Create your own (aro) religion

[roboticanary]

As we know the world sits on the back of four elephants carried through space on the back of great a'tuin, the turtle. we also know that gods are brought into existence by belief, and at risk of lightning bolts from the more traditional members of the current pantheon a devoted group of believers can bring new deities to the fore.

All this leads us to the conclusion that we have the power to create a new set of divine beings. Together we can challenge the goddess of love and forge a better new world.* 

So without further ado, let us lay out our plans, what would you include in an aromantic religion. 

I think a pantheon of five would fit perfectly with our main religious symbol, the aro flag. Perhaps led by the green goddess aromantica.

As for holy symbols, the white ring, the flag and the arrow.

Maybe our religion should have commandments:

A worshipper must respect and honour all frogs they meet on lifes journey

Thou shalt not utter the unholy words 'you'll find someone some day'

What commandments would you put in an aro religion?

Or maybe we should have particular traditions or ceremonies. A religious history. What great miracles have the gods bestowed on us humble aros.

* Ok, this is possibly not how things work in the real world but I have done a few sessions of create your own religion over the years and found it interesting and amusing. So I thought I would throw it out here and see what ideas people put in.

P.s. If you find this beyond the pale please let me know, I think it's interesting silliness but will absolutely drop it if people are not happy with the idea.

[DeltaAro]

Me in 2017:

On 10/14/2017 at 6:58 PM, DeltaAro said:

[...] [T]he Book of Aro Wisdom explains:

This sphinx called “romantic love” has always confused the heck out of poor aros. It sometimes seems to make sense, appearing to be a stronger, deeper version of friendship, yes. But as the wings of the Morpho look like the strongest and most brilliant blue – putting any normal blue to shame… it's also like the Morpho's blue (a trick of the light) that it seems suspiciously “not really there” and lacking substance.

The reason for it is simple. When the world was created, romantic love was first placed into Meinong's Jungle, a vast and chaotic garden, populated by all those strange non-existent entities and sealed off by impenetrable ontological walls. Deeply frustrated, romantic love sat below an Escherian waterfall driving a perpetuum-mobile-watermill.

It constantly protested “I'm far too plausible to end up here!”. Finally, the creative powers gave in and it was released into reality. This tragic event marks the end of the Emerald Age of Aromanticism.

So romantic love is something that wasn't really supposed to exist. And so it still feels like this (if one is immune against it)… though some aros tolerate its alien nature pretty well.

Edited September 17, 2022 by DeltaAro

[A User]

ideas:

- On valentine's day, we honour it like some holy day. Not because love and romance, but rather a symbol of rebellion against romance

- Green is our color! We use it in building designs, holy grail covers, etc.

• Actually, fuck it. We use the whole aromantic flag color palette, but the main color is green

- We forge our own media. Not indoctrination bullshit, but we make movies/tv shows highlighting aro characters first. Challenge the ways of romance.

- We have alliances formed with the Asexual religion (whatever that may be.)

[MaxIsCosmic]

 

10 minutes ago, A User said:

ideas:

- On valentine's day, we honour it like some holy day. Not because love and romance, but rather a symbol of rebellion against romance

- Green is our color! We use it in building designs, holy grail covers, etc.

• Actually, fuck it. We use the whole aromantic flag color palette, but the main color is green

- We forge our own media. Not indoctrination bullshit, but we make movies/tv shows highlighting aro characters first. Challenge the ways of romance.

- We have alliances formed with the Asexual religion (whatever that may be.)

I also think romance should be allowed but it’s just as normal to be in qpr’s and do coparenting. 
 

also we should be willing to say transgender surgery as a religious need to insurance will cover it! (It’s a thing where I live)

Edited September 16, 2022 by Max.and.my

[A User]

12 minutes ago, Max.and.my said:

also we should be willing to say transgender surgery as a religious need to insurance will cover it! (It’s a thing where I live)

surgery, hormones, and anything trans related!

[AroAcedragon13]

3 hours ago, roboticanary said:

 A worshipper must respect and honour all frogs they meet on lifes journey

 

Frogge is lord.the frog has controls over fate i have proof of this.

[Noble-Harvest-Spear]

these are all good idreas but what silly outfits do our priests wear?

[LIVI0]

perhaps our own community garden as we embrace our solitude by watering plants trimming bushes harvesting fruits and smelling flowers

idk just a thought. we should definitely have a bird feeder somewhere in the greenhouse as well so we can befriend all different types of birds [also birdwatching]

[nonmerci]

5 hours ago, Harvest said:

these are all good idreas but what silly outfits do our priests wear?

A green dress and a white ring. And a scepter with an aro at the top.

Our temple also has an aro at the top.

[DeltaAro]

2 hours ago, nonmerci said:

And a scepter with an aro at the top.

I wonder how this is supposed to work, but oh, ok... 🙃

[alien]

10 hours ago, AroAcedragon13 said:

Frogge is lord.the frog has controls over fate i have proof of this.

[nonmerci]

4 hours ago, DeltaAro said:

I wonder how this is supposed to work, but oh, ok... 🙃

I wanted to write arrow lol

 

I suppose it just proves how much arrow belong to us.

[roboticanary]

14 hours ago, Harvest said:

these are all good idreas but what silly outfits do our priests wear?

all religions need a silly hat

 

(credit:https://ribblr.com/pattern/toy-plushie-frog-hat-crochet/?)

[DeltaAro]

2 hours ago, nonmerci said:

I wanted to write arrow lol

🙃 you did it twice:

9 hours ago, nonmerci said:

Our temple also has an aro at the top.

But why not take it literally?

Reminds me of Alexa Meade's works...

Living sculptures!

And we will pay good money for those fellow aros. Much above minimum wage!

[roboticanary]

5 minutes ago, DeltaAro said:

But why not take it literally?

 

for the temple fine, but keep that scepter away from me

[Holmbo]

The religion should have ritualistic cuddling of different kinds. Like a yoga but you do it with others. But there should also be alternative version you do by yourself.

We should have pilgrimage where aros walk around spreading the word of the possibility of a life free from amatonormativity. We could offer tea like in the monk and robot series. Also alternative to walking could be to ride in green velomobiles. 

The priest should arrange board game nights. The churches should run pet rescue stations and the services can be to take care of the pets. Also there should be singing and playing instruments, mostly just of existing songs about aromanticism.

[The Gray Warlock]

Sorry to tell you, the Hindus beat us to it. Lord Shiva, despite being married to Parvati, is known to be a celibate and the first of ascetics. Scriptures tell that after his wife Sati was killed, he took up an existence of renunciation and entered into a deep meditation nothing could disturb. Parvati (who was the reincarnation of Sati, and the calmer form of Durga/Kali) had fallen in love with Shiva and hoped to marry him. She devoted herself to service to him, prostrating at his feet and keeping his surroundings clean. But Shiva took no notice. Out of desperation Parvati got the god of desire, Kama, to fire one of his arrows at Shiva to inspire him with love of whomever he looked at first (familiar imagery?) Instead what happened was at the very moment Kama fired his arrow, Shiva at last came out of his meditation and opened his 3rd eye. As he turned to look at what was disturbing him, a beam of fire shot out of his 3rd eye, burning both the arrow and Kama completely.

The story continues, but I'll make it short and say Shiva does eventually consent to marry Parvati. But only after seeing she is as dedicated a yogi as he. The point of the story is that it was truly enlightenment Parvati desired, and Shiva as god of consciousness IS enlightenment, which is beyond all desire and attachment.

[alto]

6 hours ago, Holmbo said:

The religion should have ritualistic cuddling of different kinds. Like a yoga but you do it with others. But there should also be alternative version you do by yourself.

We should have pilgrimage where aros walk around spreading the word of the possibility of a life free from amatonormativity. We could offer tea like in the monk and robot series. Also alternative to walking could be to ride in green velomobiles. 

The priest should arrange board game nights. The churches should run pet rescue stations and the services can be to take care of the pets. Also there should be singing and playing instruments, mostly just of existing songs about aromanticism.

That sounds amazing.

High priests should wear crown hats like Jughead from Archie

[A User]

7 hours ago, roboticanary said:

all religions need a silly hat

 

(credit:https://ribblr.com/pattern/toy-plushie-frog-hat-crochet/?)

i like this

[Noble-Harvest-Spear]

Now I want a frog hat

[Nix]

On 9/17/2022 at 7:44 PM, DeltaAro said:

🙃 you did it twice:

But why not take it literally?

Reminds me of Alexa Meade's works...

Living sculptures!

And we will pay good money for those fellow aros. Much above minimum wage!

Yeah I really had to draw both options 😅 Also I could not resist drawing the priest as an air bender, because arrows!

[DeltaAro]

20 hours ago, Nix said:

Yeah I really had to draw both options 😅 Also I could not resist drawing the priest as an air bender, because arrows!

This comes pretty close to my imagination.

With one exception: a true faithful believer would, no matter how uncomfortable it's up there on the scepter, never show it that obviously.

According to many scholars, religions need hard-to-fake public expressions of costly commitments. So yeah, we have that checked: To be put on the scepter for three hours is our most sacred duty.

[roboticanary]

On 9/17/2022 at 12:36 AM, A User said:

- We have alliances formed with the Asexual religion (whatever that may be.)

are we sure this would end up as an alliance. I'm imagining we have wars over incredibly tiny differences in doctrine. Like, one word difference in the definition of a QPR and we send a plague of frogs.

[A User]

41 minutes ago, roboticanary said:

are we sure this would end up as an alliance. I'm imagining we have wars over incredibly tiny differences in doctrine. Like, one word difference in the definition of a QPR and we send a plague of frogs.

but-

we're all friends here! no need to battle!

[Noble-Harvest-Spear]

we should solve our disputes with a civil game of Uno