Yesteryear Fiction

Unified Existence and Individual Priestlyhood
By All Is Light


Most of the more common religious traditions teach that there is a natural order of things, that certain people (and entities) are more sacred or holy than others; take Catholicism for example: At the bottom of the list we have the devil, followed by all the denizens of hell, then sinners who have yet to be redeemed, Catholics (in general), priests, etc. all the way up through the Pope and all the creatures of heaven with God at the top. Catholicism is a classic example of a stratified religion, but it is not the only one; all of the most common religions practiced globally are typically stratified religions, as are the cultures of all the most successful societies (The United States is a perfect example here) and it’s proven to be a very useful adaptation in the long run, providing a list or a ladder, indeed an invisible chain of command that encourages productivity with greater power and greater rewards, be they spiritual or monetary in nature.

Because nearly every aspect of our lives, and often the very workings of the world, are stratified (think about it; seniority, priorities, different grades of fuel, etc.) ideas and concepts that do not follow this model are rare and often misunderstood; Most people would assume you’re slightly crazy or perhaps on drugs if you asked the question: “is two really better than one because it has a higher numerical value?” or pondered if north really should be “up” on maps.

This sort of non-linear thinking is an important part of the Path of the Yazhi; It is a universally shared belief among Yazhi that, while stratification is important and useful, it is also superficial and should be treated as such. Yazhi are encouraged to question stratification in society whenever possible, especially where it affects the functionality and efficiency of everyday life, and to consider the implications of living with it, or without it, and decide for themselves whether it is right or not (in each particular application.)

With that in mind, it’s not surprising that the Path of the Yazhi is devoid of any sort of religious hierarchy; every Yazhi is seen as being equal, a priest or a priestess as close to enlightenment as any other, regardless of faith or spiritual persuasion (everyone has their own way of going about it.) They don’t see people who do not follow the Path of the Yazhi as being less than themselves; neither do they see religious leaders such as pastors and Brahmin as being superior to those that society typically places below them. There are no “religious leaders” in the Path of the Yazhi, no prophets, no saints or sinners, and not even the spirit force known as the Yazhi (different from a Yazhi) holds a higher place among them; To a Yazhi, nothing is more sacred than anything else, as there is a little bit of the Yazhi in everything, and a little bit of everything in the Yazhi.


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We see, we breathe, we think, we love, and in the hinterlands between the folds in the fabric of reality and spirit, we find magic, we learn what it is to be Soul, to be light.