Motherheart Dragon Priest

Chapter 8b - The Twelve Commandments

Yet even here the Twelve Commandments of Moses were as the Twelve Laws or Way of the Jomon, so much so that I had been able to parallel them:

1 Thou shalt have no other gods before me, for I am the One and the All and nought exist without me.

There is only the Way, formless and timeless yet eternally creating the world.

2 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image to bow down to, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters of the earth. Thou shalt serve only the One and the All. For the iniquity of the fathers, who would divide the one into many, shall fall upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that cleave me. 

The Way cannot be imagined. The Way cannot be painted nor moulded out of wood, clay nor any material. One can but live the Way, and by living the Way, so one will rejoice in the Way. For those that ignore the Way will see the land blighted and their children's children sicken as the fertility of the Way abandons those that abandon the Way.

3 Thou shalt not name thy One, for they will not be held guiltless that taketh the One and the All in vain. 

The Way that is spoken is not the Way.

4 Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work, and the sign of the moon shall mark the days of work and the days of rest.

The Way is learned through living in accord with the cycles of the heavens, the cycles of the seasons and of the activity and rest of the world.

5 Honour thy father and thy mother, that their days shall be long upon the land, which the One have given thee to be steward of.

Honour the Way and all those before you who have lived in the prosperity of the Way and fostered the integrity of the world.

6 Thou shalt not kill in the name of the One.

Violence is not the Way.

7 Thou shalt not commit adultery nor take any to thy self against their will. 

The Way is experienced through Love and through community with others.

8 Thou shalt not steal nor take unto thyself anything not earned by the labour of thy hands.

The Way is lost through theft and pillage.

9 Thy shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour, nor beguile others to do so for one.

The Way is lost through slander and fraud.

√ Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s spouse, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, nor their manservant, nor their maidservant, nor their ox or their ass, nor anything that is thy neighbour’s nor anything of thy neighbour’s neighbour.

The Way is lost through envy and avarice.

Ω Thou shalt care for the beasts and flowers of the field, and the birds of the air and the fishes of the sea, and taketh for thy gain only that which thou needst.

All the creatures and all the plants of the world are the children of the Way.

10 Thou shalt keep sacred the wildes of the One, for here the beasts, the birds, the fishes and all the flowers of the field and forest keep the word of the One sacred awaiting the end of time.

The Way has many sacred places, from these take nothing but the beauty of their being.

Was this too presumptuous of me? Was I seeing more than is the true state of affairs amongst men and wymin. Alas I fear I was thinking too much again. What would Master Marco do in my situation? I determined that I would spend more time listening to others and recording their thoughts rather than writing down the inane conjectures of this one small priest.