Soul departure. Physical deterioration. Soul recovery.
We’re the only animal that knows it’s going to die, thinks about it constantly, wonders what comes after. Believe in the soul. There is no differentiation between the immaterial soul (which lives on) and the material body (which does not). The soul is not made up of material — but it is completely bound to the body and vice versa, one cannot live without the other.
I have been working on three spell mechanisms to try and deal with this study. One that keeps the soul from departing, a preservation spell that keeps the body from decaying, and one that returns the soul to that same body. There are various iterations of these spells and herbs that allow for body preservation and life keeping.
When cast by the most adept of casters, these spells can bring a dead person or animal back to life. However, the majority of the time these spells will only succeed in contacting the dead’s spirit since it takes an insane amount of magical power to return the spirit to a body then just to contact it. It should also be noted that there is only a certain amount of life force in the Universe, thus when you attempt to bring back a life, you must steal life force from other living beings to do so or exchange yours. Therefore only the most experienced casters are also able to control where this life force is taken from.
The first question I have is whether this is the best framework to deal with death and resurrection and at what level should these spell abilities occur? The second question is how rare is resurrection and how does the metaphysical framework of this world enable resurrection?
Economically if we conflate resurrection with technology and health-care then the health-care system is a great model for seeing resurrection in an economic framework. Resurrection can be seen as an expensive, elective procedure available to the wealthy and/or privileged. Is this any different than what we know of medieval or class-based societies? The wealthy live longer, healthier lives because they have access to health-care, safer environmental conditions, and better diets? Does treating Resurrection as an expensive, exclusive, service unbalance or disrupt the system?
Resurrection alone is not an age prolonging treatment.
Religiously for resurrection to work there needs to be a metaphysical framework for “souls”. What is the soul? Where does it go? How does it come back? Who is in control of the gates of death and the disposition of souls? Why/how do some souls stay on as ghosts while others pass on? Perhaps resurrection is only available to followers of a God of death.
Let’s now examine the concept of time. From the moment we enter this life, we are in the flow of it. We measure it and we mark it, but we cannot defy it. We cannot even speed it up or slow it down. Or can we? Have we not each experienced the sensation that a beautiful moment seemed to pass too quickly and wished that we could make it linger? Or felt time slow on a dull day and wished that we could speed things up a bit?
All of the greatest religions speak of the soul’s endurance beyond the end of life. So what then does it mean to die? Life and death. Space and time. Fate and chance. These are the forces of the universe. Resurrection defies all of these - life and death, space and time, and ultimately and most importantly fate and chance.
Em Hotep- Patrick Gaffiero
Commentaires