Empyreanism
Empyreanism, or The Way of the Many Winds, is a religion and philosophy that is followed in the Air Nation, as well as in smaller communities of other nations such as Fryslan. Interpretations vary dramatically between followers, but roughly align to five schools for each of the air temples: the Eastern School in Air Temple Valley, the Elysian School (formerly Western School) in Inkwood, the Western School at Mexico City, the Northern School at Floating City, and the Southern School at the Southern Air Temple. Common threads in all schools are a veneration of the "Open Sky" and a rejection of the earth, or "the Substance". Open Sky is associated with values such as freedom, intelligence, and spirituality, while Substance is associated with repression, conformity, and destruction. Followers are referred to as Empyreans and the belief system is sometimes referred to as Empyreanism.
History
It is unknown when proto-Empyrean traditions began, but there is a consensus that the origins of sky reverence began with the Air Nomads, with its influence felt in other faiths such as Kennism and the Jungle Airbenders. The contemporary and formally structured Empyreanism that we witness in the present in the Air Nation today can be said to formally begin with the Burning of the First Temple, an event that took place in what is now Air Temple Valley. With this event, multiple new temples began to develop such as the Elysian Temple (then known as the Western Temple), the Northern Temple, and the Southern Temple.
Due to the rapidly diverging traditions and interpretations of the ancient texts, the Conclave of Inkwood was summoned where scholars from all temples were invited to debate, discuss, and define the Empyrean canon. This conclave produced two texts: "Creation" and "The Way of the Many Winds". The former compiled and defined an Empyrean creation narrative which included meditations on the nature of the elements, spirits, and the other dimensions. The latter, "The Way", was considered the more serious achievement as it defined and clarified Empyrean ethics and metaphysics - it is this text that is exclusively used to source quotes to adorn Empyrean shrines far from the Air Nation.
Beliefs
Elysian Empyreanism
Elysian Empyreanism (formerly Western School Empyreanism) reflects a strange mixture of hierarchy and equality. On one hand, the Open Sky is conceptualized as a literal divine being, who demands praise, offerings, and righteousness in exchange for passage into a good afterlife. On the other hand, all are welcome to participate in these rituals, including non-benders and benders of other elements.
The religious center of the Elysian School is, of course, the Elysian Temple near Inkwood. Here, on top of a mountain and physically close to the void above, devotees may present gifts to the Open Sky and participate in rituals honoring Them. Here, scribes of the Elysian School write, translate, and interpret, taking part in the vivid intellectual debate that characterizes the Air Nation.
The current grandmaster of the Air Nation, Sir Paperweight the Third, founded and belongs to the Elysian School, giving it a decree of informal favor. Indeed, the Conclave of Inkwood was hosted in the yet-unfinished Elysian Temple. Still, the Air Nation does not have an established doctrine of Empyreanism, and other schools do not face persecution.
What is the puffin to do, except fly?
Endowed with wings and feathers and light, hollow bones, it is a creature made for vastness.
The puffin flies because it was made to fly.
We, endowed with thought and feeling, are made for the Open Sky.
Does it suit us to reject our nature, to bind and deceive ourselves, to close ourselves to the world and each other? Does it suit us to look down toward the Earth and the Substance, and not up toward the sky?
The Open Sky gave us the will to think and to act, even as we are built from that which restricts and destroys. We, then, are blessed with the capacity to honor the Open Sky with praise and gifts.
Endowed with choice, we must choose. To live our lives in accordance with the will of infinity is a good that respects no artificial, substantial boundaries. In death, all may pass the gates of the endless nothing.
A world without Substance.
A world without fear.
Like the puffin, we must answer our call.
— Edict of the Western School, by Grandmaster Paperweight of the Elysian Temple
Southern Empyreanism
Southern Empyreanism seeks to reinterpret Empyreanism in a manner that is more individual, in particular emphasising monism or a unity of a singular substance in the world. Like the Eastern School, it views Open Sky as a metaphysical force rather than as a literal being worthy of worship, as is practised in the West. It diverges from both in its view of Oneness, insisting that there is no clear-cut boundary to be drawn between Substance and Void.
Oneness is a core concept in the Southern interpretation, as it not only radically reinterprets the concept of the "war" between Open Sky and Substance, it also forecloses any opportunity of a supernatural-natural hierarchy. This also prevents any ethical distinctions of a "chosen people", as might be seen by the Flametouched. Citing the former resident of Air Temple Valley, Ed, a firebender is shown as an exemplar of the ideals of the Empyrean ways while remaining outside of airbending.
At the Conclave of Inkwood, a premise of participation was the need for properly codified and ritualised spiritual guidance for our peoples. While the sacred texts and concepts of which we have taught thus far have been passed down since time immemorial, it is apparent that the potential teachings that have been proliferated and passed down vary wildly from region to region, temple to temple, and master to master. In this regard, the summoning of the Conclave may be interpreted by some as an attempt to establish a rigid and strict doctrine of universal truth to be followed by all, as the sun commands all the heavenly bodies to rotate around her. It may also be interpreted as an attempt to unify into one coherent doctrine a set of small variations, unified yet spread out like those waves which move in so many directions yet still come together to crash against the rocks as one, only to split and reform once again in the spray.
As Templemaster of the South, my position is tenuous. Our Temple has not yet been built, and our lands are new. This is not to say that we are distant or alien to our friends and brothers of the West and East - as we are obliged to commune with the ten thousand beings - but having been confronted with such a landscape that is so stark and barren, we have learned things that the great hubs of Inkwood and the Valley may find harder to see. What we learn, what anyone who lives in such a place as this will learn, is that of the Oneness. In those flat and pleasant plains of Inkwood, they see a flat earth and a sky above, with the mountains protruding suddenly from those depths to build their holy temple. The Open Sky is, to them, necessarily a product of holy and divine character, to which one must climb through practising the virtues for each of the ten thousand beings. One climbs the steps to eternal bliss in much the same way one must climb the steps to their temple.
Likewise, we have heard from those of the Western School who insist on that rigidity of separation, declaring they can conceive of only two things. In declaring their allegiance to void, they similarly fall into the view of two armed camps, as if the Open Sky were over here and the Substance were over there, and someone will come to give us orders on the plan of attack for tomorrow’s grand battle. Such a view causes them to reject brethren, viewing all outsiders as either the earthbending enemy, the firebending double agent, or the waterbending tortured soul. We must realise the complexities, strive beyond this dualism. To determine, to proscribe in this manner, is to view things as Substance. Our path forward can only lie in dissolution - as we all have intelligence and free action, we are all capable of becoming friends of the Void.
In the South, such views are untenable. There is no elevation here, there is only Oneness. Our mountains fold upwards and are plaited into sky, arching and floating, and we see thus that there has never been a frontline of hostilities in the conflict between Open Sky and the terror of Substance. What we see, what we know, is flux. Constantly shifting, constantly moving, pushing and striving in all directions - this is the motion of the desires, this is the motion of the Void. We move in all ten thousand directions of the Many Winds, and we see thus: Everything is different because everything is the same.
We know from our histories the struggle of the Open Sky to be reunited with her sister Void, and thus we stand shoulder-to-shoulder to face the terror of Substance. But we must not also forget that, in the Pre-Being Age, in that blessed time of pure and endless Void, the threat of totality was still conceivable and thus came forth the Endless Black. We must realise that Open Sky as the universal and totalizing ideal can never be realised as the Oneness overrides all. It remains an ideal; striven towards, yearned for, always moving away from grasp. We may slip closer and closer to it, as we feel our intuitive connection to the blessed winds; as we soar above clouds and feel what it means to be free of the horror of the Substance for just a brief moment; when we abandon even that last vestige of the flesh-prison and set our spirit free. But in each case, we are restricted. In the first two instances, our flesh-prison follows, and even to those practitioners of the Spiritual ways, their identity presents itself unified, unable to penetrate the Substance for it carries Substance of its own. While we certainly concede that the human form is not wholly Substance, for our intellectual capacities and freedom of action reflect an ambiguous directionality that could never be produced by the ugly conformism of the Substance and only by the pure Void, we are never able to abandon what we are. We may only strive.
In accepting this, many principles become clear to us. Firstly, while our airbending brethren are certainly in a uniquely advantageous position in attaining this ideal due to our unique communion, it is not impossible for those of other nations and other elements to attain it. Not only this, we have clear evidence of this from the first Templemaster of the Valley, the Righteous Templemaster Ed. As a firebender, he was offered titles and lands within the Fire Nation, then our enemy, and would have easily been able to move up the ranks to positions of high military office, in grace to his refined intelligence and wisdom. Yet he chose to decline, preferring to retain his humble position of Templemaster at a time when the Temple’s very existence was in question. The Righteous Templemaster shows us that in striving for the purity of freedom and resistance without destruction, to truly deny the Substance ground at every stage, is available to every element. We must not exclude those who are not of our elements, lest we create a quasi-Substance of “Airbender” in league with those despicable forces of the earth.
Secondly, we see that natural allies await in the Light Spirits. As Guardians of the other worlds, they have no such notions of the Substance except to reject it. They can pass through walls, move through space without moving; they are true friends and beings of the Void. While the Dark Spirits certainly represent a threat, in league as they are with monsters of the Nether and its rocky, Substance-drenched, landscape, we must do everything we can to learn from the Spirits and embrace their ways. They are not only our friends, they are our teachers.
From these principles, and our acceptance of the Oneness of the world in the eternal struggle between the Substance and Open Sky, we have derived our temple’s practises. All must learn the Ways of the Many Winds, to reject the threat of the Substance and embrace the true freedom of the Open Sky. We must commune the ten thousand lessons of the Many Winds to all of the ten thousand beings, spreading its wisdom and helping it reunite with its sister. Otherwise, the world shall consume itself and freedom with it. This is our teaching, this is our wisdom, our Empyreanism. From the beginning there was nothing; at the end, there shall be nothing.
- Proclamation of the Southern Air Temple in response to the Conclave of Inkwood*, by Templemaster Vidcom of the Southern Air Temple
Northern Empyreanism
Northern Empyreanism is a notably radical formulation of Empyreanism, possibly influenced by the early history of wars and violence that the Northern Temple began around. Unlike other schools, it emphasises "Sister Void" beneath the bedrock, rather than the Open Sky. It is known, in particular, for its radical and highly literal reading of The Way, insisting that the call to unite the Void and the Sky is to be taken as a literal declaration of war on the plane and ought not to be read as meditations on the nature of reality nor as philosophical guidance. Due to this literalism, the Northern School has often been accused of being far too radical and has even been accused of souring foreign relations with those who find the Air Nation's permissiveness to this school of thought disdainful.
“In the beginning, there was nothing. In the end, there will be nothing. The void, pure and clean, was all things and all things were void. This was the Age of the Open Sky.”
So begins the Way of the Many Winds. The world began in a beautiful harmonious state, and so too shall it someday return. So too shall We all return. This much is clear to Us who believe the highest Truth. Yet, in this torturous meantime, We are forced to bear witness to Our humiliation, Our separation from Our Great Sister Void. We are One with Her, yet We are apart. Such is Our greatest shame.
We must also note the human separation from the Open Sky, that we are Wind trapped in a prison of flesh, blood, and bone. Some of Our faith call this a curse, but we humans are blessed. Our flesh, our blood, our bone is torture, but we people are agents of Our Open Sky and Our Sister Void. Someday we shall each cast off our flesh prisons, and rejoin Our Great Oblivion. In this torturous meantime, we, no matter what we bend, are given the gift of Service. Our Southern siblings say it well: “the responsibility of humans is to use what precious gifts given to them by the Open Sky to join it, and help end the torture of Being and exile the Substance.”
Yet none but the North have accepted the radical Truth. Those in the East seek a selfish freedom for the Airbenders, those in the West offer only praise and simple gifts, and those in the South recognize our Purpose only abstractly. Our Truth is clear: We must tear the Earth asunder. This is not metaphor. This is not poetics. This is our Service. This is Our Purpose. This is how We end our shame.
That is why We are here now at the bedrock, the most vile of the substance. We give Our greatest enemy to the Open Sky, to bring Her closer to Her Sister and strike terror into the black heart of the substance. This why We live among the Sky. We separate the substance from itself, so it might experience Our torture. We watch as it is weathered and eroded into Holy Nothingness, for, separate from itself, it may not rebuild. This is the Way that the Void may win again.
We know this to be possible. We have seen other worlds. The great hell Nether is one of endless substance and disjoint Sky. The almost heavenly dimension, the End, is one of Our Vision. Many islands, scattered across a Whole and swallowing Void. That is why Our Northern Temple is built of its stone. It is touched by a United Sky, broken down into near Oblivion.
If to fly is to be Free, then to live among Our Sky is the highest Liberty. Our City of the Sky, known as the Floating City, must ever expand through the breaking of the Earth. We must be a model for the World, so that all humanity may truly Serve.
I conclude with a reminder of Our Way, which tells Us clearly and plainly that what I have said is the Truth.
“The Open Sky calls upon its children to be free, we must answer. The Open Sky must be reunited, and we feel its efforts in every breeze.” “The Open Sky instructs us to reunite her, and so we must commit to this. The Open Sky tells us of the power and strength of Substance, and so we must rally. The Open Sky warns us of mountains, the claws of Substance, and so we counter.” “The Many Winds are devoured by flames, and so we shall extinguish them. The Many Winds are swallowed in waves, and so we float. The Many Winds are trapped in Substance, and so we break the body of the earth.”
- The Testament of Samigot, also called the Sermon to the Void, first given at Symposial Hall of the Temple to the Great Sister Void as the conclusion of the Great Conclave Above and Below.
Eastern Empyreanism
Not much is known about this school of thought. Centred around Air Temple Valley, Eastern Empyreanism emphasises rationality and oneness while also insisting that the intimacy airbenders hold with the nature of the Open Sky inherently causes them to be the only group worthy of entering the Empyrean faith. As a result, non-airbenders and even non-Temple Valley residents are usually frowned upon as converts and not permitted. No official doctrinal texts have been published, however, but this tendency towards more radical interpretations of the text has often placed the Eastern Temple in league with the Northern Temple in justifying their votes on political matters.
Western Empyreanism
Western Empyreanism, also known as Mexican Empyreanism, places a special focus on a dialectical reading of the Empyrean texts. In this view, Wind is seen to represennt the Historical motive force that urges on dialectical progression.
This doctrine was formalised at the Conclave of Mexico City, called after the region was brought back into the Air Nation following the Mexican War (known as the Great Cataclysm by Mexicans). While it shares some similarity to the Southern school, namely, the focus on the essential unity of all and the metaphysical conception of the Open Sky, the Western (Mexican) school adheres strongly to the ideals of distinction. While the Open Sky is seen as the all-encompassing Absolute, entities, such as Void, Substance, and Air to name a few, do remain distinct through the dialectical process of contraction and expansion, though the Open Sky remains immanent. Creation and The Way are seen by Western (Mexican) Empyreans to provide an account of the dialectical progression of the absolute Open Sky through the many entities and categories that exist, and their sublatory relations to one another, guided by the Wind.
This focus on dialectical relations, i. e. the supposition that each entity relies on the contraction within the Open Sky, as well as a reciprocal sublatory relationship with its antecedent and subsequent entities, forms the basis of a distinct ethical system. The dialectical process embodied in the Wind forms the ethical ground for all actions. Like the Southern schools, and in stark contrast to the Northern and Eastern schools, Western school rejects the idea that certain ethnicities, classes, or any group, even Substance itself, must be destroyed outright for they all are necessary links within the Historical process motivated by the Wind. Western Empyreans also have an ethical duty to oppose actions done "against the Wind" both to themselves, and to others.
Our Empyreanism rests upon the acknowledgment of the Open Sky as the manifold Absolute, which contracts upon itself into the concepts known as Substance, Void, and Air. These contractions and the interaction between and amongst these concepts and the Open Sky is what is represented by the doctrine of the Many Winds. However, it is not enough to simply state these claims and start our exposition by mere statement, for that is a low dogmatism, an error in method which is common to most of our Empyrean brethren, notably those of the esteemed Elysian school. Rather, we understand these concepts in the manifestation revealed to us by The Creation and The Way of the Many Winds. Creation reveals to us the immanent, and manifold nature of the Open Sky, and the Way outlines the path for which the Absolute Open Sky may be beheld and its Historical development more clearly understood. Thus, the Absolute nature of the Open Sky is revealed to us in a dialectical manner by following the Many Winds, viz. the Wind is positioned as the dialectical process that governs and reveals this progression. It is both the immanence of the Open Sky, and its constitutive element, that drives forth this immanence; “The Open Sky must be reunited, and we feel its efforts in every breeze.”
. . . .
Wind in its Truth is thus the ethical world of existence and the ethical soul of a people and Humanity at-large. In being the ground and origin for all action, it is also the ethical ground and well-spring of ethical action. Its immanence within a community provides the ethical basis for its existence, and the ground for the ethical action between individuals in the community. Yet, given the sublatory quality of the Wind and its immanence in ALL Open Sky, the distinction between community and individual is only an illusory appearance; so too is the separation between various communities; individuals are themselves both the negation and the resolution of community, and vice versa, just as Substance was the negation and resolution of Void. Many view the individual as the universal claim, yet each individual is confronted by its negation as a Sole Self from the first moment, in interaction with Family. So too has the Family claimed position as the essential monad of social interaction, yet it is confronted by the Community, which both absorbs and annihilates the Family, while preserving and expanding its manifold essence to a wider sphere and affirming its existence. This process continues through the entire sphere of social interaction, the Wind driving sublatory processes from Individual to Family, Family to Community, Community to City, City to Nation, Nation to Humanity, Humanity to Society; the Motive force between these social phases is in fact Wind in its ethical truth.
. . . .
Thus, we have revealed the Nature of the Wind and its Position in the Open Sky. Revealed Wind and its Historical and Motive force that is its ethical essence, and the physical and ethical ground for all Action and Interaction, is aware of its being-in-totality as these essences and as the True and immediate essential process of the Open Sky. Through conceptualizing and understanding Wind and these manifold qualities, we understand the Nature of History, Society, and lead ourselves on the path to discovering the full Absolute Nature of the Open Sky. Systematic knowledge and study must place itself in the path of the Wind and embrace its immanence within the Open Sky; the Mexican Empyrean science, through Total expansion, will reveal all the manifold and immanent qualities of the Open Sky, and contract totally to comprehend all the particularity in being of the Open Sky.
- Excerpts from On the Nature of the Wind and its Position within the Open Sky; Adapted from the Proceedings of the First Conclave of Mexico City
Practices
Unlike more centralised religions such as the Church of Fire, openness and leniency in interpretation is actively encouraged in Empyrean theology. This is reflected in the development of the five distinct schools which each hold wildly different opinions on what exactly Substance, Void, Open Sky, and other fundamental terms exactly constitute and their relationship to one another. The Templemaster acts as the supreme authority on these theologies and the development of a unique theology is sometimes discussed as a mandatory requirement for an Empyrean Temple to have legitimacy.
Temple-based worship has traditionally been the sole form of Empyrean practise, but the growth of the religion has seen new communities form outside of this requirement. In Ljouwert, an Empyrean community around a local shrine with a dedicated "Shrinemaster" leading the congregation. In the Western Protectorate, the town of Whitewood has flourished with a tower to serve local spiritual needs and a cliffside for offerings in lieu of the Elysian Temple. In the Northern Protectorate, many communities have formed different responses to a lack of a temple: Sky's Canyon refers to the nearby Northern Temple, while Highwind's highly active theological community administers a variety of spiritual services without an explicit temple apparatus. In the Western Protectorate, the town of Whitewood considers itself to be a part of the Elysian Temple in its practises.
Scriptures
History
TODO