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Fëavanda eldaliéva (Quenya: Elven Spiritual Path)

[Note: Without this brief guide, the apparently interchanging terminology relative to this Path's and this organization's same name, along with its application in another organization's name, may be confusing. So, (to help you to perceive what's actually being communicated about what), throughout this web site, you will see
  • "the Path", or "this Path", (referring to the entire tradition that is the Elven spiritual path, using a singular term), differentiating it from [albeit the same meaning as],

  • "Elven spiritual path", (also referring to the entire tradition, using lower case letters on the latter two words to differentiate our using that term per se) from

  • "Elven Spiritual Path" (ESP), (which refers to this organization's legal name with the I.R.S., i.e. ELVEN SPIRITUAL PATH [EIN: 86-64118870]), and from

  • "the Elven Spiritual Path"; (when the formal name is combined with "the", it exclusively refers to the Elven spiritual tradition established by Tie eldalieva; of which ESP is a direct, albeit unaffiliated outgrowth--hence, the choice of our name; the most apt name as the first descendant, 501(c)(3) organization representing the Legendarium-based integrity of that tradition).
Hopefully, that clarifies the terminology focuses between the Path and the respective business entities to your peace of mind as you read more.]


The Elven Spiritual Path Is Not A Religion; It IS A Viable Spiritual Tradition Embodying The Fundamental Factors Of All The World's Great Religions

The Elven Spiritual Path is not a creed to be declared, but a light to be lived. Tolkien himself resisted the very notion of ‘religion’ in Middle-earth, for as he wrote, ‘the religious element is absorbed into the story and the symbolism’—not carved into stone. The Elves knew the Valar as servants of Ilúvatar, not as gods to be worshipped by rote; their faith was a song, not a sermon. History bears the warning: when Númenor made its sacred longing ‘official,’ it hardened into dogma and drowned a kingdom. True Elven spirituality, then, is not a path to be owned, but a journey to be walked—always in motion, always in harmony, never in doctrinal, or dogmatic chains.



Organizational Structure
Fëavanda eldaliéva/Elven Spiritual Path (ESP) is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization operating as a sacred charitable trust and a church, advancing [the mystical aspects and arts of] religion, education, the arts and science, relative to the Elven Spiritual Path. Globally, ESP serves to advance the awareness, understanding, and practice of Tolkien-based religion; specifically, Tolkien-based Elven spirituality. From a business management perspective, ESP's structure is that of a learning organization.


History
An Independent Outgrowth of Elven Path

Organizationally, ESP is an outgrowth of Tië eldaliéva (Quenya: Elven Path) (T-e). T-e was founded in 2005, by Lisa Allen and Dave Woosley, to develop and establish a viable spiritual practice based on the Elven content of J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth Mythology--(in absolute, exclusive alignment with Tolkien's "Legendarium", i.e.  if it isn't in the Legendarium, it isn't in the formal content T-e provides to the Elven Spiritual Community). In 2008, Rev. Michaele Alyras de Cygne (a.k.a. Alyras) joined T-e, and later served (for 8 years) as a member of the T-e's governing Inner Circle. During that period, T-e cemented its position as the primary leader of the Tolkien-based wing of an emerging spiritual tradition that would become known as “the Elven Spiritual Path” (Elven spiritual path). Whilst Michaele also served as the organization's primary spiritual teacher, (then simply called “Alyras”, and later “Tárainimë* [High Wise One] Alyras”), T-e expanded its outreach more than ten-fold; further elevating its global visibility another ten-fold via its collaboration with another Elven spiritual teacher, “Kimberel Eventide” (Kimberley Lennon), who was invited into and joined the organization for a short time.

As Ms. Lennon joined T-e, the Elven Spiritual Community began to lobby T-e to establish an "Elven Church"; formally entrusting funds to the org for that purpose. On the business end, the onus for making that happen was entirely on Michaele, as she was the only T-e member with the organizational imagination, education and experience to pull off something like that. Hence, [single-handedly conceiving and codifying the legal structure of the new org and of the new Church, (with the exception of 1 article of the organization’s new Bylaws, and the org's Statement of Belief), and submitting all of the documentation required required by the IRS], Michaele founded T-e as a 501(c)(3) charitable trust, and church bearing the new name the trustees collectively chose, “Tië eldalieva Elven Spiritual Path Charitable Trust and Church", with the trustees agreeing on her name for the church, "Yana eldalieva”. (Legally serving as the Trust's Principal Officer), Michaele assigned Lisa/Calantriniel as its Executive Director, Dave as its Secretary, and Earendil Spindelilus as its Treasurer, then served as the trust's Director of Operations, Director of Music Ministry, later also serving as its Treasurer when Earendil resigned from T-e.

Up to that point, (although Music is central to the Midde-earth Mythology, hence to Elven spirituality, especially Tolkien-based such spirituality), music was not a formal aspect of the T-e's Observances, beyond Michaele’s music composition for “Lindë Elenlotë”, (the opening part of T-e’s rituals). Hence, to facilitate the presentation of Elven devotional music for the Tolkien-based members of that Community, Michaele was intuitively guided to found “ElvenSpirit” in mid-2020; (ElvenSpirit operating independently of T-e, nonetheless serving that Community by advancing T-e's established tradition, [with contrasting openness to practically applying the Quenya-translated Tao Te Ching in the extra-ceremonial/ritual practices of this Path]).


Vision From Holy Spirit in Yellowstone 



Unbridgeable Rift In T-e 


Birth of Elven Spiritual Path
                                                                                                                                
A couple of months later, whilst traveling through Yellowstone National Park on the morning of Isilurimë, (the Elven Full Moon of Heat), Michaele was resting in Silence with Spirit, when Spirit whispered, “Elvenchrist”, to her; immediately thereafter illuminating to her both the principal of Elvenchrist, and the vision of the Music ministry thereto applicable. Within a few days thereafter, she presented the concept of Elvenchrist to the world. Upon encountering Michaele's Elvenchrist presentation, T-e’s Executive Director (ED) responded to both the concept of Elvenchrist and to Michaele with vitriolic denial and rejection of both, ordering Michaele to vacate every role she was fulfilling for T-e, and to depart from the organization; formally citing Elvenchrist as the justification for her order. Fortunately, it was not an executive order that was supported by the org's Bylaws, (which Michaele had written), and there were no legitimate reasons to justify Michaele's voluntary, or involuntary departure from T-e; so, she kept on keepin' on with fulfillng her duties (as trustee; Director of Operations; Treasurer; and Director of Music Ministries). Nonetheless, the ED's reactions to her own projections had created an unbridgeable rift in T-e governance, which none of Michaele's efforts to clarify and course correct could assuage. Ultimately, the ED stripped Michaele's access to the T-e accounts she [Michaele] managed, and she was ostracized and permanently barred from the organization, and thereby from directly interacting with its community--[which, frankly, is most of the Tolkien-based Elven spiritual community]--through nearly all of the established channels by which Michaele had thereby been teaching.  (Frankly, it was an effort to cut off the Flow in order to spite the spigot; however, the org' is not the Spring Flowing to, through, and outpouring from that spigot.)

Organizational Mitosis

Michaele had become T-e's primary spiritual teacher, her teachings reaching the Elven spiritual community in numbers between multiples and orders of magnitude greater than the next most effective such teacher in T-e. (In 2018, one of T-e's Inner Circle had communicated to her that, from that one's perspective, her teachings have advanced the Elven spiritual community far more than those of any of Elven spiritual teacher, up to the date of that comment.) Michaele's ejection from T-e was both traumatizing to her, and a very significant net loss for the Elven spiritual community--so, what's a leading Tolkien-based Elven spiritual teacher to do when in such a position? Michaele consulted a completely different, objective perspective; the I Ching. The I Ching's (paraphrased) guidance: "Don't crawl under a rock. You have a wealth of valuable and critically important information to share. Give it to those for whom its intended...!"

Feeling a sense of duty to determine another route by which she may continue to fulfill her spiritual pedagogical role for the Elven community, she sought guidance from both the Flame Imperishable/Holy Spirit and Manwë, (High King of the Valar) on how to implement the I Ching's counsel. Spirit informed her that there was no U.S. organization formally operating as "Elven Spiritual Path", and guided her to found this organization by that name as another 501(c)(3) charitable trust, independently operating under the auspices of ElvenSpirit. Since ElvenSpirit was established before the Yellowstone experience, Manwë's guidance was for Elvenspirit to enable ESP to continue to advance the Elven spiritual path in solidarity with T-e's tradition, albeit exclusively as a Light-bearing outFlow of Love, (rather than the kind of fear-Flow that manifested Michaele's ejection from T-e); and, most importantly, one primarily focused on enabling Eldalie to include Song in both their spiritual practices, and their spiritual arsenals. Manwë also directed her to close T-e's IRS account; (which is a permanent transaction, and which also necessitated Michaele transferring T-e's assets [and all of its fiduciary duties] to ElvenSpirit; [full details]).


The Mission and Vision of Elven Spiritual Path
ESP presently serves to globally advance Tolkien-based Elven spirituality by facilitating and teaching the use of Elven devotional Song, primarily within, and for the enrichment of the Elven sacred Observances originally developed by T-e. ESP also presents inspirational music created, and/or performed by other artists, in the interest of further advancing Tolkien-based Elven spirituality for all Eldalië (Elves). Additionally, ESP stands as an academic resource by which Eldalië may deepen their functional knowledge and skill in their practice of Elven spirituality.

[Serving the demands of many in the Elven community, ESP's founder personally conceived and codified the vision and documents establishing T-e as a fully viable, centralized Elven church.  Subsequently, she had a change of heart about having done so, after fully perceiving, and embracing Tolkien's persistent account of the complete absence of religion in the lives of the Elves of Middle-earth. Perceiving Tolkien's inSight and wisdom with 20/20 hindsight, she saw the reality that, in microcosmic proportion, the same thing happened amongst 21st century humans aligned with Middle-earth Elves that happened in the human community of Middle-earth--egoic pride undermined and polluted the paradigm, ultimately resulting in the human worship of Sauron. Michael J. Love (Zardoa), of the Silver Elves also warned of what tends to be overwhelmingly high probability of such a paradigm downturn in neo-Elven organizational endeavors when the org structure accommodates any form of politics. His warning played out as T-e's organizational experience.]

Note:

T-e became a charitable trust when they received a donation, along with what's called a "Donor's Directive", to establish an Elven "Church". Structuring the new version of the organization, Michaele named the church, "Yána Eldaliéva", (Sanctuary of the Elves)", all the trustees agreed on the name, and it was presented to the Elven Spiritual Community as such. It was exclusively Tolkien-based, ordaining clerics in the context of that exclusivity. With the closure of that version of T-e (as a trust), fulfilling that Directive became the fiduciary duty of ElvenSpirit. To more effectively thereby serve, the [ElvenSpirit-facilitated] Sanctuary foregoes that exclusivity.

About Elven Spiritual Path's Seal/Logo

ESP's logo is a powerful, aggregate, mystical symbol capable of being a talisman.



The central focus is on the 7-pointed Elven Star, in the form of a septaquetra [so-named by Lisa Allen], which is presented in 3 shades of green, each progressively darker as the eye moves toward its core.

Within its core are representations of the Two Trees. Between the Trees is the Flame Imperishable (Holy Spirit), the Animating Principle of all Life, spiritual, astral, and physical.

The 3 silmarils within the core, one rooted in each Tree, and the third between the Trees and above the Flame, signify the practitioner’s deep grounding in the Essence of both Trees, and ascension into the distillation of both to become an Elven Light Bearer, (broadcasting the Light of the Flame to all of Arda).

Surrounding the septaquetra, at, and between each point, is a clear quartz crystal Star Tetrahedron/Merkabah; fourteen in total, one for each of the Valar. “The Star Tetrahedron models the energetic body of the human being, the blending of Heaven and Earth, Male and Female, and was known in the esoteric knowledge of Ancient Egypt as the ‘Mer-Ka-Ba’. The two tetrahedrons contained within each other represent the two poles of creation in complete equilibrium; spirit and matter. All of creation is based on this divine equilibrium, whether the form concerned is considered to be inanimate matter or a living creature. It is the inner law operating through all forms. Whether a given form is that of a plant, an animal or a human, the body of each of these is subject to the laws of the three-dimensional world. Hidden and invisible within this body, however, is the higher, Divine Self – Life – Eternal Being!” (http://www.ascensionnow.co.uk/star-tetrahedron-merkaba.html).

On each side of the seal is a Starflower; since there are two genera of the plant, each is therein represented. The organization’s thereabove name is therebelow written in Tengwar (Eldamar).


["Isn't... that... T-e's Logo?"

There have been murmurings in the Elven Spiritual Community that ESP, (or, more to the point, that Michaele) plagiarized T-e's logo and Seal in the making of those of its own. Michaele also designed and created T-e's original logo and Seal; hence, the similarity between the two images. Technically, their design elements are radically different, however, they both express the same spiritual principles; same principles, same artist, same basic design format, and same, single copyright holder to both images. Rather than plagiarizing T-e's logo, (which as its creator and owner, she couldn't have done--just sayin'--), Michaele rebuilt it, making it a much more spiritually evocative image;

which is also indicative of ESP's branch of the Elven spiritual path being a remarkably more spiritually dynamic expression of this sacred tradition, as evidenced in a
Comparison of rituals:

See
T-e's version of the Ritual of Enderi embodying the original ritual format, and

Elven Spiritual Path's version of the Ritual of Enderi embodying the enriched format, to verbally compare their differences.

To learn the original ritual process of the Tolkien-based Elven spiritual path, created and demonstrated live by its originator, T-e, [i.e. original authors], check out this video: https://www.youtube.com/live/chdCK4z9E1M

As you'll see, the primary differences between T-e's process and ESP's are:

(1) T-e's monotonic original intoning, and ESP's polyphonic variations of the ritual opening (creating the Septaquetra) and the names of the Directions for calling the Valar. The polyphonic variations are entirely based on sound healing principles; e.g. intoning Eru by starting on an high tone and slowly descending to the octave below it, and holding it there affects a literal multidimensional expression of Eru's name--the octave interval does that. Intoning the Valar name using the Perfect Fifth establishes a transdimensional equilibrium as each therefore term is intoned.

And
(2) The liturgy of ESP is expanded; the original text of the specific process is therein quoted, and the bridging text is expanded, with the critical core content left unaltered, making it richer and more deeply felt. As ESP maintains the same exclusive regard of the Legendarium as this Path's sole sacred text, those expansions are fully relative to its text.