Re: Enochian, also ritual language, was: The search...perfect language

On Wed, 9 Jun 1999, Bryan Maloney wrote:

> On Wed, 9 Jun 1999, Mia Soderquist wrote:
>
> > It seems to me that a really well designed conlang could do wonders to
> > enhance the aesthetics and psychological effects of a ritual. That's
>
> Old Church Slavonic is a conlang.  It was created by Sts. Methodios and
> Cyril to permit them to present Scripture and Liturgy to the Slavs.
> However, they took pains to make it fairly comprehensible to the people
> they were preaching to.
>
> > also IMO. The time it takes to construct, the time it takes to learn,
> > the degree to which it separates you from your mundane reality, and the
> > overall artistry would all be good for setting the stage for whatever
> > you are doing.
>
> And if it is not easily comprehensible to the general public in the area,
> it acts as a detraction and barrier to the practice of the religion, as
> was discovered by Old Believer Russians when they came to America and
> their children learned English, their grandchildren learned not a word of
> Russian, so the Old Church Slavonic was utterly incomprehensible to
> them.  There was quite a great deal of argument over converting over to
> English Liturgy and Scripture, but ultimately it was decided that
> comprehension was more important than adherance to form for the sake of form.
Of course, if your religion consists effectively of trained priests and
priestesses (say, Wicca), then that barrier is null.  All those at the
congregation will understand the conlang because they've been trained to,
except, of course, for the neophytes, whose jobs are simply lighting
candles, putting incense on the censor, and learning the rituals.

I do recall back in 1997(?) when I was researching a paper on this topic
meeting a fellow on the list who was working on just such a conlang for
his coven.  Don't remember his name, though.

--Patrick