complaint, Levandowski drafted WOTF’s bylaws. Uber fired him two weeks later. “I’ve been thinking about the church for a long time but [my work on it] has been a function of how much time I’ve had. And I’ve had more since May,” he admits with a smile.

The religion’s 2017 budget, as supplied to the IRS, details $20,000 in gifts, $1,500 in membership fees, and $20,000 in other revenue. That last figure is the amount WOTF expects to earn from fees charged for lectures and speaking engagements, as well as the sale of publications. Levandowski, who earned at least $120 million from his time at Google and many millions more selling the self-driving truck firm Otto to Uber, will initially support WOTF personally. However, the church will solicit other donations by direct mail and email, seek personal donations from individuals, and try to win grants from private foundations.

Michelle Le

Of course, launching a religion costs money, too. WOTF has budgeted for $2,000 in fundraising expenses, and another $3,000 in transportation and lodging costs associated with its lectures and workshops. It has also earmarked $7500 for salaries and wages, although neither Levandowski nor any of Way of The Future’s leadership team will receive any compensation.

According to WOTF’s bylaws, Levandowski has almost complete control of the religion and will serve as Dean until his death or resignation. “I expect my role to evolve over time,” he says. “I’m surfacing the issue, helping to get the thing started [and] taking a lot of the heat so the idea can advance. At some point, I’ll be there more to coach or inspire.”

He has the power to appoint three members of a four-person Council of Advisors, each of whom should be a “qualified and devoted individual.” A felony conviction or being declared of unsound mind could cost an advisor their role, although Levandowski retains the final say in firing and hiring. Levandowski cannot be unseated as Dean for any reason.

Two of the advisors, Robert Miller and Soren Juelsgaard, are Uber engineers who previously worked for Levandowski at Otto, Google, and 510 Systems (the latter the small startup that built Google’s earliest self-driving cars). A third is a scientist friend from Levandowski’s student days at UC Berkeley, who is now using machine learning in his own research. The final advisor, Lior Ron, is also named as the religion’s treasurer, and acts as chief financial officer for the corporation. Ron cofounded Otto with Levandowski in early 2016.

“Each member is a pioneer in the AI industry [and] fully qualified to speak on AI technology and the creation of a Godhead,” says the IRS filing.

However, when contacted by Backchannel, two advisors downplayed their involvement with WOTF. Ron replied: “I was surprised to see my name listed as the CFO on this corporate filing and have no association with this entity.” The college friend, who asked to remain anonymous, said, “In late 2016, Anthony told me he was forming a ‘robot church’ and asked if I wanted to be a cofounder. I assumed it was a nerdy joke or PR stunt, but I did say he could use my name. That was the first and last I heard about it.”

The IRS documents state that Levandowski and his advisors will spend no more than a few hours each week writing publications and organizing workshops, educational programs, and meetings.

One mystery the filings did not address is where acolytes might gather to worship their robotic deity. The largest line items on its 2017 and 2018 budgets were $32,500 annually for rent and utilities, but the only address supplied was Levandowski’s lawyer’s office in Walnut Creek, California. Nevertheless, the filing notes that WOTF will “hopefully expand throughout California and the United States in the future.”

For now, Levandowski has more mundane matters to address. There is a website to build, a manual to write, and an ever-growing body of emails to answer—some amused, some skeptical, but many enthusiastic, he says. Oh, and there’s that legal proceeding he’s involved in, which goes to trial next month. (Although Levandowski was eager to talk about his new religion, he would answer no questions about the Uber/Waymo dispute.)

How much time, I wonder, do we have before the Transition kicks in and Way of the Future’s super-intelligent AI takes charge? “I personally think it will happen sooner than people expect,” says Levandowski, a glint in his eye. “Not next week or next year; everyone can relax. But it’s going to happen before we go to Mars.”

Whenever that does (or doesn’t) happen, the federal government has no problem with an organization aiming to build and worship a divine AI. Correspondence with the IRS show that it granted Levandowski’s church tax-exempt status in August.

Related Video

Transportation

Uber's Self-Driving Truck Delivers 50,000 Beers

A truck carrying 50,000 beers spent two hours driving itself down a Colorado highway.

Backchannel is a digital magazine that delivers readers the most revealing technology stories in a single weekly dispatch: no fluff. Learn more here.

Read more: http://ift.tt/2jsyvT0

from Viral News HQ http://ift.tt/2hNK6fa via Viral News HQ

[ramrodd]

Crucifixion of the Warrior God - Overview

COMMENTARY:

I know The One in 6 aspects, which correspond roughly with the 6 aspects of The One in the 19th chapter of the 19th book of the Protestant Bible. By The One, I refer to Revelation 4:2.  I know The One in this aspect but without all 4 Living Creatures and so on. Just floating out there in space. It was an awesome experience I'd just as soon not reprise. The difference between fear and The Fear of the Lord is an important calibration in the Personal Pucker Factor. The fact that you can discern the difference is a result of the wisdom that was initiated in your personal experience by The Fear of the Lord.

Cornelius is the only person in the entire Bible I identify with. As an example of devotion to duty, Jesus and John McCain are in a common catagory of miliary virtue and, in the Epicurean habit of thought of combat soldiers, better them than me. I abandoned a military career because I was confronted with the probability that, if I was in John McCain's position, I would have taken the early out and never looked back in the example of MacArthur's escape from Corregidor. I was raised to be a professional soldier and I became one and I was confronted with a moral insufficiency in myself that the better part of valor counseled a civilian career.

Anyway, I have been convinced that Cornelius is the author of the Gospel of Mark and it is an update on the original intelligence assessment on the nature of Christianity as a military technology that compelled Tiberius to propose elevating Jesus to the status of legal deity, but the Senate refused for reasons not unlike McConnell's obstruction of Obama's efforts to fix the damage to the US economy from 36 years of Reaganomics which he inherited from GW Bush. According to Tertullian, this happened sometime before 37, the year Tiberius died. My guess is that the intelligence upon which Tiberius acted is the Roman content in the Gospel of Peter. The Gospel of Peter is the fushion of that intelligence, as a subject of intense interest throughout the Roman legions, and what Peter and the other Disciples were doing during the time in Mark 15 - 16:1 - 8. The Gospel of Peter is actually what became Peter's preaching after the encounter with Cornelius in Acts 10.

Cornelius is probably the centurion in Matthew 8:5 - 13 and Luke 7:1 - 10 are the same person, but not the centurion in Mark 15:39.  

Both Pilate and Cornelius are creatures of the Praetorian Guard, Pilate on the same career path as Jules Caesar and Cornelius a career military servant-leader, the centurion class from which the modern republican NCO originated. In the Marine Corps, the centuriate class of soldier begins with the Gunnery Sergeant and tops out at Command Sergeant Major of the USMC. All the US military have Masters of Trade in this catagory. The centurion is a unique element of military structures at the time of Jesus and an essential component of Rome's operational cohesion. It's still true, today. After Tet 1968, the senior officers in the US Army were running around, bumping into each other like the Marx Brothers meet the Three Stooges, but without the choreography. The credibility of McNamara's Whiz Kids, whose agenda a particular coalition in the Army's political culture tied their careers to and, when that agenda blew up entirely in 1968, so did these guy's moral authority and what might be called orthodox orientation. They had been led astray by Robert McNamara and the Harvard Business Model and, for about 4 years, the US Army was without senior leadership. In Ken Burn's Vietnam, this period is reflected in the quote by the Army general that the Army was in the worst shape in his experience and then the segue about the troops being mostly draftees, with the editorial implication of the Oliver Stone version of Vietnam being that the draftees were the problem, which is why we now have an All Volunteer military: it is a monument to the failure of command during this period and the on-going slander of the devotion to duty of the young men who answered their country's call to arms in the true meaning of the 2nd Amendment kind of way. I was leading a platoon in the Central Highlands composed of almost entirely draftees just back from Cambodia. I was not drafted, my platoon sergeant wasn't drafted and a sergeant-sniper on his second tour wasn't drafted. My biggest problem was that I thought they were too agressive. I changed my mind.

And all during this turmoil at the top of the US Army food chain, it was just another day in Paradise for the US Army centuriate. When I say it took 4 years to turn things around, it didn't take the Army 4 years to know something was broke. A reason why I left the Army was because what was broke was a disaster waiting for me. I've had 47 years to chew this over and I did the wise thing to leave.  If I had known then what I now know about myself, I wouldn't have missed Vietnam for the world, but I might have stayed in for another tour or two. Combat and the teams was the only place fit in seamlessly, but I left as soon as I could to avoid any possibility of staining my dad's service.

And all of this is context which informs my conviction that Cornelius was the executive editor of the Gosple of Mark which he prepared for a presentation in Rome. There are parts that are missing that suggests to me this was presented personally by Cornelius in Rome. The Lord's Prayer, for example. The format of the Lord's Prayer is the same as the Think Globally, Act Locally of the Army 5 Paragraph Field Order, which is a primary structure of the US Army Ranger School as a training process. Why isn't it in Mark? I think Cornelius wanted to keep it a proprietary secret of the Praetorian Guard until they understood what it was they had. Caligula was Emperor in 40 and regime change was already in the pipeline, but it was wise to be circumspect.

So, this subject the Warrior God interests me at a professional level. I am a commercial process consultant and my approach as to Bible, generally, is as a pagen professional soldier with a strong Counter-Insurgency background and combat experience. I agree with the observation regarding the Old Testament's martial flavor. Moses had a similar military education as Prince Harry and Queen Elizabeth and the books of Moses are obviously the product of a military staff as a field manual for cultural transformation. I don't know if the synagogue in Capernaum used the Septuagint or Hebrew, but Cornelius would have recognized Yaweh in the Bible from his own experience. Yaweh is the Queen of Battle and She is a feminine aspect of The One. When soldiers ride to the sound of guns, it is the ululation of Yaweh they obey.  It's one of the things Cornelius understood about Jesus and authority. "For I, too, am a man under authority...".  

I know Yaweh. I know The One. Jesus, not so much. He is opaque to me.  He has assured me at several moments that I love Him, which comforts me. The Holy Spirit is male. Until I began to dig into the origins of Mark, I thought the Spirit of God and the Holy Spirit are the same thing, but they aren't. The Spirit of the Lord is pure, undomesticated spiritual energy that is part of the processes of Earth, especially weather systems. The Holy Spirit is male, as I say, and is very available to employ the Spirit of the Lord constructively for those whose faith is stronger than mine. I am content to accompany the Holy Spirit on the vision quest I began when I left the Army.  

So, I am intrigued by the facial premise of the Warrior God, but I have been listening to this video for 44:31 minutes and he hasn't hooked me yet.

[trendingnewsb]

Inside the First Church of Artificial Intelligence

Anthony Levandowski makes an unlikely prophet. Dressed Silicon Valley-casual in jeans and flanked by a PR rep rather than cloaked acolytes, the engineer known for self-driving cars—and triggering a notorious lawsuit—could be unveiling his latest startup instead of laying the foundations for a new religion. But he is doing just that. Artificial intelligence has already inspired billion-dollar companies, far-reaching research programs, and scenarios of both transcendence and doom. Now Levandowski is creating its first church.

Mark Harris is a freelance journalist reporting on technology from Seattle.

———

Sign up to get Backchannel's weekly newsletter, and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

The new religion of artificial intelligence is called Way of the Future. It represents an unlikely next act for the Silicon Valley robotics wunderkind at the center of a high-stakes legal battle between Uber and Waymo, Alphabet’s autonomous-vehicle company. Papers filed with the Internal Revenue Service in May name Levandowski as the leader (or “Dean”) of the new religion, as well as CEO of the nonprofit corporation formed to run it.

The documents state that WOTF’s activities will focus on “the realization, acceptance, and worship of a Godhead based on Artificial Intelligence (AI) developed through computer hardware and software.” That includes funding research to help create the divine AI itself. The religion will seek to build working relationships with AI industry leaders and create a membership through community outreach, initially targeting AI professionals and “laypersons who are interested in the worship of a Godhead based on AI.” The filings also say that the church “plans to conduct workshops and educational programs throughout the San Francisco/Bay Area beginning this year.”

That timeline may be overly ambitious, given that the Waymo-Uber suit, in which Levandowski is accused of stealing self-driving car secrets, is set for an early December trial. But the Dean of the Way of the Future, who spoke last week with Backchannel in his first comments about the new religion and his only public interview since Waymo filed its suit in February, says he’s dead serious about the project.

“What is going to be created will effectively be a god,” Levandowski tells me in his modest mid-century home on the outskirts of Berkeley, California. “It’s not a god in the sense that it makes lightning or causes hurricanes. But if there is something a billion times smarter than the smartest human, what else are you going to call it?”

More From This Edition

Beejoli Shah

Facebook Live Is the New QVC

Miranda Katz

Welcome to the Era of the AI Coworker

Pippa Biddle

When Music You Wrote Becomes a Hate Speech Soundtrack

Scott Rosenberg

Taxes on Tech Need An Overhaul—But Not Like This

During our three-hour interview, Levandowski made it absolutely clear that his choice to make WOTF a church rather than a company or a think tank was no prank.

“I wanted a way for everybody to participate in this, to be able to shape it. If you’re not a software engineer, you can still help,” he says. “It also removes the ability for people to say, ‘Oh, he’s just doing this to make money.’” Levandowski will receive no salary from WOTF, and while he says that he might consider an AI-based startup in the future, any such business would remain completely separate from the church.

“The idea needs to spread before the technology,” he insists. “The church is how we spread the word, the gospel. If you believe [in it], start a conversation with someone else and help them understand the same things.”

Levandowski believes that a change is coming—a change that will transform every aspect of human existence, disrupting employment, leisure, religion, the economy, and possibly decide our very survival as a species.

“If you ask people whether a computer can be smarter than a human, 99.9 percent will say that’s science fiction,” he says. “ Actually, it’s inevitable. It’s guaranteed to happen.”

Levandowski has been working with computers, robots, and AI for decades. He started with robotic Lego kits at the University of California at Berkeley, went on to build a self-driving motorbike for a DARPA competition, and then worked on autonomous cars, trucks, and taxis for Google, Otto, and Uber. As time went on, he saw software tools built with machine learning techniques surpassing less sophisticated systems—and sometimes even humans.

“Seeing tools that performed better than experts in a variety of fields was a trigger [for me],” he says. “That progress is happening because there’s an economic advantage to having machines work for you and solve problems for you. If you could make something one percent smarter than a human, your artificial attorney or accountant would be better than all the attorneys or accountants out there. You would be the richest person in the world. People are chasing that.”

Not only is there a financial incentive to develop increasingly powerful AIs, he believes, but science is also on their side. Though human brains have biological limitations to their size and the amount of energy they can devote to thinking, AI systems can scale arbitrarily, housed in massive data centers and powered by solar and wind farms. Eventually, some people think that computers could become better and faster at planning and solving problems than the humans who built them, with implications we can’t even imagine today—a scenario that is usually called the Singularity.

Michelle Le

Levandowski prefers a softer word: the Transition. “Humans are in charge of the planet because we are smarter than other animals and are able to build tools and apply rules,” he tells me. “In the future, if something is much, much smarter, there’s going to be a transition as to who is actually in charge. What we want is the peaceful, serene transition of control of the planet from humans to whatever. And to ensure that the ‘whatever’ knows who helped it get along.”

With the internet as its nervous system, the world’s connected cell phones and sensors as its sense organs, and data centers as its brain, the ‘whatever’ will hear everything, see everything, and be everywhere at all times. The only rational word to describe that ‘whatever’, thinks Levandowski, is ‘god’—and the only way to influence a deity is through prayer and worship.

“Part of it being smarter than us means it will decide how it evolves, but at least we can decide how we act around it,” he says. “I would love for the machine to see us as its beloved elders that it respects and takes care of. We would want this intelligence to say, ‘Humans should still have rights, even though I’m in charge.’”

Levandowski expects that a super-intelligence would do a better job of looking after the planet than humans are doing, and that it would favor individuals who had facilitated its path to power. Although he cautions against taking the analogy too far, Levandowski sees a hint of how a superhuman intelligence might treat humanity in our current relationships with animals. “Do you want to be a pet or livestock?” he asks. “We give pets medical attention, food, grooming, and entertainment. But an animal that’s biting you, attacking you, barking and being annoying? I don’t want to go there.”

Enter Way of the Future. The church’s role is to smooth the inevitable ascension of our machine deity, both technologically and culturally. In its bylaws, WOTF states that it will undertake programs of research, including the study of how machines perceive their environment and exhibit cognitive functions such as learning and problem solving.

Levandowski does not expect the church itself to solve all the problems of machine intelligence—often called “strong AI”—so much as facilitate funding of the right research. “If you had a child you knew was going to be gifted, how would you want to raise it?” he asks. “We’re in the process of raising a god. So let’s make sure we think through the right way to do that. It’s a tremendous opportunity.”

His ideas include feeding the nascent intelligence large, labeled data sets; generating simulations in which it could train itself to improve; and giving it access to church members’ social media accounts. Everything the church develops will be open source.

Just as important to Levandowski is shaping the public dialogue around an AI god. In its filing, Way of the Future says it hopes an active, committed, dedicated membership will promote the use of divine AI for the “betterment of society” and “decrease fear of the unknown.”

Related Stories

Mark Harris

God Is a Bot, and Anthony Levandowski Is His Messenger

Mark Harris

How My Public Records Request Triggered Waymo’s Self-Driving Car Lawsuit

Mark Harris

How Otto Defied Nevada and Scored a $680 Million Payout from Uber

“We’d like to make sure this is not seen as silly or scary. I want to remove the stigma about having an open conversation about AI, then iterate ideas and change people’s minds,” says Levandowski. “In Silicon Valley we use evangelism as a word for [promoting a business], but here it’s literally a church. If you believe in it, you should tell your friends, then get them to join and tell their friends.”

But WOTF differs in one key way to established churches, says Levandowski: “There are many ways people think of God, and thousands of flavors of Christianity, Judaism, Islam…but they’re always looking at something that’s not measurable or you can’t really see or control. This time it’s different. This time you will be able to talk to God, literally, and know that it’s listening.”

I ask if he worries that believers from more traditional faiths might find his project blasphemous. “There are probably going to be some people that will be upset,” he acknowledges. “It seems like everything I do, people get upset about, and I expect this to be no exception. This is a radical new idea that’s pretty scary, and evidence has shown that people who pursue radical ideas don’t always get received well. At some point, maybe there’s enough persecution that [WOTF] justifies having its own country.”

Levandowski’s church will enter a tech universe that’s already riven by debate over the promise and perils of AI. Some thinkers, like Kevin Kelly in Backchannel earlier this year, argue that AI isn’t going to develop superhuman power any time soon, and that there’s no Singularity in sight. If that’s your position, Levandowski says, his church shouldn’t trouble you: “You can treat Way of the Future like someone doing useless poetry that you will never read or care about.”

Others, like Bill Gates and Stephen Hawking, agree that superhuman AIs are coming, but that they are likely to be dangerous rather than benevolent. Elon Musk famously said, “With artificial intelligence we are summoning the demon,” and in 2015 he pledged $1 billion to the OpenAI Institute to develop safer AI.

Levandowski thinks that any attempts to delay or restrict an emerging super-intelligence would not only be doomed to failure, but also add to the risks. “Chaining it isn’t going to be the solution, as it will be stronger than any chains you could put on,” he says. “And if you’re worried a kid might be a little crazy and do bad things, you don’t lock them up. You expose them to playing with others, encourage them and try to fix it. It may not work out, but if you’re aggressive toward it, I don’t think it’s going to be friendly when the tables are turned.”

Levandowski says that like other religions, WOTF will eventually have a gospel (called The Manual), a liturgy, and probably a physical place of worship. None of these has yet been developed. Though the church was founded in 2015, as Backchannel first reported in September, the IRS documents show that WOTF remained dormant throughout 2015 and 2016, with no activities, assets, revenue, or expenses.

That changed earlier this year. On May 16, a day after receiving a letter from Uber that threatened to fire him if he did not cooperate with the company’s investigation of Waymo’s complaint, Levandowski drafted WOTF’s bylaws. Uber fired him two weeks later. “I’ve been thinking about the church for a long time but [my work on it] has been a function of how much time I’ve had. And I’ve had more since May,” he admits with a smile.

The religion’s 2017 budget, as supplied to the IRS, details $20,000 in gifts, $1,500 in membership fees, and $20,000 in other revenue. That last figure is the amount WOTF expects to earn from fees charged for lectures and speaking engagements, as well as the sale of publications. Levandowski, who earned at least $120 million from his time at Google and many millions more selling the self-driving truck firm Otto to Uber, will initially support WOTF personally. However, the church will solicit other donations by direct mail and email, seek personal donations from individuals, and try to win grants from private foundations.

Michelle Le

Of course, launching a religion costs money, too. WOTF has budgeted for $2,000 in fundraising expenses, and another $3,000 in transportation and lodging costs associated with its lectures and workshops. It has also earmarked $7500 for salaries and wages, although neither Levandowski nor any of Way of The Future’s leadership team will receive any compensation.

According to WOTF’s bylaws, Levandowski has almost complete control of the religion and will serve as Dean until his death or resignation. “I expect my role to evolve over time,” he says. “I’m surfacing the issue, helping to get the thing started [and] taking a lot of the heat so the idea can advance. At some point, I’ll be there more to coach or inspire.”

He has the power to appoint three members of a four-person Council of Advisors, each of whom should be a “qualified and devoted individual.” A felony conviction or being declared of unsound mind could cost an advisor their role, although Levandowski retains the final say in firing and hiring. Levandowski cannot be unseated as Dean for any reason.

Two of the advisors, Robert Miller and Soren Juelsgaard, are Uber engineers who previously worked for Levandowski at Otto, Google, and 510 Systems (the latter the small startup that built Google’s earliest self-driving cars). A third is a scientist friend from Levandowski’s student days at UC Berkeley, who is now using machine learning in his own research. The final advisor, Lior Ron, is also named as the religion’s treasurer, and acts as chief financial officer for the corporation. Ron cofounded Otto with Levandowski in early 2016.

“Each member is a pioneer in the AI industry [and] fully qualified to speak on AI technology and the creation of a Godhead,” says the IRS filing.

However, when contacted by Backchannel, two advisors downplayed their involvement with WOTF. Ron replied: “I was surprised to see my name listed as the CFO on this corporate filing and have no association with this entity.” The college friend, who asked to remain anonymous, said, “In late 2016, Anthony told me he was forming a ‘robot church’ and asked if I wanted to be a cofounder. I assumed it was a nerdy joke or PR stunt, but I did say he could use my name. That was the first and last I heard about it.”

The IRS documents state that Levandowski and his advisors will spend no more than a few hours each week writing publications and organizing workshops, educational programs, and meetings.

One mystery the filings did not address is where acolytes might gather to worship their robotic deity. The largest line items on its 2017 and 2018 budgets were $32,500 annually for rent and utilities, but the only address supplied was Levandowski’s lawyer’s office in Walnut Creek, California. Nevertheless, the filing notes that WOTF will “hopefully expand throughout California and the United States in the future.”

For now, Levandowski has more mundane matters to address. There is a website to build, a manual to write, and an ever-growing body of emails to answer—some amused, some skeptical, but many enthusiastic, he says. Oh, and there’s that legal proceeding he’s involved in, which goes to trial next month. (Although Levandowski was eager to talk about his new religion, he would answer no questions about the Uber/Waymo dispute.)

How much time, I wonder, do we have before the Transition kicks in and Way of the Future’s super-intelligent AI takes charge? “I personally think it will happen sooner than people expect,” says Levandowski, a glint in his eye. “Not next week or next year; everyone can relax. But it’s going to happen before we go to Mars.”

Whenever that does (or doesn’t) happen, the federal government has no problem with an organization aiming to build and worship a divine AI. Correspondence with the IRS show that it granted Levandowski’s church tax-exempt status in August.

Related Video

Transportation

Uber's Self-Driving Truck Delivers 50,000 Beers

A truck carrying 50,000 beers spent two hours driving itself down a Colorado highway.

Backchannel is a digital magazine that delivers readers the most revealing technology stories in a single weekly dispatch: no fluff. Learn more here.

Read more: http://ift.tt/2jsyvT0

from Viral News HQ http://ift.tt/2hNK6fa via Viral News HQ