Celestianist Temple
as of 999 SS
Introduction:
The Celestianist Temple, also known as the Celestianist Church, the Celestial Faith, or Equestrian Sun Worship, is the state religion of the Equestrian Empire and the largest religion on the continent.
The Celestial Watchwords
1.The Holy Sun watches over all mortalkind, and Celestia is her manifestation upon the Bright World.
2.The Sun is the greatest of all gods, and guides the lives of all upon the Bright World.
3.The light of the Sun warms the souls of mortalkind and spurs them toward the destiny she has chosen for them.
4.Faith and acceptance of the Sun’s destiny will bring greater peace and harmony for all.
5.The study of the paths and patterns of the Sun will reveal the paths of mortalkind.
6.Celestia, the daughter and manifestation of the Sun upon the Bright World, has come to guide mortalkind to greater unity and harmony under her rule.
7.All mortals must act with honor and virtue to achieve their destinies in harmony with all others.
8.Those who do not believe in the Sun’s destiny but still strive for harmony must be accepted.
9.Those who, in striving to achieve their destiny, break the harmony of others and prevent their destiny must submit themselves to Celestia for judgement.
10.The Dark is incompatible the the Sun’s destiny and must be shunned.
Fouding
The official date for the founding of Celestianism was the descent of Celestia and her sister from the Cosmos onto the Bright World, in -55 SS.
For thirteen years, while Celestia and her sister wandered the world, an ongoing debate was raging in Equestria about the nature of the Celestiaan sisters and their relationship to their patron celestial objects. These questions were answered on the eve of the foundation of Everfree Principality, when Celestia joined the first coalition against the Northern Corruption and promulgated a book to aide the conduct of the allies against the Dark forces. That code was the basis of the lawbooks of the Everfree Principality, and quickly spread across Equestria as an effective counter to the Dark corruption that had spread during the failed Unification Wars.
After the founding the Everfree Principality, Celestia and her sister set about establishing a centralized system which could enforce the new Celestianist laws and, more than than, offer unity for all the pony tribes. This lasts for forty years, and the Celestianist become an entrenched part of the lives of the ponies of the region and neighboring realms. However the doctrine becomes more widely promulgated only upon the second coalition against the Northern Corruption after the emergence of Sombra Blackhorn in -14 SS. The aggressive persecution of Dark cults, led by the Celestianist temple, prevents the corruption from spreading any further.
The new principality was unprepared for the treachery of Celestia’s sister, and the wider Equestrian alliance quickly collapsed with Celestia besieged in the Everfree Castle. The heart of the Celestianist temple as it had existed was gutted by the destruction of Everfree Castle and the ponies within, leaving Celestia to reorganize it by herself upon being invited to the throne of Canterlot.
With the Nightmare Pretender defeated and the Northern Corruption engulfed by a winter storm from the north, the Celestianist temple was a militant organization without a head or purpose. The temple clashed with local lords, and civil war seemed imminent until compromise was found under Celestia’s unification of Equestria. The temple was defanged after a series of purges, but remained an extension of Celestia’s imperial power as a state church. The new imperial lawcodes were dedicatedly secular, but Celestianist doctrine was still strictly enforced by state and temple both.
History
For the first few centuries Equestria with government and temple greatly in synch, as the official state church relied on imperial forces to enforce intransigent lords and communities. Local cults and folk religions domination the Unification, and Early Celestia I era, and the troubles of the early bureaucracy were matched by the early temple. However with the reforms of Celestia 179th in 144 SS, the Celestianist temple lost its support as the state church, but still enjoyed privileges and representation in different imperial institutions. A more full split was enacted with the Apostate’s Revolt in 199 SS and the subsequent establishment of prelates, whereafter all representation of the temple was handled through the Estates.
Three prelates, the Earth Pony Prelate, the Pegasis Prelate, and the Unicorn Prelate, became the foremost administrative roles of the temple, with different areas of Equestria coming under their. The patchwork of diocese which had been organized local government were aligned to a prelate based on the population.
Practices
At the core of the Celestianist doctrine are two concepts that are promised: Destiny, and Harmony. Destiny is the more important of the two, and is best described as a kind of predestined fate, which the Sun has designed to bring fulfillment and peace to a mortal. Harmony is more abstract and relates to a scope of personal, social, and spiritual congruences.
Like most religions, there are a few obvious grounding facts from which the broader faith springs. Unlike most other religions the doctrine came almost fully formed from Celestia and her sister, instead of through prophets or scholars trying to interpret divine phenomenon.
Besides Celestia and her control of the Sun, Celestianism has also laid claim to phenomenon of pony ‘Marks’, which are manifestations of a pony’s destiny that appear on their upper hindquarters. Most Equestrian religions throughout history have developed explanations for how and why ponies have marks, though as with all pre-Celestianist faiths it was placed in the context of the cults and folk faiths rather than organized worship.
Faith in and submission to the destiny the Sun has created for all mortalkind is the spiritual core of Celestianist doctrine. It is understood that while Celestia rules in her mother’s name, not every detail of the Sun’s grand designs can be laid out for mortals to understand.
Ponies do not pray to the sun, as it would be impotent. Instead ponies make their prayers to Celestia, who has the power to intercede to make their destiny more clear and the harmony in their lives more perfect.
Leadership & Structure
The highest authority in the Celestianist temple is technically Sun Princess Celestia, who is the will and power of the Sun made manifest. Disputes in the temple and questions about the faith are directed to her, as are conflicts of destiny between two ponies.
However Celestia’s ambivalence to everyday temple affairs has led to real power being devolved to the prelates. The three prelates, the Earthpony Prelate, Pegasus Prelate, and Unicorn Prelate, are in law the representatives of their tribe to Celestia, though their real role is as leaders and judges in their own right.
Under the prelates are regional leaders, known as bishops by earth ponies and pegasi, and as magi by unicorns. Bishops are usually attached to a local lord and have jurisdiction over all temporal affairs in the lord’s lands. Bishops are usually also the judges and priests of their own cathedral.
Before the reforms the bishop was also an imperial agent, though since the reforms the imperial bureaucracy has a separate magistrate agent in the courts.
Below the bishops are the temples themselves, led by a priest. Priests aide the population in the search for the destiny through instructing Celestianist doctrine. Priests were once a more controlled status, requiring literacy, exams in state-sponsored schools, and a life commitment. Since the reforms and a decline in Equestrian religiosity the role of priest is often informal, and most often the priest in a village is also the manor lord or elder.
Outside this hierarchy are the Solar Monasteries, mystic institutions who shut themselves off from the rest of the temple. Celestia and rarely the prelates are the only ones with any influence over the actions of the monasteries, but generally the monasteries do nothing to provoke and are never themselves provoked. In some ways the monastery has remained in the same station as before the reforms, acting as an extension of the imperial libraries and universities.
Followers
As Celestianism exist in its only real form in Equestria, while the doctrine may speak of applying to all mortalkind in its scope, when in reality it is ponies of Equestria only who follow it. Expatriate Equestrians often drift away from Celestianist practices, for with physical distance from Celestia comes a helplessness of her institutions to reach and help them.
On paper the temple is the faith of the overwhelming majority of Equestrians, though the number who are truly spiritual is much lower. The temple is an equally cultural and religious institution, and though many ponies would identify with the temple, they do not attend instruction or have any deep knowledge of the doctrine.
In Everyday Life
For the ponies of the Empire of Equestria, the application of this doctrine is evident in two form: the Temple which concerns itself with Destiny, and the imperial bureaucracy which concerns Harmony. Both are lead in name by Celestia, who is guiding mortals as her Sun does through those institutions, though in reality power is devolved to lower ponies and groups.
On the local level, the Celestianist temple has a presence in most villages and cities. Temples, churches, and cathedrals serve as community centers, where priests preside over religious ceremonies like mark celebrations, weddings, and funerals. The temple plays less of a role in the everyday lives of busy city dwellers, as greater class consciousness and more opportunities means less ponies rely less on vague ideas of destiny.
In Equestria, the role of the temple in everyday life has significantly diminished from its height immediately following the Unification and the Early Imperial Era. The temple’s doctrine is an ingrained part of life for most ponies, but overt worship of the Sun and Celestia has given way to a general reverence for the princess.
The temple suffers from what can be described best as a spirit of apathy. Beginning with Celestia and trickling down to the populace, a feeling of uselessness has pervaded Equestria and the temple. In the secular realm, the rival spirits of new commercialism and revived local ambition has energize life. However the temple has had no such revitalization, despite the best efforts of the prelates and more spiritual ponies.
Variants & Heresy
The idea of exclusivity is not as prominent in Celstianism as it is in other Equestrian religions. At its core, Celstianism has claims to universality, and aims to explant itself to all mortals under Celestia’s rule, the practicality of this and Celestia’s actual willingness aside.
However in the form of the monks of the Solar Monasteries, there exists a vein of acetic, moralistic sects, which inverts the usual philosophy of the Bright World to Dark Heaven. The monks, believing themselves to be the keepers of a kind of secret knowledge, believe that the solar astrology they perform should not be widely practiced for the potential to lead ponies astray from having faith in the Sun’s destiny for them.
Some syncretic movements developed on the fringes, in the inaccessible wildernesses of Equestria, and in different pony colonies. These movements retain the beliefs about the Sun and destiny, though some do not offer Celestia in the same worship.