The Three Bodies of NUC
In order to create the most accurate facsimile of the Novel Universe Model on Earth, the Cult is split into three representative facets of the Novel Universe’s River metaphor: water, rocks of the riverbed, and the mixture of these elements– the river itself. Each consists of Bodies– organizational structures based on a common vision, or set of “pillars.” Technology is not strictly required for any aspect of the Cult, but as an organization with the future in mind, wherever possible computer applications are utilized, designed to enhance a Community’s neural-democracy, a Tribe’s Marketplace, and management of the River’s duties. With as many basic elements in common as possible, each version is tailor-made to assist a Body’s veneration of their chosen Primary Organizing Pillar, and the River’s secure function of its Sages.
Through either a political structure based on neural-democracy, hierarchy, or anarchy, for the most part, Water and Rock Bodies determine their own laws, rules, and procedures. This covers everything, from the moral and spiritual implications of gender, cohabitation, and even recreational drug use, to more functional aspects, like ownership, cultural norms, and enforcement of laws / rules / policy / procedures. The Novel Universe Cult is not a monolith, and our great value is our variety of Bodies– the expression of the Novel Universe Model through each individual Body’s Primary Organizing Pillar. In this way, each is a living experiment, gauged to enhance humanity’s neural-network driven, scientifically derived, spiritual journey, both at the individual and societal level.
Like the emergent properties of biology– a collection of atoms emerging as cells, cells as organs, and finally, organs as organism– each Cult Body functions as one level of complexity building upon the next. For Rock Bodies (Power), members make a Clade, Clades constitute a Tribe, Tribes assemble an Alliance, and Alliances network as a Federation. For Water Bodies (Love), members make a Sphere, Spheres collect as a Community, Communities form a Neighborhood, and Neighborhoods coalesce as a City-State.
Water (Love):
Water metaphorically embodies the Concert Hall and Love’s concept of Complete Information. This means Citizens limit barriers to communication and accountability– fostering the return of all Ripples to their source. A neural-democracy, actively practiced by its citizenry, constitutes the Body’s “mind,” its Higher-Order Conductor. To the degree possible, Citizens resist the manipulation of money, status of hierarchy, violence of ownership– those structures of Power. Established through our neural-democracy to symbolize the Concert Hall’s occupants, Water-based laws attempt to maximize transparency, communication, and equality of access to health, safety, and resource, ensuring an environment conducive to the intentionally vulnerable participation of its membership. Bodies in habitual or egregious violation of this standard are subject to disillusionment, as directed by the River
Spheres are the initial Body of Water, a loose group of members, known as Civilians, virtually / physically formed around a Primary Organizing Pillar with a limited formal charter approved by their River Sage(s). Civilians enjoy only the partial rights and responsibilities of Citizens. Should a Sphere coalesce in purpose and membership, they may work by themselves or with other Spheres through the River Sages to become a Community with a formal charter, location, and ties to the River. Once a Community is formed, those members of the contributing Spheres are now considered Citizens of the Community.
This singular distinction of membership within Water Bodies between Civilians and Citizens is due to the nature of Communities– the fact that a Community exists as a fixed location with a boarder, and citizenship is based on both membership in a Community Sphere and one’s current occupation of that physical location, symbolizing the enclosed nature of the Concert Hall. Unless they belong to a Community, Spheres, along with all other NUC Bodies, may physically exist as places of residence, but aren’t required to do so. Should a Citizen be physically outside their Community, and not belong to or identify with a Rock Body(s), they are then considered a Civilian of their Community Sphere.
Members within a Body of Water who violate the Body’s laws are not subject to corrective action or punishment, but instead, provided the time and assistance to adjust their behavior. If the citizenry feels (expressed through neural-democracy) that an individual will not or cannot follow the Body’s laws, the ultimate consequence is the suspension of citizenship. At this point, the member is removed from the Body, and recategorized as either a Civilian (membership suspension) or Wanderer (membership revocation). This change in status affects only the Body’s view of the member, not necessarily the wider Cult, as the member may still be a Citizen, Civilian, or Freemen of another Body. For outcast members, conditions of their return will be established, and they will remain outside the Body until those conditions are met. Whereas Civilians automatically return upon compliance, Wanderers must additionally resubmit a request to rejoin the Body, reversing the revocation of their membership through a neural-democratic vote of the citizenry. For the purpose of influencing this vote, after compliance, Wanderers will be guaranteed sufficient indirect (not necessarily direct) access to the citizenry, such as digital (social media) or physical (letters) correspondence.
Reflecting the Body’s POP, the preferable naming format of a Water Body is some experiential aspect of life taking place somewhere, for instance, The Sheltering Valley, or Springfield Intracellular Dynamics. The scheme is meant to reflect Love’s defining characteristic: the expression of novelty through life-experience, in other words, the active effect an environment has on the interactions of its occupants. Simply put, the Concert Hall.
Rocks (Power):
A Rock metaphorically embodies the Marketplace and Power’s concept of Information Control. This means members construct structures for novelty extraction, and exploit their commodities through trading networks, or “marketplaces.” As an independent Spiral within the riverbed, each Rock Body who chooses not to use a neural-democracy as its Higher-Order Conductor, selects either the Tower (hierarchy) or Square (anarchy) as a form of governance (mind). Libertarian, authoritarian, secrecy, illumination, equality, inequality– there’s no inherent limit to how a Rock Body is constructed, only that its founding charter is approved by the River. So long as the Body’s laws are clearly spelled out for their members and visitors, do not interfere with any other Body, and are strictly enforced according to the charter, the Body is free to define what can or cannot happen within its physical / virtual boarders. In general, Rock-based laws are crafted to maximize the quantity and quality of valuable novelty for profit, among its members and wider world. Bodies in habitual or egregious violation of their charter are subject to disillusionment as directed by the River.
Clades are the initial Body of Rocks, a loose group of Freemen virtually / physically formed around a Primary Organizing Pillar with a limited formal charter approved by their River Sage(s). Should a Clade coalesce in purpose and membership, they may work by themselves or with other Clades through the River to become a Tribe with a formal charter and ties to the River. With assistance from the River, Tribes are encouraged to create a settlement, permanent or otherwise, but not required to do so.
As an organization without formal leadership, the closest analog the Novel Universe Cult has to a special class of person exempt from the law, such as a dictator or diplomat, is the temporary status of an Active Sage. However, this role carries no privilege to compromise law, but rather, affords specified access to restricted sites, be them virtual or physical. That being said, any Rock Body may, as part of its founding charter and style of governance, establish any number of regal or deplorable classes with a spectrum of required adherence to the Rock Body’s laws– such as a Tower’s king (no adherence) or subject (total adherence), or the Square’s initiate (imposed adherence) or master (self-adherence). Violators of Rock laws are subject to corrective actions / punishments deemed appropriate by the Body’s founding charter, levied according to their standing as a member of the Body, say King versus subject. However, at the Cult level, no one is above the law. Therefore, outside persons within a Rock Body’s jurisdiction who violate their laws are subject to these corrective actions / punishments, levied according to the charter’s definition(s) of a visitor.
Should a Rock Body’s member persist in breaking the Body’s laws, despite previous corrective actions, and the membership feels the individual will not or cannot come into line with the group’s standards, the ultimate consequence is revocation of the offender’s membership in the group. At this point, the member is banished and recategorized, from the Rock Body’s perspective, as a Wanderer. Any path for returning is optional for the Body to decide, and banishment of the individual member may be permanent without appeal to the Rock’s membership.
Reflecting the Body’s POP, the preferable naming format includes the Body’s form of Power, and some object or concept owned by something, for instance Emperor Sheldon’s Motorcycle Tower, or The Martial Arts Square of Hip-hop Masters. This scheme is to reflect Power’s defining characteristic: the consumption of novelty by some entity, in other words, the absolute freedom absolute control affords the individual. Simply put, the Marketplace.
River (Mixture):
The River metaphorically embodies the Novel Universe’s Mixture of Love and Power. Members are both subject to the dynamic nature of the Mixture, but also, responsible for balancing their frameworks– either on a personal level, as a Wanderer, or a societal level, as a River Sage. Bodies of the River consist of various virtual and physical sites to support their members’ ongoing attempts to balance the frameworks, whereas the size of each site primarily corresponds to the number and nature of the Water and Rock Bodies overseen by the site.
The purpose of the River is the sustainable support of and balance between the Water and Rocks. The River’s ultimate authority is the Cult’s membership, while simultaneously, the River rests supreme control over its individual parts: each Cult Body and member. This circular-authority loop ensures that no person(s) might subvert the will of the People, while no institution extends beyond the People’s reach. Saint TJ embodies this as the Cult’s singular voice, derived, not from an individual, but from the entirety of our membership– one complex mind (Higher-Order Conductor) emerging from a multitude of parts (Lower-Order Bodies).
The default state of all Cult members is as a Wanderer, symbolizing the Novel Universe Cult’s tenet that we’re all our own universe, and might seclude ourselves within our Spiral at any point in the beyond-life. Should a member belong to a Body of Water or Rocks, that state supersedes their status as a Wanderer. In such cases, the member may identify with any Water or Rock Body they belong to, and are encouraged to limit that identification to one at a time. Citizens, however, only identify with the Community they currently occupy.
The River’s ultimate goal for any Wanderer is the development of a preference for Love and / or Power, eventually finding a home (Cult Body) in either or both. However, for as long as the Wanderer does not or can not, the River’s goal is to assist the member in balancing Love and Power. As a ward of the River, each Wanderer is attached to a site, and, with Sage assistance, may transfer sites as might be practical. They may also expect to be assisted by the Sages in their primary struggle between Love and Power, all Cult-related aspects, and life in general– after all, unlike Freemen, Citizens, or Civilians, the Sages are the Wanderer’s only semblance of a Cult “family” structure.
The primary duty of the Novel Universe Cult’s clergy (River Sages) is to balance Water and Rock Bodies, either by working on River cases or site-based missions. Cases are particular tasks designed to maintain balance between Water and Rock Bodies, whereas site-related missions function to support those cases in general, and the overall administration of the Cult. “Overseers” are Sages who coordinate the implementation of their site’s missions. The number of Overseers for any mission is based on the mission’s complexity and scope.
Missions might include permanent operations, such as those common among legal or city-planning centers: logistics, infrastructure, adherence to law, etc. They may also include a variety of temporary functions: safe harbors for the displaced, hubs for particularly complex investigations, neutral gaming sites for Cult-Body competitions, etc. Any River Sage can propose new missions for any site. This is preferably done as an Issue, but in time-sensitive cases, an Ionotropic Sage Declaration may be warranted.
As is the nature of life itself, members of the River– Wanderers and River Sages– ideally exist in an ephemeral state. Therefore, the status of a River Sage is transient, only considered a full member of the River while actively engaged in the duties of the River. This isn’t like a doctor, mother, or priest, whose identities are wrapped up in their roles. They are also not like a police officer, who perpetually considers themselves an agent of the law and mechanism of its enforcement, even when off-duty. An “off-duty” Sage only serves the River in an ad hoc, indirect, administrative capacity, with neither the special social distinction nor authority of an “on-duty” Sage. The “off-duty” Sage is recognized no differently from any other Wanderer, Freeman, Citizen, or Civilian, because the status of Sage is not an identity, but an active role of responsibility to the Cult– an important job, but still, just a job, and certainly not the “top job.”
River sites exist primarily to provide variable support and resources for its Wanderers, but full support and resources for the Sages, as they perform their duties. Each site is maintained by volunteering Wanderers attached to the site, as well as assigned members of the Rock and Water Bodies overseen by the site. As virtual or literal residents of River sites, Wanderers are prioritized for desired work assignments. Although the Water and Rock Bodies under the sites’ jurisdictions are responsible for funding and staffing the sites’ daily needs, the sites, like all Cult property, are functionally owned by the River. Akin to the US Federal Government’s Supremacy Clause, the River may, through an internal neural-democratic process, acquire, alter, or liquidate any Cult Body’s property for the sole purpose of maintaining balance between the Rock and Water Bodies.
The Novel Universe Cult does not place restrictions on or requirements for the personal property of Wanderers, Civilians, and Freemen. NUC neither asks any member to relinquish anything nor requires anything be turned over to the Cult to become a member. Additionally, Rock Bodies may function as for-profit organizations, and jointly own property with the River. Any subsequent profit (income or liquidized assets) from jointly owned ventures remunerates to the for-profit Rock Body, with a tithing paid to the non-profit River. These would include properties created and used by the Rock’s membership, both physical (facilities, infrastructure, data networks, and the like) and intellectual (patents, products, processes, and the like).
Violence, as defined by the Cult, is the application of force to create an outcome. Sanctioned, state-sponsored violence is what separates an institutionalized governing body from its governed. The ultimate, physical violence of execution, for instance, represents the ultimate authority– a nation– while being separated from income (fired from a job) represents a much lower level of financial violence– a corporation. Whatever the level, whatever the form of violence, it is the capacity for an institution’s acceptable use of force that defines its authority. With this in mind, River sites are intentionally given a military theme to leave no doubt that the River is the supreme, physical actor of the Cult, and no Cult Body may exist with a greater capacity to exercise the violence of force than the River itself. If it were any other way, the River could not carry out its primary function: enforce the membership’s ongoing definition of what balance looks like between our Water and Rock Bodies.
It is the purpose of a Clade, Sphere, Tribe, Community, etc. to practice rituals created to venerate their chosen pillars of the Novel Universe under the guidance and assistance of the River. The River’s ultimate mission is to segregate– yet bridge– the cultures of Love and Power in order to unite the Cult’s membership, setting an example to the world of a healthier, neo-segregated, live-and-let-live society. River sites oversee their corresponding levels of Water / Rock Bodies: Camp (Sphere / Clade); Post (Community / Tribe); Fort (Neighborhood / Alliance); and Base (City-State / Federation). The preferable naming format of a River site is a single, unique, man-made object or natural feature common among the Rock and Water Bodies for which the site exists, for instance Camp Roadhouse, or Fort Woodland. This scheme is to reflect the Novel Universe’s defining characteristic: all forms, both man-made and natural, are created by the flowing interaction between Power and Love, in other words, their singular combination. Put simply, the Mixture.
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