Updated Parables of Erastil

[Phoebe]

The Parables of Erastil
[to be edited further as Dwyn reads or learns each of the five sections; you will note these are cribbed in whole or part or paraphrase from many other uncited sources...]

Book One: On Family

1. The first gift you ever receive is your family. A child grows from the seeds the parents plant.

2. Life is simple. Stop making it complicated.

3. To live is to live according to nature.

4. The great person does not lose the child's heart, the first, natural, and good heart with which everyone is born.

5. Faithfulness and sincerity come first.

6. When the root is firmly established, the moral law will grow.

7. Respect for one's parents and family is the source of the law.

8. Morwenna always bathed her baby in cold water, that he might enjoy any bath.

9. Virtue is an action.

10. All things belong to Erastil, who is a friend to the wise. Friends share belongings, so all things belong to the wise.

11. The wise do not disdain to love, for they understand who is worthy of love. The wise will marry and have children.

12. Duties are universally measured by relations. Is anyone a father? If so, the children should take care of him, submit to him in everything, and patiently listen to his reproaches. But he is a bad father. Are you naturally entitled to the father of your choice? No, only to a father. Is your brother unjust? Consider not what he does, but what you must do to remain in a state conformable to nature. From the idea of a neighbor and a citizen you will find the corresponding duties, if you accustom yourself to contemplate the natural relations.

13. As far as possible before marriage, keep yourself pure from familiarities with others, and if you indulge them, let it be done lawfully. Yet do not therefore be troublesome and full of reproofs to those who take these liberties, nor frequently boast that you yourself do not.

14. Keep your gravity and sedateness but avoid being morose.

15. The fool says, "My neighbor is the target of the attack, not me."

16. Early to bed, early to rise, makes us all healthy and wealthy and wise.

Book Two: On Work

1. Gold and gems make a man weak; hard work in a field shows strength of body and character.

2. One day Bronwen of Abken saw Galren, the follower of Erastil, washing turnips in his yard on a hot day. "Had you paid court to the great Queen of the East, you wouldn't be washing turnips now." Galren calmly answered, "If you had washed turnips, you wouldn't have paid court to the Queen."

3. Life springs from toil and suffering, and death from ease and pleasure.

4. The one who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.

5. The chorus trainer sets the note a little high, to make sure the singers hit the right note.

6. If you make a mistake and don't fix it, this is called a mistake.

7. If you take only what is truly your own to be your own, then no one can ever compel or restrain you.

8. First comes self-sufficiency.

9. Nothing is pleasanter than spading when the ground is soft and damp.

10. Upon retiring, sleep as if you had entered your last sleep. Upon awakening, leave your bed behind you instantly as if you had cast away a pair of old shoes.

Book Three: On Hunting (The Wisdom of the Archer)

1. When hunters lose their fowls or dogs, they know enough to seek them again; but if they lose their mind, they do not know to seek it.

2. One who chases two rabbits catches none.

3. When the wind blows, the grass bends.

4. Honesty is the best weapon.

5. Decide after breakfast.

6. Unable to grasp the sun, the thief stole a purse.

7. The dead head of the quail is without price.

8. Each bird is a hunter in its own way.

9. The hunter has the courage of a hero but the loving heart of a child.

10. Nothing lasts forever but the sky.

11. The bear fears the hunter's heart; the hunter fears the bear's kindness.

12. One person's path will intersect with another's before too long.


Book Four: On Horticulture (The Wisdom of the Farmer)

1. Everything grows when given the proper nourishment. Anything losing the proper nourishment will decay.

2. Let the barley be sown and covered up. The ground being the same, and the time of sowing likewise the same, it grows rapidly up anywhere; and when the full time is come, it is all found to be ripe. Although there may be inequalities of produce, that is owing to the difference of the soil, as rich or poor, to the unequal nourishment afforded by the rains and dews, and to the different ways in which farmers have performed their business in reference to it.

3. Coarse grains to eat, water to drink, my bended arm for a pillow. There lies happiness.

4. Justice begins in the stomach.

5. Both plants and children are raised with compassion.

6. Erastil sows his seeds and they grow as they must: if a long life, a long one, and if a short life, a short one. See that your seed grows naturally.

7. Planting, tending, and reaping is a process, not a product.

8. Learn to be an observer in all seasons. Each day the plants have something to show you.

9. Nothing lasts forever but the earth.

10. A clear breeze has no price, the bright moon no owner.

11. Anyone can have dirt. The farmer has soil.

12. The garden must first be prepared in the soul, or else it will not flourish.

13. By working the soil we cultivate good manners; by working the soil we cultivate the sky.

14. If you do not allow your neighbor to reach nine you will never reach ten.

Book Five: On Conduct

1. All persons are equally persons, but some are great and some are narrow. Those who follow the part of themselves that is great are great; those who follow the narrow part are narrow.

2. The noble-minded are calm and steady. Little people are forever fussing and fretting.

3. To be wealthy and honored in an unjust society is a disgrace.

4. Natural passions are exceedingly strong. If nourished by rectitude and sustaining no injury, they infuse everything between heaven and earth. They are the helpmates of righteousness and reason. Without them, we starve.

5. A wise woman who was traveling in the mountains found a precious stone in a stream. The next day she met another traveler who was hungry, and the wise woman opened her bag to share her food. The hungry traveler saw the precious stone and asked the woman to give it to him. She did so without hesitation. The traveler left, rejoicing in his good fortune. He knew the stone was worth enough to give him security for a lifetime. But, a few days later, he came back to return the stone to the wise woman. "I've been thinking," he said. "I know how valuable this stone is, but I give it back in the hope that you can give me something even more precious. Give me what you have within you that enabled you to give me this stone."

6. Everything has beauty but not everyone can see it.

7. True wisdom is knowing what you don't know.

8. Those who allow the words of others to disrupt them have given their minds away.

9. In parties of conversation, avoid a frequent and excessive mention of your own actions and risks. Approaches to indecent discourse are likewise dangerous. When you hear such talk, rebuke the one who makes advances that way, or by silence and a forbidding look show yourself to be displeased by such talk.

10. When you do anything from a clear judgment that it ought to be done, never shun being seen doing it, even if the world should make a wrong supposition about it. If you do not act rightly, shun the action itself. If you do act rightly, why are you afraid of those who censure you wrongly?

11. Wear sensible shoes and always say "thank you", especially for the things you never had.

12. Somebody's troubles have arrived; those of another are on the way.


Prayer for the Dead:

"It is our nature to die.
We give thanks for the Elk Father's wisdom.
No one can escape death.
Erastil blesses the Mother, Father, and Child.
May you be peaceful and at ease,
May you be happy and free from life's suffering."