Church of the Merciful Earth Mother

Mantra
"‘Life is the first and last gift given unto you, treasure it as much as the Earth Mother treasures you.’""‘Consider all life at a part of yourself and treat it as you would yourself.’"

Fundamental beliefs
Followers of the Merciful Earth Mother, also known as Bricca, believe that the world is a living entity, observing and influencing events on its own body. Every plant and creature is part of an intricate and unfathomable plan, with each needing to fulfill a role in the world. These roles are often attributed to maintaining a balance with nature, anything considered unnatural or wasteful is shunned.

Bricca believe that every 10 generations an Astorian is born who can hear the guidance of the Earth Mother, these prophets are called the seers of the living roots. The Seers are destined to use this gift to guide Bricca to achieving complete balance.

Birth of the world
"‘By the grace of the merciful Earth Mother the first seed of love was born.""The first roots grew from this love and embedded themselves in the world’s core, these roots spiraled among the dirt until they reached the surface.""From these roots first breath was exhaled from the Earth Mother deep below, creating the sky. Soon the sky swirled with clouds and rain poured down shaping the land and creating the sea.""The second seed of love planted on the land and sea grew into plants. As the plants grew, the Earth Mother graced the sky with a time of rest and one of work in the form of the sun and the moon." The final seed of love grew from the dirt and shaped creatures of every size and shape.’

General practices
Every Eoathday followers gather to listen to parts of religious tomes which teach and reinforce the roles of certain things, ranging from Astorians to natural disasters. Other topics talked in these gatherings are reciting tales from previous seer.

At the end of the gathering one of the congregation volunteers to tend to the local harmony garden, which is a small plot of land around the church building where any number of flowers or plants are planted and tended to.

Under an Earth Maiden’s supervision the volunteer helps in maintaining order in the garden.

Once the tenth generation since the passing of the last seer has been born it is considered the year of blooming. Earth Maidens take this year to visit all those born in the year and bless them with blessed tree sap, this is done simply by lightly smearing a line across the baby’s forehead, if the sap changes colour from cloudy to clear then the baby is destined to be the next seer.

Marriage (Joining) practices
When the couple has the blessing of each of the respective parents, or grandparents only then can they start arranging their joining.

Hosted most commonly in churches, joinings involve both friends and family to bear witness to the ceremony. The couple themselves stand on a raised platform so all attending can see them, to begin the ceremony the attendees can walk up to the base of the platform and place a gift down to promote longevity of the joining.

After gifts are given an Earth Maiden recites a blessing, during which each of the couple presents their joining halves, these refer to a pot full of sacred soil and a tree sapling. The couple plants the sapling in the pot together while reciting their own dedications to one another, then exchange golden rings to finish the first stage of the ceremony.

The second stage requires the couple to come down from the platform and plant the sapling in a location of their choice, after which the Earth Maiden will close the ceremony by painting a golden band around the sapling’s trunk to reflect the gold rings they now wear.

Often after a joining a feast is held and entertainment is usually provided by animals, such as a puppy pen, or bird releasing.

Funeral practices
Bricca believe that once anything living passes away their soul reverts back to a seed and scatters back into the world to be reborn again into something else.

Astorian bodies are prepared for burial by stripping the deceased to their undergarments and a thin puncture is applied to the stomach and up towards the diaphragm to ensure that the soul seed can definitely leave the body if it already hasn’t. After the initial preparations the body is placed in a wooden coffin full of soil.

If the family wishes for a closed coffin funeral the mourners scatter a standard assortment of seeds in the coffin, however if it is an open the family are encouraged to scatter their own assortment of seeds in the coffin. This process is called simply referred to as seeding and it encourages new life to come from death.

After seeding the coffin a short eulogy is recited by an Earth Maiden as one or more family members seal the coffin. Finally the coffin is taken away to be secretly buried in a sacred forest. The family is told which forest the deceased is buried in, but not the exact location. To keep the location a secret, the family is not allowed to visit the forest for 2 weeks, as by then the dirt will have settled completely.

Traditionally the family of the deceased may hold social gatherings or picnics in the associated forest as a mark of respect to the deceased.

In the case of when a seer passes away they are buried in a similar way, though many Bricca try to attend the funeral and no seeds are necessary to be scattered with the coffin, instead the body is embalmed in blessed tree sap to preserve them. After the coffin is sealed by any family members the coffin is taken to a secret location with the other past seers.