The Goddess of Atvatabar
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CHAPTER XVI.
THE KING UNFOLDS THE GRANDEUR OF ATVATABAR.
"Your majesty," I said, "informs us that Atvatabar possesses scienceand art, invention and poetry. These matters interest us quite as muchas your civil and military constitution. We will feel grateful if yourmajesty will inform us more particularly regarding the condition ofthose great forces for the development of the soul."
"You are right," said the king; "the government and the protection ofsociety, although matters of the utmost importance, are always muchinferior to the glory they defend. Mere police duties can never rankwith the sovereignty of mind over matter."
"In other words," said I, "the barricade is ever inferior to thepalace, and the treasure house to the heaps of gold within it. But,your majesty, in what way does mind triumph over matter in yourrealm?"
"Well," said the king, "we worship the human soul under a thousandforms, arranged in three great circles of deities. The first circlecontains the gods of invention, that is, the practical forms by whichideas rule the physical world, and also the composite forms of theinventors themselves. The second circle contains the gods of art, andthe third circle the spiritual gods of sorcery, magic and love. Whatgods do you people of the outer world worship?"
"In my own country," I replied, "a great many people worship one God,the Creator of the universe. Many of these only nominally worship God,but in reality worship gold, while a still greater number worship goldwithout pretence of worshipping anything else."
"Then," said the king, "gold is your god. Our god is the aggregateduniversal human soul worshipped under its various manifestations, bothreal and ideal. This universal human soul forms the one supreme godHarikar, whom we worship in the person of a living woman, the SupremeGoddess Lyone. The great generic symbol of our faith is the goldenthrone of the gods in the Bormidophia, whereon sits Lyone, the supremegoddess, the representative of Harikar."
"Harikar is then your supreme deity?" I remarked.
"Greatest, for he embraces all other gods," said the king. "But thegreatest individual god is the Supreme Goddess, the symbol of the HolySoul."
I felt a strange desire to learn everything about so singular adivinity as Lyone. It was a weird, awful, yet terribly entrancingthought, that amid a thousand gods of dead and silent gold one onlyshould be alive, and that one a beautiful woman. Was it possible thata live goddess could exist, and be both young and handsome? I wasanxious to ask a thousand questions concerning this mysterious being,but it seemed a sacrilege to ask them. Was it possible for her tocontinue worthy of worship, a human being, intoxicated, as she mustbe, by the ceaseless adoration of millions? In other words, can awoman be a veritable goddess and live? These ideas rushed through mysoul like quicksilver. My brain reeled with this discovery of thesecret of Atvatabar! What to me were its never-setting sun, its wantof gravity, its flying wayleals and bockhockids, its sculpturedcities, its sacred locomotive, its miracles of mechanism and art,compared to a real live goddess with warm blood and a beating heart!No wonder the discovery thrilled me! I felt like embracing his majestyfor the information, so simply given, that filled me with delight!
My companions were also greatly excited at the story of the king, andit was with difficulty I could appear interested in the furtherinformation he so graciously imparted to us. What were mines of goldto this? But I strove outwardly to appear calm. I felt I must listenfurther to the story of Atvatabar.
"Our other deities," continued the king, "are the ideal inventors andtheir inventions. These give man empire over nature. All those whohave given man power of flight, who multiply his power to run, thosewho multiply the power of the eye to see, the hand to labor or tosmite, the voice or pen to transmit ideas to great distances and togreat multitudes, stand in the pantheon in ideal grandeur. There arethe lords of labor, the deities of space and time. They are those godsthat breathe the breath of life into unborn ideas, and lo! from brainand hand spring the creatures of their will."
The officers and sailors were listening to the discourse of the kingwith rapt attention. We were anxious to learn as much as possibleabout this strange religion of Atvatabar.
"We also worship art and ideal artists," continued the king, "thesoul-developers, who work for noble and humane ideas expressed intheir most beautiful garb; the builders of earthly palaces for thesoul in literature, music, manners, painting, dancing, sculpture,decoration, tapestry and architecture which are represented by idealstatues composed from groups of living artists. These in their idealor collective perfection are the gods who counteract the evils of anarid and mechanical civilization by arousing feeling, imagination,truth, beauty, tenderness, patriotism and faith in the souls of theirfellows.
"The spiritual forces are typified by a goddess, the incarnation ofspirit power, of romantic, ideal, hopeless love. Her ministers are thepriests of sorcery, necromancy, magic, theosophy, mesmerism,spiritualism and other kindred spiritual powers. These performmiracles, create matter, and impart life to dead bodies. The souls ofher priests and priestesses have the power to leave the body at will,and to achieve a present Nirvana of one hundred years."