Institute For The Study Of Cultic Behavior
Oregon District
A Tree Cult, Pre-Cull and Restart, 5-13-2205
A private diary entry.
Jons.martin and I, Wings.lars are obviously the best researchers here. We are capable of extrapolating ancient thought-forms. Perhaps this is because we both knew our own great grandparents for a few years, and we had talked with them. They could remember their own great grandparents speaking of the old ways before even their own time. We had a kind of taste for the past, even before the tree cult house dig.
So many of our section are hopeless moored in the present. Perhaps the present should be described for some future researcher’s benefit, assuming that anyone cares to examine this diary.
After the Culling, humanity grew in population again, not to the previous numbers, but our esthetic taste was changed forever. Those who remained of humanity were raised to loath the old ways. Almost as one we rebuilt in such a way that our houses and businesses and institutions were not exactly visible to the naked eye. We prized uncluttered landscapes. We were brought up to despise the common man of the past, those who had been Culled.
As well as we could we eschewed all religious philosophies. Of course, this brings up the interesting question of what constitutes a religious philosophy, and whether we were perhaps deceiving ourselves in this matter. We had some opinions about the nature of reality. Perhaps that was our stand-in for a religion.
After all the old structures were eliminated by various methods including a great and persistent amount of simple burning, vast areas of the planet appeared uninhabited. We were, as a species, tired. Perhaps only a certain type of man remained living? We were tired of our thrusting arrogant need for the appearance of splendor. We were also tired of the messes; the ugliness and poverty humanity had displayed for centuries and forever. We accepted the opportunity to re-think the world.
We didn’t want to be seen on the face of the earth. We went stealth. We went underground and when above ground we were shielded. Our buildings were subtle. A lot of this shielding is merely a visual artifact. But it makes things look nice.
When the hole was adequate, we cleared the remaining broken glass out of the window frame, which seemed to be a front room window, and climbed down into the room.
Naturally, there was quite a bit of soil on the floor in a kind of drifted berm right underneath the window. Once over that, we stood and just looked before touching anything.
We were looking into our own past. This was how our ancestors had lived. It appeared to be a very humble home. There were various bits of furniture, a sofa, and some chairs. A table held a television. We had seen those in illustrations in textbooks. There was an primitive telephone on the small table. In a set of shelves sitting on the floor there were twenty-five or so books, mostly old fiction. The floor was covered by a worn carpet. We inspected the other three rooms also. The children were correct. Two ancient sets of human bones lay together under blankets in the plain bed in the last room.
But the most telling find was a ritual display of some kind. It took up rather a lot of floor space in the smallish room. It was a dried-up ancient fir tree covered in shiny artifacts in various symbolic forms. There was a wire wrapped around the tree with small colored bulbs on them. Some larger glass bulbs of various designs were hung independently of the other objects in a carefully contrived manner. Under the tree wrapped in colorful, but faded, papers were an assortment of offerings. Apparently, they were offerings directed at some sort of deity. In addition, on the table next to the phone there was a small display of figures in archaic clothing, including a small figure in a sort of box. This was all new to us. But we knew a cult object when we saw one! Of course, we were familiar with other cultic objects, but not this one. We took many notes on our pocket recorders and made many images also. All of this was instantly transmitted back to our department at home in Oregon District. We resealed the house last of all.
The title of our report was A Tree Cult in Pre-Cull Washington District.
It was entitled Holy Bible.
I took it to my private quarters where I live alone. I sat down and began to read.
A Tree Cult, Pre-Cull and Restart, 5-13-2205
A private diary entry.
Jons.martin and I, Wings.lars are obviously the best researchers here. We are capable of extrapolating ancient thought-forms. Perhaps this is because we both knew our own great grandparents for a few years, and we had talked with them. They could remember their own great grandparents speaking of the old ways before even their own time. We had a kind of taste for the past, even before the tree cult house dig.
So many of our section are hopeless moored in the present. Perhaps the present should be described for some future researcher’s benefit, assuming that anyone cares to examine this diary.
After the Culling, humanity grew in population again, not to the previous numbers, but our esthetic taste was changed forever. Those who remained of humanity were raised to loath the old ways. Almost as one we rebuilt in such a way that our houses and businesses and institutions were not exactly visible to the naked eye. We prized uncluttered landscapes. We were brought up to despise the common man of the past, those who had been Culled.
As well as we could we eschewed all religious philosophies. Of course, this brings up the interesting question of what constitutes a religious philosophy, and whether we were perhaps deceiving ourselves in this matter. We had some opinions about the nature of reality. Perhaps that was our stand-in for a religion.
After all the old structures were eliminated by various methods including a great and persistent amount of simple burning, vast areas of the planet appeared uninhabited. We were, as a species, tired. Perhaps only a certain type of man remained living? We were tired of our thrusting arrogant need for the appearance of splendor. We were also tired of the messes; the ugliness and poverty humanity had displayed for centuries and forever. We accepted the opportunity to re-think the world.
We didn’t want to be seen on the face of the earth. We went stealth. We went underground and when above ground we were shielded. Our buildings were subtle. A lot of this shielding is merely a visual artifact. But it makes things look nice.
***
Martin and I had an assignment to examine an undisturbed Pre-Cull house that had been hidden by a landslide in of all places a town called Oso in the old state of Washington. It had been buried for nearly two hundred years. It was discovered by some kids playing in the area who were digging for Amerindian remnants. In a way they found way more than they were looking for. Their shovels hit a roof, they burrowed down over the side wall to a broken window and then became frightened that dead people might be entombed there. They told their parents about it. The parents called the local college, since they themselves were interested in archaeology and thought it might be an important find. An instructor from that school called ours because we were digging on that sort of place when one was found. ***
It was a nice dry fall day with good visibility when we arrived on location. The hole the two boys had dug was not very big at all, so we had some shovel work to do for an hour or so to allow us to enter the building through the broken window. When the hole was adequate, we cleared the remaining broken glass out of the window frame, which seemed to be a front room window, and climbed down into the room.
Naturally, there was quite a bit of soil on the floor in a kind of drifted berm right underneath the window. Once over that, we stood and just looked before touching anything.
We were looking into our own past. This was how our ancestors had lived. It appeared to be a very humble home. There were various bits of furniture, a sofa, and some chairs. A table held a television. We had seen those in illustrations in textbooks. There was an primitive telephone on the small table. In a set of shelves sitting on the floor there were twenty-five or so books, mostly old fiction. The floor was covered by a worn carpet. We inspected the other three rooms also. The children were correct. Two ancient sets of human bones lay together under blankets in the plain bed in the last room.
But the most telling find was a ritual display of some kind. It took up rather a lot of floor space in the smallish room. It was a dried-up ancient fir tree covered in shiny artifacts in various symbolic forms. There was a wire wrapped around the tree with small colored bulbs on them. Some larger glass bulbs of various designs were hung independently of the other objects in a carefully contrived manner. Under the tree wrapped in colorful, but faded, papers were an assortment of offerings. Apparently, they were offerings directed at some sort of deity. In addition, on the table next to the phone there was a small display of figures in archaic clothing, including a small figure in a sort of box. This was all new to us. But we knew a cult object when we saw one! Of course, we were familiar with other cultic objects, but not this one. We took many notes on our pocket recorders and made many images also. All of this was instantly transmitted back to our department at home in Oregon District. We resealed the house last of all.
***
Once back underground in our campus department, we set to work recording a scholarly report, which was instantly available to any interested parties. Our department head was very pleased with us, which is always good at any time in history. The title of our report was A Tree Cult in Pre-Cull Washington District.
***
However, I must include the fact that Martin and I brought some objects from the dig back to our department. We brought the telephone because it was so important to the people of its time. We brought photos of the inhabitants of the house found in a sort of heavy book. We also gathered some interesting articles of clothing. I had picked up a book that seemed to have a place of prominence in the home. It was entitled Holy Bible.
I took it to my private quarters where I live alone. I sat down and began to read.
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