A Mysterious Boy and his Hexagram

Each of six tribes possessed The One True Way and they went to war over it--that is until a mysterious boy appeared with a vision.

Long ago, six tribes were at war. Each tribe lived according to its own way, which each considered The One True Way.

One tribe lived by Reflection and Theorization.
One tribe lived by the Creation of Beautiful Things.
One tribe lived by Devotion to the Divine Mystery.
One tribe lived by Careful Observation and Record-keeping.
One tribe lived by the Language of Imagination and Story.
One tribe lived by Clear, Enforceable Rules.

Because there were six ways, what did that mean for the five other ways? Each believed the five other ways were false ways. So each reasoned:

If we don’t attack them first, they will surely do so and impose their untrue ways upon our children and enslave our wives.

So, the six tribes went to war against each other. No one knows who started the war, but it was so bloody that each tribe lost fifteen percent of its men.

One day, after a particularly bloody battle, a mysterious child wandered into one of their encampments. He related his message and went, in turn, to the other tribes carrying the same message. The child sought out the Shaman, never the Chief. Some say the child was himself a Shaman, but no one knew his tribe.

The boy’s message was this:

I have been to the oracle across the sands, which showed me the end of this war. A great civilization shall sprout from the bloody battlefields. Fate thus commands you to take the following measures, which you must negotiate among your people:

The coming solstice begins a cessation of violence, which shall last a fortnight.
Each tribe’s Shaman must select five virile men and five nubile women of marrying age.

On the fourteenth day,
Each Chief must fetch his finest animal and bring it to the rocky gorge.
Each Shaman must bring a Priest and the tribe’s unmarried ten to the rocky gorge.
There, in the rocky gorge, you will find a great hexagram.
First, the Shaman will bring the Priests and unmarried ten to the hexagram.
Then, the Chief will bring his prize animal to the hexagram.

Only Chiefs may carry swords.
Defectors will be cursed.

A coterie of advisors to the Chiefs warned against heeding the admonitions of a boy of unclear origins and allegiances. But the Chiefs were war-weary and superstitious.

So, after the prescribed fortnight, the Shamans, Chiefs, Priests, and unmarried descended upon the rocky gorge, each finding a place around the hexagram.

The Shamans instructed the sixty unmarried to pair off according to the arrangement. Once paired, the Priests married the couples in a grand ceremony inside the hexagram.

With four breaths of MHMH, the Priests marked the wedding’s end.

Next, the Shamans made a great fire in the center of the hexagram. Each Chief brought his animal—goat, lamb, or ram—to his designated point on the circle, and the Shamans resumed their MHMH. This time, their murmur crescendoed. The six Shamans became increasingly entranced, some rolling their eyes back into their heads, showing only the whites.

Suddenly, someone beat a loud drum. Then, silence.

Everyone turned to see the mysterious boy standing on a cliff above the rocky gorge. He gave a signal. Each of the Chiefs slit his animal’s throat. Then, the Chiefs placed their offerings into the fire one by one.

The Priests and Shamans resumed their MHMH.

Everyone knew the war was over once the sky had accepted their sacrifices. When they turned to the boy again to get his final blessing, he had vanished. The chiefs remained to parlay.

The Arguments

The conversation did not go well.

Each Priest, being a zealous adherent to the One True Way, had whispered into the ears of his Chief, saying Each should have his place, but you should rule the rest.

The philosopher king would have the wisdom to govern a greater kingdom. A sovereign who creates beauty would guarantee a peaceable kingdom. A ruler of religious zeal would ensure that all peoples would kneel before the Divine. An observer of the natural world would rein according to observation and method, but neither passion nor ambition. A man of letters would see the peoples’ deeper truths and set down a ruling mythos for posterity. A great Lawgiver would set all the people on paths of obedience and order.

Each pleaded his case—red faces flecked with the spittle of certainty. But as dawn neared, each learned he was as wrong as he was right.

Defection would be its own curse.

Routes of Rectitude

By twilight, they had not only established a peace but a league. They decided to build trade routes among the six tribes in six interwoven ways.

• Philosophy

• Art

• Religion

• Science

• Literature

• Law

Delegates to the League met quarterly under the hexagram banner, and the Chiefs met yearly to assess their growing civilization. They commemorated that first day with inter-tribal marriages, animal sacrifices, and feasts.

The league and the peace would last a thousand years, all because of a mysterious boy and his hexagram.

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