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the waked

The waked faith comprises a body of beliefs and related practices. It was founded in the early twenty-first century and is thought to have originated in Sheffield, England. Tradition tells that the beliefs and practices were divined by “the unknown prophets”, who had delved into the encyclopedia of human wisdom, guided only by fate and fortune. This took place during the hours of a single night on the 21st of August, which is celebrated by the waked and known as the evening of origins.

Etymology

The word waked refers both directly to the religion and also to the individual devotees. A form of the past participle of the word wake, it is taken from the Old English wacan, and from Old English wacian, to be awake. Wake is also a watch, or vigil, especially over the deceased before burial, often accompanied by festivity.

Beliefs and practices

the waked claim that their beliefs are the sum of all the profoundest works of religion, philosophy and science. There is no central doctrine as such, since all parts are the faith are intended to be understood only as metaphors, aside that is from acceptance of the prime moral tenet of the golden rule, a terse statement of which forms the zeroth article of faith.

The Four Articles of Faith

0.	Do the right thing. 1.	Anyone who believes in distortion believes there is a real version available for distortion. 2.	It is the impermanence that confers value; it is the fact of death, of the prodigal forms of transience, that creates pleasure. 3.	They could not step into vegetable worlds without becoming enemies of humanity, except in a female form 4.	Question: Who is god then? Answer: My whole life!

God

Although the waked make use of the word god, it is regarded by devotees as a rather sullied and unhelpful term. There are instead three lesser deities of the the waked. mary (or simply “she” or “she of the world”) is believed to encompass the perceptible and imperceptible world of material things. Mary represents the ground to all being, immanent within all objects and yet mysterious to all. Without Mary there would be no physical world. jang-bu (or simply “he” or “he of the soul”) is a companion and guide. He is the unconscious partner of all sentient creatures including human beings. He is a constant though imperfect friend. the waked believe that mary and jang-bu are themselves divided, since both have inner and outer forms. Thus, when regarded as apart, mary and jang-bu are called “the 2-2”. The universe is however more properly understood as a dissolved union of mary and jang-bu, this union giving rise to the pan – the pan being the greater sum of all things and non-things, combined with “the 3 faces of time” (or simply “the 3”). Together the 2-2-3 make up “the magnificent seven”.

Body and Spirit

The waked practice a daily form of watchful meditation called “stepping into vegetable worlds”. Regarded as the truest path to wakedness, such meditation, which is a deliberate paying attention to the ever-present moment, is often obstructed because of humanity's tendency to look for understanding through “measurement of matter in terms of quantity or substance.” Devotees of the faith say that “stepping into vegetable worlds” releases “a dream thought to exist in objective time.” It is understood, however, that to step into vegetable worlds also carries dangers, as expressed by the third article of the four articles of faith. In practicing the third article of faith, it is required to “manifest the female form”, which serves as protection when “stepping into vegetable worlds” - this being understood as a metaphor for glimpsing into “the underworld”, which is itself a metaphor for “the world beyond measurement in terms of quantity and substance”.

Birth and Death

the waked regard life and death as equal points enclosing each life. Having been released from the water of our mother's womb, we must return again to the waters from whence we came. The “woman's scar-like parts” are therefore sacred to the waked, since they are the origins of all pleasure and pain thereafter. According to waked tradition, the journey through life requires an on-going process of reforgetting. All who have lived well expect at the moment of death to “go to the loved horizon”, which marks a return to the original waters. According to the mythology of the waked faith, in order to return to the waters it is important that the dead should carry with them some waterproof paint. This is needed so as to compose a letter of explanation to “our former keeper”, jang-bu.

Sacred objects and symbols

It is believed by the waked that jang-bu sent two signs to comfort humanity. the broken chair to symbolise the imperfection of the material world, and also the hawthorn blossom (or “the mayflower”) to show that beauty also grows amongst the thorns of life. the waked also regard the breeze as a sacred blessing, since it is believed to be the gentle kiss of mary, and also that which confers freedom to all it moves. The sparrow too is sacred to the waked, symbolising both simplicity and gregariousness, and regarded by many devotees as the fleeting incarnations of jang-bu. Most prominent of the sacred forms is the horse, which the waked are forbidden to bridle or harness in any fashion. It is also taboo to eat the flesh from any part of the horse. It is traditional amongst the waked to shun the use of capital letters. All the lesser deities are without capitalisation and within the waked community the strictest devotees also change their own names, dropping the capitals in accordance with the general rule.

The Pilgrimage

All devotees of the waked faith commit themselves to make a sacred pilgrimage across the Alps. For the duration of “the adventure”, they vow to obey “the 3 promises”:

1.	“to resolve your airy thoughts” 2.	“to discover the limits of experience and of faith” 3.	“to stamp her image on”

Ceremonies and “holidays”

There is only one major festival in the waked calendar. This begins on the eve of the Vernal Equinox (March 20th) after the sunset and ends with festivities at the moment of sunset on the holiest day of the year, March 22nd (called the 2-2-3). The festival is subdivided into four periods; each period requiring rituals and devotions to venerate all of the three lesser deities by turns:

carnival of the pan: sunset March 20th – sunrise March 21st :

	a night of merriment and reveling with traditional waked music & dancing

mary-day: sunrise March 21st – sunset March 21st :

	a time for healing, bathing, relaxing and sleeping

jang-bu-eve: sunset March 21st – sunrise March 22nd :

	a time of renewing old acquaintances and making new friends

day of the pan: sunrise March 22nd – sunset March 22nd :

During day of the pan on the 2-2-3, devotees of the waked faith dress in white laboratory coats called fleeces and gather throughout the afternoon at a large natural amphitheater known as the pit. At the centre of the pit, there is a small broken chair to which each of the devotees presents a small bough of hawthorn and an offering of white food – for the waked, white is always adopted to symbolise universality in plurality. Since there are no priests in the the waked faith, all devotees, having made their offerings, then bless the sacred objects. This is performed by cupping the hands in the shape of the vulva, which represents “the cosmic entrance to all being”, then breathing gently between cupped palms – a symbolic reference to “the breeze within”. Finally, they outstretch their arms “to catch the breeze without” (also known as “sparrowing”). This gesture is also used as the daily waked blessing and is the closest equivalent the waked have to prayer. Having arrived, the devotees then sit quietly or in silence or lie upon the ground with arms outstretched (or “with sparrowed arms”) and eyes wide. This is called the observing of the pan. As sunset approaches, the devotees also pay close attention to time, watching the last minutes of a precise countdown to the moment of sunset on a large digital clock. At sunset they arise and collectively proclaim the four articles of faith. the broken chair and the hawthorn boughs are then ceremonially set ablaze and the devotees take off their fleeces to sacrifice them to the pyre. Less formal festivities commence with holy communion; each of the devotees offering the white food to another and with widespread embraces of friendship. Symbolically the waked believe that at the stroke of sunset on the 2-2-3 the world itself has ended and been reborn and so the annual festivities of the evening and night are known as “the wake at the end of time”.