== Semdaeism == From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia
Semdaeism is a modern religious movement that was founded in Australia by the Arrikirri of the four pointed star in 2019, it is a polytheistic religion that features omnism as a central belief and believes in the existence of every single god throughout the religions but believes that they exist under their own interpretation and that the gods are subservant to their own pantheon named the 'Kono and states that not every religion is true. It also features worship around the messianic figure the king, who is said to be King Arthur. The religious movement also teaches enlightenment through the Eight Heavenly Laws and that kings are the descendents of gods and that they are in fact living gods themselves that needed to be respected and worshiped upon death.
== Etymology == The Name Semdae comes from the combination of two Proto-Indo-European words which get their meaning from their descended words. The first word *Sem, means one or together and the word Dae which is a corruption of the word *Diewos which makes the name Semdae mean Together gods. An Alternative name is Semhenism which is used to denote when someone only worships a 'kono and not a god, the meaning behind this is Sem, which means together and Henh which means to breathe. this word later became *anm in Tocharian which denoted spirit.
== Beliefs ==
Semdaeism has a wide array of beliefs and practises mostly surrounding the after life, enlightenment and the existance of divine beings and supernatural forces that act upon the world.
=== afterlife and the soul ===
The Semdaen afterlife believes that depending on who you were in life and your religion you will go to a different afterlife, the most common afterlife is that the people will be taken by the lord of death, Nytshu, to a place called the death trail where they will be lead by reindeer down the trail before being confronted by the death titan Ayun. There he will divide their soul into two pieces, one part becoming part of the ancestor spirits (Lystche) and the other part of the soul moving on to become reincarnated (Katra). The soul that gets reincarnated (Katra) is then believed to move onto a palace that is owned by a goddess named Hurkino, who is also referred to as peach princess or celestial princess. There the soul will dine and stay in the palace until a chthonic deity comes to take them to their appropriate afterlife which is dependent on their religion, those without religion becoming reincarnated and those that are Semdaen going to meet their respective 'Kono in their afterlife. If one completes the way to enlightenment (Bhilis) then they become what is referred to as a Mereg or an enlightened king, where if they die they get taken by lord Nytshu past the death trial and avoid getting divided by Ayun. They are then taken directly to the king and become gods and servants in his court. Finally, if you were executed or sacrificed for being a criminal the lord of pain and suffering, Miliwyimbe will come and inspect your soul, if you were in the wrong and the community was in the right to execute you, he will bring your soul to a hell to be tortured or torture you himself. But if you were judged to be good in the eyes of the 'Kono he brings suffering to the community, this does not cover self sacrificing which isn't judged.
=== Altars ===
The largest and most common way Semdaens worship the gods and the 'kono is through idols which are then placed on the altar, the home altar is central to the Semdaen religion and it is required that a person have made on in order to properly become Semdaen. The Semdaen altar is done in a very particular style and requires various specific items for religious purposes and giving offerings, these items are: * Plarom a clothe to cover the entire space * Klijo a clothe that divides the table down the middle * Domos a libations bowl, placed infront of the klijo * An idol of ones cultic 'kono placed on the klijo * An idol of the king placed on the klijo * An idol of ones personnel 'Kono placed on the klijo * Srwos a peacock shaped candle holder, placed in front of the klijo * Strutjos ancestor skull, holds incense, placed in front of the altar * Asis An urn for burning offerings Behind the klijo various images of other worshipped gods can be placed in order to worship other gods alongside the 'Kono, this is common amongst people who converted from polytheistic religions to Semdaeism.
===Offerings and prayer===
Semdaens take part in various forms of offerings and prayer in order to obtain virtue and gain favour from the various 'kono and the gods, this can be done in multiple ways however the most common form offering is paper prayer, where someone writes down their prayer to the gods and then burns it. Apart from that Semdaens also take part in a daily and nightly prayer at midday and midnight where they invoked multiple gods and 'Kono, the average prayer will call upon the Semdaen lords of time (Xenesates, Xenerates, Xenetates, Xenekates and Xenematres) for their protection and continued virtue, depending on the time, the Semdaen will invoke either the lord Skirephet or the lady Cho'ken for their protection and also that they remain in virtue. Finally the Semdaen will invoke their cultic 'kono with their own personnel desires. Offer forms of offering include live sacrifice, blood, honey and food, often these sacrifices are taken to be by a sacred tree or place that was deemed holy, after the food had been offered and rites had been received the Semdaens would pour out their offerings on the land and leave their food out to be taken by animals.
== 'Kono ==
Semdaeism is a polytheistic religion that believes in multiple deities, this includes the gods of other religions however, Semdaeism worships a particular set of godlike figures that are named the 'Kono, these are beings that are normally humans that went on a pilgrimage that is named Agro. When they have done this they meet with a Semdaen creator god named Pono where they are then given the power to become 'Kono. Forever Semdaen there are two principle 'Kono, the cultic 'Kono and the personnel 'kono, the cultic 'kono acts like the patron or matron god for the Semdaen and the personnel 'Kono act as a guardian angel. The personnel 'kono are given an idol through the Zodiac system, where an mythical beast is given to represent the 'kono depending on which year you were born in, worship of the personnel 'kono is done on the altar primarily and cannot e achieved in a Domos or Yageh.
=== Cultic 'Kono === The cultic 'kono are the major 'kono of the Semdaen religion, often the main focus of the Semdaens worship, they normally also represent themselves as animals, however as they were human it is more common to find a image of them in a human form, often obscuring their face with masks or other implements. The cultic 'Kono are:
| God | Role |
|---|---|
| Vlkngel | The lady of life and love, commonly represented with the wild white goose, connected with fertility, mother of Zatra and Ateni |
| Ferone | The lord of fire and warfare, commonly represented with the ram, considered a warrior 'Kono, married to the lord Akune. |
| Nasure | The lady of Nature, connected to fetility, represents herself as the green sanke married to the lord Nytshu. |
| Skirephet | The 'kono of the Sun and warfare, represents himself with the elephant, a warrior 'kono. |
| Nytshu | 'Kono of death and dying, represents himself as the reindeer, married to the lady Nasure. |
| Borealis | The 'Kono of the hunt, represented by the predatory animal, married to the lady Luscious. |
| Akune | The 'Kono of the sea and water, represented by the leviathan, married to the lord Ferone. |
| Zatra | Lord of the storms, son of Vlkngel and brother to Ateni |
| Meintau | Lady of the moon, represented by the coyote. |
These are some of the more important 'Kono that are present in the Semdaen mythological system and are directly worshipped by Semdaens.
== King Arthur ==
A widely worshipped and revered person in Semdaeism, the central belief is that King Arthur was a king that prophesied by the 'Kono, when he came about he is said to have enacted all eight gnowas and began to unite all of the worlds religions as he was destined to do so. When the Abrahamic God saw this he sent out armies to stop him, this is including various serpents and armies, the 'kono stepped in to help the king withstand the assault.
Upon his death it is said that the lady Vlkngel had declared that he was the king of everything, including the various 'Kono and gods and that he was going to come back and send the world into a golden age, uniting all of the world into a single religion and ruling the entire world, setting a massive clan confederacy.
== enlightenment ==
There are three ways into enlightenment in Semdaeism, enlightenment normally means that one has attained enough virtue that they are allowed to become a god upon death, normally meaning that the virtous man or woman was serving the king in their afterlife in his court.
=== Bhilis ===
The most common of the Semdaen afterlives, it is the longest of the afterlives and one needs to reincarnate several times to complete it. In order to achieve Bhilis one must achieve a lesser enlightenment called Gnowa for each of the eight heavenly laws in Semdaeism
The eight heavenly laws are eight principle rules that all Semdaens must follow in order to attain virtue and achieve Bhilis, these eight heavenly laws are said to come from eight different tribes that went out to the 'Kono to give them eight different laws for humanity to live by, these laws however are never strict and rarely give out actual rules instead giving a guide of how one should live their life the eight rules are: # Deh of Africa, land of death and the land of the cults of the dead. The primary law is the respect for the dead, this means that the dead will not be insulted, the dead’s tombs will only be disturbed according to custom and that the family not be disturbed, this law will be carried out by the ancestor spirits, the lystche and they will bring harm in serious offenders # Leuk of India, the land of faith and the land of the worshippers. The primary law here is the respect and adoration of the gods, it is extremely important to the ‘Kono that the gods are respected properly and that they are not shown in excess and in vain, this means that straight up insulting random gods, making stories that aren’t accurate to the gods and making images of the gods that aren’t within their allowance or parodying them is not allowed, carried out by the gods themselves # Webh of Asia, the land of weaving and the land of the story tellers. The primary law of the land is the law of creativity, it states that all work must not be a simple task of copying and that all human beings have the inate ability of creativity, the ‘Kono and I equally favour creativity and despise the simple copy, there is no particular group to enforce this law # Mer of Australia, the land of nature and the land of those that keep the cycle. the Law here is the rule that all life is equal under the sight of the ‘Kono and all life must play in the endless cycle of brith life sacrifice and death, it is the law that states that animals in life must be treated fair and that all creatures must be sacrificed in accordance to the proper manner (slitting the throats with a sickle after being fed grain) # Nos of North America, the land of community and of the great confederation. this law is the community and teaches that while human nature is the individual it is the individual that seeks community, it teaches to understand yourself within the community and to be of the community and to help defend the community and follow their laws particularly if they are native to the land, that their language is the language you should learn # Heug of South America, the land of blood and the land of the blood worshipers. this law is the land of the sacred and teaches that one should always act as if in a constant state of being watched by the ‘Kono, this means the following of the laws and observation of the daily and nightly prayer and the giving of the proper offerings which are burnt in the proper way # Gwhen Europe, the land of Martial and the land of the raiders. the law here is to keep yourself skilled in fighting and to carry around the altar sword, this law was given to man by the ‘Kono themselves, the law also requires you keep this blade in perfect condition # Wied of Antartica which is the land that is untamed and the land of few people The law here is of knowledge, the ignorant leads to harm, it leads to breaking of the eight primary laws and it can lead to the harm and death of many people, so you are required to be in a state of learning, the objective to understand what you don’t understand and to learn what you haven’t learnt and most importantly the study of religion and philosophy and the knowledge of many gods and their tales and how you will retell their stories to the people
After achieving gnowa eight times by each of the laws a soul will be reincarnated as a Mereg, which is the name of a wise or otherwise enlightened king, after the death of a Mereg their soul is then taken by Nytshu to become a god in the court of the king Arthur.
=== Itrdae ===
It is the enlightenment of the high clergy within Semdaeism, one can only become enlightened in Itrdae if they become apart of the Semdaen high clergy and personally know the current Arrikirri.
=== Pavellion Leaf Path ===
An unknown or otherwise occultist route, it is said to give person who discovers it immortality but by what means is completely unknown.
== Organisation ==
The Semdaen religion is an organised religion with there being several layers of clergy with the Arrikirri being at the top. The priesthood is divided into four different orders that have minimal influence under the current Arrikirri. Instead it falls upon the leaders of the said priestly orders to organise and teach the priests of Semdaen rites and ceremony. Arrikirris are the head of the Semdaen religion, however they have minimal power of the priesthoods, instead Arrikirris only write in the central holy text which is named the book of spirits which is made up of eleven different books currently, each Arrikirri will add atleast eight different books to the text that expand upon it religiously, an Arrikirri cannot remove a book from the text.
== See Also ==