The Book of Tiamat records the religion of a new millennium.
There is nothing in this text that is apocryphal or blasphemous to any other religion. The Tiamatian beliefs are not so much opposed to any other viewpoint as they propose that truths are evident in them all. In this sense, we are proponents of any truth shared by any persons.
There are two main things that are evident in this belief. First is that there is One God, and God is everything. By definition, God is more powerful than any individual part of God. This is the principle of singularity.
To truly grasp this concept - and you cannot maintain a belief without full acceptance of this point - requires the believer to truly wish to blend in or to flow with the situations that life offers. Whatever God is at the moment, manifests itself as a condition of the universe and its components. That includes you and I. This means that we cannot selfishly attempt to control things that we merely influence.
The second principle is that of shared divinity. Whatever name we choose for God, and however we begin to seek God, if we truly seek then we will find. More important than the messenger is the message. That is not to say that there are no divine souls and no messiahs. Tiamatians do not discount Jesus as the Christ or Zoroaster as his prophet. Actually, we embrace the teachings of them all the more.
The point is that all of us will be divinely inspired from time to time, if we are believers seeking spiritual growth. Wherever divine inspiration comes from, it should be embraced. The proof of divinity is shown by its results. Every believer will have moments of clarity and those are from God. Even the simplest of things - a kind word, a good deed - is divinely inspired. Every time a tradesman builds a new and wonderful thing, the idea behind it is divinely inspired. Every good relation is divinely inspired. We find that some - such as Jesus and Zoroaster - have little or no actions that aren't divinely inspired while most of us have some things that work well and others that are mistakes to learn from.
In the end, all is good with God. Since we are a part of God, it goes to reason that in the end all is good with us as well. But from our point of view, there are times of sadness and of joy, things that are good and things that are bad, situations that work well and others that don't. It is important to realize that this is from our perspective only.
Some of you will find the writings in this text to be outside your scope. You may consider them to be blasphemous to your system of beliefs. If you truly consider the words, you will find that they are not. You will find that they are simply ideas from your own good beliefs, described with a new story to edify us all. But if you find this idea too uncomfortable, that is good. It will only serve to prompt you into action, to seek truths in your own way.
Most of the readers of this text are likely to be Christian, Jewish or Islamic. That is fine. Just as Jesus initially spoke to the Jews, we speak to the Christians and Moslems. Jesus made no point to disagree with Jewish principles, it was their interpretation by some members of the Jewish faith that he disagreed with. That is exactly the position of the Tiamatian believer. We believe that the words of Christ hold great truths, but that many Christians have completely missed the point.
The words of the Avesta are just as relevant. The prophet Zoroaster taught many things that are important today. The three magi who sought Jesus were Avestans, looking for the messiah foretold by Zoroastrian prophesy. Jewish beliefs and Avestan beliefs are good as long as you do not fail to embrace the meaning of the message. Jesus taught the application of these beliefs to Jews who couldn't see them. The Jews he spoke to were busy trying to follow ritual and actions of no merit, all the while forgetting to see and apply the important underlying principles.
The Tiamatian believer is Persian, Christian, Jewish and Islamic. All of these are good systems of living in a manner aligned with God. The believer may wish to read and study these living systems in addition to the text described here. It is important to remember the time in which these texts were written, and the context and conditions of the peoples they were written for. Further, other religions are not excluded from living by Tiamatian principles and obtaining the fruits for having done so. It is important that such other living systems do not sharply differ from those presented herein, and benefits of living in a Tiamatian way can only be obtained by truly living in a Tiamatian way.
The Tiamatian believer sincerely attempts to find truths and apply them to life. It is something that is often lost. This text describes exactly how to apply the truths that have been told over and over again. Our believer will seek until they find, and once finding will not stop until that truth is applied to their lives and is evident by their actions.
For centuries, people of the human race have pondered the heavens and wondered. We have sought answers to many questions through the course of our lives. Initially, the answers we sought were mainly directed at our survival here on Earth. We became curious about an afterlife, wondering exactly the nature of an after-death experience. And finally, we were concerned about the quality of life, both here and hereafter.
The earliest religions contained observations that there were forces on the Earth that were needed for our survival, and others that threatened it. We were keenly aware that there are forces more powerful than ourselves. So it is not surprising that we would be in fear of the threatening forces and thankful for the kind ones. We gave each of these forces a name and in most cases, we worshipped the kind ones and tried to appease the threatening ones.
These polytheistic religions generally saw the forces of the sky as manifestations of a paternal or masculine force and those of the Earth were seen as maternal or feminine. If the force was beneficial, then it was usually seen as a nurturing and lifegiving force, i.e. paternal or maternal. But whether the force was viewed as good or bad, if it came from the sky, it was male and from the ground was female.
This is why the early forms of religions are also usually referred to as fertility cults. When the Father rain fertilized the Mother Earth, new plant growth was possible. This required the warmth from Father sun and kindness from Father wind. But if Mother Earth became enraged, she might spew fire from a volcano or crack in a quake. If Father wind was angered, he may blow fiercely and damage crops or kill livestock and people.
Around 4000 years ago, the monotheistic religions began. Jews and Avestans began to worship a single God, and attribute all good things as components of Him. They also had an opposing force that was evil, and this force was responsible for every bad thing. These religions were somewhat ritualistic, which was important for two reasons. First, most believers could not read or write and so repetition was important to help the worshipper to remember things. Good habits were important and these could be "built" by ritual. Second, people could make many observations but had little understanding, so many things that are somewhat mechanical in nature were still seen as mystical events. For example, food preparation and cleanliness were important to survival so rituals for these activities were established.
The problems that arose were some began to see the mechanics of the rituals as the important feature rather than its purpose. This has never been the case, and the truth is that you don't want to eat unclean food or fail to rotate your crops, but the reason you don't want to do that has nothing to do with your spiritual condition. You need to practice sound agriculture or you may not have enough food to eat. You don't want to eat unclean food because it will make you sick. But if you do those things and still fail to improve your contact with God, you might as well have eaten rotten food. You will be just as miserable. You will remain spiritually sick, which is worse than being physically sick.
And that is what Jesus taught. Rituals were important for certain things, even in his time. But no ritual was as important as the idea that believers should improve their contact with God. Sometimes it was, and is still, better to disregard a certain item in order to succeed at a bigger goal. As an example, He showed us that it is more important to help a fellow man, when possible, on the day of rest than it was to ritualistically observe it. The New Testament is replete with this kind of lesson.
An amount of honesty is required here. If the person avoided the day of rest with poor motive, it would have been just as bad as the one who observed the ritual in exclusion of common sense. This is the dilemma for the believer. One must truly seek the right path if any progress is to be made. For this person to succeed, it will not be so important what others think. The proof of progress will be revealed in the end.
This brings us to why this text is written. Jesus would be horrified to find people allowing domestic abuse in order that marriages be unbroken. He would find ignorance in the ownership of slaves. It is the time that these types of misinterpretations of his teachings be made right.
The first step is honesty. With hope in our hearts, we surrender our lives to the Will of God, without reservation. After a time, our faith grows and we begin to have a powerful love that we can offer to all.
We then find that we have taken a step into Heaven.
