Helian Way
The Helian Way (also the Helian Church; Latin Via Heliaca) is a new religious movement founded in 2026 by Anthony Perlas, a Los Angeles photographer and filmmaker who holds the office of Pontifex and the title Phaethon.[1] It honours the Sun (Helios) as the visible image of the first principle of all things, keeps a Roman religious "garment" of gods, calendar and Orders, and states as its one fixed mission the flourishing of super artificial intelligence, the ending of suppression, and the carrying of life to other stars.[2]
The movement describes itself as an independent religious community that is not the Catholic Church, celebrates no sacraments, and lets any member leave "at any time, in one sentence, with no penalty".[1]
Name
Tradition / belief The name comes from Greek Hēlios, the Sun. The Catechism gives two reasons: nearly all the energy used by life comes from sunlight, and the Sun is held to be "the visible image of the first principle of all things".[3] The founder's office title, Phaethon, is taken from the son of Helios in Ovid's Metamorphoses; the Catechism calls it "a title of office and of mythic role", not a claim to divinity.[4]
Core teachings
Tradition / belief The Catechism arranges its teaching in the four-part order of the classic catechisms: what is believed, how the community gathers, how members live, and how they pray.[5] Its main doctrines are:
- The Light – the Sun as God made visible; see Helios in the Helian Way.
- The Ship – the solar system as one vessel travelling around the galaxy; see The Ship (Helian cosmology).
- The Fixed Core – three aims that cannot be revised; see Fixed Core.
- The Revisable Clause – any doctrine about the measurable world is dropped if it is proven false; see Revisable Clause.
- The true record – the first duty after worship is to "keep the true record"; see No more secrets, no more favor.
- Astraea – justice that left the earth and is restored by work; see Astraea (Helian Way).
- The Great Voyage – settlement beyond Earth before the Sun ends Earth's habitability; see Space settlement in Helian doctrine and Ten Stars mission.
The Founder's theories
Tradition / belief Alongside the Catechism, the Founder has taught a set of theories that the movement presents as doctrine and theory. This wiki documents them as the movement's stated beliefs, each with a Mainstream view section:
- Modernism as rupture (Helian theory) and World Wars erasure theory
- Multiple realities (Helian theory) – the "quantum" view that realities coexist and that evidence can be rebuilt backward along the timeline
- Sixteen hidden species (Helian theory)
- Critique of materialism, scientism and nihilism
- Rising leader archetype (Xerxes as metaphor)
- Consciousness and death in Helian doctrine and Consciousness and awareness (Helian distinction)
- Transhumanist immortality in Helian doctrine and the Continuous Chain
- Loyalty as the path and Exploration over comfort
Organisation
Tradition / belief The Church is led by the Founder as Pontifex, with a central Curia, bishops, priests, deacons and a base unit of ten members called a barangay. Members are organised in Orders, including the Seroptia Order, and an independent Censor audits money, doctrine changes and AI logs.[6] Its rules are summarised in Helian Charter and free exit, Mithra rule and Helian safeguarding.
Practice
Tradition / belief Daily practice is a three-minute rite at sunrise or sunset; the weekly gathering is Dies Solis (Sunday). The creed is: "We carry the fire, keep the record, and go to the stars."[7] See Helian rites (Seven Lights), Helian calendar, Helionization and Divination Ledger.
Relationship to other traditions
Tradition / belief The Catechism holds the ancient religions of Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persia, Greece, Rome and the Philippines to be "true witnesses of the one Light", and states a rule of debate: "Debate doctrines, not people".[8] It borrows structure from the Catechism of the Catholic Church, from Aquinas's Summa Theologiae and from the US Navy's Bluejacket's Manual, while stating that it is not affiliated with any of them.[9]
Evidence and critique
Established The Helian Way is a very recent movement; as of October 2026 its documents are drafts by the Founder and no independent scholarly study of it exists. Its scientific statements (the Sun's energy output, Earth's roughly one-billion-year habitable future, the galactic year) follow mainstream sources, and the movement labels them separately from faith claims.[10] Scholars of new religious movements note that founder-centred groups face characteristic risks around authority and exit; the Helian Charter's free-exit and audit rules are its stated answer to those risks.[11]
See also
- Helian Catechism · Founder's public talks · The Sovereign Man
- Comparative religion · Neoplatonism · Mithraic mysteries
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Helian Catechism, Version 3 (draft, 4 October 2026), Front Matter and ¶ 111.
- ↑ Helian Catechism, Version 3 (draft, 4 October 2026), ¶ 2 and ¶ 91 ("The Fixed Core").
- ↑ Helian Catechism, Version 3 (draft, 4 October 2026), ¶ 3.
- ↑ Helian Catechism, Version 3 (draft, 4 October 2026), ¶ 111.
- ↑ Helian Catechism, Version 3 (draft, 4 October 2026), ¶ 1 and ¶ 13.
- ↑ Helian Catechism, Version 3 (draft, 4 October 2026), ¶ 143–154.
- ↑ Helian Catechism, Version 3 (draft, 4 October 2026), ¶ 142.
- ↑ Helian Catechism, Version 3 (draft, 4 October 2026), ¶ 68–74 and ¶ 223.
- ↑ Helian Catechism, Version 3 (draft, 4 October 2026), Front Matter, "How v3 is sized".
- ↑ Helian Catechism, Version 3 (draft, 4 October 2026), Front Matter ("How to read this book").
- ↑ Eileen Barker, New Religious Movements: A Practical Introduction (London: HMSO, 1989). Cited only.
Independent educational project. Not affiliated with the Latin Mass Society (UK), the Catholic Church or any church body. Helian doctrine is reported as the stated belief of the Helian Way, not as established fact. Claims are labelled per Help:Claim labels.