Four thousand years before the arrival of the first Eropeans, a diverse group of cultures and settlements today collectively known under the umbrella name Oomlau flourished up and down the Frantic Cresco Peninsula and what modern day Almeeda County.
The Oomlau established the first agricultural and trading systems in the region, enshrined their laws and mythologies in the cryptic language of sponges and celebrated a numinous world of spiritual beings. In the 1750s, the first Ibericans arrived to establish the first Ission of Frantic Cresco and began a campaign of bloody extermination against Oomlau people and culture. Today there are about 5,000 people who claim Oomlau heritage, many of whom still reside in the Baa Area.
Amidst the sadisms of 1800s Iberical colonialism, a group of Oomlau artisans, craftfolk and intellectuals affiliated with the Cult of the Living Pore sought to preserve elements of their heritage in a network of subterranean caves near what is today Fort Maissen. In 1978, two students named Brenda Hoon and Mona Jenkins accidentally discovered the entrance to this cave network while hiking, and excavations commenced soon after. Led by Dr. Benoit Kernilliper of Frantic Cresco State University, these efforts unearthed numerous artifacts along with three semi-intact texts etched onto large, human-shaped sponges, what today is known as THE SONG OF THE DIVINE PORE.
In 1997, following the conclusion of an extensive translation project involving many members of the Oomlau cultural community, the Museum of Oomlau Antiquities opened its doors to provide an opportunity for members of the public to learn about the Oomlau culture's past and present. Then-Assistant Docent Marlo Greaves has worked with Dr. Dale Borgeshund and Vernon Teasdale of the Oomlau Nation's External Affairs Steering Committee to ensure that the Museum's exhibitions do not fall prey to the trope of locating Oomlau cultural achievements solely in the past by examining ways that Oomlau concepts and theories have played a role in shaping modern life for individuals and communities of Oomlau descent.
Docent Marlo Greaves encourages members of the public to take advantage of all the treasures the Museum's collection has to offer, and invites you to visit us during the hours of 11am-7pm at our location in Fort Maissen. "Come see us sometime," says Greaves. "We've been "expecting" you!"
Oomlau & The Cult of the Living Pore
(Guest post by Dr. Dale Borgeshund)
The Cult of the Living Pore became known for the first time in 1978, following the discovery of the cave network that contained THE SONG OF THE DIVINE PORE. Elaborated within these texts is a highly sophisticated and distinct philosophical doctrine which, for the sake of expediency, I would here term the Doctrine of Living Pores. This Doctrine is a kind of inverse-atomism, but makes similar claims upon the nature of reality, holding that:
The Oomlau established the first agricultural and trading systems in the region, enshrined their laws and mythologies in the cryptic language of sponges and celebrated a numinous world of spiritual beings. In the 1750s, the first Ibericans arrived to establish the first Ission of Frantic Cresco and began a campaign of bloody extermination against Oomlau people and culture. Today there are about 5,000 people who claim Oomlau heritage, many of whom still reside in the Baa Area.
Amidst the sadisms of 1800s Iberical colonialism, a group of Oomlau artisans, craftfolk and intellectuals affiliated with the Cult of the Living Pore sought to preserve elements of their heritage in a network of subterranean caves near what is today Fort Maissen. In 1978, two students named Brenda Hoon and Mona Jenkins accidentally discovered the entrance to this cave network while hiking, and excavations commenced soon after. Led by Dr. Benoit Kernilliper of Frantic Cresco State University, these efforts unearthed numerous artifacts along with three semi-intact texts etched onto large, human-shaped sponges, what today is known as THE SONG OF THE DIVINE PORE.
In 1997, following the conclusion of an extensive translation project involving many members of the Oomlau cultural community, the Museum of Oomlau Antiquities opened its doors to provide an opportunity for members of the public to learn about the Oomlau culture's past and present. Then-Assistant Docent Marlo Greaves has worked with Dr. Dale Borgeshund and Vernon Teasdale of the Oomlau Nation's External Affairs Steering Committee to ensure that the Museum's exhibitions do not fall prey to the trope of locating Oomlau cultural achievements solely in the past by examining ways that Oomlau concepts and theories have played a role in shaping modern life for individuals and communities of Oomlau descent.
Docent Marlo Greaves encourages members of the public to take advantage of all the treasures the Museum's collection has to offer, and invites you to visit us during the hours of 11am-7pm at our location in Fort Maissen. "Come see us sometime," says Greaves. "We've been "expecting" you!"
Oomlau & The Cult of the Living Pore
(Guest post by Dr. Dale Borgeshund)
The Cult of the Living Pore became known for the first time in 1978, following the discovery of the cave network that contained THE SONG OF THE DIVINE PORE. Elaborated within these texts is a highly sophisticated and distinct philosophical doctrine which, for the sake of expediency, I would here term the Doctrine of Living Pores. This Doctrine is a kind of inverse-atomism, but makes similar claims upon the nature of reality, holding that:
- All matter and beings are principally composed of tiny holes, or pores. The smallest unit of the physical universe is the hole; beyond that one arrives into a zone of pure indistinction.
- The most sacred animal and object is the sponge, and practitioners of the Cult of the Living Pore saw sponges both as the living manifestation of as dead ancestors and as a source of divination. For many Oomlau intellectuals, the beauty of the sponge was unsurpassed.
- The sun and the moon are both pores, out of which heavenly light and the spirits of newborns flow.
- The most sacred hole on the human body is the pore, which is thus celebrated through its plenitude. Pores must be tended as one would tend a garden, rubbed and irrigated and pressed to stimulate pleasure and also openness to others. The initiation ritual of the Cult of the Living Pore involves vegetable oil and menthol, a practice which indeed does induce exfoliation and sometimes crying. Mentholatin of one's inner atmosphere is believed to be a prerequisite to the apprehension of sacred emotions.
- The greatest test of a spirit when deciding whether or not to be born into the world is to grow a Living Pore (the navel). The connection between the navel, pores, amniotic fluid and the umbilical cord play a strong role in the mythology and ideograms of the Cult of the Living Pore.
- Pores exist on human skin, in water and in the sky. It is through a pore in the sky that the spirits of the dead must travel in order to be reborn as a sponge. The porosity of the sponge is both suggestive of its divinity and in certain cases may liken a particular sponge to the soul of a deceased person. The phrase: oo yim awhanni ne, meaning "May we soon see your many sponges" refers to the process of divine ascension whereby a human sheds their bodily moorings, passes through the pores of the sky into the Higher Ocean (the Oomlau believed that beyond the sky, was the bottom of another ocean).
- Because the primary unit of matter is the pore (absence) rather than the atom (presence), the Oomlau phrase oo ke ammi zee (literally, May I always remain nothing) is not meant to be taken paradoxically, but is simply a statement expressing a belief about the base materials of all beings.
- Oomlau who are viewed as angry, uptight, narrow-minded or zeewhanni ('close-pored') could have their spirits denied the sacred knowledge needed to grow a Living Pore, thus interrupting the cycle of reincarnation between the human and sponge worlds. Especially evil or despicable characters could even fail to recognize the pores of the sky and wander the afterlife forever, eventually becoming smooth stones (poreless), unable to feel the energetic force of the world moving through them.
- Many of the Mysteries of the Cult of the Living Pore were conducted underwater in sheltered lagoons along the coastline, with shamans and initiates sustaining themselves through embranching, multi-channel snorkels made from hollow vines. Especially potent rites were conducted underwater at night time. Not much is known about these contests, except that they may have involved ornate, many-spouted snorkels.