First Epistle to the Romans

SCHOLA AETII·FRIDAY, 3 MAY 2019

My fellows, it has been a part of our debate about the Divine, its nature and will, that is talked on with very opposing view in one particular regard by our friends of the Book Religions as contrary to ourselves. And let me take this opportunity to highlight this main dividing line here, for it seems sometimes within a lot who talk among their own or with followers of the Book Religions, that there is a level of confusion about this.
Ask yourself, how much do you know for sure about the will of any of your fellow men or women? In honesty, you would have to answer, you cannot know the will of another. It is nothing you can ever know for sure, for you do not live inside his skin and mind. And further, ask yourself, do you even know your own will in all breadth and depth? No, even to yourself you own will is difficult to discern. And yet, our cousins from the Book Religions claim, they have an entire book that for all time clearly nails down the will of the Divine. They say, here we have clear knowledge of the will of a God. And we have him prisoner in this book, for he can never alter his will hence, all for this man-written book.
THE PIETY OF HUMILITY

My fellows, it is a grave sin to claim, that mortal man can know the will of the Divine, which we call the Gods. Mortal man cannot fathom the Divine entirely, and what we get through the mercy of the Divines, is of course from their love and care, from their wisdom and far greater oversight. And it is a sin among some of our own Seers, Augurs and Prophets the same. Of course, since the Divine Gods love us, they seek out Individuals to show them something, and it may be a guidance for yourself, to grow, to learn. Or it may be a message for the time, a warning, a hint. And then the Seer or Prophet, the Augur or Ariolus may say thus: 'This is the image I have seen', or 'this is the pattern and it indicates that'. But not an inch more.
But what hubris would it be of one to say: 'I, this small mortal, can write down what is the inner will of a God, and this writing shall bind his will for all time to come.' That would be a hubris and a sin of the greatest order, and that is the dividing line between us who call ourselves Followers of the Gods and the Children of the Book God: for they want to capture their God in a Book and nail his will down in words written by man, and ultimately it is not the God but the mortal man who now assumes the place of the God, saying here I know for sure the will of God, and you all must do so or be condemned. And therein lies sin and hubris, for to condemn or to save is the mystery of the Divine which we call the Gods, and theirs alone. It is not to one man given to know for sure even one inch of the inner will of the Divines, and so let none among us speak as such. And such is the dividing line that we accept in piety our place, which is not to hold the will of a God captive in a book for all people and all time. You do not even know the will of thy brother and often times not even the will of thyself, how much less can man claim to know for sure the will of a God?
And what further sin is the claim of the Holy Books, that they say, this is what a God spoke and from thereafter we mortal man decide he must remain silent. We mortal man are holding captive our God to remain mute and never speak again! It is truly the apex of hubris. For it is to a God to speak or not, and what God loving us would ever decide, that he spoke and now he should never ever speak to anyone again? And who benefits from that, but a Priesthood who now takes the mantle and sole authority to be the holder of the will of the Divine itself? What hubris.
THE DIGNITY OF EACH

And so we who are Followers of the Gods, be it those of Rome or Germania, the Celts or the Slavs, or whomever, we in piety speak wisely only thus: This is what I have seen in dream or vision and I tell you. This is how I see the signs and omens. Thus it is for now and unto you that I bring this sign. But it is not a commandment, it is not that I am the knower of the will of a God and master over his inner thoughts. We know the Gods give signs and visions, for such is their unending care, but a God is unending vast and deep beyond our full understanding. That is why Apollo Soter in his Wisdom when giving us the 147 Sacred Maxims of Delphi, spoke to us with advises, not in commandments, for a God does not reveal his will in full to mortal man, nor does he bind is own doing, for doing so would make man slave to the will of a God, and that is why Gods speak in parables, riddles and hints, that we remain free, despite the guidance of the Gods.
Man does not know the will of the Divine, and that is why each man and each woman stands befor the Divine, which we call the Gods, only as himself, and only as such must make his or her own council what the omens mean, what the oracle speech means, each day anew. About this we debate, which is why we love Reason and Philosophy as the highest mortal wisdom, for through experience and reason we listen to others, we test our view, what may this event mean, what may that omen or sign mean, and we move on accepting our place, in piety that none, no man and no book, is knowing the will of the Divines. And that is the true Salvation given by the Gods, that each is free to stand before his God himself, and that no book or fellow man is between them to have authority to the will of the Gods.

Maius 2772
Gaius Florius Aetius