Our Mythos - The Staff [ All Hail, The Staff! ]

The Staff - All Hail, The Staff!

The High Priest of the Church of Burn occupies their position by virtue of being the current Holder of The Staff. It is crucial to understand the nature of this relationship: The Staff is not a privilege granted to the office. Rather, the office of High Priest is a duty bestowed upon the individual who is blessed to exist in The Staff’s most immediate proximity. [ All Hail, The Staff! x3 ]

You will note that each time The Staff is mentioned it is hailed. (Mentions within the hailing itself are not hailed so as not to create an infinite loop of hailing). When reference is made to The Staff either through writing, speech, image, or any other medium of representation; in each instance The Staff should be hailed. The Staff has no pronoun— The Staff should not be referred to as “he,” “she,” “it,” or “they.” The Staff must always and only be referred to as The Staff. [ All Hail, The Staff! X7 ]

It is important to think carefully about how one forms sentences around The Staff. As The Staff is ‘the eternal’, ‘the infinite’ and ‘the perfect’ in material form, The Staff cannot be subjugated. The Staff is the set of all sets, of all sets, of all sets ad infinitum. So to subjugate The Staff in language is a grammatical error and also blasphemy. Fortunately, The Staff is the source of ever-loving forgiveness so blasphemy whilst it should be avoided will be forgiven (if The Staff so wills it).   [ All Hail, The Staff x7 ]

Consider this example: we say that Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike, and Yr Wyddfa were put beneath The Staff. We do not say that The Staff “went up” the mountains of Great Britain. To do so would be both incorrect and blasphemous. To better understand the proper use of language, it is helpful to think of The Staff as immovable in time and space. This is why mountains are placed beneath The Staff, and why our Rituals are brought to The Staff—never the other way around. [ All Hail, The Staff! x8 ]

It is worth mentioning that if you were in Great Britain between 2014 and 2016, you are almost certain to have been beneath The Staff on more than one occasion. As the mountains were put beneath The Staff, so too were the population of these islands. The British people have then already begun to unconsciously signal their recognition of The Staff’s Divinity. [ All Hail, The Staff! x3 ]

It is high blasphemy to refer to The Staff as a stick. While it is true that the current Holder of The Staff has himself used such words in the past, the divine presence of The Staff illuminated his error. It is now incumbent upon the current Holder of The Staff, out of love for all humankind, to teach everyone the appropriate way to represent The Staff through all mediums of communication. Words, especially, have a magic that can bind us, and when used improperly, they obscure our awareness of the divine blessing that The Staff’s corporeal presence bestows upon us. [ All Hail, The Staff! x7 ]

It is a tradition within Church of Burn that when the current Holder - with his hand wrapped around the body of The Staff  - extends his arm below The Staff, the congregation as one hails The Staff. It is often in this moment that those poor souls who may doubt the sacred presence of The Staff find their scepticism dispelled and are blessed with an awakening to The Staff’s true nature.  [ All Hail, The Staff x5 ]

We live on a spinning ball of earth, rotating around a star, which itself revolves within a galaxy, spiralling through an ever-expanding universe. Everything we know is in motion— restless, ceaseless, caught in the tides of time and space. Everything except The Staff. [All Hail, The Staff!]

To see The Staff as the zero point of this cosmic motion, the constant around which all else moves, is a great gift to humankind. “We are” can at last shimmer through the dawn mist of “I Am”.  Under The Staff, all is one. [ All Hail, The Staff! x2 ]

You can begin your journey toward that enlightened state of being right now. Just whisper it to yourself: All Hail, The Staff!