Deoch Mass 12-29-2021 - End of another cycle.

We stand here today at the end of the 23rd cycle, nearly 185 years since Deoch finished The Spark and created the first Aisling. In these rare days before a cycle turns over, I like to take a moment and appreciate our continued time together here in Temuair.

Here is a simple message that I wrote many decades ago that I have oftentimes repeated during my last mass of each cycle as a way to look back before moving forward...

I want you to think about the time you have spent walking Temuair in this past cycle… about the faces you have encountered; about the friendships you have made or rekindled. Those memories and those feelings wouldn’t have otherwise been made absent your presence here. Know that you have enriched the lives of others, in a way that is uniquely your own. In times of great darkness, draw strength knowing that there are those that you have encountered in this existence that remember you fondly and appreciate your companionship.

To that end, think of those that have come before. Those you did not see these past eight Deochs. Although they are not with us, let them occupy your minds during this time of remembrance. The memories you have made together and the feelings that you shared. These moments are the thread of our lives. Vital are these past threads as they helped weave you into the person you are today; countless interconnected strands forming a multicolored tapestry created little by little during your time here in Temuair.

Go into this new cycle thinking about the future, what lies ahead as we continue to navigate an uncertain fate here in this dream. There is still time to make an impact in the community if that is something you aspire to. Still a chance to contribute your own distinctive addition to the legacy of Aisling kind; a legacy that has been built up by so many that came before. 

Let us be thankful for one another and for this gathering place. Let us look to Deoch for guidance in the upcoming cycle. I look forward to being with you all in the time ahead; let us continue to shine the Spark for as long as the gods deem this dream drift the aether.

Deoch Mass 12-8-2021 - Stories

The very first Aislings told stories. They would gather in taverns, fairs, the glade, and of course in temples; there they would share their inspiration with one another.

Why? Not merely because it was a good excuse to sit around and down pints of mead, rum, or wine… although it was _also_ that. And a mighty fine excuse it is. But… no, they did it because it was in their nature.

Telling stories is at the very core of the Aisling Spirit. Whether they take the form of heroic myths, fae inspired poems, tales of the gods, or just our shared history; the stories Aislings tell have enriched Temuair through the cycles in a way that Mundanes no longer can.

Stories grow out of our lives, like the roots that grow out of trees. This land is filled with the unseen roots of stories. The stories that Aislings have told through the ages have grown the narrative of this world. The legacy of our kind.

Sadly, storytellers have become a rarer breed over time. Without them, we lose our unique identity and Temuair becomes like any other land drifting in the domain of dreams.

That makes it more important than ever to tell our stories here and now. As much as our bodies require food and drink, so too do our souls have need of stories for sustenance. Without them, the Aisling spirit starves and the lush backdrop of Temuair ceases to grow.

I ask you to support those storytellers that still carry the bounty of the Spirit. Support them until you, yourself, find the voice to tell your own stories; joining with the chorus of all those who came before.

For all the stories that we have yet to tell and the ones we will yet create with one another, let us bow our heads in prayer.

Deoch Mass 12-1-2021 - Fulfilling Needs

Those that awaken in Temuair come seeking something; guided here by needs left unfulfilled in their waking life. That life, perhaps, perfectly enjoyable and pleasant outside of one missing aspect… or, instead, a life less idealistic with many hardships and unfulfilled needs. No matter what circumstances draw the dream spirit to awaken your Aisling self, this land offers an opportunity at something missing from the waking world.

This may be the way Temuair connects so strongly with those who have dreamed here. Having one’s needs fulfilled creates a powerful attachment. Between friends, between lovers, and between places. There are few things more satisfying… more comforting… than having one’s missing needs fulfilled.

Some of these spring from a need to test our mettle: the need to adventure, for challenge and competition. Others come from the desires of the heart: the
need for friendship, companionship, and belonging. Taking the time to search them out, Temuair can fill these and many more.

As time passes, needs change as they inevitably do. Such is their way, altering in ways both subtle and drastic. With these changes you may find yourself dreaming less and less of Temuair. Fret not, it happens to us all with time. The spirit finds other ways to fulfill certain needs and old ways fade into the aether. Or maybe this land becomes less adept in the ways it once was strong… Temuair itself is also ever changing.

But it is Temuair’s ability to fill our needs that brings many of us back here time and time again. For there are always new needs looking to be fulfilled in familiar ways and, of course, the everlasting need to look back upon our past… to places that helped us along the way.

Deoch Mass 11-24-2021 - Counting Blessings

The Eulogy is upon us. That time honored tradition where the many races of Temuair come together to worship an aspect of our Lady Danaan and remember Her sacrifice to seal away Chadul. It is a ceremony so revered that you’ll even see many long lapsed Aislings return to Temuair briefly to take part in the rites.

This is a time of remembrance and thankfulness not only for Danaan but also in our everyday lives. The worlds in which we exist, be they in this dream or otherwise, can be filled with so much darkness that a reminder to take a moment to remember the Light in our lives is a welcome one.

When I look back upon my life here in Temuair, I recognize the many blessings I have been given. I have been a part of three wonderful guilds that have been as family to me. I count a great many Aislings as friends and colleagues, their friendships have made me a better person over time. I have also been fortunate to have found love, perhaps the greatest of all the blessings.

And then there is being blessed with people like all of you here, those who humble me by coming to hear words in Deoch’s temple. Temuair has brought me a wealth of inspiration and been an enrichment of my life, and for that I will always be thankful.

So, what is it that you are thankful for? Take a moment to count the blessings of Light in your life; sometimes just setting aside a moment to do so can put things back into perspective.

Recognize the Light in your life; stave off the darkness that tries so hard to engulf us all. Let this be the lesson we carry forward from this time of Eulogy.

Deoch Mass 11-3-2021 - Temuair's Continued Existence

 

Certainly Temuair has changed in a myriad of ways since the time I was sparked. There are times of reflection when I weep for those bright days of the past, for friends decades missing, and for the culture of the time that helped mold me as a fresh, impressionable Aisling.

From time to time you will come across a voice that will suggest Temuair would have been better off destroyed at the tail end of that golden era rather than be allowed to stagnate for these many decades since. Although I long for the Temuair of my youth, I do not share this profound negativity.

I have ‘returned’ to this land more times than I can remember. Those returns are usually precipitated by a hint of nostalgia, bringing my dreams back to Temuair so I can experience the countless locked away memories of a sentimental old man. I am most grateful for the ability to dream here whenever I wish and experience that rush of emotions once again remembered.

But also, every time I have returned, I find there is still Light here in Temuair. For certain, the days of my youth were as bright as Danaan’s sun. But it would be a mistake to say there is none of that old style ‘Aisling culture’ still beating in Temuair even now. I often find my mind impressed and my heart warmed by those that continue to hold the traditions of old. And even by those who have developed their own new traditions all their own for which they call Temuair ‘home’.

If you find that your memories here in Temuair are worth revisiting someday, consider taking up the mantle of service. Any position, no matter how little, contributes to the greater whole. Or, should your waking mind be too preoccupied to expend such dedication in this dream, then please instead send a ‘thank you’ to those that do take up that mantle.

Thank your political leaders, arena hosts, teachers, members of the Suomi Troupe, contest hosts, knights, and yes even the Rangers. For it is the collective dedication of these people that Temuair continues to exist.

It is my hope that this land will continue to survive into the very distant future. Allowing me to continue reliving old memories and even making a few new ones whenever I desire to dream of Temuair. 

Deoch Mass 10-27-2021 - Regular Mass Returns and an Old Message

The other day, I was dusting off a mostly forgotten shelf and came across a book of my old sermons. Opening and reading that collection gave me the inspiration to restart this regular mass in hopes that there are still those in Temuair that wish to hear words inside Deoch’s temple. It may take some time to rebuild a congregation; it is, after all, quite a long walk all the way here to Suomi. I also encourage anyone, regardless of your religious affiliation to attend.

Now then, as we go forward with this new mass, I first wanted to first offer an old message from that dusty book, one that I find myself thinking about often:


Darkness.
There are two types that we face every day; that from the outside and that from within.

Unlike its ghastly extravagant scions on the battlefield, the Darkness inside of us is subtle and patient. It is insidiously watching for a stray thought or feeling to latch on to for its opportunity to grow into something bigger.

Once it gains control it can be stifling, controlling, and all encompassing. A relentless predator from which escape is no easy task.

The Dark delights in solitude and in denial, because it knows .. it fears... the power of the Light. It will whisper seeds of self-doubt and self-hatred into our thoughts, seeking to isolate us from the outside world. It knows that once exposed, it is especially vulnerable to outside Lights coming in aid.

For those of us struggling with our internal Darkness, I say: do not hide your struggles. Share them with someone you trust, so that they may reach out their hands to you and connect their Light to yours.

Darkness can swirl as fiercely as the Maelstrom. It’s roar and winds do not subside quietly in the face of opposition. But within that storm, the Light persists… boosted by other Lights bonded together… to shelter us as we await the break in the storm that sits over the horizon.

Philosophy - Aislings: The Dreamers

 

(Note: The following is a work of unsubmitted non-contest philosophy. It is unrelated to Deoch Temple but it does concern Deoch in some ways so I'm also including it here.)

Aislings - The Dreamers
by Landon in the 183rd Deoch


Introduction
Spirit of the Dreamer
Temuair as a Dreamland
Temuair’s Transformation
Conclusion
A1. Inspiration and Thanks
A2. Glossary of Terms



Introduction

It has been said that Aisling means ‘dreamer’ in the old tongue. Even in the beginning, whoever bestowed on to us that name knew exactly what we were. And it's not that we didn’t realize it ourselves. The very laws of Temuair and the social pressures were organized strictly so that we did not consider speaking the simple truth. Those pressures have faded with time but the taboo has in some part remained.

The Spark of Danaan is what transforms someone from the simple life of a Mundane to the inspired one of an Aisling. Debates about the nature of the Spark are as old and unresolved as the first dawning. I think it can be said without controversy that the Spark is many things, but the focus of this work is the contention that a formative aspect of The Spark is that it carries with it the Spirit of the Dreamer.


Spirit of the Dreamer

When a new Aisling is reborn in Temuair, the Spark connects with a Mundane and creates a new life entirely. As we have all experienced, when you awake as an Aisling for the first time knowledge about your former life as a Mundane is vague at best… memories from the drudgery of your former everyday life is fleeting in the face of your new, more independent reality.

Rinoa, the inn keeper of the Mileth, has guided Aislings back to this forgotten Mundane life since the beginning, through her own good will or the prompting of some greater calling. It is when, through much self-inflection, we reconnect with our Mundane birth that we become a unified whole once again.

How is it that the Spark influences the mind of a Mundane so completely that we have little to no recollection of our former lives after our transformation; leaving us to rely on someone else to help rebuild those memories? A simple explanation is one of ‘replacement’: that when a Mundane is gifted the Spark, their memories are overshadowed by stronger, more prevalent ones.

This explains why newly Sparked Aislings are so disoriented, frequently not recognizing even where they are when they awaken in the Mileth Inn. This is because a part of them -- the part that prevails through the Joining -- is literally in a new place they have never been before. The Spirit of the Dreamer embodies and alters the host body and mind so significantly that it transforms into an entirely new race: The Aisling.

This process is not so much a pairing of host and symbiont as the Mundane that we once were is changed irrevocably by this process. By all known experience, the joining of Mundane and The Spark is violent and non-reversible. Two separate entities literally become a new one.


Temuair as a Dreamland

The Spark contains the Spirit of the Dreamer, an essential and unique aspect that makes the Aisling what they are. These spirits are non-native to Temuair, so we need to establish the origin of Temauir’s ability to play host to these spirits.

To ground our theory, we propose that Temuair is a fixed place in the aether where dreams can occur called a ‘Dreamland’. Before that, however, we must start with the basic concept of a ‘dreamspace’, the foundations of all dreams. Dreamspaces are, simply put, constructs created as a byproduct of dreaming. Limitless locations in the aether that exist so the spirit has a place to exist while the body sleeps.

Have you ever been listening to someone describe their dream only to realize that you also had that same dream? Or that someone recalls you being in a dream of theirs? In this situation, the both of you occupied the same dreamspace -- a rare occurrence, but not unheard of.

The problem with dreamspaces is that they are transient and fickle. Only experienced and dedicated dreamers can ever conjure themselves into the same dreamspace repeatedly but eventually even the most skilled dreamer loses their link to one specific formation.

This is what sets Temuair apart. Temuair, in itself, is not a traditional dreamspace. Aside from minor interruptions, Temuair is perpetually anchored and has yet never dissipated back into the aether. It has been reliably dreamable for nearly two hundred Deochs and is a place that multiple dreamers share with simple ease.

Temuair is unique in this way because it is not a native dreamspace. We know this because Temuair also has a long and rich history prior to its ability to host dream spirits. We see that, looking back on the rich history of Temuair, the term ‘Aisling’ doesn't not exist until Deoch finished Danaan’s work, the Spark. Thus, this paper surmises that we were the first Dreamers to inhabit Temuair. This means that Temuair, in all of its rich history of events, people, and places are not wholly creations of the dream aether but became accessible to dreams some other way.

If this is the case then what was the catalyst that changed the very nature of Temuair? What first brought Dreamers here?


Temuair’s Transformation

As the legend says, when Deoch finished The Spark of Danaan, He created the first Aisling. This theory contends that the moment when Deoch finished the final weaving, He also sundered Temuair open to the dream aether and established its status as a unique Dreamland.

I do not think He could have fully anticipated this outcome. For what the myths and teachings of religions tell us of Danaan and Deoch; they are essentially polar opposites. Danaan, a goddess of pure Light and Deoch, a creature born of Darkness. Again, keeping with widely accepted religious teachings: prior to Danaan’s disappearance, She had begun work on what we would later call ‘The Spark’. After Danaan’s sacrifice to seal away Chadul, Deoch took place in Her stead to finish the work She left behind.

The combination of Her initial weaving and His subsequent work could not have been immediately compatible; everything we know about the elements suggest it is more likely that it must have been drastically and violently incompatible. The lengths Deoch must have gone through to keep Danaan’s building blocks stable while He tied it all together are unthinkable; unknowable. This impossible pairing is so antithetical to the concepts we know in elemental theory and metaphysics that it is my contention that its finished creation shattered Temuair’s underlying magicks irreplicability.

It is my theory that it was this violent moment that Temuair cracked open to the dream realm and because the creation of the newly finished Spark caused the rift, it became the de facto vessel that bridged this world and the aether of dreams. The Spark; newly created with fresh, unique energy drew in dream spirits and delivered them to Mundane hosts.

Without both the sundering of Temuair and the creation of the Spark as a pure vessel for spirits, this outcome could not have come to pass.


Conclusion

In the early Deochs after the creation of The Spark and the awakening of the first Aisling, laws against heresy were commonplace; the guard forces of both Mileth and Rucesion were stocked with multiple guards that kept a watchful eye against Heresy every single day. I, myself, was even a multiple term guard of Rucesion around the turn of the second decade.

I did not need to be told what heresy was, none of us did.. Although the law books attempted to define heresy, none of us needed such granular guidance. We Aislings had an intrinsic understanding of what constituted heretical speech. The reason for this innate knowledge is simple: a part of our being originated from a heretical world -- a very different world than the one that we inhabit now. Each Aisling carries with them varying remembrances from these memories and many choose not to ever speak of them if they do have them.

For this paper, I do not make a value judgement of those that remember their waking lives and choose to speak the heresies we were so long forbit from speaking. However, I instead offer an affirmation: As Aislings, we are born into a new life. Whatever form we take while we are awake, that life is one best lived in that waking world. While in this world -- this Dreamland of Temuair, we have the opportunity to live an entirely different and unique existence. I encourage everyone to celebrate the fantastical set of circumstances that brought us here to Temuair as Dreamers and gave us a whole new life to live.


Inspiration and Thanks

Many thank yous to current and former guildmates of Tuatha de Deo, some of whom have balked when I mention that I have over a dozen unfinished papers and their prompting of me to finally finish one of them. Additional thank yous to the scores of friends and family I have made in Temuair through-out the many cycles. Never could I have imagined a life so full of inspiration and friendship before I dreamed as an Aisling.


Glossary of Terms

Aether - The space between everything; where you are when you aren’t anyplace else. There are multiple categories of aether, each a domain of different cosmological forces. This work in-particular concerns itself with the dream aether: the aether plane where dreams take place.

Aisling - A race of people created from the joining of a Mundane with The Spark. Aislings are characterized by independence, creativity, and ability to pursue their whims. Aislings are sometimes referred to derogatorily as ‘mutants’ because of the way they are created.

Danaan - The Goddess of Light. Led multiple wars against Darkness and the forces of Chadul after the discovery of the Light element. Danaan is said to have sacrificed Herself to seal away Chadul in the year Danaan 3292.

Deoch - Although stories of His origins vary; Deoch was originally the God of Debauchery, a powerful creature of Darkness. The legends say that Deoch fell in love with Danaan, betraying His nature, and becoming the God of Inspiration for His role in finishing Danaan’s work on ‘The Spark’.

Dreamland - A unique type of dreamspace that persists; resisting dissipation through some intervening force.

Dreamspace - A location within the dream aether. Typically a fleeting space that exists for one spirit to dream, although exceptions do occur.

Mundanes - A race of people native to Temuair. Ostensibly, Mundanes are said to lack the willpower or creativity to alter their predestined fates.

Spark - A metaphysical force created from the work of both Danaan and Deoch. From the legend of the creation of the Aisling: The Spark was the work of Danaan that was finished by Deoch after Danaan’s disappearance. It is said that in being granted this finished Spark is what transforms Mundanes into Aislings.

Spirit of the Dreamer - A consciousness that occupies the dream aether when its originating mind is asleep.