The Goddess of Atvatabar
Page 42
CHAPTER XXXIX.
THE CRISIS IN ATVATABAR.
The manifesto of Lyone had precipitated an historic crisis inAtvatabar. The king awaited my leaving the country with the utmostimpatience. He made every effort to prevent the news from reaching thepublic, hoping that when I took my departure the goddess would beamenable to the laws of the realm, and the faith be thus preserved.
The more that Lyone and myself discussed the situation, the moreapparent it appeared that we could not now draw back from the positionwe had taken. It was absolutely necessary to provide a following incase the government attempted arrest, or the execution of either orboth of us. Trusty messengers were despatched to the high priest,Hushnoly, the grand sorcerer, Charka, the lord of art, Yermoul, andthe other friends of Lyone, informing them of the step she had taken,and asking their support in case any violence were offered her.
I advised Lyone to have her agents collect and transmit to Kioram allmunitions of war. Some of the royal wayleals were armed with spears,and others with swords and shields. All battles were fought in theair, by reason of the wayleals being able to fly, as their movement onwings was more rapid than movement on foot.
As already stated, the ordinary spear of the king's wayleals was veryeffective, by reason of its discharging a magnetic current into thebody, causing instant death. With a view of arming the army of thegoddess with a more potent weapon than magnic spears, I quietly hadagents purchase for immediate transmission to Kioram vast quantitiesof iron, and the material for making gunpowder, which happily existedin great abundance in Atvatabar. My idea was to start a manufactoryfor firearms, which were unknown to the interior world, and arm everyman with a magazine rifle--a portable mitrailleuse, in fact.
While engaged in discussing the plan of defence with Lyone the crisiswas precipitated by the press of the country finding out the _coupd'etat_ of the goddess. With a view of placing the government in themost favorable light before the people, the chief organ of the king,_The Calnogor Jossidi_, published a fierce editorial condemning theaction of the goddess, and reviling what it was pleased to call "thecontumacious invader and despoiler of Atvatabar." The article ranthus:
"IMPIOUS SACRILEGE! "ASTOUNDING APOSTASY! "THE SUPREME GODDESS REFUSES FURTHER WORSHIP, AND HAS DEGRADED HERSELF BY SEEKING MARRIAGE WITH AN ALIEN LOVER! "WHAT IS FAITH, IF DECEIT BE OUR DEITY?
"The sweet, the noble, the pure, the exalted worship of holy love, and of its hitherto most perfect symbol, the Goddess Lyone, is threatened with extinction, if it be not entirely destroyed. That sweet and perishable affection that fills the breasts of lovers, which has been for ages conserved, expanded, and wrought into an enduring fabric of religion in the sacred temple of Egyplosis, is about to utterly perish by a mad act of apostasy on the part of the deity herself. Whither now will tender and faithful hearts turn to find a refuge for all that makes the life glorious? Our ideal soul has sunk into degradation! She has flung herself from her proud and happy throne, wounding our faith with impious sacrilege!
"Never before in the history of the world has the treachery of a goddess been manifest; we have had occasion hitherto only to mourn the apostasy of the worshipper. Now what avails our worship, if the object of our adoration fails us in the hour of need? Who is to console the bereavement of millions, when their consoler has hopelessly abandoned them? We say to both his majesty the king and government, follow the iconoclasts with the sword of justice; no punishment is too severe for such perfidious workers of iniquity! Death on the magnic scaffold is the penalty for the infatuation of the goddess and her atheistic lover! Wanting both men and money, the standard of revolt will be brought down by the first blow, and his majesty's troops can be relied upon to bring the rebels to swift justice. Let them be covered with eternal infamy who will support this fearful apostasy!"
It became necessary for Lyone to publish the following manifesto tothe nation, stating briefly the reasons that led to her renunciationof Harikar, to become the apostle of a new creed of one body and onesoul:
"LYONE, _who has been until now Supreme Goddess of the faith of Harikar, to her faithful people, greeting_:
"I, who have been exalted to the high seat of honor on the throne of the gods, as the incarnation of the supreme soul, having received divine honors at your hands, desire at this crisis to make known to you the nature of the reform I seek to establish in the faith and worship of Atvatabar.
"I do not seek to annihilate your faith, with all its tender and memorable qualities. I simply seek to reform such religion, making it more natural, more holy. All things that exist do change; if they do not rise to greater glory, they must sink to profounder shame. I, who have been your goddess during a long and blessed Nirvana, know how much you love me. I know that round my throne a tempest of passion has swept for years, filling me with its ecstasy. But I hasten to tell you that the delights of Egyplosis have been purchased at a fearful price. The sacrifices of its priests and priestesses have proved to me that even the retreat of ideal love can be as inexorably cruel as the outer world. So harassing have been these sacrifices that some could not bear their burden, and at this moment five hundred twin souls are confined in the dungeons of Egyplosis because they transgressed the vows of their novitiate. Of what avail are tender, chivalrous delights, if nature, if reason, be outraged in producing them?
"Those who have remained steadfast to their vows, have grown sickly and morbid, feeding too long on fantastic ecstasies. Despondent and unreal in mind, delicate and nervous in body, they only appear rich and radiant in some brief ceremonial, while their every-day life is shuddering, tearful, and unstable, and utterly unfit to cope with the struggle of ordinary existence.
"Therefore it is that one moment of pleasure is purchased by whole days of pain, and the oscillation between such extremes racks and ruins the dearest souls.
"The motto of the new faith for Egyplosis, 'One Body and One Soul,' founded on the ordinary marriage rite, will restore to priest and priestess the steady and temperate possession of their souls which gives society that virile force necessary to its very existence.
"By the memory of our mutual love, I claim the support of my faithful priests and priestesses, worshippers and people, in the coming struggle.
"LYONE."
The manifesto of the goddess, published in all the papers of thekingdom, created a profound sensation. It was the first discovery tomillions that their religion had been weighed and found wanting.Although many were aware of its excesses, they saw that, despite everyregulation, the hornet was in possession of Hesperides, prepared tosting the hand that reached for the golden fruit.
They learned that passion led to agonized exaltation, and that themoral fibres of the soul became paralyzed by fierce temptation andinordinate spiritual delights. They saw that restraint of rapture anda more natural basis for the fellowship of the sexes were reformsimperatively needed, if the religion of Atvatabar were to remain anelevating and purifying force. Their creed must be reformed, both infaith and practice, and who so capable of introducing such a reform asLyone herself?
The power of the deep-rooted conservatism of those who had nothing togain by the change, the fear of the merchants that civil war meanttheir financial ruin, of a king jealous of his authority, and of thesupremacy of existing laws, were the forces that would oppose thepower of the goddess to carry out her reforms.
I began to accuse myself of being entirely responsible for all thisdisturbance in a peaceful country. Had I never discovered Atvatabar,Lyone might never have desired to disturb the existing order ofthings, but would have remained an agonized and crowned goddess,wedded only to Harikar, in a
temple of eternal celibacy.
I knew, however, that all this was changed. I knew it by her sighs atour first meeting in the garden of Tanje, which, to remember, againand again made me thrill and shudder with joy.