Introduction
Unlike the baser animals, we humans have been gifted with the ability to discern and enjoy numerous tastes -- and other sensations -- through ingestion. Ascetics wrongly deny themselves such pleasures, perversely believing that using one's senses to the fullest is in some way profane. In fact, sampling the fullest range of flavors and effects is to actualize the spirit of Halea within us. Those who die with limited experience in this area are ill-prepared for the afterlife.
As with all sacred practices, there are levels of achievement. These are known as the Seven Pleasures of the Palate. Only the most dedicated will achieve the Seventh Pleasure. Furthermore, when bargaining with the Queen of Pleasures and Self-Fulfillment, one must always remember that abuse of Her sacred gifts will incur her wrath. Take heed: attend to your instruction and reward your instructors, linger at each level before rushing to the next, and do not let false delights lure you from the Sacred Path.
The First Pleasure: Satiation
To know one's capacity for pleasure, one must explore its limits. No ritual is involved at this level, and most people reach this level as children, assuming their kinfolk can provide the necessary foodstuffs. By gorging themselves with all manner of foods on feast days, and with sweets in between, children discover how much consumption brings on the sweet lethargy and contentment of satiation and how much more will make them ill. By the time they are old enough to participate fully in sacred revels, they have the measure of their capacity.
Sometimes people come into the church after a childhood of privation. It is not charity but rather an investment to sponsor their invitation to all manner of banquets, and for a priestess to accompany them there to encourage them to explore this level of gustatory pleasure. Such training allows worthy souls born into unworthy conditions to progress to higher levels, where they can fully develop the sacred arts.
To know whether someone has mastered the First Pleasure, look for these signs:
The Second Pleasure: Contrasts
The mature palate takes more pleasure from diverse experience than from simple profusion. To achieve this level of pleasure, the worshipper receives instruction in presenting the various colors, textures, and tastes of the table and in properly appreciating the same. Also, one learns a simply prayer to the Handmaiden Galopea that one's senses may be sharpened. Gifts of food and drink laid at Galopea's feet in the Temple are useful, too, in attracting her assistance. Of course, one should always pray and make offerings to Halea first, so as not to invite her jealousy.
In most households it is the women who take responsibility for preparing the repasts, and so it is not uncommon for male worshippers to pay only cursory attention to this level. Priestesses must insist that men follow a disciplined path through the Pleasures, however, for although women are often the chief performers of the culinary arts, men are often the chief audience. Full realization of the sacred requires both performers and audience.
To know whether someone has mastered the Second Pleasure, look for these signs:
The Third Pleasure: Complements
Until this point, food and drink have been considered together as one pleasure. In the Third Pleasure, however, they are considered separately, and one learns to appreciate their effects upon one another.
To achieve this level, the worshipper receives instruction in the art of fermentation and learns to appreciate all the products thereof. Having already mastered the First and Second Levels of Pleasure, they should have no difficulty either with maintaining sufficient sobriety during their lessons or with discerning which beverages best accompany diverse foods. Should the worshipper have difficulty, they probably need more instruction in the First or Second Pleasures.
At this level a Priestess teaches the worshipper how to integrate prayer into feasting so that neither must wait upon the other. The form of the prayer is not as important as its sincerity. If the worshipper approaches the gustatory experience casually, without real passion, then the experience will not be sacred. Again one invokes the aid of Galopea. An appropriate offering is to leave a bottle or keg, depending on the size of meal one has served or enjoyed with Galopea's help, at her feet in the Temple.
The signs of mastery of the Third Pleasure are similar to those of the Second.
The Fourth Pleasure: Refinement
Most worshippers do not progress beyond the Third Pleasure, as only the first three levels are needed to participate in the highest level of society, to display one's wealth, and to prepare for the headier pleasures of the afterlife. However, those who wish to experience even more sacred delights may seek instruction in the fourth level.
At this level one learns to use that sense most closely related to taste, the sense of smell, so that it may elevate one's pleasure in food and drink. The worshipper learns to discern the bouquets of different wines and the fragrance of different herbs from a mere passing whiff. Upon mastery of this level, one can savor an entire feast using only one's olfactory abilities.
Thanks to Halea and Galopea are of course due for this wonderful experience of sacred delights. In addition to integrating prayer with every savory experience, one should lay offerings of the most fragrant and delectable morsels at Galopea's feet. One should also invite the Priestesses of the local Temple to one's house to dine regularly. At these feasts, the Priestesses will lead the worshipper in a celebration of the palate by initiating the rites of mutual sensation. These rites may consist of mixing different foods in one's mouth and then kissing deeply or dipping one's breast in wine and then offering it to taste.
To know if a worshipper has mastered the Fourth Pleasure, look for these signs:
The Fifth Pleasure: Elevation
More than a few worshippers attempt to pass lightly through instruction in the Fourth Pleasure to reach the joys of the Fifth. However, such a passage is perilous, as only those with the most refined senses can explore strong intoxicants or hallucinogenic delights without great risk to their sanity, or even their life. Furthermore, to indulge such pleasures without fully appreciating them is to profane the sacred.
Various herbs are employed during lay masses to heighten awareness of the sacred, and so no worshipper will have reached this level without having some experience of herbal effects. However, instruction in the Fifth Pleasure initiates one into higher potencies than one has had before. Also, one learns the various means of preparation and ingestion, whether through smoke or steam or contact with the skin, and how to combine different drugs to invoke the most sublime states of mind.
In addition, one learns something of the art of distillation and to appreciate strong liquors such as brandy and others, whose manufacture is known only to those among us who dabble in alchemy.
To be worthy of access to this knowledge, the worshipper must demonstrate a vigorous spirit, particularly in business, that they can be considered for partnership in the Enterprise of the Fifth Pleasure. Indeed the profitable acquisition and distribution of various preparations, although of course only of the weaker and more common sort, among the uninitiated is as much a part of this level as personal consumption, as one activity supports the other.
A worshipper has mastered the Fifth Pleasure when Galopea comes to them in a vision and they can recount her visit, showing that they experienced her presence with all their senses. Occasionally Halea will choose to reveal herself to a worshipper she especially favors. On these occasions the mortal's soul immediately passes into her boudoir. The body should be given an especially fine funeral with many days of feasting to celebrate the former occupant's premature passage.
The Sixth Pleasure: Perfection
The chief danger to the palate is to become jaded. This is why mastery of the Sixth Pleasure is sought, since it effectively ensures the immorality of one's palate. Upon completing instruction in this level, one is perfectly prepared for the pleasures of the afterlife.
One learns all those subtle tricks and crafts that make every experience of the palate unique. How should the servers be dressed? Should the meal be taken at a table or on cushions upon the floor? What music should accompany each course? What color glaze should be upon the dishes? To dine indoors or out? The worshippers' instinct for pleasure is honed until the answers to these questions and a hundred others are apparent in every situation.
Donations of slaves trained in cookery, fine dishes or cookware, or a richly bound book of distinctive family recipes are all appropriate payment for this instruction.
The chief danger to the soul at this level is that one will become too serious about studying the art of the palate and forget to enjoy it. We are not followers of that dessicated sage known as Save K'nor. Should this level prove too burdensome to the worshipper's intellect, they should be counseled to put their efforts aside until some more propitious time.
You will know a worshipper has mastered the Sixth Pleasure when every aspect of their environment enhances, rather than detracts from, the pleasures of the palate.
The Seventh Pleasure: Integration
One cannot be instructed in the Seventh Pleasure. One must find it on one's own. Indeed some say this level cannot be experienced by mortal flesh but awaits the most worthy souls in the next life. However, such words discourage few who have already come this far from attempting complete mastery while still in this life.
The Seventh Pleasure involves integrating all aspects of sacred life into an experience that is beyond words. The previous levels hint at this, but here one blends all the ways to stimulate all the senses, including the erotic arts, to fulfill every possible desire one could imagine for the palate and, indeed, discover desires one did not know existed.
Orgies in which Priestesses attempt to experience the Seventh Pleasure often leave the participants worse for wear. It is not unknown for those who have mastered the first six Pleasures to degrade their senses in their quest for the Seventh.