A treatise
She opened the back of Blackhall's book, the empty pages that he'd left for her to fill. She wasn't the most eloquent or cultured person. She wasn't the best schooled. Her voice didn't match the pages and pages of inspiration that he'd left her.
She had no inscription to add that could match him calling her daughter.
But she picked up the pen and wrote anyway not because she should as an admired member of her order, but because the words needed to be said.
"The Free Council isn't simply about destruction. Revolution is a destructive force by nature. No change is ever accomplished without the demolition of certain held beliefs. The longer held that belief, the more difficult it is to demolish, the more painful and frightening the change. Revolution is part of us, in all of the various ways that we follow it, because it is necessary.
With destruction, change, and revolution, must also come something new, however. The Free Council, about revolution, must also be about building, rebirth, and progress in its truest sense. War's opposition is not peace and stasis, but creation. If we as an order are to thrive, we must remind the Awakened world of this as often as we can. It is in our vision that the tradition of the Atlantean orders can be aimed to greater heights, not of hubris and pride, but of service and innovation, of applying their vast power and ability to bettering themselves and teaching a world to better itself in the process.
It is not for the Free Council to solely and alone inspire this. It is to guide the path, the proverbial light in the dark, to make the hide bound and tradition bound see that their light is as immense and reachable as the supernal and that wisdom and growth are the birthrights we strive to. We cannot simply do it for them, but must guide and instruct. When necessary, we must fight and yell. Words. Swords. Blood. Weapons. All of these are our tools, but they are not tools that should only be born for the sake of bearing them, but to show others a path they may not have otherwise envisioned for themselves.
This is the Free Council's responsibility. Not only to revolutionize, but to create, to test new waters, and to not shirk from the fear and risk of that newness. We are the order that will listen to those that have no voice. We are the order that will see those who have lost their visage. We are the order that will hold out a hand to those who cannot see beyond their past to the future they might have, and the one that will hold out a hand to those who are so mired in darkness they have forgotten the light - because you cannot ever go back, only forward, ever forward.
It would be erroneous of us to ignore this path. It would be the height of selfishness to ignore this path. It would also be a tragedy and a failing of our duties to the pentacle, but also to our order, for in creation we fight stagnation and darkness, in creation and forging ahead, we fight the lie. If we fear this, we have come to fear our own purpose and our own selves. We have become too afraid to take steps that are not born of hostile bloodshed and have not thought enough outside our own conceptions of our oppression. It is not for the order to charge in blindly or accept all change easily, but it is for the order to test the boundaries that others will not and in doing so, open alternatives that may not have previously been considered.
It is that that we as an order must grow beyond, even if they try to push it back upon us.
The only people who can truly oppress us, are ourselves."
She sat for a moment. Not as long as his work but it would do. She hoped they understood in time, put the book back on the shelf since she knew the others liked to read it from time to time, and went to the dojo. Her temper she kept in check for now, burning brilliant and hot inside her. She wanted to scream at them. But she wouldn't. If she was going to ask them to change, she would have to show them how in some ways and that was the first step.
The only people who can truly oppress us, are ourselves.
She had no inscription to add that could match him calling her daughter.
But she picked up the pen and wrote anyway not because she should as an admired member of her order, but because the words needed to be said.
"The Free Council isn't simply about destruction. Revolution is a destructive force by nature. No change is ever accomplished without the demolition of certain held beliefs. The longer held that belief, the more difficult it is to demolish, the more painful and frightening the change. Revolution is part of us, in all of the various ways that we follow it, because it is necessary.
With destruction, change, and revolution, must also come something new, however. The Free Council, about revolution, must also be about building, rebirth, and progress in its truest sense. War's opposition is not peace and stasis, but creation. If we as an order are to thrive, we must remind the Awakened world of this as often as we can. It is in our vision that the tradition of the Atlantean orders can be aimed to greater heights, not of hubris and pride, but of service and innovation, of applying their vast power and ability to bettering themselves and teaching a world to better itself in the process.
It is not for the Free Council to solely and alone inspire this. It is to guide the path, the proverbial light in the dark, to make the hide bound and tradition bound see that their light is as immense and reachable as the supernal and that wisdom and growth are the birthrights we strive to. We cannot simply do it for them, but must guide and instruct. When necessary, we must fight and yell. Words. Swords. Blood. Weapons. All of these are our tools, but they are not tools that should only be born for the sake of bearing them, but to show others a path they may not have otherwise envisioned for themselves.
This is the Free Council's responsibility. Not only to revolutionize, but to create, to test new waters, and to not shirk from the fear and risk of that newness. We are the order that will listen to those that have no voice. We are the order that will see those who have lost their visage. We are the order that will hold out a hand to those who cannot see beyond their past to the future they might have, and the one that will hold out a hand to those who are so mired in darkness they have forgotten the light - because you cannot ever go back, only forward, ever forward.
It would be erroneous of us to ignore this path. It would be the height of selfishness to ignore this path. It would also be a tragedy and a failing of our duties to the pentacle, but also to our order, for in creation we fight stagnation and darkness, in creation and forging ahead, we fight the lie. If we fear this, we have come to fear our own purpose and our own selves. We have become too afraid to take steps that are not born of hostile bloodshed and have not thought enough outside our own conceptions of our oppression. It is not for the order to charge in blindly or accept all change easily, but it is for the order to test the boundaries that others will not and in doing so, open alternatives that may not have previously been considered.
It is that that we as an order must grow beyond, even if they try to push it back upon us.
The only people who can truly oppress us, are ourselves."
She sat for a moment. Not as long as his work but it would do. She hoped they understood in time, put the book back on the shelf since she knew the others liked to read it from time to time, and went to the dojo. Her temper she kept in check for now, burning brilliant and hot inside her. She wanted to scream at them. But she wouldn't. If she was going to ask them to change, she would have to show them how in some ways and that was the first step.
The only people who can truly oppress us, are ourselves.