Sanguis Astroism/Writings/Flowrestown Theses
Flowrestown Theses
1. The Divine Bloodstars require that we recognize and worship their divinity.
2. This divinity cannot be human, nor can be attained by a human, for no human can become comparable to the Bloodstars.
3. All believers can recognize and feel the effects of the divine Bloodstars.
4. And yet the Prophet is said to be the only perfect teacher of the Bloodstars.
5. However we cannot worship the Prophet as he is inferior to the Bloodstars.
6. We can listen to his message as the perfect tool of the Bloodstars to gain guidance to our understanding.
7. But that should never dull our own senses to the feelings the Bloodstars effect in each of us.
8. Thus never should we confuse the instrument with the source.
9. Yet there are those who pay attention too much to the Prophet's words and not to the Bloodstars beyond.
10. Human words cannot fully communicate the message of the Divine.
11. Even if the Prophet's body were able to contain and to transmit the voice of the Bloodstars, no one else has the ears to hear it in its full purity.
12. Thus we never truly understand the divinity of the Bloodstars completely.
13. We can each feel the effects of the Bloodstars through varying degrees.
14. We cannot explain some effects, whereas others we can describe to an extent.
15. The only sensations we can know are our own.
16. It is possible to feel warm when another might feel cold.
17. Thus it is possible that the same Bloodstars can have different effects on different people.
18. We cannot call people wrong for believing their own sensations because we cannot know what they feel.
19. Thus we cannot accurately judge everyone's response to the Bloodstars.
20. In the absence of complete knowledge as humans we are free to pursue knowledge.
21. The Prophet has even encouraged challenges and self-discovery of the Bloodstars' truths.
22. But no one can understand the full truths of the Bloodstars except for the Prophet.
23. And no one, not even the Prophet, can communicate, in the world of humans and in the human speech, the full truth of the Bloodstars.
24. So it is up to us as individuals to determine the remaining truths we can glimpse.
25. As imperfect recipients of the Bloodstars' divine truths, we cannot accurately understand these truths.
26. Thus we hazard imperfect conclusions for our own conditions.
27. This is for the Prophet to correct through guidance.
28. No other humans, being imperfect in themselves and also subject to incorrect conclusions, have any right to force change upon other followers.
29. Thus only the Prophet has the true power to declare heresy.
30. All others claim a faulty foundation upon which they base their evaluation of truths.
31. But it is the believer's duty to worship the Bloodstars.
32. Proper worship requires understanding of that which is worshipped.
33. The Prophet can provide guidance to facilitate understanding, but no one can feel the same sensations as the Prophet.
34. Thus no one can truly understand completely the Prophet's teachings.
35. If no one can completely understand the Prophet's teachings, then far be it in anyone's reach to completely understand even a fraction of the Bloodstars' divine truths.
36. However a believer cannot be restricted from independently seeking to understand the Bloodstars' divine truths.
37. To do so would abrogate the believer's ability to worship the Bloodstars.
38. And to force a believer only to accept the Prophet's words would be idolatry of the Prophet.
39. That is because the believer follows only the Prophet's words about the Bloodstars.
40. The proper way is to feel the Bloodstars' influence first, and to listen to the Prophet's words as guidance.
41. No one has the right to influence the beliefs of any believer except for the Prophet.
42. For only the Prophet has true understanding both of his teachings and the divine truths.
43. Thus only the Prophet can claim to know what is correct belief and what is false belief.
44. There is no wrong in coming to incorrect conclusions so long as such beliefs are corrected.
45. Furthermore there it is beneficial that wrong conclusions might be made known and preserved among the believers to show what is known to be false.
46. This will prevent others from making similar mistakes.
47. However several believers have taken to burning supposedly dangerous books.
48. This does not advance the Church; rather, it degenerates it by destroying what might have been instrumental in teaching future generations what mistakes to avoid, and how to avoid making those mistakes.
49. Human regulations have seen it fit to implement a "Magistratum" of imperfect human judges.
50. They find it more important to regulate belief according to the words of the Prophet rather than to assist in facilitating a growth towards better understanding.
51. This is no different than idolizing the Prophet, for it is not the Prophet's words that are the pinnacle of the faith, but the divine truths of the Bloodstars.
52. But instead of helping believers correct mistakes and seek the divine truths, they seek instead to isolate, to contain, to villify, all innovators and challengers who might have come to conclusions contradicting the Prophet's words.
53. This they call "Heresy".
54. But only the Prophet can truly know what "heresy" is, and yet the imperfect "Magistratum" seeks to render such judgments in the Prophet's name.
55. However, only the Prophet knows the nature of his words, and the imperfect Magistratum cannot know absolutely whether an individual's conclusions truly contradict the Prophet's words.
56. Furthermore, human words can communicate divine words to mean different things in human interpretation than they would have meant to the divine.
57. Unfortunately humans cannot understand the divine.
58. The Prophet is able to understand the divine truths, but even though he can speak in human speech, the divine truths are not completely communicated intact, as human speech has limitations, and human ears of imperfect believers have even more limitations.
59. Thus it is not in the capability of the Magistratum alone to determine whether a conclusion of divine truth in fact contradicts the words of the Prophet, because they cannot interpret the divine truths as the Prophet can.
60. The Prophet has given many sermons on the effects of the Bloodstars.
61. It is said that the Maddening invokes passions and makes the blod boil, but what would make one believer's blood boil might not make another's.
62. This is compounded when the Prophet said that all individuals respond differently to the Bloodstars' influence.
63. The same applies to the other Bloodstars; individuals react differently.
64. Thus it is in no one's right but the Prophet's himself to judge whether anything contradicts the divine truths of the Bloodstars.
65. And this does not apply to contradictions to all words spoken or written by the Prophet.
66. That is because the Prophet is still a human and does not always speak things imbued with the divine truths in matters not dealing with the Bloodstars.
67. And apparent contradictions of the Prophet's words in teaching of the Bloodstars cannot be judged by anyone but the Prophet himself.
68. This is because the true issue of "heresy" is whether a belief contradicts the divine truths of the Bloodstars.
69. And only the Prophet can fully understand the divine truths to make a judgment of heresy.
70. All others are acting on imperfect grounds and their judgments are unreliable.
71. No one is born a heretic.
72. No one who truly believes in the divine truths of the Bloodstars can be called a heretic.
73. Even if one is deemed by the Prophet to have contradicted his words as well as the divine truth, in correcting one's beliefs, that individual is not a heretic.
74. And so long as an individual holds to the belief that the Bloodstars are divine, that there are divine truths within, that only the Prophet can fully understand these divine truths, that person cannot be called a heretic.
75. The Magistratum has tried to bring heresy charges against an individual for what they believe to be deception of the Magistratum.
76. But that has nothing to do with belief in the Bloodstars' divinity or divine truths.
77. That is a matter of moral conscience, a secular issue, and not one of belief.
78. Thus the Magistratum is overstepping their authority in seeking to pronounce anyone a heretic based on actions unrelated to the divine truths of the Bloodstars, or to the acceptance that only the Prophet has full understanding of the divine truths.
79. In giving authority to police beliefs in the divine to imperfect interpretors of the divine, there can only be imperfect judgment.
80. Thus the Magistratum is an imperfect body for determining cases of heresy.
81. Heresy had before been defined as direct contradiction of the Prophet's teachings of the divine truths of the Bloodstars, or the absolute refusal of the divine truths of the Bloodstars.
82. However one need not listen to the Prophet to believe in the divine truths that every believer can naturally feel.
83. Awareness of the Bloodstars' divine truths must come before observance of the Prophet's teachings.
84. That is because accepting the Prophet's words first before feeling any divine truths from the Bloodstars is idolatry and false belief.
85. But because people feel different sensations, the teachings of the Prophet that make sense to one person might sound vastly foreign to another.
86. An example would be a native converted to the faith, who has no knowledge of our language, who would find the Prophet's words incomprehensible.
87. But even one who can understand the Prophet's language might not understand the Prophet's message.
88. Thus it is also possible that different people will have different messages even when using the same language.
89. That is why it cannot be determined by imperfect humans, who are susceptible both to imperfect interpretation of the Bloodstars as well as imperfect interpretation of human communication, what is truly heresy.
90. And yet the Church has tried to do that on multiple occassions.
91. Let the one who doubts the truth that the Prophet understands be cursed.
92. But let he who resists the attempts by imperfect equals in the faith to control his beliefs be blessed.
93. For none but the Prophet can tell what is right and what is wrong in beliefs of the faith.
94. And the Bloodstars alone are absolute in divinity and truth.
95. Thus ultimately we believe only the divine Bloodstars.
Unless I am proven by direct intervention of the Bloodstars or by clear and reasonable arguments from the elders of the Chruch, I believe I have done no wrong. For I have not lied to anyone and the Prophet had not declared my writings heretical. My conscience is clear. Here I stand. I can do no more. Sic itur ad astra. May the Bloodstars illuminate my fate. -Garret Artemesia, First Asterion of Aquilegia, speaking to the witnesses who watched him nail the Flowrestown Theses to the temple door in Flowrestown.
Disclaimer
Very heavily influenced by Martin Luther's 95 Theses. Ninety-Five Theses on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences originally written by Martin Luther in 1517. The original quote said, translated to English, by Martin Luther, was "Unless I am convinced by proofs from Scriptures or by plain and clear reasons and arguments, I can and will not retract, for it is neither safe nor wise to do anything against conscience. Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me. Amen."
