meditation cubicle where a Rev erend Mother Truthsayer could prepare herself The glass Council chamber was designed to symbolize the clanty of Truth, and the waters surrounding it the nature of time aid change in die mutable world of existence The bridges represented die way between the self abnegation of meditative truthtraace and die per feet completeness of Truth itself a transccn deuce of the ever shifting phenomenal world Set amidst carefully tended gardens which concealed an arboretum famed for its rare herb collection the whole configuration was a hallowed sanctuary of prmctpb and tradition, merging the ideate of contemplauon aid acuon In conformity with this ideal, the Nine Reverend Mother Truthsayers would don un adorned white robes as a sign that Truth requires no ornament being the pure source of all light and vision Historians have con jectured that the importance of the number nine for the Sisterhood had as its source the ninth card of the Tarot, die eremite or Wisdom The mystical attachment to this number can also be traced to the sum of the combined dates (201 B G and 108 B G ) marking the beginning and cod of the Butlerian Jihad Needless to say, the home world and site of the Mother School of the Sisterhood was founded on Wallach IX the ninth planet of Laoujm For all the majesty and power clinging to the reputation of the elite Reverend Mothers and the Truthsayers in particular, there is little controversy over their legendary begin mngs as sorceresses and authors of the for bidden Pharmacopoeia manuals of ancient times An intimate knowledge of the herbs of consolation, mat family of plants used as both tranquilizers and stimulants, balms and poisons, was viewed as the early source ot their influence and power Because the sorceress eould furnish and administer the black mullein, the henbane, and the bella donna-poisons that healed soothed, and pacified-she took on the rote of a divinely inspired priestess who could also cast spells perform magic and even prophesy In this way she fostered love and admiration but also fear for the priestess seemed to have an instinctive knowledge of truth and falsehood of good and evil No wonder that the seclud ed arboretum hidden among the trees on Wallach IX was rumored to be the special laboratory of the Truthsayers, the home of then" experiments with narcotic drugs and compounds How far the Truthsayer was removed from her origins as primitive sorceress is evident in the motto Homo Sapiente which the first Council adopted as a declaration of the ra tional nexus it was claiming for itself If the Council was to gam m credibility its foun ders realized it would have to tread the delicate balance between the mystery of reve lation and the clanty of reasoned purpose between ritual act and political necessity between sacred duty and worldly deeds The Truthsayers were meant to function as the apostles of the new order disciples of the human spirit and universal guardians of Truth dedicated t