Dave’s Anatomy: My History as a Writer, #73: Science Fiction and Religion: “The Priestesses of Light”

Deep Space Nine

Science fiction occupies several sub-genres. Hard Science Fiction deals with technology and contains quite a lot of “science”; this is what writers like Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke used to do. Space Opera is Buck Rogers and Star Wars and the like. Cyberpunk centers around technology, artificial intelligence, and informational science. Military science fiction explores war and soldiering in future and interstellar settings—Elizabeth Moon’s Rules of Engagement comes to mind. My story, “The Priestesses of Light” is more on the sociological and cultural side of things.

Kai Winn, Bajoran Priestess

Think of Deep Space Nine, a Star Trek series that ran for several years and primarily deal with cultures, their interactions, conflicts, and natures. Deep Space Nine was a space station that orbited the planet Bajor. The Bajorans were a very religious race of beings. They had been conquered and occupied by the Cardassians, a ruthless, aggressive planet system who had cruelly oppressed the Bajorans, who are still recovering from the ill effects of the occupation and have allied themselves with the Federation. Deep Space Nine is a trading post and so attracted an endless variety of beings who represent different cultures and ways of life:  Klingon, Ferengi, Trill, Lurian, Vulcan, Romulan, and many more. They interact.

With the Bajorans, religion is important. This is an interesting development in science fiction. In the future worlds of Asimov and Clarke, religion has disappeared, and science fiction generally ignored the subject for years—then a funny thing happened on the way of Dagoba. Religion re-emerged very strongly in Star Wars. And it became a subject once more.

Re-enactor dressed as Roman Vestal Priestess

My story, “The Priestesses of Light,” deals with a planet strongly influenced by religion (the worship of a goddess). On this particular world, a parasitic creature that causes blindness infects children. The custom for female children so infected is to enroll them as priestesses of the Goddess Robinna, the deity worshipped on the planet. For centuries, the blind priestesses conducted worship. Until a physician named Lalayna, from the nearby planet Mervogia, discovers a cure. She is praised—but not by everyone.

Tradition is a strong element in most religions. A large faction on Planet Suva want to keep the tradition of blind priestesses. This creates an ethical dilemma. Will certain young women be denied the vaccine Lalayna has developed? Other planets that worship Robinna point out that there is nothing in the religion that demands priestesses be blind. Lalayna will attend and speak at a symposium where officials will announce that the serum preventing blindness will be offered to all children and the tradition of blind priestesses will end.

Lalayna, who has devoted herself to medicine has a revelation:  One winter noon, eating lunch and watching the snow fall outside the window of her office, she realized she was forty years old, unmarried, still a virgin, and without a single romantic prospect on this world or any other. Luck has it that she becomes engaged. In a few weeks, she will go to the altar as a virgin bride and become a wife.

She is disappointed that the chief priestesses cannot attend the session as promised. Lalayna gets up to speak, urges the people of Suva to accept change, and assures them that their religion will not be harmed by having sighted priestesses—after all, it so on the other planets in the area that worship their goddess. As she is speaking, an explosion shatters the windows of the building. Blaster fire erupts and she is seized and taken to a small room by partisans of the old traditions of the religion.

They tie her to a chair. One of their leaders holding white-hot iron rod tells her what he plans to do. “I can’t stop what you’ve set in motion, but I can ordain you as a priestess. We called them the Priestesses of Light because though they lived in darkness they give light.” As he lowers the glowing steel, Lalayna realizes, with horror, that when he blinds her, she will indeed be qualified to be a priestess of light in every way:  she is a woman, she is a virgin, and, now, she will be blind.

Lucine

A voice comes through the darkness: "Stop this at once.” Lalayna’s tormenter lowers the rod. It is Lucine, the chief priestess of the planet, She has learned of the plot to blind Lalayna and taken steps to prevent it. By this time, soldiers have secured the building and taken the rebels into custody. Asha, a colleague and friend of Lalayna, rushes to her and begins to care for her. She is shaken and sobbing but unharmed. The priestesses of light, though blind, have more insight than the traditionalists. The changes in religion will go on as planned. Lalayna will be married. The insurgency will come to an end.

The story appeared in a journal called Four-Cornered Universe, now defunct and with no archive. It was reprinted, however, in an issue of Startling Sci-Fi and is available for purchase. Get a copy here.

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