Animist Beliefs of Westphalians in Gran Albionne

**Animist Beliefs of Westphalians in Gran Albionne**

**The Spirits**

All things of this world have their own
spirituality, as they were born from the divine couple. Therefore, the
relationship between the natural environment of this world and people is that
of blood kin, like the bond between brother and sister.

An agricultural society based on cultivation, like
that of Westphalia, cannot exist without unification and harmony among all
things in nature: mountains, rivers, the sun, rain, animals, and plants, not to
mention cooperation among people. So, it was natural that people developed the
idea that they could make their society flourish only when they worked
together, fully performing their own role, but at the same time, helping and
supporting each other. This gave rise to the practice of revering various
Spirits, the land, nature, great people, and, on top of that, the spirit of
appreciation of harmony among all these aspects of Nature

**The Children**
of Spirits

The land, its nature, and all creatures including
mortals are children of Spirits. Accordingly, all things existing in the world
have the possibility of becoming Spirits. Nevertheless, revered status as
Spirits is limited to those that live quite extraordinary lives beyond mortal
wisdom or power and that have a profound influence, for good or ill, on mortal
beings. As to natural elements or phenomena that have such enormous power,
there exist Spirits of Rain, Spirits of River, Spirits of Thunder, Spirits of
Wind, Spirits of Mountain, Spirits of Ocean. All these Spirits are involved in
the life of Westphalian society.

Speaking with reverence toward Spirits of Mountains
 started with people’s awareness of
mountains as an important source of water for agricultural cultivation. Then,
people came to regard the mountain itself as a life-giving, sacred object. This
mountain faith prepared the way not only for the preservation of mountain
forests but also for conservation of the cycle of the ecosystem, given the fact
that mountain forests supply rich nutrition to seas through the rivers, and
support good inshore fishing.

In ancient times, reverence toward a holy mountain-spirit
was expressed by paying respect directly to the mountain itself. Now there are
temples, or a compound of buildings, where the spirit dwells, and people
worship by performing a festival to offer prayers and gifts of sacrifice to
Spirits in these Temples.

**Festivals**
for Nature

There are many kinds of ritual performed in each
locality throughout the year. Large or small, these Rituals are mostly based on
the agricultural cycle. Two of the most important festivals each year are the
spring festival, a festival to pray for a rich harvest, and the autumn
festival, a festival to offer thanks for the successful harvest. People of each
locality have been carrying out these festivals every year since ancient times.

In this sense, it can be said that our faith
consists of reverence and gratitude to the land, its nature, and the life that
these natural elements give to mortal beings. With the reverence of Spirits
spontaneously developing in the way of life of the ancient Westphalian. It had
neither written dogma nor a teaching book, but people revering numerous
powerful spirits. In Westphalia, the Spirit Lords with a trinary female form,
the queen-sisters Gloriana, Valoria and Titania, are revered most highly among
them. Yet, each Spirits has an individual character to which people offer their
worship, believing in that as the virtue of each Spirits.

Tenets of the Faith

Spiritually, Westphalians regard the land and its
environment as children of Spirits. In other words, the people see nature as
the divinity itself. Spirits are the origin of all lives, and the life of all
things is deeply connected to them. This leads to an awareness of the
sacredness of life and an appreciation for life given by the Spirits.

From ancient times, Westphalian people have faced
nature and invisible existence with awe and appreciation. And they used to have
a principle: “to return the thing given to the mortal as a gift of nature to
its original place.” This circulation system of Westphalian society functioned
very well. Through the prosperity of the blessings bestowed upon them by the
Spritis, rose the development of modern guilds and mercantilism, the level of
Westphalian life was elevated in material terms, and now people enjoy lives
mostly free of want, due to their constant reflection upon and fealty to, their
patron spirits.

The Westphalian spirituality, inherited from the
ancient ancestors, has been lovingly preserved. The mortals of the present
living with the same appreciation for nature that their ancient ancestors had
and taught their descendants.

Westphalian culture teaches its people to look at their
environment with the spirit of “reverence and gratitude,” that is, with the
spirit of parental care for children or with the spirit of brotherhood. They
extend this spirit to their neighbors, to their society members, to their
country members, to peoples of the Great Races, and to nature, too,
transcending differences of thought, ethics, and religion, then this spirit
will serve to foster criteria and morals indispensable for keeping our mortal
life healthy.