as small as a world and as large as alone, How do atheist Wizards work? Do they not believe...

8:49am June 22, 2014

radicalhufflepuff asked: How do atheist Wizards work? Do they not believe in the Powers That Be? Not believe that it's proper to refer to them as gods? Or simply not worship them? Do *other* Wizards worship the Powers That Be? The only time I recall any sort of worship is when Nita prays to the One not to let her mom die.

dduane:

There are two asks about this in the box, so I’ll take them one after the other.

First of all, the issue of “worship” in general: The Powers that Be don’t need or indeed really want it, and in direct intrapersonal reaction will generally tell involved parties who’re receptive to this particular truth, if they catch them at attempted worship, to cut it out. They see their relationship to later-created beings as a sibling analogue: they might be much older and more powerful, but they are creations too. At the end of High Wizardry, the Michael Power says explicitly —

“…Never think we were made to be less than equals in the One. Someday you’ll surpass us and still be our equals, and both you and we will rejoice at it.”

Cf. also Kit’s greeting to “Biddy” in A Wizard Abroad as “Elder sister”.

There will be some cultures in which wizards may tend to cast the Powers in the role of gods or demigods, along the lines of local traditional religions. The tendency (from the Powers’ point of view) would be to (privately) mutter “Fine, whatever…” and turn their attention to getting the job done. The general sense is that worship proper should be reserved for the One… if the wizard or other being involved feels the need to go there.

Now as for an individual wizard’s relationship to the Powers: it will depend on the wizard’s mental and emotional capabilities, and on what they’re willing to accept about the structure of the Universe that doesn’t get in the way of getting the job done… which is the most important thing. If an atheist wizard’s mindset and/or mode of functioning predisposes or requires them to see wizardry as a natural function of the universe and nothing to do with any Powers or One, then fine: so it will seem. And if they later start hearing different stories from other wizards about how it all seems to them, they don’t have to take it at all seriously if they don’t want to. (Just as other wizards, hearing from the atheist a very different version of the Where Wizardry Comes From or How The Universe Works story, the general trend will be to be nod and say “That’s not how I see it…but okay.”)

This is because being a wizard invariably comes with the realization that there are much more important issues to be dealing with than whether someone else sees things exactly the way you do, especially when you’re both obviously on the same side of the oldest battle. In wizardry this is referred to as the “Benevolent Disconnect” (among many other names): a kind of think-and-let-think agreement. It is rare to be offered the Oath if you are going to have trouble with the Disconnect.

(more in the next post)