Big Book of Ancient Gabanian Fables

Book XXI: The Family

After the Gods and Goddesses the most important and Holy of Holies in the Covent within the congregations of each temple shall be the Family within each congregation. Just as the Gods form their own families, you the worshipper shall have their own family. For the family is holy and shall accomplish that which is necessary to expand and procreate through out the faith and world as we know that the Gods hath blessed us with.

A family is a large group of related individuals led by a matriarch, the oldest woman of the related group of persons. She is the head of the household and under her all her female descendants are allowed to live with her. Males are married off to other families and in end form a part of a new family.

As Marriage is Eternal so is the family, when you pass into the underworld you are brought to your family and you will continue living amongst your ancestors for eternity which is why Ancestor Worship is so important to the faith. You shan't refuse the blessings given upon you by the Gods and Ancestors for they live amongst your soul always.

Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land your Mother Goddess Pallas Athena is giving you. Honor the body that bore thee, and the breasts that gave thee suck, maintain thy parents, for thy parents took part in thy creation." For man owes his existence to the Mother Goddess Pallas Athena, to his father, and to his mother, in that he receives from each of his parents five of the parts of his body, and ten from the Mother Goddess Pallas Athena. The bones, the veins, the nails, the brain, and the white of the eye come from the father. The mother gives him skin, flesh, blood, hair, and the pupil of the eye. The Mother Goddess Pallas Athena gives him the following: breath, soul, light of countenance, sight, hearing, speech, touch, sense, insight, and understanding...but if people do not honor their parents, The Mother Goddess Pallas Athena say: "It is good that I do not dwell among men, or they would have treated Me superciliously, too.

With this in mind you shall remember to keep the family Holy. The Family is of importance and shall not seek any other form of interference for it would be unholy and unwise to disobey the Mother Goddess Pallas Athena and all the other God's. You Shall respect your mother and father and in turn they shall respect you. 

When a man and a wife decide to begin a family, they shall teach their sons at school until they turn 5 years of age. These boys shall then be sent off into either the priesthood for further education or shall be given to another family in marriage. A girl shall be taught in school until she is 6 years old and she shall be sent into either the priestess schools or be married to a young boy to begin a continuation of the family. This shall be the law eternal. 

When a girl experiences her first period at age 4, she shall be taken every cycle to the Mikveh in which she shall be cleansed after every period. A woman shall do this every cycle until her life comes to an end, the only time she will not complete a bath in the Mikveh is when she is pregnant with child. Should at the end of her cycle she not bare pregnancy than she must by the Law of the Mother Goddess Pallas Athena bathe in the Mikveh of the Temple. 

Every Temple shall have in it's compound a Mikveh. It shall be constructed of non porous stone and shall be heated to a comfortable temperature. Only women and female Priestesses are allowed into a Mikveh chamber. No men not even married men are allowed in the Mikveh. Outside the Mikveh is a smaller chamber known as the Middira. Inside the Middira the woman shall strip of her clothing and bathe in cold water. A Priestess shall help her with this. Once complete, the woman shall enter the Mikveh and bathe in the warm spring within the Temple. Once a woman has completed this step she is considered to be pure. 

When a woman is pure and married on that night of which she has been bathed and purified, may now she only take it upon herself with one of her husbands of her choosing to have sex with him and the Mother Goddess Pallas Athena willing shall she become pregnant that night. If not the process shall begin again and again until she has a successful pregnancy.