# Monotheistic and non-ritualistic religion devoted to Ilúvatar in the real world?



## Firinne Gile (Aug 31, 2021)

In 2003 and 2012 because of the movies (The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit) the subject of "Tolkienian spirituality" or spirituality based on his Legendarium came up again so I'll create this topic with future discussions in mind because maybe the Amazon series can rekindle the debate.

I wrote a text describing the groups that developed some kind of religiosity based on the books written by J.R.R Tolkien based on the work of Markus Altena Davidsen "The Spiritual Tolkien Milieu: A Study of Fiction‐based Religion".

Davidsen deals with various issues in his work, such as the origin of these groups, their internal logic and justification, their rituals (based on Legendarium or not), mergers with other religions, passages in Tolkien's books and other writings that would give reason for these beliefs, other works and authors dealing with this theme, etc.

Below I have written a summary of these groups, their origin, purpose, rituals, spiritual vision, and influence they had on Tolkien's works.

The first group Davidsen mentions was Mytle Receeo, a woman resident of Southern California in the year 1973. She believed the stories written by Tolkien were “real, although [Tolkien] for convenience 'wrote the chronicle in fiction form'.” She claim to had conversations with Elves, Dwarves and Hobbits and that Bilbo appeared to her once as a child and revealed to her the return of the Nine Walkers (The Fellowship of the Ring). Her group had the intention of digging up Minas Tirith from the Mojave Desert (California), which she would have located by psychic powers. The project, however, was always postponed and the group disintegrated.

In 1972, "Arwen" and "Elanor" founded the feminist group "The Elf Queen Daughters", claiming they were mentored in a Ouija board session. These were not their real names, but taken from The Lord of the Rings book. The two established centers in Illinois and across America. They were practitioners of Wicca however and used elements from Tolkien's works only as complements. They understood that Elbereth would be Arda or Gaia and sang songs to her in rituals. Varda's use was actually metaphorical used to revere the "feminine", just as his identification as Elves was a reference to respect for nature.
This move was later succeeded by "Zardoa Love and Silverflame" which can be found here https://www.instagram.com/silverelves/. Zardoa met The Elf Queen Daughthers and began to receive their letters. Afterwards, one night he claimed that he had "awakened as an elf" and received his initiation into the group The Elf Queen Daughters. After this event he founded his own center in Carbondale (Illinois). Unlike the feminist group, Zardoa took her "elven identity" and awakening seriously. Zardoa in his partnership with Silverflame claimed that without Tolkien they would probably not call themselves Elves and refer to themselves as "Silver Elves". Among their beliefs, they linked Arda to Gaia and believed in cyclic Elvish reincarnation to aid the evolution of Man. Although they referred to the Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings in several of their letters, they dropped the Legendarium years later. Furthermore, they do not consider Tolkien's stories as factual reality, just a source of inspiration.

In 1984 the "Tribunal of Sidhe" is founded in Sacramento (California). One of its founders is known as "Lady Danu". Tribunal of Sidhe followed the neo-pagan line and its members called themselves "Changeling", that is, mythical/fairy creatures incarnated in a human body from the "Astral Plane". The group synthesized elements of Tolkien's Legendarium with Wicca, Celtic mythology and their own personal beliefs. They used Tolkien's mythology as well as several other known mythologies for rituals and for them ancient folklore, myths and stories about fairies and elves reflected the historical fact that they co-inhabited the land. Correlating the work of Tolkien, the group considered that the Changeling's home in the astral plane would be the "Blessed Kingdom", where they would inhabit the "kin people", thus, the Valar, Maiar and Elves. They claimed that Tolkien himself was a Changeling and his work "the story of the Changeling in mythic form", the author having changed some things so that his story seemed less controversial.

In the "Alternative Tolkien Society", which you can access here (http://alt-tolkien.com/), active from 1996 to 2005, members shared, among other accounts, visits to Middle-earth through rituals and encounters with elves . It was the founder of the site, Martin Baker, who introduced Calantirniel and Nathan Elwin, founders of the Tië Eldaliéva group and its Ilsaluntë Valion arm, which we'll talk about below. Baker who was interested in Western esoterism considered Tolkien's works as spiritually strong as other myths. He wrote a series of articles he called the "Tresco manuscript" which claimed to come to him by "Alice Bailey", in which the historicity of Tolkien's works would be proven. In them, the author extended Tolkien's plot connecting Middle-earth and Anglo-Saxon England. He claimed the manuscript and related tradition as "intensely real" if not "really true".

Tië Eldaliéva was founded in 2005 by Nathan Elwin and Calantirniel. Access their website here https://elvenspirituality.com/. Elwin searched for decades for people who shared his belief that Tolkien's stories were not fiction but rather "myth-history* with euhemeristic elements**". What he always found was "Tolkienian spirituality" mixed with neo-pagan elements. After reading “J.R.R. Tolkien’s Gnosis for our Day” by Stephan Hoeller, Elwin founded an online community for Gnostic and myth-historical exploration of Tolkien's Legendarium. After meeting Calantirniel, they both decided to create a "spiritual path embodying Tolkien". Although Elwin's initial intention was to distance himself from other beliefs, Tolkien's history does not relate to rituals, so the group decided to create their own lunisolar calendar, incorporating practices such as ceremonial magic from the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and Wicca. The group Ilsaluntë Valion (https://forum.westofwest.org/) was born precisely because of differences between the members of the group. While at its root Tië Eldaliéva dealt with an "elven spiritual view", some members preferred a spiritual view of Men (or Human), or an approach encompassing both sides. Some members were also troubled by the additions of pagan rituals used by leaders for the purpose of "filling in the blanks", ie the lack of ritualistic acts in Tolkien's works. These required a strict exploration of Legendarium, without additions. Another group, divergent in the form of rituals, preferred shamanic practices, while others preferred Wiccan magic. For this reason, Elwin split from the group and founded Ilsaluntë Valion. The new group asserted itself against the Otherkin¹ view, but opened up the possibility of elven ancestry in the human gene (Half-Elves of Legendarium) and blended a spiritual vision of both elven and human. The group emphasized a Gnostic line of interpretation and considered Tolkien's tales as mytho-historical, along with the intention of identifying parallels to Tolkien's stories and the real world though not fully.

Middle-Earth Pagans was a group founded in 2004 by Laurasia Sluyswachter to be a space for sharing experiences of integrating Tolkien's work with "spiritual paths". Access here https://mepagans.proboards.com/. Most of her group, as well as the founder, met in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings movies. Unlike other groups, this one focused its rituals on the characters in the movies themselves through Wiccan rituals. She correlated each character with a power and function to claim in her rituals. For the group, the characters in The Lord of the Rings would be a metaphorical expression of the pagan God and Goddess. Laurasia said that some members of the group imagined that Middle-earth would exist in a different dimension and that they could connect with it by visiting the "astral realm". Many of the members lost interest after a while. The site was widely used for diverse discussions unrelated to the central idea and was never institutionalized or centered on basic ideas. The group eventually dispersed.

Children of Varda was born in 2003, in the Yahoo groups and was a group aimed at pagans and believers in the existence of elves. The group also welcomed Christians, both united in their appreciation of Tolkien's works and belief in elves. Some members also displayed the elven self-identification factor. The prominent topics were about elven music and elven memories of the past which were most often linked to Middle-earth, whether on the astral plane or in the prehistory of the world. The group however dwindled after a while. The focus of discussion turned to alternative subjects such as tarot, horoscope, reike, karma, guardian angels and so on. As with the Middle-earth Pagan Group, the variety of subjects and lack of focus caused members to migrate to more organized groups. Since 2006 there has been no further activity in the group.

The Elendë group was created in 2005 on Yahoo (originally named Quest for Middle-earth and the Elves) by Dana. Their group's premise was to bring together people who believed that Middle-earth was a real place just like the Elves. Unlike other groups, Elendë did not perform rituals and only a minority of members self-identified as an elf. Discussions focused centrally on debating encounters and experiences with elves. Though founded on Middle-earth's idea of reality, most members discarded this possibility, adopting instead the interpretation of the existence of another world inhabited by elves or their existence in the real world not tied to Tolkien's Legendarium. From this thought onwards the discussions disappeared and there was nothing more to be said, as a study of elves from other mythologies was never encouraged, nor any ritualistic connection employed. Since 2004 the group has spent most of its time inactive.

Indigo Elves is a discussion forum active since 2005 on Proboards (visit https://indigocrystals.proboards.com/ here). Its focus is on belief in self-identification and elven nature, its awakening and return. Their leader, Ravenwolf, discourages rituals aimed at the Valar, as in Tolkien's works they would be more like angels rather than gods to be worshipped. He also opposes the elven incarnation view, however defending elven descent by gene. Furthermore, he believes that Middle-earth and the core elements of Tolkien's Legendarium occurred in real time from our physical world. He mentions that after the flood there was still a period when elves and magic remained strong, but after that they "faded out". However, the blood elven bloodline still remains among humans from Arwen and Aragorn. Regarding the group name, Indigo is a person considered more sensitive and spiritually developed. Some members of the group self-identify Indigos and consider Tolkien's work as well as ancient myths about Elves and Changelings a metaphorical way to refer to the actual Indigo phenomenon.

Summing up this information, Tolkien-based religion has a deep and inseparable connection with paganism when carried out in practice. In most cases those spiritually affected by the Legendarium seek correlations in pre-established religions and are mainly found in neo-paganism and the ritualistic adoption of Wicca.
Two distinct groups can be observed: those who take the mythopoetic*** view of the works, claiming that Tolkien's Legendarium carries universal spiritual expressions found in various religions and cultures, and those who view tales in a mytho-historical way, albeit always linking them to other myths and spiritual visions as a form of justification. With few reservations, the religions presented tried at least some kind of ritual, mainly the contact with the deities, giving more importance to the experience of ritual connection than to the exploration and historical correspondence of the Legendarium.

*Mytho-historical: "the text is dramatized history".
**Euhemeristic: "the text is a legend".
***Mitopoeic: "the text reveals supernatural entities in a metaphorical way".
¹Otherkin: someone who feels he is not human.

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Although I found divergences of belief in these groups, none of the groups fit the parameters I'm looking to learn more about: a non-ecumenical, non-ritualistic, mytho-historical and monotheistic belief. If any of you have information about it I would like to know.

If you want to read the work of Davidsen can access here: https://www.academia.edu/25302152/2..._A_Study_of_Fiction_based_Religion_full_text_.


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## m4r35n357 (Sep 1, 2021)

Fascinating stuff! I always thought this stuff could easily turn into a religion in a couple of hundred years, looks like I underestimated human capabilities in this regard


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## Alcuin (Sep 1, 2021)

I believe JRR Tolkien, a devout Christian, would be deeply distressed to discover New Age pagans practicing “religions” based upon his work. And I cannot believe anyone would take _Lord of the Rings_ and its associated materials as “real, although [Tolkien] for convenience ‘wr[ote] the chronicle in fiction form’.” That a person would “claim[] to have [had] conversations with Elves, Dwarves and Hobbits,” or “that Bilbo appeared to her once as a child and revealed to her the return of the Nine Walkers,” seems to me either outright deceptive at best or seriously delusional at worst. 

But thank you for the excellent post, Mithiriëthî, and the link to Davidsen’s work. Welcome to TTF.


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## Aldarion (Apr 15, 2022)

Interesting yet disconcerting.

Still, thanks.


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## Squint-eyed Southerner (Apr 15, 2022)

I guess it answers this question:









What if "Church of Iluvatar" was made


Just curious to how big that religion would be? If it were made by cult followers?




www.thetolkienforum.com





This sort of phenomenon has a history, as shown in the short article by writer and critic Brian Stableford on "Lifestyle Fantasy":



https://sf-encyclopedia.com/fe/lifestyle_fantasy



What's noticeable is the way in which occultism, "paganism", and literature-- especially fantasy literature-- furnish material for each other, and build on each other, in a kind of feedback loop.


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## Persephone (May 19, 2022)

Alcuin said:


> I believe JRR Tolkien, a devout Christian, would be deeply distressed to discover New Age pagans practicing “religions” based upon his work. And I cannot believe anyone would take _Lord of the Rings_ and its associated materials as “real, although [Tolkien] for convenience ‘wr[ote] the chronicle in fiction form’.” That a person would “claim[] to have [had] conversations with Elves, Dwarves and Hobbits,” or “that Bilbo appeared to her once as a child and revealed to her the return of the Nine Walkers,” seems to me either outright deceptive at best or seriously delusional at worst.
> 
> But thank you for the excellent post, Mithiriëthî, and the link to Davidsen’s work. Welcome to TTF.



Agree on all points made.


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