(This page was written by caver@clem.mscd.edu. It was lost to humanity so I raised from the dead, thanks to archive.org. I am not responsible for the opinions presented. -- Brett)

The Temple of Karla Sommers

Karla Sommers

"Karla Sommers, Progressive Rock Vocalist"
as painted by Kevin Davies
copyright Trident Inc.
Let your soul be uplifted, and let your life become more musical
as you dance in the joys of knowing Karla.

--- May the Tunes play forever ---

Your host, Wolfgang Caver

Karla Sommers,
Goddess of Music and Hope for Humanity

Contents:
Al Amarja
Who is Karla Sommers?
The Sacred Writings of Tweet

What Does It All Mean?
The Presence and Worship of Karla on Our Earth
The Spiritual Magnitude of Music
Euterpe, Greek Goddess of Music Later Worship of the Celestial Songstress
Conduits: Modern-Day Women Blessed by Karla
Conclusion

Al Amarja

There exists an alternate Earth in another dimension, very much like our own. The most significant difference between that Earth and ours is a Mediterranean island called Al Amarja.

Al Amarja is a conduit for all that is strange. A Fortean paradise, it is a place where the laws of probability and the logical cohesiveness of what we think of as reality are weakened to the point where magic becomes an obvious force, psychic powers produce duplicatable results on a regular basis and astral travel can be used to gain tangible information.

On that island exists The Temple of the Divine Experience, a house of worship. And every Tuesday night, Sommerites flock to The Temple to worship the Goddess Karla Sommers. Her worship is the most popular religious orientation on the island.

For more information about Al Amarja contact the Center for Al Amarjan Culture.

Who is Karla Sommers?

Sacred be Her name, the Most Blessed Ms. Sommers is a divine entity who has allowed Herself to be born into a human body, in which She carries forth Her mission to save and protect the world as we know it. In an effort to reach as many souls as possible, literally "all them who have ears to hear," She has followed the path categorized as "musical stardom" so that Her words will be heard by millions over the airwaves again and again, and people will remember Her message with such pleasure that they will happily repeat it to themselves and others.

The Sacred Writings of Tweet

What little we know on our Earth about Al Amarja and She Who Sings the Good Tunes is contained in a sacred text known as Over the Edge, channeled by the prophet Jonathan Tweet . Th is rare scripture, available only in select bookstores that cater to the unusual, is out of print but reportedly will receive a limited reprinting in the near future.

Contained in the following scraps of information is what we of this reality know of the Beloved Karla:

Passage One

"Internationally renowned rock vocalist Karla Sommers has a large following on Al Amarja, and most of Her true fans here believer Her to be divine. Whether She is the Messiah, the Second Coming, the Goddess, or some other manifestation of the Godhead is debated within Sommerite circles, but they all really like Her music.
By and large, Sommerites are happy, friendly people who like to share their music. Blasphemers, however, are often found in the Garbage Men's refuse pile at dawn. Since theology based on rock lyrics is rather difficult to pin down, no one knows just what offense constitutes blasphemy." (page 60)

St. Cheryl D'Aubainne

The Temple of the Divine Experience is run by Cheryl D'Aubainne, daughter of the island-country's president. She is considered by many to be a saint or prophet in her own right. Although each night of the week the Temple is devoted to a different type of religion, it is widely believed that St. D'Aubainne is in fact a worshipper of the Sacred Songstress - which is why Sommerism is the only religion given a night in the Temple all to itself.

Passage Two

"Tuesday. Lots of Good Music, if you like Karla Sommers. Sometimes believers play covers of the Music, sometimes they recite the lyrics as poetry, and sometimes they give sermons on interpreting the lyrics for daily life. A good time with plenty of alcohol and other drugs. Dancing is common, though Karla Sommers's music isn't much to dance to." (page 106)

Passage Three

Tweet's final message on the Divine Ms. Sommers contains a description of Her followers. In the description, Tweet reveals that, although he is a conduit for the divine knowledge which revealed Karla to our world, he does not fully accept the Truth that he has been given.

He begins by revealing that a common way for Sommerite missionaries to approach a possible non-believer is with the phrase, "Have you heard the Good Tunes?"

"To most people, Karla Sommers is a well-known rock vocalist, but to the Sommerites, she is divine. The Sommerites have developed a religion based on adoration of Sommers and interpretation of Her lyrics. The Ill-defined tenets of the faith include value for human life and sensuality, vague mystical strains, and a feel-good philosophy.
"A few of the Sommerites are completely caught up in the lifestyle, ordering their lives around listening to Sommers's music, partying with other Sommerites, and spreading the "Good Tunes." Most, however, are much less involved, and some are casual Sommerites in the same way that many U.S. Americans are casual Christians. Mixed in with Sommerism are various elements of New Age philosophy, including belief in synchronicity, practicing the power of positive thinking, and seeing the universe as a glorious, beautiful mystery.
"The Sommerites are not usually dangerous. In fact, many people find them to be a pleasant addition to the otherwise glum and dangerous world of the Edge.
"Karla Sommers Herself has not publicly acknowledged the existence of the cult. And who is Karla Sommers? Maybe She is a talented, progressive vocalist whose talent and vision make Her less popular than more conformist artists. Maybe She is a pop star carefully crafted by canny managers. Maybe She is divine, humanity's last hope in the face of otherwise overwhelming dangers." (page 164)

What Does it All Mean?

Sommerite philosophers on Our Earth are undecided on the true meaning of what prophet Tweet has written.
Note: As the writer of this home page, I feel it is my duty to admit that I lean heavily toward the belief that the Songstress is a divine entity that exists in our universe. The rest of this homepage will reflect that philosophy.

The Presence and Worship of Karla on Our Earth

Should the dreams of those who worship Goddess Karla come true, and the wondrous sound of Her name rings through the streets, the writer of this page hold the opinion that it will not be the first time the Divine Songstress has heard the Songs of Praise from the inhabitants of our Earth.

Goddesses connected with music have been worshipped for thousands of years, possibly since humanity first learned to sing and create songs. The most famous such Goddess in western civilization is undoubtedly Euterpe, who will be discussed below.

When discussing Euterpe and other similar beings, the seeker must answer for him or herself a few questions:

Admittedly, one does not need to answer these questions to engage in meaningful worship that brings joy and enlightenment. Millions, even billions, of people do such every day. And, granted, it is likely impossible for beings on the limited level of Humanity to ever know for sure the answers to these questions. But knowing what you believe is often beneficial to guiding your steps on a spiritual journey.

The writer of this homepage holds the opinion that Karla Sommers, Blessed Be Her Name, has:

The Spiritual Magnitude of Music

"Why does She Who Sings the Good Tunes care so deeply for music?" some seekers have asked. "Why does She not reveal Herself more directly?"

It is ultimately the type of question that (pardon the cliché© if you have to ask, you will likely have difficulty understanding the answer.

Music is truly a different language, as complex as verbal language but very unlike it. Comparing the language of music to human-created verbal language is like comparing Divine Entities to mortal humans. Music creates a higher form of communication than almost anything Humanity can conceive. It affects us on our deepest and highest levels at the same time. It carries beauty, horror, happiness, anger - every emotion and feeling known to mankind.

It is truly the language of the Goddess, the most effective way to transfer Her knowledge to the mortals She cares for. And possibly, when Humanity truly learns to comprehend it, then will we transcend to the higher level of existence that we are destined for.

Euterpe, Greek Goddess of Music

Glass Etching of Euterpe

Euterpe, muse of music and pastoral poetry, playing a flute
glass engraving by John Hutton
National Library and Archives building, Canada
Although the inhabitants of Al Amarja know the Eternal Singer as Karla Sommers, what are names to the Divine?

To the Greeks, The Celestial Ms. Sommers was known as Euterpe, Goddess of Music. It is unknown who first called Her by this name or where it came from, although it seems quite possible that She chose the name and passed it on to a disciple.

As with most (if not all) religions, fanciful stories arose about Her alongside other stories about other Deities worshipped by the Greeks. To say that they are all true would be as silly as saying that it truly rained tea on the birthday of the Buddha. Yet the Buddha did exist, as does the Blessed Karla.

Who was Euterpe?

Euterpe was worshiped as the Muse of Lyric Poetry and Song.

Daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne, the Muses were all known for the music of their songs, which bring joy to any who hear them.

Alongside Euterpe, there were eight Muses, each with Her own specialty: Clio (History), Urania (Astronomy), Melpomene (Tragedy), Thalia (Comedy), Terpsichore (Dance), Calliope (Epic Poetry), Erato (Love Poetry) and Polyhymnia (Songs to the Gods).

They were said to be the companions of the Graces and of Ap ol lo, the god of music. They sat near the throne of Zeus, king of the gods, and sang of His greatness and of the origin of the world and its inhabitants and the glorious deeds of the great heroes. Several ancient accounts say the Muses would at times teach mortals the gifts of healing, prophesy, poetry and song.

Very rarely were the Muses considered separately. In almost every story, They are described as an almost-inseparable group of women who sang with voices sweeter than all compare, even amongst the highest of Gods and Goddesses. Many books of "mythology" list Them as minor deities. But, truly, when Beings possess the highest quality of an ability as Celestially advanced as the ability to create Song, then these Beings must be considered as Deities ranking among the greatest in existence.

Some philosophers (including the creator of this web site) who Worship the Divine Songstress believe that, in worshiping the Muses, the Greeks were truly worshiping different aspects of only one being: Karla. It is unclear why "Astronomy" (Urania) and "History" (Clio) were included, except possibly by misguided Greek theologians who decided to go ahead and throw in two other philosophies of the period.

One thing that separates Euterpe from the other Muses is her love of the flute. Most paintings and drawings of Euterpe show her playing the beautiful instrument. This leads some Euterpean (and Sommerite) philosophers to believe that melodic, high-pitched songs represent the true Music of the Goddess, which puts many male singers at a disadvantage. Other philosophers point out that it is impossible to recite lyrical poetry while playing the flute, which indicates that truly Good Tunes require at least two people - the singer and the backup musician. And, of course, the flute could have simply spontaneously been added to a painting by an ancient Greek artist and became traditional imagery that remained through the centuries.

Some legends specify Euterpe as the mother of King Rhesus the Thra cian. While in the field during the Trojan war he was assassinated in his sleep, and his magnificent, white horses were driven away, which caused his men to flee in despair, making them easy kills for the Greeks.

According to Greek records, the Muses greatly loved one animal: Pegasus. In respect, some Sommerites have adopted the symbol of the flying horse as a sign of their beliefs, similar to the way some Christians use the fish symbol.

Places of Worship

Many anthropologists believe worship of the Muses (and Karla) dates back to prehistoric times. The Muses are believed to have originally been thought of as mountain Goddesses and worshipped in the northern part of Greece, particularly near Mt. Olympus and in the county of Pieria in Macedonia. The Cult of Song spread south throughout Greece, especially in Helicon in Boeotia and Parnassus.

The Pieria and Olympic region is well known and famous as an ancient place of Hellenism and was considered by all the Greek nation to be a sacred place of the throne of the Gods and the nine Muses. Nearby is the ancient city Dion, a major sacred Greek city where all the twelve Olympian gods and the Muses were worshipped. (The city is still being excavated by Professor Dimitrios Pantermalis, director of the Dion Museum. It is unknown if Pantermalis or any of the archaeologists working with him are Sommerites.)

While the Muses can be invoked anywhere, certain mountains and groves are especially sacred to them. The Greek traveller Pausanias reports that he visited a grove sacred to the Muses on Mount Helikon, where he found statues of the nine Muses fashioned by famous sculptors. According to legend, a learned man named Pittheus taught the art of oratory in the Muses' sanctuary at Troezen, which was founded by Hephaestus's son Ardalus, the reputed inventor of the flute.

Eventually, The Muses' main center of worship became Thespiae, an ancient town in Boeotia, where They were worshipped by a society named after the epic poet Hesiod. Through his works survives some of the earliest poetry in which the Muses were described and worshiped.

Plato's seminars were held in the grove Academus, a place sacred to the Muses, and the Academy, like the Pythagorean school, was formally incorporated as a thiasos, a religious brotherhood based on the worship of the Muses. The first international university, the Museum at Alexandria, was similarly dedicated to the Goddesses of culture and inspiration. Through little heard of, there was even an archpriest of the Muses who presided over the confraternity of scholars assembled
there; presumably he reminded the scholars that they were engaged in a common spiritual enterprise, under the tutelage of the Muses, in which the all parts were united in a larger whole.

The shrines to the Muses eventually became homes of music or poetry, and later of philosophical schools and libraries known as Museums.

Note: A variety of sources were referenced for the above sections of information , including (but not limited to): Man, Myth and Magic, vol. 13, p 1789; "Reviving the Academies of the Muses" by David Fideler; and The Greek Myths by Robert Graves.

Hesiod and the Theogony

One cannot leave a discussion of the worship of the Muses without mentioning the works of the Greek poet Hesiod, a human who was truly touched by the Divine Light of The Beloved Sisters.

Legend has it that he was approached by the Muses while working as a shepherd on Mount Helikon, whereupon They conferred on him a scepter of laurel and breathed into him "a divine voice to celebrate the things that were and shall be." In his work thus inspired, the Theogony, Hesiod describes the Muses, "all of one mind," spinning about the peak of the cosmic mountain, united in one song. To further quote from his work:

For it is through the Muses and far-shooting Apollo that there are singers
and harpers upon the earth; but princes are of Zeus, and happy is
he whom the Muses love: sweet flows speech from his mouth. For
though a man have sorrow and grief in his newly-troubled soul and
live in dread because his heart is distressed, yet, when a
singer, the servant of the Muses, chants the glorious deeds of
men of old and the blessed gods who inhabit Olympus, at once he
forgets his heaviness and remembers not his sorrows at all; but
the gifts of the goddesses soon turn him away from these.

Comparisons between Euterpe and Karla

Sommerites have oft noted the geographical similarity of temples dedicated to Euterpe and Karla - both have been worshipped by thousands on Mediterranean islands.

Another similarity links Her two incarnations - They have both appeared on specialized playing cards.

Tarocchi card: Euterpe

Euterpe, as she appeared in a Renaissance card game

During the Renaissance (about 1460), a fifty-card game known as Tarocchi appeared on the European scene. The cards fifty characters were divided into five groups: the 10 conditions of man (from beggar to pope), Apollo and the Nine Muses, the 10 Sciences, the 10 Cosmic and Ethical Principles and the 10 Firmaments.Some scholars believe the game was played by Pope Pius II with other high church officials. Placed end to end, the cards apparently formed a symbolic ladder from Heaven to Earth. The rules have largely been lost over time, but there is no doubt that it was played seriously, with the feeling that each image was, as it were, a piece from the divine chessboard. (The Survival of the Pagan Gods by Jean Seznec, page 137)

Today, Karla is depicted as an important, powerful figure in the "collectable" card game " On the Edge," produced by Atlas Games. Like Tweet's sacred work, Over the Edge, the card game can usually only be found in speciality stores catering to spiritual seekers and hobbyists with unusual tastes. It was "created" by John Nephew, who reportedly was friends with (a student of?) Tweet. As with Tarocchi , On the Edge deals with strange and mystical issues and concepts. The main focus of the game is for players to take the form of beings who manipulate the inhabitants of the island in an effort to accumulate "influence." The game lends itself to group play and has a cult following in the thousands around the world, many of which communicate via the Internet. Because it is actually very enjoyable to play, some Sommerite scholars believe it was created without religious intent. But others, (including the creator of this web page), believe it was skillfully intended to convert them to Tweetism painlessly, without them realizing their belief systems are changed. Play at your own risk.

Later Worship of the Celestial Songstress

Eventually, the Roman Empire collapsed, and with its destruction came an end of widespread worship of the Olympian Deities. Eventually, Mideastern patriarchal religions (especially Christianity) swept over most of Europe, making Goddess worship dangerous and often punishable by torture and death.

Of course, the worship of Goddesses and female spirits continued in non-European areas, such as the Americas and in cultures following Hindu beliefs. And many experts believe that, through it all, there existed a European core of adherents to the Old Beliefs, to the worship of both Deities and spirits of both genders. And Songs continued to be sung, and poets continued to write of love and life. In these circumstances, Karla/Euterpe surely contin ued to m ake Herself known to those enlightened souls who were open to the Good Tunes.

Eventually, European society began to allow open worship of the Muses. In the late 18th century the 11th Earl of Buchan erected 'The Temple of the Muses,' on Bass Hill next to the suspension bridge in Dryburgh, Scotland. In this temple there used to be a fine statue of Apollo in coade stone, copied from the Apollo di Belvidere at Florence, and on the pedestal were the nine Muses. A limited virtual tour is available over the Internet.

In the (relatively) open society enjoyed today in many developed countries around the world, people are allowed to worship the Deities they choose without fear of death. Information about old and new beliefs can be legally obtained for private use. The following web links should provide enjoyment and insight for those interested in further information about some of the subjects I've touched upon in this page:

And, to find out about the works of Tweet and Nephew:

Her Conduits: Modern-Day Women Blessed by Karla

It is a common belief among Sommerites that Karla takes a more active role in the affairs of this Earth than many other Deities. The Greeks told many stories of people of all social stations being touched by the Muses, and thereby gaining the powers of incredible song and poetry. Similarly, many Sommerites believe that one or more of todays well-know minstrels (most likely of the female gender) have been chosen by Karla to be direct conduits of Her love and messages for humanity.

Some Sommerites believe that, as on Al Amarja, Karla has (or will) take the form of a human Songstress on our Earth when the time is right. The fact that the time is coming, and that She will be met by masses waiting to worship Her, seems apparent by comments casually overheard from many "fans" of many of today's songstresses. A quick tour of websites dedicated to these women (particularly those dedicated to a certain piano-playing redhead) turns up numerous references to their adoration as Goddesses - a term that appears far too often to be dismissed as simple fan banter and hyperbole.

The following web links are provided to help seekers make their own decisions:


A wonderful web site, Harmony Ridge Music, provides possibly every known link available to every well-known female singer alive today. It is highly recommended for all those who love the Good Tunes and seek others of the same inclination.

Conclusion

David Fideler, a present day follower of The Sisters of Song (and probable Sommerite), wrote the following in his work, "Reviving the Academies of the Muses":

"In our present age, the Muses call upon us to live our lives with integrity and devotion to their inspiring chorus of inspiration, which may entail 'being in the world, but not of it.' They invite us to adorn our lives with beauty, while living in a culture that sees beauty as 'purely subjective' and irrelevant when weighed against the 'objective world' of economic concerns. They encourage us to cultivate our sense of taste and appreciation, in a world where taste has been anesthetized in the quest for efficiency, mass production, and pursuit of the bottom line."

I hope you found this web site to be enjoyable.

May your life be filled with dancing,
And may your heart be filled with song
As your soul is blessed by the Good Tunes.
Praise Karla!