The Old Ways                                                    Celarus                                                                                                                                                            )	    X    i	  
      The Old Ways:  The Customs and Philosophy  of Grave and Faithful  Council         We who know the Old Ways are well aware of the existence of a spiritual world invisible to the unenlightened. Just as one living in a kingdom but unaware of the political machinations may see a new tax or battle preparation as capricious fortune, many observe floods, famines, and madness with helpless incomprehension. This is deplorable. As the great Cuilean Darnizhaan moaned, "The power of ignorance can truly shatter mithril like glass."   What, after all, is the origin of these spiritual forces that move the invisible strings of Mundus? Any neophyte of Artaeum knows that the spirits are our ancestors, and that, while living, they too were bewildered by the spirits of their ancestors, and so on to the original Acharyai. The daedra and gods the common people turn to are no more than the spirits of superior men and women whose power and passion granted them great influence in the phantom world. Certainly, this is our truth and our religion, but how does it help us in our sacred duty to seliffrnsae, or "provide grave and faithful counsel"?   Firstly, we can easily grasp the necessity of both bringing good men great power and making powerful men good. We recognize the multiple threats that a strong tyrant represents -- he breeds cruelty which feeds the daedra Boethiah and hatred which feeds the daedra Vaernima; if he should he die performing a particularly malevolent act, he may go to rule in Oblivion; worst of all, he inspires other villians to power and other rulers to villiany. Knowing this, we have developed patience in our dealings with such despots. They should be crippled, humiliated, impoverished, imprisoned. Other counselors than we may advocate assassination or warfare, which, aside from its spiritual significance, is expensive, aleatric, and likely to cause at least as much pain to innocents as the brutish dictator was inflicting. No, we are intelligence gathers, dignified diplomats, not revolutionaries.   How, then, are our counselors "faithful"? We are faithful only to the Old Ways -- it is essential always to remember the spiritual world in watching our world. Performing the Rites of Moawita on the 2nd of Hearth Fire and the Vigyld on the 1st of Second Seed are essential means of empowering the salutary ghosts and debilitating the unclean spirits. How, then, are we faithful to those we counsel and to the Isle of Artaeum?   Perhaps the sage Taheritae said it best: "In Mundus, conflict, disparity is what brings change, and change is most sacred of all the eleven forces. Change is the force without focus or origin, and it is the duty of the disciplined Psijic (enlightened one) to dilute change where it brings  greed, gluttony, sloth, ignorance, prejudice, cruelty ... (Taheritae lists the 111 Prodigalities) ... and to encourage change where it brings excellence, beauty, happiness, and enlightenment. As such, the faithful counsel has but one master, his mind. If the man the Psijic counsels acts wickedly and brings oegnithr "bad change"  and will not be counselled, it is the Psijics duty to counterbalance the oegnithr by any means necessary."   A student of the Old Ways may indeed vassal himself to a lord, but it is a risky relationship. Should the lord refuse wise counsel and order the Psijic (to use Taheritae's out-moded word) to perform an act contrary to the teachings of the Old Ways, there are few available options. The Psijic may abandon his lord, which will bring shame on him and the Isle of Artaeum, and so may never be allowed home again. The Psijic may also kill himself.   