Inheritance - The Secret of Your True Identity by Jotham Kingston

Inheritance book two

the empire trilogy

the secret of your true identity

JOTHAM KINGSTON

Inheritance: The Secret of Your True Identity. Book Two of the Empire Trilogy. Signature Edition Written by Jotham Kingston ÂŠ 2006 Published by Pneumatic Projects, Empire Bay, Australia. Hand-bound by the author. Contact: www.doorbetweenworlds.com Bible texts NIV used by permission (and then doctored slightly.)

For Bec, my sister twice over. Finally! a copy that no one can snatch out of your hand!

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Contents

The secret of your true identity

THE FIRST EARTHMAN 1. Earthman 2. The magic tree 3. The flooding of Atlantis 4. The Elohim intrudes 5. Of Ginn and men 6. Iahweh untangles

13 27 47 69 97 115

THE SECOND EARTHMAN 7. Jesus 8. The other tree 9. The regenerates 10. Joveâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Organisation 11.Present day: real world 12. The final season 13. New beginning

137 159 175 195 207 221 249

introduction

The Secret of Your True Identity

This is a history book. Don’t panic. It’s not like school. Most school history is not History anyway. It’s taught badly and a lot of the “facts” aren’t factual. It’s been specifically designed to hide the truth. It’s a smokescreen. The truth is, you have deadly enemies. They don’t want you to know your history because history is about identity. It tells you who you are. Who are you? The secret of your true identity goes far beyond anything you

can imagine. You are more significant than you know. You are more important than you know. You are powerful and you have a vast fortune that is being held in trust until you reach maturity. An inheritance. Your enemies are afraid. If you claim your inheritance you become dangerous and untameable. They cannot control you or predict how you will fight. Have you been through the Door? If you’ve read the first book in this series there’s a good chance you have. But who you are – who you really are – is a total mystery. This book will not tell you everything. But it is a beginning. Who are you? Do you want to find out?

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The First Earthman

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C ha p t e r O n e

Earthman

He awoke. He did not know where he was, or who he was, or when he was. He was not anxious, just curious. His first memory was of a face. Of course, he had never seen anything before, and he had nothing to compare it to. But it was an unforgettable face, a face that seemed to look just right. He expelled a breath from his lungs and stretched his arms for the first time. The owner of the unforgettable face spoke, “Welcome, Earthman,” it said. Earthman, he thought to himself. That must be me. The owner of the unforgettable face – his new companion – helped him to his feet. They walked together, uphill. It felt wonderful to stretch his legs and inhale the cool, crisp air. He looked around him. A big blue expanse stretched overhead

and there was a bright thing that made his eyes sting when he looked too long. They walked through wild woodland. As he looked he began to pick out patterns and similarities, but it was a complex order, too difficult to make sense of there and then. They came to a high wall. The earthman was ushered through an opening and found himself in a new place. Bright colours leapt out at him wherever he looked. The order here was easier to understand. Around him, tiny creatures twittered and darted, playing in the light and shadow. It smelled ... sweet. His companion spoke, “This is my garden.” They made their way to a river. It splashed and gurgled in a way that was both peaceful and welcoming. “Drink,” said his companion, showing him how it was done. The earthman imitated his companion, unsure of what to expect. The water was cold and clear in his cupped hands and it made them ache deep inside. When he put it to his mouth, it disappeared somewhere inside of him in a delicious rush. His eyes opened wide and his companion laughed at his surprise. They continued on. The earthman was beginning to understand now. They were making their way to the garden’s centre. They passed between trees. Variously shaped orbs hung from the underside of their branches. Then they were there, right in the heart of the garden. The earthman’s companion halted. In front of them was a tree unlike any of the others he had already seen. “Eat,” said his companion, gesturing to his mouth and one of the orbs hanging from the pregnant branch. The earthman selected an orb and reached for it with his hand. It was a strong hand, a hand meant for work, for making music, for caressing. He pulled, and the

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orb came away with a satisfying thock. He drew it towards his mouth and bit down. It was nothing like the water he had tasted earlier. The water had no flavour at all. When he had drunk from the river, the earthman had tasted his own taste. But this thing was alive! It had its own flavour. It was indescribably delicious. His companion spoke again, “This tree is the Tree of Life. Its fruit will sustain you for eternity.” He paused gravely, and led him a few steps away to stand before another tree. In a moment, the earthman had taken its measure. It too had beautiful fruit. But it was clearly different from the tree he had eaten from. The two could not be confused. “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden,” his companion said, “But you must not eat from the Tree of Knowing Tov and Ra’”. He gestured at the beautiful fruit before them, “Because on the day you eat it, you will- ” Here he used another word the earthman did not understand. But the meaning was clear enough. The earthman was able to eat from the tree before him if he wanted, but his companion was asking him not to. The earthman did not understand what the strange words meant, but that was beside the point. His companion had made a simple request, and there was no reason why the earthman would not comply. That lesson learned, the earthman’s companion led him away from the tree. There were more of the strange flitting things. His companion pointed out others, smaller, larger, hidden beneath rocks or waddling out across his path. “They have no names yet,” his companion said with a twinkle in his eye, “That’s up to you.”

The earthman was delighted. He had woken only a few hours before and already he had something useful to do. With his companion looking on in approval, he began to name and categorise the creatures in the garden. A pattern was emerging. The creatures came in pairs. Each of them had a mate. The earthman asked why this was the case, and his companion told him, pointing out parts of their anatomy and describing the finer details of their reproduction with nothing short of pride. The earthman was not in the least bit embarrassed. It sounded like a reasonable idea to him - practical and a bit humorous as well. Then it dawned on him. He had no mate. The creatures were beautiful and varied, but they did not think like he did. They saw life kind of in a haze, not with the clarity the earthman enjoyed. He was alone in the garden. His strange companion nodded, smiling. Finally the earthman had caught on. A moment later, the earthman was asleep in the cool of a glade. His companion worked deftly. Using the same hands that had shortly before formed the earthman from the dust of his own planet, he reached in and removed part of the earthmanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s side â&#x20AC;&#x201C; a rib. Replacing the hole he had made with flesh, he took the rib and began to form a female of the same species. The earthman awoke for the second time that day. The bright thing in the sky was lower now, over the valleys westward of the garden. He turned and saw his companion, whose face was beaming with pleasure. The earthman grinned back. He could not help himself. Then he noticed what else - or who else - was standing there.

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She was breathtakingly beautiful. From the crown of her head to the tip of her toes she was every part his match. She smiled right at him. His grin widened. She giggled. He laughed. Their companion laughed. The laughter died. It was a solemn moment. The earthman felt something being born inside of him. Words - but not just any words, they were words with symmetry and power, words that would roll off his tongue in beauty. We do not know what they sounded like, for the ancient language has long been lost, but the meaning of them was this: This is now bone of my bones And flesh of my flesh She will be called Woman For she was taken out of Man. For the next little while the three spoke together. Their strange companion told them this planet would be their home. He wished them to have many children and to populate it and to make it a place of beauty and order as they saw fit. Until they were ready to face the wilds, their companion’s garden would be their home. The sun set, throwing its fading light over the valley below. They watched it together. As the sun finally disappeared below the horizon their companion spoke - more to himself than to them. “It’s all very tov,” he said. * * * What does this story have to do with your true identity? Much more than you know. The story you have read is the story of your great-great-great-great-great-great-etc-etc… grandfather.

You are one of his children whose rôle it is to make the earth a place of beauty and order. Or you were his descendant. All that changed when you came through the Door. The time of the first earthman was not as far away as you may expect. According to my calculations, there have been only one hundred and forty generations of earthmen since them. Not millions of generations, not thousands, not even hundreds, just one hundred and forty. But where am I getting this information, and can it be trusted? My source is the Book. Whether it can be trusted or not is for you to decide. I recommend that you find a copy of the Book and read it yourself. The Book is the most printed volume on the planet, so unless it’s outlawed where you live, you can probably find a copy right under your nose. Most humans will tell you the Book isn’t particularly different from other books, and that it’s about “how to be nice and get along”. That opinion shows they haven’t actually read it. The Book is like an intricate, spring-loaded puzzle. In the beginning I found it quite hard to read. The poetry didn’t rhyme, the stories were long and boring, and the characters had almost unpronounceable names. But the more I persisted, the more the Book began to open to me. I soon discovered that most of the Book’s best secrets are hidden under the surface. But we’re missing the story... * * *

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In that early time, days were measured from evening to evening. So when the earthman, his wife and their companion watched the sun setting, they were watching one day end and another begin. It was the seventh day of earthâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s history. Only a week before, it had been a dark, watery chaos, their companion said. They took his word for it. After all, their memories only stretched back a few hours. This new day, their companion told them, was not ordinary. It was extra ordinary, peculiar. It belonged to their companion as his own personal property. It was his day, and he was so pleased about all that he had done to the earth that he would rest during its hours. From this time forward, every seventh day that followed on Planet Earth would also belong to him. The earthman and his wife rested as well. Every seven days, they would pass through their companionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s property as a guest passes through the house of a friend. The idea that a person can own a period of time rings strangely in our ears. Yet it is not as strange as you may imagine, for the idea of week is embedded deep in human culture. Every school student is taught where the idea of year comes from. A year is the time it takes for the earth to orbit the sun. Likewise, a month is the time it takes for the moon to orbit the earth. A day is the time it takes for the earth to rotate on its axis. But it is not often that we talk about the idea of week. We just take it for granted. But where did the week come from? There is no real sense in it. Nothing in the sun or moon counts off a seven-day cycle. The week is totally arbitrary. Its very existence is a hint, a distant echo from the supernatural beginnings of the race of earthmen. * * *

The earthman and his wife were adults, but did not know much. There was a lot to learn. They tasted fruit from the trees in the garden. They swam in the huge river that ran though it. They explored downstream to the place where it divided into four. Their strange companion told them his name. It was Iahweh. They thought it an awesome name. It meant “Generator” or “I Am”. They spoke Iahweh’s name solemnly - not sadly, but with deep awe and admiration. In their mouths, his name was awesome enough, but when Iahweh spoke his own name, it sent shivers up their spines. The earthman took his wife to the trees in the middle of the garden. There he repeated the solemn warning about the Tree of Knowing Tov and Ra’ that Iahweh had given. She understood. They soon figured out what tov meant. Iahweh had used the word at the end of their first day. Tov meant “good”. Iahweh used the word often. He said most things were “good”. They reasoned that ra’ must be the opposite - a kind of “un-good”. This was a hard thing to imagine – the earthman and his wife had never seen or known anything to be “un-good” – but it sounded like something to be avoided. Iahweh was in the habit of visiting them in the evening - “in the cool of the day” the Book says. They would know he had arrived in the garden when they heard his voice calling them. Together the three of them would watch the sun set. Together they would farewell that day and welcome a new one. When the visits were over, Iahweh would let himself out the garden gate. Enter a new character. The Book calls it a snake. We do not

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know whether it had been in the garden the whole time, or whether it was a new arrival. The snake sought out the earthman’s wife and, wonder of wonders, it opened its mouth and spoke to her, “Did the Elohim say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” It was an innocent question, and maybe if the woman were ages older, she would have wondered why the snake avoided using Iahweh’s name. But she wanted to be helpful. The snake, clever as it was for speaking, was sorely misled. “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but the Elohim said, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will ...’” She used the same word that her husband had told her. Yet, like him, she had no idea what it meant. The snake fixed her with lidless eyes. Its mouth opened like a trap. “Oblivion is not oblivion,” the snake said point blank, using the word, “because the Elohim knows that when you eat from the tree your eyes will be opened and you will be like the Elohim, knowing tov and ra’. Her eyes opened? They were already open. She looked around her to check, and her vision seemed to be in good order. But why would the snake say her eyes were not working properly? Maybe there was more they did not know about. The talking snake had certainly raised an interesting point. Iahweh had said the garden belonged to him. If it was his garden, then why would he plant a tree and then forbid them to taste it? The Book does not say, for details in the distant past and distant

future are patchy, but I imagine the snake spoke more. Beyond the walls of their garden were things they knew nothing about. They were not in the real world, and there was a lot they were missing out on, the snake may have suggested. The Elohim had told them not to eat, but he was just testing them. He was using the fear of so-called “Oblivion” to keep them safe until they matured - until they were independent enough to make their own decisions. In truth, the Tree of Knowing was no danger at all. The earthman and his wife struggled. Iahweh had given them a simple request, but for what reason? What was he trying to hide? Common sense said that there had to be a lot more beyond the confines of their tiny garden. Where did Iahweh go every night? Why did he leave them here? They had learned everything they knew about the world from Iahweh, but they had no proof that he was telling the truth. Instead, they had blindly hung onto his every word. How could they have been so stupid, so naïve? The more they thought about it, the more it dawned on them that Iahweh was hiding something from them. The snake was fascinating. The word-pictures he painted for them were bursting with colour. Their companion, in comparison, with his patronising commands and his interminably long evening visits seemed a little drab. The more they talked with the snake, the more his words made sense. Finally, the earthman’s wife made her way to the centre of the garden where the two trees were. The earthman went with her. She stared at the Tree of Knowing for a long while, examining its fruit, thinking about it, rolling the words of the fabulous talking snake around in her head: “Oblivion is not oblivion ... you will be like the Elohim ... your eyes will be opened ... knowing tov and

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ra’ ... like the Elohim…” The fruit was clearly edible. It looked good and she was dreadfully curious. Adrenaline thrilled through her body. She reached up and took hold. The fruit came away with a satisfying thock. * * * The snake was right. There was much going on that they did not understand. If you have so far imagined the snake as a slithering thing, you have been sorely mistaken. The Book implies that the snake did not crawl on its belly. It moved in some other way, which means it had either wings or legs or both. It was also intelligent - “crafty”, the Book says. You’d have no idea unless you read the Book in the Old Tongue, but the word for “clever” is the same as “naked”, but this detail will make more sense in another page or so. The final clue as to the identity of the snake is that in the Old Tongue, the word for “snake” can also mean “magic”. The snake was much more than just a snake. He was a powerful dragon, the greatest sorcerer who ever lived. There was a lot about Iahweh that the earthman and his wife did not understand. The garden belonged to Iahweh, but he did not live there. So where did he live? The Book gives a clue, and unless you’re a whiz at reading it, you would probably miss it altogether. The clue has to do with the river. The Book describes that downstream of the garden, the river split into four streams: the Gihon, the Pishon, the Tigris and the Euphrates. They flowed this way and that, and formed

the borders of various lands, and if you’re a typical reader of the Book, these are the details that will capture your attention. But if you do that, you’ll miss the all-important clue that has to do with the river’s source, which was somewhere to the east. Think carefully. Rivers only flow downhill, so there must have been higher mountains above the garden. This makes sense, for the Book tells us that when Iahweh visited, he came down. Here’s the clue: The Book says that the river gushed out of the ground. If you are a student of the Book, this will send alarm bells off in your head. In the Book there is one reason and one reason only why a river will gush out of the ground high in the mountains: It marks the dwelling of the Emperor. The mountain above the garden was the most important place in the entire universe. It was the centre of an Empire. It was a capital city, whose rule extended to the farthest reaches of the universe. On the heights of the mountain was a throne, and on the throne sat the Emperor. He was surrounded by the twenty-four chaired Great Assembly. The Emperor also ran a cosmic civil service. The agents (malakim in the Old Tongue) as they were known, amassed at the mountain in their millions. The mountain had the atmosphere of a carnival. Visitors were guaranteed of bumping into at least one friend they had not seen in a century and were certain of being invited to a few good feasts. But there was something else about the atmosphere - a solemness, a sweet heaviness, a rightness that hung about the place.

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The strange thing about this mountain was that it did not belong to Planet Earth. It was a different place altogether. In our age we would speak of a wormhole or a space-time discontinuity. I suspect that a traveller would never know exactly when they left the earth behind, for the transition was seamless. If you wanted to travel there nowadays, I am afraid I have disappointing news. You could search out where it used to be, for two of the lower rivers still exist (they flow through present-day Iran). But track these rivers to their source and you would find yourself at a dead-end somewhere in the highlands of Turkey. Everyone on the mountain knew Iahweh. He was Elohim The Elohim, in fact, for he was the only one of his species. But that’s not all. The earthman’s companion, who took the time to visit with him and his wife every day, was none other than the Elohim, the Emperor himself. All was not well on the mountain. The place normally thrummed with music and dancing, but not now. The mountain had been stirred up into a hornet’s nest. The Elohim was under suspicion.

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C ha p t e r T w o

The Magic Tree

For as long as anyone could remember, life in the Empire had been sweet. The citizens of the Empire built houses and halls, made poetry and music, planted gardens and studied the universe about them. They produced young, they loved each other and were loved by each other. They had adventures and went on quests, but nothing ever seemed to harm them. It was as if they were all taking part in an intricate dance and none of them ever put a foot wrong. Not that they really had a concept of “putting a foot wrong”, for their freedom was natural as breathing. They were fascinated by living and totally immersed in it. At the centre of the Empire was Iahweh. His name was too awesome to be spoken lightly, so his people referred to him as the Elohim. I said earlier that he belonged to a totally different species, but the word “species” does not explain him properly. The Elohim

was downright peculiar. Extraordinary. He was different, and he was able to do things that no-one else could do. The Elohim was self-generating. He did not need to eat. He did not need to absorb light or energy in order to stay alive. Life and Light came from inside of him. It radiated out of him and shone everywhere. The Light that radiated from the Elohim was different from the stuff you see with your eyes. It belonged to a totally different spectrum. The free people detected the Light with something inside their minds. It was not a physical organ; it was a living fragment of the Elohim’s breath - his Moving Stillness. No matter how far removed a person was from the Elohim’s mountain, he was always with them, intimately connected to their minds. All they had to do was think in his direction and he would hear. The fragment of Moving Stillness inside of them would transmit their thoughts instantaneously to the Elohim. In return, if they focused in his direction, they could hear the Elohim’s thoughts, washing over the universe. This connection was powerful and close xxx, but there was still something awesome about being in the Elohim’s direct physical presence. The problem was that the Elohim was unapproachable. His power was too raw and the Light was too strong. Anyone coming close to him would be overwhelmed by his presence. His bliss would surround them like a sweet heavy weight until it was unbearable (if you have ever been near a very big bonfire you will know a fraction of this). If it were not for the four Living Ones, nobody could get close to the Elohim at all. The Book tells us that the Living Ones were known to the

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ancients by other names as well: cherubs and seraphs. But don’t think for one moment because of the word cherub that the Living Ones were fat winged babies who shot golden arrows. The word cherub comes from the Old Tongue and means “Mighty Ones”. The word seraph, also from the Old Tongue, means either “Snake” or “Flame” - we are not sure which. But they did have wings. In one place the Book says four wings, and in another it says six, so we cannot be sure. Maybe both are correct, for the people who wrote these descriptions in the Book did not see the Living Ones with their eyes but via the Moving Stillness, and the two ways of seeing are very very different. It seems that the Living Ones could morph from one form to another. In one description, each of the Living Ones has four faces and is covered with eyes, yet in another description the Living Ones settle down to something more normal. The first looks like a lion, the second looks like an ox, the third looks like a man, and the fourth like an eagle. The Book says the Living Ones had voices so mighty that when they spoke, the foundations shook. The Living Ones surrounded the Elohim’s throne. They were breathtakingly beautiful. It was their delicious responsibility to cover Iahweh and absorb his Light so others could approach. The citizens of the Empire found themselves inexplicably drawn to the Elohim. I imagine that some would almost invent reasons to approach his throne. There was something about him that was delightful and totally satisfying. The Elohim was the beating heart of the Empire, and when people were close to him, there was something about him that “rubbed off” on them. A moment in the Elohim’s presence was enough to make you feel totally complete. On the other hand, if you spent an eternity with him, it would never become boring. At least, that’s what everybody believed, but the rumours said

something quite different.I must tell you about the Great Assembly. The Book says it was comprised of twenty-four elders. You’d get the wrong idea if you imagined them as doddery and creased, for although they were very old, they were in the prime of life. Everybody in the Empire lived forever. Most of the citizens of the Empire had been naturally born to parents, in the same way that you were naturally born. They had a mother and a father and perhaps brothers and sisters. The elders who made up the Great Assembly, on the other hand, had not been born. Their first memory was of Iahweh’s face. He told them that he had personally formed them. The elders were called “the Elohim’s sons”. They were the eldest of their various races. They were mighty leaders, held in awe and great respect by their people. It was their responsibility to sit on the Great Assembly on behalf of their races, and to govern their worlds on behalf of the Elohim. The Book tells us that the earthman was one of the Elohim’s sons. By rights, a seat in the Great Assembly belonged to him. But things had changed. The earthman had been brought into an Empire that was in turmoil. It had begun with rumours. Snatches of overheard conversation were exchanged. Ideas were multiplied, strange concepts and new thoughts seemingly boiled out of nowhere. We do not know what these early rumours were. The Book does not tell us. However, we know more about the whole topic now than they did then, and we have enough information to be able to make an educated guess about the ideas that were being traded.

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The universe was like a huge mathematical framework. It ran according to set parameters, which meant that although the universe was complicated, it was generally predictable. The universe was based on cause and effect. Plant an apple seed, and you will get an apple tree. Throw a rock, and it will eventually fall. The citizens of the Empire all knew that they were free - truly free. The universe ran on cause and effect, but not all the time. Each free person had something inside of them that lay outside of the bounds of the natural universe. This thing was called the Will. It was like a tiny rudder, and it was the sole property of each free person. The free people had the power to introduce changes to the natural universe and send it wobbling and spinning in totally new directions. They could bring new children into the universe. They could make buildings and tear them down. They could write new songs that had never existed before. They were powerful. On the other hand, they were also vulnerable, because if one person made a change, those around them would experience the effects of that change. But somehow it all worked out. As I said before, life was like a dance, and nobody ever got any of the steps wrong. Nobody ever got hurt. But how? How could so many millions of free people going about their business manage to not hurt each other? There was something fishy about the whole business. The answer was that there were some actions the citizens of the Empire would just not do. They would not, for example, swing heavy hammers down on their fingers just for fun. Actions like that were absurd. It was just plain obvious. â&#x20AC;&#x153;But what would happen,â&#x20AC;? the rumours asked, â&#x20AC;&#x153;if we did do

something absurd? Are such actions not allowed?” It was a crazy idea. Nobody wants to purposely hit their finger with a hammer... or do they? “Are we really free?” the rumours wondered. “The fact that we avoid absurd actions shows that we are not, for there is something inside us, controlling us, telling us how to behave.” Confirmation came from the highest source. There was something inside each person. It was called the Code. Many of the citizens of the Empire knew about the Code but never questioned its purpose. The Code, Iahweh said, was written into their deepest identities before they were born. It operated so naturally and silently that mostly people did not even know it was there. But what was it? Iahweh said that the Code was tied up with that living fragment of the Elohim’s breath inside them. The two went together and could not be separated. The Code was the stamp of his character, the imprint of his personality, nothing more and nothing less. He had placed it inside them because he had wanted them to be as free as possible. The Code told them how to weave the universe - how to bring about meaningful changes, how to build beautiful things, how to love. Its purpose was not to control them, but to maximise their freedom. “A likely story,” the rumours huffed. “Iahweh is brainwashing us, and he’s using the Code to do it.” The citizens of the Empire had been taught about Iahweh their whole lives. As children they learned that he was the Light; he was the only true source of power, for he was self-generating. They learned that he was Life; the only reason why they existed

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was because Iahweh gave himself to them as a gift. They learned that he was Truth; Iahweh himself was ultimate reality. Now they began to wonder. Everything they knew about Iahweh came from Iahweh himself. They had believed everything because he had told them he was trustworthy. But maybe it was all an intricate web of lies. The rumours theorised that Iahweh was not the ultimate reality like he claimed, but that there was something behind him. Maybe there was a Higher Reality, a deeper plane of existence. Iahweh was currently the only one who was plugged into the Higher Reality, but he kept the rest of them in the dark. This is what created the illusion that he was so peculiar. This is why they were all drawn to him. Iahweh had set it up so that his “citizens” had to come to him in order to stay alive. In return for congratulation and admiration of who he was (“Iahweh Iahweh, the compassionate and generous Elohim...”) he would pass out favours from his bag of tricks. Even Iahweh admitted that it gave him pleasure when his citizens licked at his feet like a dog (for in the Old Tongue that is what the word “worship” means). In truth, Iahweh was holding them all to ransom. Iahweh was both a liar and a bully. He was not so different from the rest of them, and his grand Empire was little better than a slave-camp of zombies. Was it true? Was there really a Higher Reality? The Elohim denied its existence, but of course he would. It was not a rogue agent a long way down the chain of command who was inventing the rumours. They were coming from a

reliable, top-level source, from one of the Living Ones who covered the Elohimâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s throne. In the time before the earthman made his choice there was another cherub. Like the others, he had the task of covering Iahweh. Like the others, he was beautiful and wise. Like the others, he was patterned in the same way as an animal - not an ox or an eagle or a lion or a man, but a snake. The snake cherub had stood in the presence of the Elohim for as long as anyone could remember. If there were a conspiracy to control the Empire, then the snake cherub would be the one to uncover it. It was the snake cherub who spoke of the Higher Reality. The Empire was in turmoil. Nobody knew what to believe. Were they truly free, or were they being controlled? What was the true nature of the Code? It made perfect sense that the Higher Reality existed, and that the theory put forward by the snake cherub was right. Still, nobody had ever experienced the Higher Reality for themselves. It all boiled down to one simple question: Who, really, was Iahweh? Apart from taking the Elohim at his word, the only way the citizens of the Empire would know was by doing something against the Code. It would be difficult of course, and would probably cause some transitional discomfort â&#x20AC;&#x201C; it would seem absurd. The Empire fell into two groups. The first group sided with the snake cherub. They were all

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for breaking the Code and finding the Higher Reality. The Higher Reality, they guessed, must be two opposite energies that could be drawn from nothing: Positive and Negative, Black and White, Cold and Hot, Good and un-Good. They did not understand their theory fully, but they suspected that having experienced the Higher Reality, it would all make sense. The snake cherub and his followers believed Iahweh was a fraud, and his obedient “citizens” were being fooled by the greatest lie ever concocted. Iahweh’s loyalists were convinced that this first group were making the stupidest mistake of their lives. Iahweh was unique. His self-generating power and peculiar nature could clearly be seen in the universe he had brought into existence. All anyone had to do was look around them to see that the snake cherub’s ideas were crazy. For certain, Iahweh was different from the rest of them. He was the Elohim – the uncaused cause. How else could everything exist? You have to remember that at this time, words like “evil” or “wicked” were totally unheard of. The free people had a vague idea of “un-good”, but that was about as far as it went. Nobody had actually experienced misery, pain, discomfort or anger. None of the citizens knew for sure what the results of their choice would be. The Book does not say how, but it came to a head when the snake cherub and the Elohim faced off and the citizens of the Empire made their choice. The Elohim would have warned the cherub that breaking the Code meant separation from the Moving Stillness (for the two were interconnected), and separation from the Moving Stillness meant leaving the Light behind. This in turn would result in something horrible. Oblivion. Was Iahweh bluffing?

The time for talk was over. The snake cherub was the first to leave the Empire behind. It was much harder for him to do this than it would be for you to hack your hand off with a blunt knife. But he did it. It was as if he had been hitting a target easily until this moment, but now he decided to aim away from the centre. He turned against the Code written into his deepest identity and embraced Absurdity. In an instant, everything changed. Before, he had found himself drawn to the Light. Now he was sickened by it. Once he had bowed to the Elohim out of love. If he bowed now, it would only be to protect his face from the searing brightness. The Empire had broken open and another world, another realm, had been birthed. The daring cherub was its sole inhabitant. The people looking on saw a change, but what it meant they did not know. The being standing before them was no longer the snake cherub. He had become a mighty dragon. The Dragon spoke of his new world. It was reality - raw and stark, a reality for heroes who did not need Iahwehâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s softhanded protection. He was out in the cold, outside the Empire in a place where freedom really mattered, where it came into its own. He could act as he wanted. It was only a matter of time before a full third of the Empire put their trust in the Dragon and followed him. One by one, with the Code screaming protest, they chose Absurdity. Such was the situation on the Elohimâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mountain at the time the earthman and his wife awoke for the first time. The Dragonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s faction stayed away from the throne. It angered them to see people bowing and scraping to the Elohim. After all, he was

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only an equal. But somehow, watching their rivals around the Elohim’s throne felt like being a shivering orphan peering through warmlit windows on Christmas Eve. Tension was mounting. The Elohim’s agents had been peaceful until this moment. Now, for the first time, they were formed into armies. I imagine that not a terrible lot of fighting happened, and the two sides kept an uneasy distance. The Dragon had left his privileged position at the Elohim’s throne. Good riddance too, for the thought of being near the Elohim drove him into a rage. He made his way to Planet Earth. It was a fresh planet and its lord - the earthman - had only recently been brought into existence. The earthman had no idea how important he was. The Elohim had made him to be as close as – and similar to – himself as possible. The earthman’s Will was strong and he had the ability to bring about enormous changes in the universe. Furthermore, there was a seat in the Great Assembly that belonged to him. The Elohim had prepared a garden to be the earth-lord’s home. In the garden was a tree - the Tree of Life. Eating this tree would give the earthman immortality, for when he ate it he received the gift of the Elohim. In contrast, the Dragon set up his own tree. The Elohim did not want it in his garden, but the Dragon was free after all, and the Elohim was bound by his own Code. The Tree of Knowing Tov and Ra’ was not just a tree. It was a portal of sorts, for its fruit issued tickets out of the Empire and into the Dragon’s new world. * * *

The earthmanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s wife drew the mysterious fruit towards her mouth and bit down. She passed it onto her husband who was with her. If the earthman had been man enough to love his wife without giving into her, this book - and many other books - would not have been written. But instead he made his choice and took a mouthful as well. Something was changing. Yes! This was something that Iahweh had not told them about; a new awareness, a new experience. They felt... â&#x20AC;Ś horrible. They felt exposed. Something was wrong - terribly wrong. They were naked. Not just physically. It was much more than that. They had become crafty like the Dragon. Desperately, they searched for something to cover their nakedness. It barely helped, but they lashed together some foliage as clothing. The Dragon, unfettered by the Code, had already begun to experiment with reality. What the Empire called Absurdity, he called Knowledge, Mystery, Wisdom, Magic. The fruit they had eaten was magical. Somehow in its eating it had broken into their minds. That living fragment of the Moving Stillness planted inside of them had been irrevocably damaged. Instead, the Dragon had installed a Device into their deepest identities that made it impossible for them to act according to the Code. The Device was not physical, and it could not be cut out of their heads. It would remain with them until they passed into Oblivion.

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* * * The earthman and his wife watched the sun drop low on the horizon. Time was moving too fast. It would only be a matter of moments before the Elohim came to the garden for his regular twilight visit. Their hearts raced and their dread deepened. It felt like an eel from the river had made its home inside their bellies and was coiling over and over on itself. They were terrified. What would Iawheh say to them? Then they head the sound of him walking in the garden. Utter panic consumed them. In a flash they were off and running, looking for a place to hide. The earthman’s pulse thumped in his ears. He tried to still his breathing. If he had been able to think rationally about what he was doing, he would have agreed that it did not make sense . Iahweh’s eyes and ears were not like his own and Iahweh could see him no matter how he tried to hide. Then they heard Iahweh’s voice, calling out to them. It was a terrible voice, loud and clear. It rang with authority. Why had they never heard it this way before? Had the earthman heard it properly, he would have noticed it was also tinged with a desperate note of sorrow, but he was too busy listening to something else. There was a new voice inside his head, warning him to be silent. “Danger! Danger!” it said. “The Elohim will punish you. You have defied him and now he will be angry.” It was happening very quickly - too quickly, in fact, for the earthman to analyse all of the changes. All the earthman knew was that he had made a terrible mistake. He had used his

freedom to do something terrible. He had sent his part of the universe moving and shaking in strange, unheard of patterns. He had made a choice that would overturn the lives of everyone in its path. Iahweh had been his dearest friend. He knew that now. If Iahweh came close, then his life would be turned upside-down as well. It was too horrible to even consider. The earthman had to hide, to quarantine himself so Iahweh would not be affected. He had to protect the Elohim! Maybe the earthman could figure out how to reverse the damage he had done. Maybe he could somehow atone for his stupid choice. All he needed was time. The voice called again. Its clear note seemed to wash over them like an enchantment, calling them, compelling them to answer and give away their hiding place. Iahweh already knew what had happened. There were other dimensions in his universe beside the physical ones, and as soon as the earthman and his wife took the fruit, Iahweh had known. He had come to say his goodbyes, and to give them the future they had chosen. Iahweh found them, hiding among a stand of trees, camouflaged by their ridiculous costumes. They backed away from him in terror, eyes wide open and searching for an escape. It was a difficult meeting, not because Iahweh accused them, for he did not, but because Iahweh was not content until they told him all they had done. It was painful having the truth extracted, and it did not come easily, but when it was over, it was somehow a relief.

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The earthman and his wife stood before Iahweh, dressed in their pathetic greenery, heads bowed. They could tell that Iahweh was in anguish for, freedom being what it is and the earthman being as powerful as he was, they had hurt Iahweh deeply. Surprisingly, Iahweh did not hate them or blame them. He did not rant and rave. Part of them wanted him to take his pain out on them, but he did not. They looked into his eyes and saw tears of deep sorrow, but why he was crying, they did not know. Iahweh spoke. The earthman and his wife listened as he gave his terrible pronouncement. Because they had chosen to eat from the tree, they would be expelled from his garden, never to return. * * * I have a hunch that the earthman and his wife had nightmares for years to come about what happened next. Iahweh called one of his wild animals to himself. It was a dumb creature, covered in thick, fine fur. It was not free in the same way as the earthman and his wife. It did not have a sense of self; its mind was cloudy and dreamlike. Yet when it was called, it came to Iahweh, bleated and nuzzled gently against his hand. What happened next was so horrible it can hardly be told. One moment, the dumb creature had been sniffing about them, full of life. The next moment it was just an object with glassy eyes, a thing, slowly cooling. For the first time, I imagine, the truth of Oblivion set in. Oblivion was the opposite of Life - the dead opposite. One day the earthman and his wife would be like that stiffening carcass sprawled out before them. They would not exist, not

anywhere. Time held them captive in its deliberate march. It could not be stopped. Ever so slowly the life was leaking out of them. They only had a set amount of time before it was gone completely. Then they would become nothing. It was a suffocating thought, a mind-numbing thought. So insignificant were they. So powerless. So trapped. Then, as the earthman and his wife watched, Iahweh grimly skinned the carcass and made two sets of clothing. The thought of being inside another creature’s skin was horrible. But it had been Iahweh’s idea, and he would not have done it without reason. That was the last the earthman and his wife ever saw of Iahweh. They never returned to the garden. And the rest, as they say, is history. * * * The Elohim has been criticised ever since for the way he treated the earthman. “Why didn’t he erase the earthman’s choice and give him another chance?” people ask. The fact is, even if it were possible (and I’m not sure it was), the notion of erasing the earthman’s choice would not have entered Iahweh’s head. According to Iahweh, freedom was his gift. What the earthman chose to do with freedom was his business. Such was the risk of bringing into existence people who could truly steer their own destiny. The earthman could not reverse his choice. The Tree of Knowing issued only one-way tickets. Now that the earthman had passed into the Dragon’s world, there was no tree to return

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him. There was no spell he could say, no action he could take to transport him back to where he had been. He was trapped. How he longed for another tree, with other fruit. Furthermore, the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge had been crafted in such a way that it affected more than just the earthman and his wife. The earthman had given over his right as Lord of Planet Earth. Everything that had been under the earthman’s authority now belonged to the Dragon. This included not only the plants, animals and natural systems of earth but also the earthman’s children. The Dragon needed Earth. If he was going to expose the Elohim and pull down his mockery of an Empire he needed raw materials: a planet, and a race of people to prove his point. There was one more consequence. For the Dragon, it was the most significant. The earthman’s seat on the Elohim’s mountain lay empty. But not for much longer. Now that the Dragon had rightfully become lord of Planet Earth, the seat belonged to him. While even a single earthman lived to be ruled by the Dragon, he would have access to the Great Assembly. The new Lord had his window of opportunity. Who knew how many thousands or millions of years would pass until the last earthman went to Oblivion? Perhaps it would never happen. Little by little, the Dragon would plot and plan. He would expose the Elohim until everyone saw him for who he was. * * * The earthman and his wife made their way down from the

garden, away from the Dragon, away from the Elohim, and headed towards the valleys and plains of Planet Earth. The land outside the garden had always been a wild place but now it was dangerous. Even the plants and animals had changed. Animals no longer ate greenery from the trees and undergrowth. Instead they ate each other. This is what freedom was all about. There was no regulation here, no management of living things. This was a world that favoured strength and cleverness, without which nothing would survive.

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C ha p t e r Thr e e

The Flooding of Atlantis

The earthman named his wife Cheue. In the Old Tongue it meant “Life”, for as the earthman said, “She will be the mother of all the living.” Cheue fell pregnant. Her belly swelled and soon it was time for her to give birth. The delivery of her firstborn son was torturously painful – a result, apparently, of the Absurdity. There were no doctors, no nurses, no visitors. The Dragon Lord did not offer to help. Alone, in a big wild world, the earthman delivered his own son. I can’t imagine the sea of emotions the earthman found himself in at that moment. First the alarm at his wife’s distress, then the joy and pride of holding his child in his hands, the wonder that this little bundle of life had grown inside his wife. But the wonder gave way to pain. The earthman held his own heir in his hands, yet there was precious little that his son would

inherit. The earthman had already given it all to the Dragon Lord. And then the horror. His new son, fresh skinned and cloudy-eyed was, to all eyes, perfect. But deep inside that tiny frame, the Device was already working its magic. He was already lost. He had been born to oblivion. He was already dead, it was only a matter of time. In time, that first son would become a murderer. The earthman and Cheue had other sons and daughters. Their children, in turn, married each other. It sounds terrible, because in our day, babies born to close relatives have horrible birth defects. But in this first age the genes of earthmen were so pure that marriage between close relatives was not a problem. Years passed and the race of earthmen multiplied. The earthman and his wife longed for the Garden, for the past, for what could have been. They told and retold the story of the Tree of Knowing and their grandchildren and great grandchildren listened with shining eyes. But the story they heard was not the story that the earthman and Cheue intended. “Where had the Dragon Lord gone?” their children wondered. “What did it mean that Oblivion was not oblivion? How could they get in touch with the Higher Reality?” Their pulses raced and they looked to one another eagerly. An adventure awaited them. The earthman’s heart broke. The fruit of the Tree of Knowing had passed its horrible virus from parent to child and his entire family was infected with the Device. It drove them to distrust the word of Iahweh and to seek out the ways of the Dragon Lord. Every child into that age heard the story of the garden and the

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tree. They were well aware of earth’s supernatural beginnings. Indeed, if any of them bothered to make the journey eastward, they would find the gate to the Garden blocked by a flying, flashing sword and attended by two huge cherubs. Each of them could trace their ancestry right back to their first parents. There were no atheists or agnostics in that day. Every earthman knew the Elohim existed. They knew the Elohim existed, but they were convinced he was a fraud. Their earthman father and mother were fools not to see the opportunity that lay before them. They had been tainted by the Elohim. Like animals raised in captivity, they had the scent of domination on them. Their bodies were free, but their minds and hearts were back inside their high-walled Garden. They were imprisoned and no amount of logic or persuasion could convince them to embrace freedom. So the children of the earthman set out eagerly to find the Higher Reality. I’m sure you’ve done some ancient history at school - about the Romans and the Greeks and the Mesopotamians and the Egyptians before them. They tell you at school that before the rise of these ancient civilizations, humans gathered food, hunted and farmed. Somewhere along the line they discovered how to make fire and how to arrange grunts and hoots into intelligent language. It’s not entirely your teachers’ fault for giving you wrong information about history. They, like you, are the victims of misinformation. The truth is, there is very little evidence for the human race growing up gradually over time. Instead, the evidence shows

that humans appeared almost at once, fully developed. Far from being simple hoots and grunts, the earliest languages we know about (such as Akkadian or Egyptian) have a far more complicated grammar than current English. Their architecture is not basic, but sophisticated. The earliest pyramids in Egypt are, in fact, better built than the later ones, and there are ancient walls in the ruined cities of the Incas that are so well constructed that builders today cannot replicate them. Most students learn that the human race became gradually more advanced, but in truth the clues seem to point in the opposite direction. There is enough information available to us to indicate that at an earlier time, a sophisticated people inhabited Planet Earth. But who were they? Have you heard of Atlantis? People in our day are fascinated by the possibility that it existed. They tell the stories of an ancient high civilization called Atlantis that was overwhelmed in a mighty catastrophe. Its technology was lost, its libraries buried. Today it is just a memory. Wild treasure hunters search for some fragment, some clue that will bring Atlantis back to us. I believe that Atlantis is more than just a myth. It really existed, in some form or other. The stories we have of Atlantis are echoes, long lost rumours from the earthâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s first age. The Atlantins, the first generations of earthmen, were extremely intelligent, powerful, and expressive. Their genes were pure, the earth was unpolluted, and they were only a few generations removed from earthâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s supernatural beginning. The Book records that they lived for hundreds and hundreds of years. If an Atlantin walked down a street today, crowds would part before

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them. Bystanders would whisper and point and we would be awestruck or even intimidated by their sheer presence. They soon discovered that they were not alone on Planet Earth. Wherever they went, another ancient people were already there. These new people were not human. They belonged to an entirely different race. They appeared to be human at times, but they were powerful, mysterious. They could appear and disappear at will. They could make themselves invisible. They could travel hundreds of miles in an instant. They could manipulate the natural world and cause storms and fires, build towers in a fraction of the time. Swords and fortresses were no obstruction to them and they had a knowledge of the universe that astounded the earthmen. Who were they? Ever since these early times, the history of earthmen has been intertwined with these people. In our day most believe they do not really exist. This is not a problem for the strange race. Our disbelief suits their objectives. In our day their method of interaction is to remain invisible to the majority of earthman and work from a distance. But in has not always been so. Nor will it always remain the case. This ancient people are known in different places under various names. Many stories are recorded about their interactions with the human race. In Ireland they are called the Fair Folk, in Finland they are called Elves. There are some who refer to them as the Greys or the Visitors, or the Ghosts or the Spirits. There name is of no consequence. It is the fact that they exist and have an agenda that matters.

I do not know what the Atlantins called them, or what name you are most familiar with, but I will refer to them by the name they are known to many children’s stories; the genies, the race of Ginn. It seems that Planet Earth had become a haven. The people who had rebelled and sided with the Dragon Lord came here. It was a place far distant from the Elohim’s throne. On Earth they could pursue their freedom without hindrance. The Ginn told them more about the Higher Reality and how it could be found. The Code had been installed by the Elohim in order to “protect” people – to block them from accessing the Higher Reality. But the Code no longer regulated their behaviour. The Device took care of that, and it opened up a whole set of freedoms that the Code had kept closed. The way to the Higher Reality, then was to strike out into the wide unknown, to experiment against breaking the Code in as many ways as possible, for somewhere in that direction, in the wide unknown, there was a key, a latch that would bring them enlightenment and let them into the Higher Reality. Their first parents despaired at their plan, but what did their opinion matter? The old fools couldn’t even think straight. Ginn and earthmen began to work together. The Atlantis age was an age of magic and sorcery, for magic is simply what happens when a genie, breaking the Code, manipulates the natural world on behalf of an earthman. The Atlantins built towns and cities – ancient sources tell us there were at least five – they made music, forged tools out of bronze and iron, threw parties. In that age, minds were

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sharper and bodies were stronger. Earthmen were quick to understand the world around them and quick to manipulate it. Through architecture, science, philosophy, science and sorcery, civilization boomed. Driven by the Device, they strove ever upward to new heights. There are some who say that the dinosaur skeletons we dig up nowadays are the remnants of their genetic experimentation. There were problems. It seemed that earthmen no sooner reached maturity than their bodies started falling apart underneath them. Their skin began to wrinkle, their muscles took longer to recover, their sleep failed to refresh them. What was happening? The first earthman claimed it was the onset of Oblivion and that from the first day he and Cheue had eaten from the Tree, their race had been separated from the only source of Life. It was only a matter of time before each earthman passed into a state of absolute nothingness. But what would the old fool know? Centuries passed. The first earthmanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s body was not what it had once been. It did not repair itself properly. His eyes did not work as they once had. He could not keep up with his greatgreat-grandchildren anymore. Then one day his body gave out. He closed his eyes and exhaled for the last time. Separated from Iahwehâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s life-force, he passed into Oblivion. Yet for some reason he died with a smile on his lips. Nine-hundred and thirty years had passed since his first memory of Iahwehâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s face.

* * * On the Mountain, The Great Assembly was undecided about the Elohim. The Dragon Lord was doing as he chose on Planet Earth, and it appeared the Elohim’s hands were tied. Maybe the Dragon Lord has called the Elohim’s bluff. Maybe now that someone had dared challenge his authority, he would drop his guard and act out of character. Iahweh maintained that who he was and what he did were one and the same. He claimed that he could never act out of character, could never break his own Code. To be sure, if Iahweh did break his own Code, even once, he would prove the Dragon Lord’s accusations correct. The Code, Iahweh said, was nothing more and nothing less than his own personality. If he acted against the Code, he would be contradicting his identity - the very thing that he claimed was the basis of all reality. He would show himself to be a liar, and all would see that he really was no different to the rest of them. The whole Empire would unravel and the Higher Reality behind Iahweh would be available for all to see. The Code worked well when all the citizens in the Empire chose to keep it. But how could Iahweh possibly combat the Dragon Lord who could do exactly as he wanted without any constraint? The Code did not appear strong enough to overcome the challenge. Was Iahweh was in a tangle? If he had fabricated an intricate lie, he was now irreversibly trapped in it. * * * The Ginn had an explanation for the way the earthmen’s bodies

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were falling apart. The body, they said, was a prison. It was the last residual control that the Elohim had over them. Once the earthmen had shrugged their bodies off, they would be truly free. This is what the Dragon Lord had meant when he said “Oblivion is not oblivion.” Ten generations on, the race of earthmen had not accessed the Higher Reality. The Device whispered to their minds. It encouraged them to excel, to fulfil their ambitions, and to make their dreams come true. It sounded like their own inner voice. It worked so silently and so smoothly that its actions seemed totally normal. But a dark shadow began to grow. No matter how hard they tried, the earthmen could not bring the natural world under their total control. Oh yes, they could dominate it for a while, but then something would happen, and their grasp would slip. It seemed that they had set out with good intentions only to discover that they had brought about a terrible result. When this happened, the Device inside them would change its tone. It would whisper disapproval to them: “You failed,” it would say, “You must try harder.” It warned them of what would happen if they did not succeed. It was, after all, a world of raw freedom. To survive, one had to learn how to be clever, how to be strong. So try harder they did. With every fibre of their being they searched for the Higher Reality. It is my guess that the earthmen assumed their relationship with ginn was an equal one, and that their magic was flawless (and this is what the Ginn still lead earthmen to believe). But they

soon discovered that magic always incurred a cost and it was earthmen who invariably had to pay. Furthermore, the ginn were tricksters. They did not keep their word and they had an absurd sense of humour. To them, injury was funny. The race of earthmen was fast becoming self-centred, immoral, proud, cruel and hateful. Every single action was monitored and controlled by the Device. If they let the Device have its way, it would bring about misery. If they fought against it, it would still have its way. Their forced choices brought about forced actions, and their forced actions brought about miserable consequences. Whenever they set out to do something good, they inevitably ended up making a mess. It was a hopeless situation. The earthmen had come to discover what ra’ was. It was a perfect explanation for the Absurd ideas of the Dragon Lord. It was total and absolute evil. It was misery, the enemy of anything that was good or right. The Device was treacherous. It drove them to find security, to belong, and to be important. It promised them goodness, but it brought about ‘ra. Nothing they did could fill that secret hold inside them. The Device consumed them, controlled them, confused them. Every thought was pure evil. In particular, the Book tells us about the extreme levels of revenge the Atlantins expected. One death called down seventy-seven others. There would have been a war. There must have been a war (for this is how Absurdity always goes.) The Atlantins formed armies and navies, created weapons and death machines and marched on one-another’s cities. It was not a good time to be alive. The last straw, the Book notes, was that some of the ginn took

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wives from among the earthmen. “Abducted” may not be too strong a word, in fact. The children of these unions, the Book says, were the Fallen Ones, the champions of ancient times of whom the legends are written. They were monsters, half earthman and half genie. They had powers and abilities beyond the earthmen, but they were driven half mad by a fear of Oblivion. It was about ten generations after the first earthman that Iahweh stepped in and the first age came to a cataclysmic end. Originally, the climate of the earth had been such that the land was watered by a cool, moist air. Suddenly, for the first time in history, water fell from the sky. Pelting, soaking, furious non-stop rain. Underground aquifers gushed to the surface in volcanic explosions of spray and steam. Earth was returning to the watery chaos from which it had been drawn. Rain roared down for nearly six weeks. Huge forests were torn out by the roots and carried along in the torrent. Buried under mountains of mud and rock , they were pressurised into coal. Animals, crowding together in safe places, suffered the same fate. The sea level rose as seemingly endless reserves of underground water burst to the surface. Cities were buried under the mud and earthmen dropped like flies. “Here’s proof,” the Dragon Lord said, pacing the floor of the Great Assembly, “This cataclysm is the Elohim’s doing. He knows that we’re dangerously close to the Higher Reality and he’s running scared. ”In a way, this watery holocaust was a relief for the earthmen, for it brought certain Oblivion. Those living did not know what

Oblivion was or where it led, but whatever it was and whenever it was, it had to be better than the misery they were living. The catastrophe was more than just physical. Changes took place in the other dimensions as well. In the cataclysm the bridge or wormhole between Planet Earth and the Elohim’s Mountain was dissolved. From this time forward, it would be said the Elohim made his home in the Sky, the realm above that could not be reached by earthmen. We do not know exactly what happened to Iahweh’s garden. There are some who say it was not destroyed, for it never really belonged to Earth, and at the time of the catastrophe it was torn away. They say it remains intact today, somewhere on the Elohim’s Mountain. The Book tells us that many of the Ginn were arrested. They were the ones, it seems, who had fathered the halfbreed children. They were banished into a dungeon called the Abyss. The Abyss is not a physical prison, for walls of metal and stone are no obstruction for the Ginn. Nevertheless, the Abyss has a shaft, which joins it to Earth. The mouth of the shaft was sealed and locked. It has not been opened since. Even today, the Ginn live in terror of being sent to the Abyss. It is a terrible place, a place of waking nightmares - not because the Elohim made it so, but because of the restless ginn who inhabit it. The Ginn would have you believe that the Elohim also sends earthmen to the Abyss for punishment. This is not true, for the Book tells us the Abyss was prepared exclusively for them. The Ginn.

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* * * There were survivors. There are scores of ancient legends from all around the world about the small handful who escaped the end of the first age. The Chinese remember the story of Nu-Wah, a man who was preserved in a boat along with his wife, sons and daughters-inlaw. In Hawaiian legend his name is Nu-U, and he stayed alive in a house atop a giant canoe. In other legends the survivor is known as Tezpi, Caxcoxtli, the Great Father, Deucalion, Manu. The Book calls him Noah. Many people scoff at the idea of Noah’s flood that ruined the earth only a few thousand years ago. Science, they say, has proven that the flood did not happen. To them, the fact that the Book tells the story of a worldwide flood is evidence that the Book is fiction. But there are too many legends telling the same story, too many scientific puzzle pieces that don’t fit any other way. If you take time to look into the whole topic, you will be surprised at the amount of evidence pointing to Noah’s flood that scientists cannot explain. * * * Not every earthman was hell-bent on discovering the Higher Reality. Through every generation a small minority had remained adamant that the Dragon Lord’s ideas were wrong. They had heard the story of the Tree of Knowing in the way that the earthman had intended. They hated the Device and the way it controlled them. At the time of the end of the first age,

this small minority had dwindled to eight earthmen: Noah, his wife, their three sons Sem, Cham and Iapheth, and their wives. Noah was the tenth generation from Adam. Like the small minority before him, he was a misfit. His friends and relatives mocked him. They laughed at him for being a simpleton and ridiculed his ideas. Noah’s goal was to know Iahweh. Most people were searching out the magic of the Higher Reality, but Noah’s life pointed in the opposite direction. There were rumours about the Elohim, but what was he really like? Was he dangerous? Was he powerful? What were his plans and his passions?… The Book says that Noah “walked with the Elohim.” There’s a slim possibility this sentence means that Iahweh sometimes journeyed down from his Mountain, dodged past the shining sword at the gate and spent time with Noah in the same way that he had spent time with the first earthman and Cheue. But I don’t think so. I suspect that Iahweh was making contact with Noah via the dimensions of the Moving Stillness. Planet Earth was the Dragon Lord’s world, but Iahweh was breaking in! Noah and his small family were custodians of a great secret that had been passed down from generation to generation. It wasn’t a secret because they kept it to themselves, it was a secret because the other earthmen were careless about it, and didn’t want to remember it. It was a mystery - a riddle of sorts. When Iahweh had spoken to their first parents after they had eaten the fruit of the Tree of Knowing, he had spoken a curse. It had been directed at the Dragon and not at the earthmen, but the words sounded important and they had been remembered. I will put hate between you and the woman, between your offspring and her offspring.

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He will crush your head, and you will strike his heel. This was the riddle that had been passed down through the centuries. They knew this riddle was important but they did not know what it meant. The Elohim told Noah his plan. He warned Noah that a great flood was coming that would destroy both the earth and its inhabitants. He gave Noah instructions for a boat that would survive the storm and told him to fill it with animals. Noah warned the people that the flood was coming. He told them about his boat full of animals but they laughed and ridiculed him more. Noah built the boat as the Elohim had said. He and his family boarded the boat on the instruction of Iahweh. Then they waited. For seven days nothing happened. Not a spot of rain, not a drop. Nothing. On the eighth day all hell broke loose. Now, on the dark, heaving, wet planet a boat bobbed like a cork, small and vulnerable. * * * The Dragon Lord, I am sure, was furious. By what right had the Elohim buried the earth in water? By what right had he locked millions of ginn in the Abyss? Here was proof that the Elohim was a power-hungry bully. Surely he had broken his own Code. The Book does not say, but I imagine he spoke his complaints loud and long in the Great Assembly. 61

Iahweh’s answer was bold; He was sick to his depths at how horrible earthmen had become. He regretted making them, and so he had wiped the miserable lot out. But by what right did he meddle in the Dragon Lord’s realm? The Dragon had won Planet Earth fair and square, hadn’t he? Even Iahweh agreed to that, so how had he brought the flood? Had he broken his own code? “The earth is mine and everything in it.” said Iahweh. It belonged to him, and he could act on it as he saw fit. The Great Assembly was thrown into turmoil. How could this be? Iahweh was laying claim to Earth, but how? Iahweh began to speak of a Great Event. It was planned since the very dawn of time, but had not yet happened. It would take place on Planet Earth some time in the future. It was this Great Event that was now reaching backwards through the years, giving Iahweh the right to step into the history of the earthmen. It was because of the Great Event that Iahweh lay claim to the planet. It was because of this same Great Event that he could speak with Noah, and it was because of this Great Event that he could step in and cause the flood. Were there no rules to this engagement? It was a strange idea - as if the Elohim was drawing money from a fortune not yet inherited. But while the members of the Great Assembly were still reeling from the pronouncement, Iahweh continued. In this Event, which had not happened yet, the Dragon’s world would be destroyed and the Dragon himself would be defeated. Iahweh would overcome the Dragon himself. At no time would Iahweh break his own Code, nor would he encroach on any of his creatures’ freedom. In the end it would clearly be seen that

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Iahweh was the Elohim - the only Elohim, and that his ways were right and true. Those who wished to oppose him had better heed his warning. This news threw the Great Assembly into excitement. If the Great Event had been planned since before they had come into existence, how had they not heard anything about it before? What was this Event? But perhaps the Elohim was bluffing, trying to cover up one lie with another. Maybe the Dragon Lord had been right all along and now the Elohim was showing his true colours. Maybe the burying of earth’s civilization underwater was just the beginning of the unravelling. But Iahweh kept his counsel. The Great Assembly and the Elohim’s agents would have to wait. * * * For over a year Noah and his family lived in their vessel and cared for the animals, then the waters of the flood fell away and Noah’s boat came to rest. It was time to leave the boat behind. For over a year the earth had been stirred water and mud. Much of the civilization and the filth of the earlier age had been washed away and buried, never again to see the light of day. There were some ruins, but the planet beneath them was once again a blank canvass. Iahweh promised Noah that he would never again send a flood. He said, “As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.” It was the beginning of a new age.

The earthmen settled close to the mountain where the boat had run aground. The landscape had changed dramatically. Great valleys had been gouged out by rushing water and debris, whole new mountain ranges reared up at crazy angles. So great had been the turbulence of the flood that very few of the old landmarks remained. Again the race of earthmen multiplied. The ballooning population of earthmen added the flesh of animals to their diet and their lifespan quickly dropped to about one hundred and twenty years. For the first few generations the survivors of the flood huddled together, a small community in a strange wide world. The Book makes one small hint that during this time there were adventurers who made seafaring explorations and mapped the planet. (Noah’s great-great-great grandson was Peleg, which means “divided” or “surveyed” in the Old Tongue, and the Book tells us, “In the days of Peleg the earth was divided/ surveyed.” The ginn who survived the flood set to work undoing the damage that the Elohim had caused to their plans. It seems that the difference with this new age was that the Dragon Lord and his Ginn were not able to act so blatantly in the affairs of the earthmen. But they still whispered in the earthmen’s ears: The Elohim was a cruel monster who had drowned the world. He had sent the weather crazy. Now water fell from the sky regularly. Who knew when the Elohim would send another flood to destroy them? The earthmen found a plain whose mud could be baked into bricks. A thick, black tar bubbled to the surface and was perfect for sticking the bricks together.

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Urged on by the whispering Ginn, the earthmen began to dream of a metropolis. Bab-El was to be a capital city whose reign would never end. Its most important structure would be a huge tower that reached into the sky. As big as a mountain, it would stand as a permanent witness to the great race who built it. For generations to come, earthmen would gather at the metropolis of Bab-El, united in heart and mind. The very ethos of Bab-El was strength and security. They would not let the Elohim destroy their earth again. Bab-El would rule the world. We do not know for sure what Bab-El meant, for it has since come to mean something completely different. There are those who say that Bab-El in the Old Tongue means “Gateway to the Elohim” and that by its tower, the earthmen planned to reopen the channel to the Elohim’s world, perhaps in order to conquer it. * * * Iahweh “came down”, the Book says, presumably from the Sky, to see Bab-El. He was not pleased. He could see that if the earthmen were left unchecked, they would find themselves in the same mess that their ancestors had been in before the flood - crazed, miserable, totally consumed by evil. It was too painful for human history to forever travel in circles. So Iahweh acted. One moment, the earthmen were speaking a common tongue, and the next moment they were not. They had all been given new languages.

The earthmen were forced to abandon their project. They could not communicate. Quite quickly they clumped together into their own language groups and dispersed across the face of the earth. The word “Bab-El” came to mean “confusion” or “disorder”, as in “babble”. It was not long before the earthmen forgot that they were all brothers and sisters of the same family. Never again would they be united. Nation would fight against nation and empire against empire. It would continue in this way for a long time.

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C ha p t e r F o u r

The Elohim Intrudes

Throughout the universe all eyes were turned towards Planet Earth. It was fast becoming clear that the rebellion of the Dragon Lord was no small issue. The Elohim had not been able to deal with it swiftly. It was far too big for that. The Dragon Lord had little respect for the runnings of the Great Assembly. He swept in whenever he felt the compulsion. When he spoke, the Assembly listened. He spoke with charm, passion and fire, accusing Iahweh, spitting out that his Empire was a sham and his citizens worshipped him only for the rewards. The Dragon Lord had a magnetic personality. There was no denying he treated his earthmen and Ginn like pawns, like lab-rats, but there was something about his carelessness, his ruthlessness that was intoxicating. Was Iahweh also treating his subjects the same way?

* * * He awoke. He stretched pleasurably, scratched himself and patted the satisfied roundness of his belly. Nothing quite like a little nap after a good meal and a fine wine, Job thought to himself. After a moment of staring at the intricate pattern on the ceiling, he arose and padded out to the garden. His wife looked up from her loom without missing a beat. He marvelled at her slim form underneath her simple but elegant gown. Even after all those years, and all those children… Come to think of it, the house was quiet. “Aren’t they back yet?” he asked. “No,” his wife replied, “They sent a servant. The party’s gone on longer than expected.” Job grunted. He had seven sons, and he had recently built each one of them a house. They were so excited about having their own places that they took turns hosting parties for the others. Job also had three daughters, who were scheduled to be home hours ago. They had not been given their own houses yet. They were best kept at home, under his watchful eye, until he could find three young men worthy enough to marry them. A bell chimed and one of Job’s many managers entered. Job took the tablet he offered, scanned it, signed it, and handed it back with a few instructions. The manager left as quickly as he had come. “It’s the last party isn’t it?” His wife nodded. “Good. I’ll ‘send up’ for them tomorrow.” 70

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Job was a good man. He was generous in business and evenhanded with his children. He knew about the Elohim, and in his heart of hearts he wanted to live right and please him. His children were young. They had not gained the full measure of their wisdom yet, and Job was concerned that in their feasting they may have in some way offended the Elohim. So after every round of parties, he would kill an animal for each of them and burn it on an altar. The smoke, he believed, would be sent up into the Sky where it would somehow please the Elohim. * * * On this day, on the Elohim’s Mountain, the Great Assembly had just convened. The Dragon Lord entered, a smouldering wick, eyes casting about the room. Iahweh addressed the latecomer.“ Where have you come from?” The Dragon Lord almost spat out the words. “From wandering Earth, here and there.” He didn’t sit, but paced. His discomfort at being addressed like this was evident to all. Iahweh continued. “Have you noticed Job? There is no one like him on the earth. He is honest and upstanding. He stands in awe of the Elohim and he hates Ra’.” Was Iahweh taunting the Dragon Lord? The Assembly could not tell, for Iahweh’s face was unreadable. “Yes,” hissed the Dragon Lord. “Yes, but Job doesn’t stand in awe of you for no reason. You protect him. You put a hedge around him that I cannot penetrate. You meddle with everything 71

he does and everything he owns, but stretch out your hand and lay a finger on his possessions, and mark my words, he’ll curse you to your face.” You could have heard a pin drop. The Dragon Lord had dared speak out loud what was on everyone else’s mind. Job was a wealthy man. He owned thousands of head of livestock and he had a prosperous family. He sought to serve the Elohim, but for what motive? There was certainly no argument – Job had a great life, possibly even a charmed life. “Very well,” said Iahweh. “Do whatever you want with his possessions, but you are not allowed to touch Job himself.” With a flourish and a mock bow, the Dragon Lord backed out of the Great Assembly. Job was crab-meat. * * * Job was still thinking about sending up smoke to the Elohim when a dirty figure staggered into the garden. “My Lord”, he said breathlessly. “The oxen were plowing and the donkeys were grazing nearby, and the Sabeans attacked and stole them. They killed all of your servants. I’m the only one who escaped.” The loom stopped. Job’s head swam. His servants dead? They were more like family than servants. And his animals: Five hundred donkeys and one thousand head of cattle. Gone. The bell tinkled and another servant entered, breathing heavily.

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“The fire of the Elohim fell from the sky and burned up the sheep and your shepherds. I’m the only one who escaped.” Job’s wife rose. A third figure entered, tears streaming down his cheeks. “Ambushed! Three raiding parties swept down on us, murdered your servants and took your camels. I’m the only one who escaped.” Three terrible reports, three terrible events happening concurrently. His entire fortune gone. Stolen, burned up. Job’s ears were ringing. He scarcely saw the fourth servant until he was standing at his elbow. “My lord,” said the servant, shaking his head, “I bring bad news from your son’s house.” Job’s wife clutched at his arm. He watched the blood drain from her knuckles. “Your children were in the house, feasting. Suddenly a mighty wind came and knocked it flat. We’ve searched the rubble, my lord, but there are no survivors.” Present, but invisible, the Dragon Lord surveyed his handiwork. We’ll see now where Job’s allegiance lies, he mused to himself. Now that protection has been removed, Job will turn his back on the Elohim. Job tore his robes and stepped out of them. He had a barber shave his head. What was Job playing at? The Dragon Lord waited breathlessly. Surely, at any moment Job would open his mouth and denounce the Elohim. 73

Undressed and bald, Job collapsed. With his face to the ground, he broke into song. Naked from my mother’s womb And naked will I depart. Iahweh gave Iahweh took. May the name of Iahweh be honoured. * * * The next time the Great Assembly met, there was no doubt that Iahweh was baiting the Dragon Lord. “Where have you come from?” “From wandering Earth, here and there.” Iahweh repeated his previous speech. “Have you noticed Job? There is no-one like him on the earth. He is honest and upstanding. He stands in awe of the Elohim and he hates Ra- ” his voice raised a notch as he stepped into new ground “ – and even now he maintains his integrity even though you provoked me to let you ruin him without reason.” “Skin for skin,” spat the Dragon Lord enigmatically, “An earthman will gamble everything he has as long as he knows he is safe, but reach out with the finger of torture and break his health and he’ll curse you to your face.” “Very well,” answered Iahweh, “But you’re not allowed to kill him.” * * * The Book tells us that the Dragon Lord went out from the presence of the Elohim and inflicted Job with sores. From the 74

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top of his head to the soles of his feet, he was in constant pain. His breath stank, and he sat in a pile of soot and scraped at his sores with a broken bottle. Neither he nor his wife understood that they were a test case and were being studied by the most powerful governmental body in the universe. “Are you still hanging onto your precious integrity?” his wife said bitterly. “Curse the Elohim and go to oblivion!” But Job was a stubborn man. Quietly, firmly he answered. “You are talking like a fool of a woman. I welcomed wealth from the Elohim, so why should I not welcome this hardship?” It was not looking good for the Elohim. The scales were not tipping in his favour. The Great Assembly wished with all their heart that the Elohim was not a tyrant, but he had caused a flood, devastated the earth, destroyed all but a handful of earthmen and had confounded their languages. Facts were facts. There was no denying that at times Iahweh’s actions seemed cruel and his motives contradictory. Especially when it came to cases like Job, Iahweh seemed fierce and out of control. Did they really know Iahweh at all? The Assembly was paralysed. Here was the crucial question, and their inability to answer it meant that they could not go on. So they sat on the sidelines, watching, waiting. Where was this promised Great Event? How was Iahweh bringing it about? Or perhaps he was simply a liar who had been caught in his own trap. Who was he? The Book tells us that although most of the Great Assembly had not sided with the Dragon Lord, they were not totally convinced

about Iahweh either. Who was Iahweh? Iahweh was well aware that the Great Assembly was not sure about him. But his aim was not to prove himself and get them onside. Right or wrong, Iahweh was secure in his own identity. He almost boasted about it. Even his name “Iahweh” meant “I Am”. Could he, in fact, act out of character? Could he, in fact, break his own Code? According to his own word, he could not. Iahweh did not have to try to keep the Code. All he had to do was to simply be himself. All he had ever done was to simply be himself. In the beginning, before anything else had existed, the Elohim lived. He was fierce and untameable. He was powerful enough to call the universe into being. He was solidly, unshakeably, unswervingly good. Yet he was alone. He could have made machine creatures that mindlessly went through the motions of life. But while he would have enjoyed watching their little antics, the Elohim would still have been alone. Indeed, the Elohim had made machine-like specimens driven by the blind programming of instinct - billions and trillions of them, but he had also made other creatures. Iahweh had made others who were truly free. They were not machines. They were people. They were truly themselves. They could think and feel and make decisions and enjoy life. In making others who were truly free, Iahweh was no longer

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alone. His reason for making them was not so they could serve him. He did not make them so they would love him. The Elohim made them so he could love them and serve them! He made them so they could feel what it meant to belong, so they could experience what it meant to be in a risky situation yet know they were completely secure, so they could be unique and important. The Elohim had purposely flung out his creativity beyond the point where he could retrieve it. There was a high level of risk involved in making free people, for although the Elohim wanted to know them and love them, they were under no compulsion to know him or love him back. He could not control the free people. Iahweh could not have given his creatures true freedom to know and love him without also giving them the option to hate and reject. He had known from the very beginning that his people might turn against him. Such was the risk of freedom. He had known about the rebellion from the first moments that his dear Cherub had begun to question his identity. That is not to say that he made the Snake Cherub rebel; he had done that on his own. But no matter how the rebels despised him, Iahweh still loved them as he always had. It was this love that now drove him. He ached for the inhabitants of the Dragon Lordâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s world - all of them. If only they would allow themselves to be loved in return. It was an ironic situation. The Elohim, maker of the universe, hanger of stars and planets, author of nature - so powerful; yet so vulnerable, so desperateâ&#x20AC;Ś so lonely.

It was clear that the Dragon Lord and his Ginn had chosen to reject the Elohim. As painful as it was, the Elohim could respect that. What bothered him was the earthmen who had been born deep inside the Dragon Lordâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s world. Their freedom had been stolen from them. They did not even have the option of choosing. This was the situation the Elohim was addressing. It was what his mysterious Great Event was all about. Iahweh waited. * * * The Ginn who had survived the flood staked out their territories. They set themselves up to be worshipped as gods and goddesses. They associated themselves with the sun, moon, with war and harvest, water and storm, sex, birth and death. They influenced the earthmen to build temples and sacred sites on the mountaintops and to perform strange rituals before them. Slowly the truth of Iahweh was lost. The Ginn hated the earthmen. They had come to hate everything. There were times when they pulled the strings so that the earthmen were well fed, warm and secure with not a worry in the world. But it was only a set-up before they brought them down to absolute despair. It excited the Ginn to see the earthmen deprived of good things. At their command earthmen destroyed food, money, slaves, animals. The thing that most thrilled the Ginn was human sacrifice. It whipped them into a frenzy to witness the life-power being ritually drained out of a helpless victim. It was even better if the victim was a volunteer who actually believed the Dragon Lord about crossing over into the Higher Reality. Many a civilization has crumbled from the inside out because of its genieâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mad thirst

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for earthman blood. The Ginn hated each other. Separated from the Code, their initial co-operation had disintegrated into utter chaos. They were extremely territorial and fought for possession of land, wealth and earthmen. They manipulated each other, looking for advantage, forming alliances when it suited and breaking them when they had gotten what they wanted. As they say among themselves, “Sleep with your eyes open and never ever turn your back.” The more powerful ginn gained control of families, nations and kingdoms. They pitted their earthmen against each others’, seeking advantage and victory. The lowest ginn, unable to gain advantage among their own number, set out to plague the earthmen. They would inhabit their minds and drive them to hurt themselves. An earthman who was host to a genie was often crazed by thoughts to jump into fire or drown in water or to inflict other injuries on themselves. Many committed suicide. Iahweh waited. He waited until the race of the earthman forgot who they were and where they had come from, until their true history had become just another legend. He waited until the earthmen became so accustomed to the Dragon Lord’s world that they thought it normal. He waited until they came to believe that their life of misery was all there was. He waited until the Ginn had established themselves as gods and goddesses. He waited until the race of the earthman believed that they had just always been. Finally, the time was right.

Now, if Iahweh showed himself, the earthmen would not recognise him for who he was. They would only be as afraid of him as they were of the Ginn. Iahweh picked up the threads that would bring about his Great Event and began weaving. In a small corner of Planet Earth, he chose a territory. In itself, the territory Iahweh had chosen was nothing special. The only interesting thing about it was that it possessed an open gash in the earthâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s crust; a deep valley below sea level. What was important was that it lay smack in the middle of two of the most Ginn-infested locations on the planet. It was the perfect site for Iahweh to stage a showdown. To the south was a fertile land, whose lifeblood was a mighty river. On its banks, the resident ginn had driven their earthmen to build spectacular cities, breath-taking temples and sumptuous palaces. They had taught their earthmen that Oblivion was nothing to be afraid of. Instead, Oblivion was the last great journey, the final gateway into the Higher Reality, where earthmen became gods. The details of how it happened were a mystery, and the Ginn made sure it remained vague. It did not matter exactly what an earthman believed about the Higher Reality, just that it was inevitable. The earthmen swallowed these lies whole, and under Ginn supervision (and possibly with their help) built huge tombs, monuments to the greatness and grandness of Oblivion. The whole southern civilization was absurd. We know it today as Egypt. The Ginn to the north had a totally different approach. They were driven by ambition, not luxury. Their land was peppered with independent cities. Powerful genies had taken possession of the cities, and they had set themselves up as gods and goddesses over the inhabitants. Each of the Northern Ginn strove to be

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the greatest. They used their earthmen like cattle, sending them to war, pitting them against each other. The Northern Ginn did not bother to teach their earthmen about a golden land that lay beyond the gates of Oblivion. As a result, the earthmen in the north were terrified of death. The northern territory was not big enough for the ambition of the Northern Ginn. They were hungry for power and their wish was to dominate the entire world. You might have heard of the conquering empires of Assyria and Babylonia whose home territory was in presentday Iraq. Such was Iahweh’s territory, in perhaps the most precarious place on the planet. This was where his Great Event would take place. His next step was to find a people to inhabit it. * * * He awoke. It was pitch black. His waking was slow and groggy – where am I? He felt a bit foolish when he realised he was in his own bed, his wife snoring gently beside him. All else was silent. What had woken him? He had the strange feeling that someone had been calling his name, but the feeling was slipping away like a fast-forgotten dream. He hadn’t slept well since his father’s funeral. There was something about seeing the body of a close relative that brought a person to his senses. Surely, there must be a point to life. There must be more than what the priests at Nannar’s temple spoke about – the long eternity of gloom, feeding on dust and musty water. But that was not why he woke. It felt different, like there was a presence in the room.

Was it a wicked Udug? Was it his imagination? He knew some of the enchantments to ward against Udugs and might be able to summon them to mind in a pinch, but he was not a priest, let alone a spell-caster, and it probably wouldn’t work anyway. There comes a moment when imagination gives way and reality takes over. He was not making it up. Someone or something was in his room. The Someone spoke. Afterwards Highfather was not sure whether he had heard it with his ears, or whether the Someone had spoken directly into his mind, but it was irrelevant. He heard a message, and the Someone’s voice was as clear as a bell. “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation and I will favour you. I will make your name great... I will favour those who favour you and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be favoured through you.” Highfather opened his mouth to reply, but the room was already empty. The shock eventually subsided and left room for rational thought. Had it happened? Yes. What, or who had visited him? It was obviously a god of some sort, yet why would he choose to make his apparition here? Why not at the temple? Is this what it was like when the diviner-priests and sorcerer-priests communicated with Nannar? Highfather had never expected it to feel so…real. He had a hunch that Nannar did not talk with his priests in this way. So who had met him? The god had not even given his name. He had not identified

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himself in any way. Was he one of the gods who ruled the cities of his homeland? Was he capricious and unreliable like they were? Most gods had a queer bent for some activity or other. Was this god into war, self-mutilation, ritual sex, child sacrifice? How strong was he? Could he aid Highfather in a battle? Could he ensure that crops would not fail? Did he have a sacred temple? Highfather did not know the answers. All he had was the god’s command to “leave your country”, and a promise that he would become great. Highfather was a descenant of Sem, Noah’s eldest son. He was a native of Ur, a city that had sprung up a short time after the Bab-El project had been abandoned. Ur was ruled by a mighty genie who associated himself with the moon. The genie’s name was Nannur. In the center of Ur was a ziggurat, a stepped pyramid, that served as Nannur’s temple. Highfather had grown up in the shadow of that ziggurat, worshipping Nannur, giving him offerings and sacrifices. But when Highfather’s brother died, their clan decided to leave Ur behind. They travelled upstream along the river Euphrates, and after many weeks they found a location on a side-stream they could call home. They named it after their dead brother. This is where Highfather was living when the anonymous god appeared to him. How do you tell your family that you’ve had an encounter with an un-named god? How do you answer their questions when you have almost as little information as them? I do not envy the task that lay before Highfather. Trusting on nothing but a short, one-sided, unsubstantial conversation, he had to convince his wife to pack up her home and go god-knows-where.

He questioned his sanity. That I am sure of. But always, in the back of his mind he knew; It wasn’t my imagination. He met me. He spoke to me. He asked me to leave, and he promised to make me great. If it had been me, I’d like to think I’d be able to do the same. They packed up their possessions - Highfather and his wife, their nephew and their servants – and they headed for the wild frontier. They lived in tents and sought grazing grounds for their stock. The anonymous god took Highfather to the land with the gash in it. There he spoke again. “To your seed I will give this land.” As the years passed, the anonymous god spoke more and more about this promised seed. “I will make your seed like the dust of the earth”. “Your seed will be like the stars”. On surface level, Highfather’s god was talking about how large his family would become. But there was another level to the riddle, for the seed of Highfather and the seed of Cheue was one-and-the-same. The Great Event was being prepared. Finally, at age 175, Highfather closed his eyes and went to Oblivion. Like his ancestor before him, he died with a smile on his face. For certain, the Dragon Lord was aware of Highfather and his family. He knew about the “seed”, but he did not understand fully how history would unfold. To begin with, the household of Highfather was small. It was isolated, out in the middle of nowhere, and it had limited resources. How could it become a

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problem? For the Ginn, empire building had become a fine art. They had become brilliant at harnessing the raw power of fear and greed and turning it into fortresses, economies, and scientific breakthroughs. Iahweh’s technique was totally different. A severe drought swept across the land, and Highfather’s family left their territory and fled south, to where food was plentiful and civilization was booming. They fled right into the arms of the Southern Ginn. The Ginn were delighted. Iahweh’s preciously small tribe of earthmen had been drawn like a moth to a flame. They were small in number, and crushing them to a pulp would be a sure way to win the favour of the Dragon Lord. The Ginn pulled strings, and it was not long before the family of Highfather became the slave-caste of the South. Under the lashes of their cruel taskmasters they collected clay, harvested straw and turned them into bricks. Generation after generation passed, so that the story of Highfather’s god almost passed into legend. What was the Elohim playing at? How could he justify the cruel treatment of his people? Everything was going exactly to plan. The Ginn never guessed, but Iahweh had his own techniques for Empire building, and he was about to beat the Southern Ginn at their own game. No matter what the Southern Ginn did, they could not wipe out Highfather’s family. In fact, the opposite occurred. The worse they were treated, the more they multiplied. The harder the Ginn tried to exterminate them, the more they thrived. Still,

they made very good slaves, and the civilization of the South was growing, becoming richer. Iahweh let it go on. He was using the South as an incubator. His growing tribe of earthmen were being cared for by his enemies, and although they were slaves, they were safe. Then it was time. All the threads were in place. Iahweh was about to turn the tables. A baby was born into the slave-caste. He was a boy, and according to the decree of the Southerners, he should have been killed. But his mother kept him hidden. She couldn’t conceal his existence forever, so at three months, she hatched a plan. She took a large basket, waterproofed it and placed her son inside. She took the basket down to the river and floated it in the shallows. Her eldest daughter was left there to watch and wait. A short time later, a group of laughing and chattering women approached. They were not members of Highfather’s family, nor were they Southern commoners. They had come from the royal palace. From her hiding place, the sister watched. The most prominent woman, the one in the center whom all the others seemed to be following, saw the basket and sent one of her maids to fetch it. It seemed to take an interminably long time for the maid to carry it back. The lid was removed, and an angry cry filled the air. The sister watched. It was obviously a slave baby, but had her mother’s plan worked?

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The royal maids clustered forward, oohing and aahing over their find, and the most prominent woman, who was a princess, picked up the screaming infant and cuddled him. He was a gift from the river, a gift from the gods. She would take him as her own! A dirty slave child emerged from her hiding place and curtseyed before the princess. “My lady,” she said. “Do you want me to find a slave woman to care for the child?” The princess was not stupid. In a moment she summed up the situation. “Yes”, she said. She named him Drew, because she drew him from the river. And so a slave-baby grew up as royalty. Drew was given the best of everything; food, clothes, toys. When he was old enough, he began his education: History, Mathematics, Writing, Architecture, Politics, Economics, Theory of Magic. No expense was spared. When Drew was well into adulthood, his life took a turn. He saw one of the slaves being mercilessly beaten. Without a thought, Drew stepped in and murdered his attacker. In that moment, he became an outlaw. Drew fled across the desert. Time passed. Forty years. He married a girl and had children. He forgot how to speak the language of the South and he learned how to look after sheep. His life as a royal of the Southern civilization was just a memory. If the Elohim had not had a plan for Drew, he would have never returned.

Then one day Drew’s life spun again. He was out with the flock, a long way from home. Then he saw it; a small Tree. It was on fire. That, in itself, was not terribly unusual. Drew had seen trees on fire before. What drew him to this small tree was that the leaves, far from being consumed by the flames, were green and soft. The branches of the small tree were supple and firm. This tree was not being burned by the flames! “Drew.” Was he hearing things as well now? But the voice spoke again. “Drew.” Drew approached quickly, throat dry. “Yes”, he answered, his voice sounding distant to his own ears. “Stop.” Said the voice. “Don’t come any closer. Remove your shoes, because the place you are standing in is extraordinary!” The voice was coming from the small tree itself. Drew did not proceed until he had done as the voice had said. Who is this? He thought. The voice answered, somehow reading his mind. “I am the god of Highfather.” Drew dropped to his knees and hid his face. It was too much. He had heard of the god, but knew very little about him. Why had he come to Drew? The Elohim continued to speak. He had seen the misery of

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Highfather’s family, and had heard their tears. And now he had come to rescue them, to take them to the land with the gash in it, the territory he had promised to Highfather years before. Drew’s job was to speak with the king of the South and to lead the family of Highfather out. Drew was perplexed. The Southern earthmen loved having slaves to do all their hard work and they would not give them up without a fight. Furthermore, he was still a fugitive. Who was he to do this job? “I can’t do that!”, said Drew. “Who am I…?” “I’ll be with you”, said the voice from the small tree. “And I’ll give you a sign: When you’ve brought the people out of the South, they’ll worship the Elohim right here on this mountain.” “But who are you?” asked Drew. The family of Highfather had forgotten who they were. Why would they trust a god who had abandoned them for so many hundreds of years. “When I go back and tell the people ‘I’ve been sent by the god of Highfather’, they are going to want to know your name. What am I going to tell them?” In the Old Tongue Iahweh answered, “I am who I am. Tell them that. The one who says ‘I am’ has sent me.” The small tree kept burning. Nothing else happened. It sounded like this strange god was not too keen on proving his identity. Drew wondered if the interview had come to an end. Suddenly the voice spoke again. “Tell them this: Iahweh, the god of Highfather has sent me. This is the name I want to be known by for generations.”

Iahweh. It was spoken with such simplicity, such modesty, yet when Drew heard it, a thrill passed up his spine. Iahweh. What this strange god of his ancestors was like, Drew did not know. But at least now they had a name. Drew went back to the South. He was still afraid to do the work of Iahweh alone, so he worked with his older brother. Together, they delivered the demand of Iahweh to the king. “Iahweh says ‘Let my people go so they can worship me.’” The king laughed. What power did this desert-dwelling god have against the mighty gods of the South? “Show me some sign of your god’s power!” he said. Drew had a staff. It was a shepherd’s staff, gnarled and weathered. It had been his trusty companion for many years. At the wish of the Elohim, he had brought it back with him. There was nothing special about the staff. It had not been boiled in rosewater by the light of the full moon. It had not had incantations chanted over it. It was just a stick. Drew’s brother was holding the staff, and on cue he threw it to the ground. The stick bent, curled, and became a snake. The royal court of the South looked on in wonder. The king spoke. “Sorcerers!” They bustled in, took stock of the scene, and within moments their wands were on the ground. Snakes. The king laughed in relief. This god of the slaves was not going to be a threat after all! Drew was unperturbed. He did not know what Iahweh was 90

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going to do next, but he had a hunch it was going to be good. Laughter in the courtroom died. There was a hush. All eyes were on Drew’s snake, which had turned its head and fixed its beady eyes on another snake. It began to hunt. Methodically, single-mindedly, dangerously it came. Slowly approaching, and then with a lightning quick strike, it killed each of its enemies and ate them. Snakes do not eat quickly, so I’m sure the whole brutal episode took a long time. Shock gave way to fascination; fascination gave way to horror, and horror to fear. Finally, when Drew’s snake was the only one left on the floor, Drew stepped forward, grasped it by the tail and lifted it into the air. Members of the court gasped and fell back, but moments later the snake had once again become a staff. Drew spoke again. “Iahweh says, Let my people go.” The contest was on. The Book tells us the Southerners were led by Jannes and Jambres, two powerful sorcerers. At their disposal were hundreds of priests, acolytes, magicians. Their gods were numerous and powerful. Re of the Sun, Horus the falcon, Hathor the cow, Anubis the bird, Min the man, Set, Osiris, Isis, Thoth and the lesser gods, Geb of the earth, Nut of the sky, Shu of the air, and then the animal gods without names; the oxen, sheep, dogs, crocodiles, snakes. Do not think that these gods were imaginary. They were very very real; the Ginn of the south. Standing against them was Drew and his brother.

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represented only one figure. He was not Ginn, he was of a different species: Iahweh, the Elohim. The South was about to see how powerful Iahweh was. Iahweh told Drew to stretch his staff over the river. The water became blood. No one could wash in it or drink it. It was disgusting. To find fresh water the people had to dig holes in the riverbank and wait for them to fill. Jannes and Jambres had no difficulty replicating the plague with their sorcery. The king refused to release his slaves. A week later, Iahweh told Drew to stretch his staff over the canals and ponds. A plague of frogs erupted. No matter, the sorcerers could replicate this plague as well. Still, the king of the South refused. Next came swarms of sandflies, then flies, then the livestock dropped dead – the livestock of Highfather’s family were as healthy as ever, mind you – then Drew threw soot into the air and the Southerners contracted weeping boils. The sorcerers, in particular, were so seriously affected they could not present themselves in court. Still, the king of the South would not relent. Drew warned that Iahweh was about to send a fierce hailstorm, and that any worker or animal out-of-doors would be killed. Drew stretched his staff out towards the sky, and the hailstorm fell, just as predicted. Next came locusts, so thick that the ground was black with them, the Book says. Then the darkness, so thick and black and supernatural that it could be felt. Yet none of these plagues affected the people of Highfather, or the area in which they lived. There was one last dreadful plague. I don’t know why the

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Southerners did not prepare, for they were given adequate warning. All they had to do to avert the plague was to take the blood of a lamb, wipe it across the tops and the sides of their doorframes, and then stay inside at midnight and eat the lamb. Drew sent out the message to Highfather’s family: “Tonight we escape.” That night Iahweh killed every firstborn son who was not covered by blood. From the King’s son, right down to the criminal in the dungeon, every firstborn son who was not protected by the blood was killed. But none of Highfather’s family died, because they had done as Iahweh had asked. Finally, the King of the South let his slaves go. Highfather’s family walked straight out from under the noses of the Ginn. To add insult to injury, the Southerners threw into the hands of Highfather’s family everything of value: gold, silver, precious stones – they just wanted them gone. In one night, the wealth that the Ginn had taken hundreds of years to accumulate walked out the door. Highfather’s family had entered the South generations before, poor and few in number. They emerged rich and numerous – a nation. From that time forward, the Southern civilization of Egypt was broken like a splintered stick.

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C ha p t e r F i v e

Ginn and Men

To the Dragon Lord, the Elohim’s method was totally unpredictable. How could he have known in the very beginning that Iahweh meant Highfather’s family to be controlled by the South? It was not fair! There was no rhyme or reason to it, no way of predicting what the outcome would be! The problem was that Iahweh was working according to the Code. The Code was not a weak thing. It was fierce and wild and powerful and good. The Dragon Lord and his Ginn had given up the Code thousands of years before. It now spoke an alien language. They did not understand its intricacies, its full impact, until it was far too late. They could not duplicate Iahweh’s methods at all. * * * Iahweh continued weaving. Apart from the fact that he was the one who had rescued them

from slavery, Highfather’s family knew next to nothing about him, nor his Code. They knew very little about the Dragon Lord, his rebellion, or the fight that was taking place all around them. That was about to change. When they left the South, Highfather’s family followed a cloud. It was not a normal cloud, tossed and blown by the wind. There were some days when the cloud did not move. That was when Highfather’s family would stop and camp. There were other days when the cloud would pick up and travel ahead. That was the sign for Highfather’s family to strike camp and follow. During the nighttime, the cloud glowed, giving off light and heat. During the daytime, it gave the desert travellers cool shadow. It led them step-by-step, day-by-day, from their captivity to their territory of inheritance. The cloud led Highfather’s family to the mountain where he had first met Drew. The people camped at its base and Drew went up alone. There he spoke with Iahweh. Drew returned to the people with a message: If they obeyed Iahweh unswervingly, they would become his special possession. They still had no idea what serving Iahweh would involve, or what things he would ask them to do, but they had seen his power. It was a dangerous thing to disagree with the god of Highfather. The elders of the people agreed. “We’ll do just as Iahweh has said.” Drew told the people to prepare. In three days Iahweh would come down from the Sky to the mountain. To be ready they had

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to wash their clothes and abstain from sex. The third morning came. A thick cloud rolled in over the mountain, rumbling and flashing with lightning. The people who had only recently been slaves were drawn out of their tents, eyes fixed on the mountain. A sound like a loud trumpet blast washed over them. They had been summoned. They shivered. Drew led the people outside the camp. They gathered at the foot of the mountain, wondering what would happen next. The cloud on the mountain elongated and thickened. It reached up and up into the sky like smoke, like an umbilical cord to the heavens. Then the fire began on the mountain and the ground beneath their feet began to rumble. The people were terrified. “Don’t let the god speak to us, or we will die!” they said to Drew. “You speak to us; we’ll listen to that.” Drew approached the thick darkness and stepped onto the mountain. Earthmen had long forgotten about the Code. The Device, installed inside their first father, had obliterated the Code there and made it impossible for them to live the Code, let alone remember it. Consequently, they had forgotten what life and freedom were all about. Without the Code written into their identities, Highfather’s family would remain miserable. Iahweh had to communicate his Code to his people.

Throughout the universe, the Code was not normally uttered in words. The citizens of the Empire knew it more as a hunch, an intuition. It was so deeply embedded into their personalities that they found it difficult to explain. Males tended to talk on and on about it, trying to express its technical ingenuity and leave nothing out. Females tended to sum up the Code in one word, or perhaps one sentence. Both explanations were correct, but both were incomplete. (Even to this day, males and females quarrel!) In the midst of the smoky darkness and the fire, Iahweh revealed his Code to Drew. Using his own finger as a stylus, Iahweh carved the Code onto two slabs of stone. It was a written version of the Code, expressed in language of the earthmen. To Highfather’s family, reading the written Code would be like a street urchin examining a portrait of himself, painted by a master, and depicting not an urchin, but a clean, healthy prince, dressed in royal robes. The written Code described true freedom, described how life would one day be. It would inspire Iahweh’s tribe to hunger for him and to long for the future he wanted to bring about. As Drew watched, Iahweh wrote. You won’t worship any other gods, only me. You won’t try to make a replica of me or anything else to bow down and worship. You won’t misuse the name of Iahweh Remember the Rest Day and guard its extraordinary nature. For six days you will labour and do all your business, but the seventh day is the Rest.

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Why was the fourth part different? Drew wondered. The first three parts had begun with “You won’t”, then suddenly the fourth part was “Remember…” Drew knew about the Rest day. Although most of the Code had been lost, the seven-day week had never been totally forgotten. The Rest day, too, had been preserved by some of the earthmen. Maybe there was some special significance to the fourth part. But he did not have time to dwell on it, for Iahweh wrote on. Honour your father and mother, so your days will be long in the land Iahweh will give you. “Another different one.” Thought Drew. “Maybe they’re all like that now.” But the next part was back to normal. You won’t kill. You won’t commit adultery. You won’t steal. You won’t misrepresent the truth. You won’t long for your neighbour’s possessions. As the stone cooled, Drew stood back and examined it. Was there a pattern? Were the parts connected to each other? What was the Code all about? Drew noted that the first three – or maybe four – were about Iahweh. The remainder of the Code seemed to be about other people. But what was the link? Suddenly it dawned. The whole thing is about relationships. The first parts seemed to explain the way people treated Iahweh. The last parts explained the way people treated each other. The 101

parts in the middle – the extraordinary Rest day, and honouring parents – must somehow be the hinge in the middle that kept everything together! When the Dragon Lord heard about the written Code, he could not believe his luck! The Elohim was playing right into his hands. He may have taken his earthmen out of slavery, but he could never take slavery out of the earthmen. Had he forgotten about the Device? Did he not know it was totally impossible for earthmen to act according to the Code no matter how hard they tried? The written Code was exactly what the Ginn needed to pervert Highfather’s family. “Make them think the Code is a list of Do’s and Don’ts”, he told his Ginn. “Make them think they have to try hard to keep their god’s list - and the Elohim’s precious tribe of earthmen will be driven into despair!” But Iahweh had already second-guessed the Dragon Lord. * * * It was Iahweh’s intention to actually come to earth and live with his tribe. Apart from the obvious fact that the Dragon Lord lay claim to Planet Earth, and would consider Iahweh to be trespassing, Iahweh’s plan was not without difficulty. Firstly, if his earthmen ever saw him with their naked eyes for who he really was, they would be overcome by his sheer presence. Their bodies would cease to function and they would go to Oblivion. Secondly, his earthmen had inherited a fear of Iahweh. Just like their first parents, their natural reaction was to run and hide from him. And just like their first parents, every time they acted against the Code, their natural reaction was to quarantine Iahweh by staying away from him. Iahweh told Drew that he wanted them to set up a tent in the

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middle of their camp. The tent would have two rooms. The outer room would be called the Extraordinary Place, and the inner room, which had the dimensions of a cube, would be called the Most Extraordinary Place. Iahweh’s tent would be furnished to precise specifications, and the tent would be surrounded by a courtyard. This tent would be Iahweh’s home. He would live among his people, separated from them by curtains and courtyards as he had to be for their safety. In this way, his people would be protected from him, yet at the same time, he could be close to them. Iahweh knew it was impossible for the earthmen to act according to the Code, and he did not expect them to. What he wanted to do was to break their habit of running away. He wanted them to run to - to approach him and tell him what they had done, and give him permission to step in and do something about it. That’s what the tent was about. Not only would Iahweh live there, the tent would be a place his people could visit. Drew was writing furiously, taking notes of everything Iahweh said. Like the Ginn, Iahweh asked his people to bring a gift whenever they visited him - often a lamb, which would be killed, and its blood sprinkled on Iahweh’s furniture. The practice was gruesome, but no more gruesome than the horrible things the Ginn made their earthmen do. It was only the priests who could go further into Iahweh’s tent than the courtyard, and only then with special rituals. From the people’s point of view, the priests had religious significance, but from Iahweh’s point of view, they were his servants who

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cared for his house and carried out business on his behalf. Once a year, the high priest would go into the deepest part of the tent, the cubed Most Extraordinary Place. First, he would place incense in there to smoke up the room and obscure the view before he entered. Once inside he would clean the room, not with water and soap, but by sprinkling fresh blood on the furniture. In a physical sense, the blood made more mess than it cleaned, but Iahweh had his reasons. This strange ritual was a taunt to the Ginn, for they loved blood and gore. It was also another hint - another riddle - of the Great Event he was bringing about. The Ginn had no idea what it meant, and I suspect the Great Assembly were equally as ignorant. Only Iahweh himself knew. Drew came down from the mountain. He had been up there a long time – so long, the Book says, that the people thought he had been killed. I won’t tell you all the details. Maybe you can read them out of the Book yourself. But Highfather’s family set up the tent and built the furniture. The written Code was deposited inside a special box, along with Drew’s staff that had become a snake and a few other bits and pieces that don’t come into this story. The box was the centrepiece of Iahweh’s house and was kept in the Most Extraordinary place. Finally everything was ready. Moses’ brother went through a ceremony and was instituted as the High Priest. His sons served under him. On the day everything was ready, the cloud they had followed from slavery came down and settled above the tent. The

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“presence of Iahweh”, the Book says, rested over the special box in the Most Extraordinary place. There are some who say that the reason for the thick curtains on the tent was not to keep the light out, but to keep it in! Iahweh led Highfather’s family from one place to another, from one crisis to another, slowly moulding and growing them; preparing them for his Great Event. Iahweh would put his tribe into a difficult situation, right into the hands of the Ginn. The Ginn would pit their earthmen against Iahweh’s tribe and tie them in knots. Then, at the last minute, when Iahweh had been all but defeated, somehow he would turn the tables. Suddenly they would realise that he had been in control all along, and that he had used the Ginn’s own strength and their own strategies against them. * * * Iahweh’s tribe journeyed to the land with the gash that had been promised to Highfather and invaded. They took the territory and claimed it for their own. It was the only tiny corner on Planet Earth where Iahweh’s rule was tolerated. Everywhere else, the Dragon Lord and his Ginn were firmly in control. Generations passed. Highfather’s family were beginning to know Iahweh’s personality, but they still knew very little of the battle raging around them. Iahweh did not teach them about the Dragon Lord and the Ginn. He drilled it into their heads; “Iahweh is the Elohim. He is the one and only.”

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They didn’t have to know what was happening behind the scenes. All they knew was that if they did as Iahweh asked, things would seem dangerous, but turn out great. But if they did not do what Iahweh asked them to do, things would seem safe, but end terribly. There’s an important detail I’ve been trying to tell you for chapters and chapters, but I haven’t been able to fit it in. It has to do with the Elohim’s agents – the malaakim. You’ll remember that they had become soldiers when the Dragon Lord first set up his own world. Covered by the promise of the Great Event, these soldiers often came to earth. The Book seems to say that an agent was allocated to every earthman. Their task was to watch over their charges and bring their requests to the Mountain. Furthermore, other agents accompanied Iahweh and fought for him. The Ginn were terrified of them. If an agent was released to act, there was very little they could do in retaliation. The agents, however, restrained themselves. Iahweh was weaving his Great Event and often needed them to be still. Had Highfather’s family trusted Iahweh more fully, he doubtlessly could have brought about his Great Event much sooner, but trusting Iahweh was well nigh impossible at the best of times. Iahweh was asking them to surrender totally to him - unseen and unknown - when the Device inside them rebelled against the idea of surrendering to anyone. When they felt like running, he needed them to trust him by standing still. When they felt like fighting, he needed them to trust him and hold back. Indeed, most of Highfather’s family were fickle and unreliable – more of a hindrance than a help. They would follow along

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with just about anything. If their leaders were serving Iahweh, so would they. But if their leaders were enticed by the Ginn, they too would follow. At any time there was only a handful that remained totally obedient to Iahweh. These were the ones who preserved the memory of the promise made in the Garden – that Cheue’s seed would destroy the enemy. Iahweh preserved his remnant like a handful of coals, blowing on them, keeping them alive, and teaching them his ways. From time to time, Iahweh would communicate. Sometimes his people would have strange dreams, filled with symbolism and word play. Sometimes the dreams came upon them while they were awake. Many of these dreamers or “seers” would hear what they described as a “still small voice”. It “sounded” like it came from above and behind their heads but it was not heard with their ears. They were connecting with the mind of Iahweh. Just like the free people in the rest of the Elohim’s empire, they were learning to hear his thoughts, washing over the universe. Many of the messages were written down and kept safe. As new generations came, they were able to read how Iahweh had woven his story in, how he had acted. As time passed, the collection of writings grew. You can still read these messages, for in our day they make up the Book. The seers who received these messages were not aware, but in message after message Iahweh was giving them hints and riddles about his Great Event. Generations later, after the Great Event had taken place, people read those messages and began to fit the puzzles together. It was clear evidence that Iahweh

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had been the mastermind of history all along. Within time, Iahweh’s tribe became a nation. They crowned a king and their tiny kingdom began to expand. They entered a golden age. Their capital city was known as Halcyon, and at its centre was a permanent temple. Iahweh had lived in a tent too long. It was said that in the city silver was basically worthless and gold was as common as stone. Could it be that the promised “seed” was about to come? Was the Great Event about to take place? Everything indicated that it was. But the golden age quickly came to an end. There was civil war and the kingdom split in two. The local Ginn infiltrated, whispering to Iahweh’s tribe about “real freedom” and “real power”. In both halves of the split kingdom, earthmen set up shrines to the Ginn and began to serve them. Most of the priests went bad. They became preoccupied with their own power and their ability to manipulate the common people. Many of them lost their capacity to speak on Iahweh’s behalf. So Iahweh fell back on the seers. They relayed the warning that trouble was just beyond the horizon, but they were punished for daring to speak out. The priests and kings did not want to be told. Doubtless, the Dragon Lord was pleased at the efforts of the local Ginn. They had successfully weakened Iahweh’s scheming. But it was not all good. Despite their best efforts, they could not totally stamp out Iahweh’s tribe. They were weak, yet dangerous, and history showed there was a chance

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that they could flare up without warning. The Dragon Lord did not want a repeat of the South. The Dragon Lord himself moved in. If Iahweh could live with earthmen, then so could he. He took control of a coastal city of Flint. It was ideal for his purposes. It lay on a peninsula that was highly defensible. Its inhabitants were rich and owned a fleet of trading ships, but most importantly, it was just north of Highfather’s family. But the Dragon Lord did not want to do his own dirty-work. The risk of failure was too great. It was a better plan to employ someone else. Far to the north, centuries of effort by an ancient and terrifyingly strong genie were finally paying off. His civilization was coming to the height of its power. The genie’s name was Asshur and his earthmen were fierce and bloodthirsty. If it were possible to wipe out Iahweh’s tribe, then Asshur would be the genie to do it. Asshur led his earthmen armies south. They were known, in the Old Tongue, as the Striders, for they strode across the land, destroying everything in their path. They came like a locust plague. No genie or earthman could stand in their way. Most of Iahweh’s tribe had been so weakened by the local Ginn that they did not listen to their seers’ warnings. Only in the south of the divided kingdom, near the capital city, did the golden thread of obedience remain. The Striders marched on Iahweh’s territory and decimated its northern provinces. They took Iahweh’s people prisoner and marched them off, never to be seen or heard of again.

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Sweet victory for the Dragon Lord! He gloated in the Great Assembly. Finally he had driven under the Elohim’s defences. Unbeknownst to the Dragon Lord, his genie Asshur come to strength easily. He had enjoyed uncanny coincidences and huge strokes of luck. The Striders had grown quickly. Royal servants had been loyal, the rains had been good, the enemies of the Striders had made stupid mistakes. Asshur had been helped. It was Iahweh. He had stepped in and woven the ambition of Asshur and his earthmen into his own plans. The march of the Striders was exactly what he wanted. His move was absolutely calculated. The Striders surrounded the capital city of Halcyon. Iahweh’s people inside the city were terrified. There was no natural way out. They stripped the gold off Iahweh’s temple and sent it to the Striders, but the Striders wanted more. Suddenly, the inhabitants of Halcyon realised how much they needed Iahweh to rescue them. They called out to him like they had never cried out before. The next morning, the Book says, the king of the Striders woke to find one-hundred-and-eighty-five thousand of his soldiers dead. Iahweh himself had gone through the camp. Sheer exposure to his raw power had dispatched the soldiers to Oblivion. The Dragon Lord was furious. No matter what he attempted, he could not finish off Iahweh’s tribe. When would the mysterious “seed” appear? His disguise was slipping. In the beginning he had said that he was working for the good of his followers. They could all be

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like the Elohim, he had said. But Iahweh was forcing his hand, even to the point of proclaiming the Dragon Lordâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most secret desires in the Great Assembly: You said in your heart, I will ascend to the Sky I will raise my throne above the stars of the Elohim I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly on the utmost heights of the extraordinary mountain It was time for the Dragon Lord to change his approach. * * * The Ginn lusted after power. What they wanted was the ability to manipulate, to blackmail, to make others do their bidding. Separated from the Code, the only way they could motivate was through fear and greed. Fear is what pushed people and greed is what drew them in. For this reason their society was extremely hierarchical, with long chains of command. genies bowed and scraped before their superiors and threatened and bullied their underlings. The Dragon Lord set up a new throne, a new position, for his underlings to aspire to. The holder of the throne could either be a powerful genie, or an alliance of two or more Ginn. Their task would simply be to contain Iahwehâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s tribe and dominate them. This, the Dragon Lord hoped, would render the Elohim unable to bring about his Great Event. With the danger of this new throne came prestige. This was good - Ginn would be falling over themselves to fill it, and when one genie or alliance failed, there would be a whole horde of would-be tyrants crowding in.

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The first genie to assume the throne came from the territory to the North. His city was the ancient Bab-El, and his name was Merodach. Meanwhile, Iahweh continued to warn his earthmen through the seers that trouble was looming. The warnings fell on deaf ears - they had heard it all before. The golden thread of obedience stretched out hair-thin. The armies of Bab-El swept south, taking everything in their path. Many of Iahweh’s people believed they would be protected like last time, but it was not to be. In a series of raids the armies of Bab-El carried off Iahweh’s people and decimated the city of Halcyon. Nothing of value was left. Surprisingly, Iahweh was not perturbed by Bab-El. “Just as I planned,” he said with infuriating calm. “Just as he planned?” thought the Dragon Lord. Iahweh had chosen his threads expertly and set the loom. The Great Event was still hundreds of years away, but already the pattern was cast. It could not be stopped. The Great Event would sound the death-knell for the Dragon Lord’s world, but it would not end it entirely. There was still more to be done.

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C ha p t e r Si x

Iahweh Untangles

Iahweh’s remnant was stunned by the collapse of Halcyon. Why had Iahweh failed them? Why had he let them be carried off to Bab-El? Perhaps, as generations had passed, Iahweh had lost his strength. What of the promises Iahweh had made about his people becoming great and ruling the world? In BabEl, many of Highfather’s family gave up. Stories of Iahweh’s strength were just that. Stories. Iahweh’s remnant had been handed over to the genie Merodach, but not without purpose. The earthman who was king over Bab-El was relatively young. He had only recently become king. As the crown prince, he had served his father by commanding the army of Bab-El. On campaign, a long way from home, news had reached him that his father had died. The royal palace lay empty.

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His name was Nabu-Chadrezzar, which meant, in his language, “may the god Nabu protect the right of succession.” The god Nabu, curiously enough, was a snake god. I think you can put two and two together. It is a dangerous time after a king dies. It is the time when distant relatives and disgruntled warlords gather supporters and think of power. Nabu-chadrezzar was certain that if he did not return to Bab-El quickly, his empire would be snatched away before he could lay claim to it. He was stationed near a small city called Halcyon. From there, the journey to Bab-El was long and difficult. There would be many delays along the way – most probably some heavy fighting. He would reach home too late. But there was another way. Normally, traders and armies took the main road. Cities and towns had sprung up where there was an abundance of water and good soil and they formed a long corridor, all the way from Bab-El in the north to the Nile river in the south. It was down this corridor that Nabu-Chadrezzar had fought. The corridor was not straight. It was crescent shaped, so that although Bab-El was thought of as being in the North, it was actually almost directly east from Halcyon. A large, suffocatingly flat, impenetrable desert lay in between. It was madness to travel overland, across the mouth of the crescent, but in the given situation, it was what Nabu-Charezzar had to do. His army forced their way due east across the desert, surprising the would-be pretenders to the throne. It was a brilliant move,

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and its risk paid off one-hundred fold. Nabu-Chadrezzar was an able ruler. He had a policy of conquering a territory and if need be, moving its people to another location and replacing them with another. This policy of mixing made revolutions and uprisings very difficult, which was the whole point. Nabu-Chadrezzar had another policy that was equally as clever. He identified the young nobles from the royal families and the high bloodlines of his enemies. Whereas other people might execute these young men, NabuChadrezzar had them taken to Bab-El. They were educated in his school and immersed in his culture, his politics, his history. They learned about the grandness of Bab-El. The idea, then, was to send them back to their territories where they would rule and put the interests of Nabu-Chadrezzar above the interests of their own people. Nabu-Chadrezzar’s flaw was his arrogance. Reading between the lines in the Book, he displayed signs of a syndrome common to most powerful rulers. He believed the “gods” were the inventions of priests and magicians. They were only as real as earthmen said they were. Gods had their uses. An army could be whipped into frenzy by invoking the name of a Merodach. Delicate political manoeuvres became much safer when they were “the will of Bel”. A few flowery words about the goddess Ishtar would make beautiful maidens swoon in his arms. In short, Nabu-Chadrezzar was convinced that gods and magic existed to serve him, and not the other way around. Nabu-Chadrezzar had scores of magicians in his service - both sorts in fact, for at that time a magician was either trained according to the traditions of the Northern Ginn or Southern Ginn: Bab-El or Egypt. One day the Book says, he called an assembly of his magicians,

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enchanters, sorcerers and astrologers. After the formalities, Nabu-Chadrezzar explained why they were there. “I have had a disturbing dream and I want to know what it means.” He began. The magicians and the astrologers mumbled some mumbojumbo among themselves. (If you want to sound like you are doing what you have been paid to do, mumbling often works well.) It was the head astrologer who answered. “Oh king live forever”, he said, the formal introduction mechanical on his tongue. “Tell your servants the dream, and we will interpret it.” Nabu-Chadrezzar opened his mouth to answer, but suddenly stopped. He had heard oiled words and mumbo-jumbo too many times. No, the dream was too important for that. It was a strange dream that had woken him. Its flavour was different from any dream he had ever dreamed before. He had taken a rich meal the previous evening, but that was irrelevant. There was something quite disturbing, quite extraordinary... Eventually, he was able to get to sleep, but he tossed and turned fitfully. The next morning he thought nothing of it, and would have forgotten about the dream forever if he had not had the dream again. That same strange, eerie feeling accompanied it. A second time he could not sleep. And on and on. The dream came repeatedly, breaking in almost whenever he closed his eyes, so that he was almost afraid to lie 118

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down. No, if the astrologers were worth what they were being paid, by the gods they could astrologise his dream from the stars and figure it out for themselves. “This is my decision;” he said. “If you don’t tell me what I dreamed and explain it to me, I will have you all cut into pieces and your houses demolished and covered with excrement.” He paused to let it sink in. “But. If you do tell me what I dreamed and explain it, I will cover you with gifts and rewards and great honour. So tell me the dream and explain it to me.” He sat back and listened to the royal chamber fill with voices. It was quite satisfying hearing the difference. No more mumbling, no more mumbo-jumbo. Just controlled panic. “Tell us the dream”, they said, “And we’ll interpret it.” This was no game. Nabu-Chadrezzar was not teasing them. He had made up his mind. “I think you’re trying to gain time”, he said. “The clepsydra is dripping”. The chief astrologer answered again. “No man on Planet Earth can do what the king asks. No king, however great or powerful has ever put such a task before a magician or enchanter or astrologer. What the king asks is too difficult. No-one can reveal the dream to the king except the gods, and they do not live among men,” they answered. It was confirmation of what he suspected. His magicians were theoreticians only. They knew not the power of real magic. 119

Nabu-Chadrezzar flew into a rage and ordered the execution of every sorcerer, magician and wise man in his realm. The Book does not say, but I am guessing that the magicians, sorcerers, enchanters and astrologers found themselves suddenly surrounded by very pointy weapons. They were escorted to prison to await their demise. There were other advisors and philosophers who had not been present in the royal chamber. Nabu-Chadrezzar commissioned his commander, to gather them as well. He was still furious. He had been paying his staff handsome wages, but for nothing! Now he had a real problem of the supernatural kind, his whole staff was useless. But the thing that bothered him the most was the dream. He still had no way of knowing what it meant. * * * In the service of the king was a young man by the name of BelTsa-Assa. His name meant “may the mistress of the god Bel protect the king”. The first thing Bel-Tsa-Assa knew about the king’s bizarre decree was a spear jabbing at his kidneys. The Book hints that he was out somewhere – maybe the library or perhaps the market, we don’t know. He had not been summoned to the king’s chambers to interpret the dream, for he had only recently joined the king’s staff. Bel-Tsa-Assa, careful not to offend the officer, asked what he was being arrested for. In short order, Bel-Tsa-Assa was set before the king’s commander, who told him everything.

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As Bel-Tsa-Assa heard the story of the king’s dream, alarm bells began ringing in his head. There was much more to Bel-Tsa-Assa than met the eye. He was one of those enemy nobles who had been kidnapped and brainwashed by the king’s university. But the brainwashing had not stuck. Bel-Tsa-Assa was not his real name. He had been given that name when he began his new life and his new education in BabEl. His friends called him Daniel, which in his tongue meant “The Elohim Decides”. Daniel was from Halcyon. He and his three friends belonged to the golden thread. Even though they were a long way from home and their temple was destroyed, they had not given up on their god Iahweh and wanted to serve him the best they could. Daniel was known to the king. He and his three friends had been exceptionally brilliant students. It was no credit to their teachers, for Daniel and his friends had not given up their Halcyonite ideas, and I’m sure they often disagreed with their teachers, especially the ones who taught such subjects as Astrology and Magic. Daniel and his friends had made quite a stir in their final examination. They were presented before the king and he performed the oral assessment. He had found Daniel and his friends to be far and above any other academic in his kingdom. The four of them were intelligent, but Daniel possessed a unique gift. He understood dreams and omens. The dimensions of the Moving Stillness were becoming familiar to him, and he had learned how to hear Iahweh’s thoughts, drifting across the universe. He was a seer.

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When Daniel heard about the king’s dream he knew it was no ordinary occurrence. It had the fingerprints of Iahweh all over it. He asked Arioch to take him to the king. Clearly and simply, Daniel asked Nabu-Chadrezzar for a oneday extension. There must have been something disarming about Daniel. Nabu-Chadrezzar had accused his staff of stalling, but he granted Daniel’s wish. Released from custody, Daniel returned to his home. There he met his three friends and explained all that had happened. The Elohim was clearly trying to communicate with the king. It must be an important message. If Iahweh did not reveal the message to Daniel, then he, his three friends, and all the magicians of Bab-El would be executed. He urged them to ask Iahweh for understanding. Daniel and his friends were a thousand miles from Iahweh’s temple. The cloud hanging over the Most Extraordinary place had long disappeared. How would Iahweh hear their request. Daniel and his friends knew that even though they could not see him or feel his presence, Iahweh was not far from them. When they spoke he could hear their words. He could even read their thoughts. So they gathered together and asked Iahweh to speak, to communicate, to break in and do something. That night, Daniel had a dream. It was the dream. He awoke. With his heart singing he was taken before the king. With no introduction, Nabu-Chadrezzar asked him, “Can you tell me what I saw in my dream and what it means?”

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Daniel answered, “No man – wise man, magician, sorcerer, astrologer – can explain the mystery to the king. But there is a god in the Sky who reveals mysteries, and he has revealed to King Nabu-Chadrezzar the events of the future.” Nabu-Chadrezzar leaned forward intently. The future? He thought. Yes. That’s what I was worried about on that first night. Daniel knew he had the king’s full attention. “Your dream, and what passed through your mind was this: “As you were lying there, O king, your mind turned to things to come, and the revealer of mysteries showed you what is going to happen. As for me, this mystery has been revealed to me, not because I have greater wisdom than other living men, but so that you, O king, may know the interpretation and that you may understand what went through your mind.” Daniel enjoyed this. He knew that it was Iahweh who had given him the dream the night before, and he was making the most of the moment. “You looked, O king, and there before you stood a large statue – an enormous, dazzling statue, awesome in appearance. The head of the statue was pure gold. Its chest and arms were silver. Its abdomen and thighs were brass, its legs were iron, and its feet were partly of iron and partly of fired clay.” Nabu-Chadrezzar was totally absorbed in Daniel’s explanation, but his face was unreadable. Daniel remembered the dream well, how the statue just stood there, nothing moving, nothing changing, nothing able to change, locked into position. But then something happened, something tripped the dream into action and gave it life. An

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event, a Great Event. “Then, while you watched, a stone was cut out (but not by an earthman).” Daniel visualised the stone, somehow breaking into his dream, carved off, cut out from… something… a Mountain perhaps? And then the stone, hurtling through the darkness, a dangerous missile. “It struck the statue’s feet, blasting the whole thing to pieces. The stone began to expand. It grew into a huge mountain and filled the whole earth.” Nabu-Chadrezzar was dumbfounded. This was indeed the dream he had not shared with anyone else. It was correct, right down to the details, the impressions, the feelings. It was about the future, apparently, but what did it mean? Daniel began to explain the dream, symbol by symbol. NabuChadrezzar’s kingdom was the head of gold. After his kingdom would come another, and then another, and then a fourth kingdom that would not be replaced in the same way, but would disintegrate. Then the history of Planet Earth would take a radical and sudden turn. The stone that was cut out and struck the statue’s feet represented another kingdom – another Empire that was totally different to anything that had come before. It did not belong to the stream of human history. It was an invader, an alien civilization. It would break in, take control of Planet Earth, and its rule would go on forever. The alien civilization was from the Sky and its ruler was Iahweh the Elohim. “This is the meaning of the dream of the rock cut out of a mountain, but not by human hands, a rock that broke the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and gold to pieces. The great

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Elohim had shown the king what will take place in the future. The dream is true and the interpretation can be trusted.” Nabu-Chadrezzar fell to his knees. “Surely, your god is the god of gods, and the ruler of kings and a revealer of mysteries…” he said. The Book tells us that Nabu-Chadrezzar showered Daniel with gifts. He released the magicians he had thrown into prison, and at Daniel’s request, he gave Daniel’s three friends positions in the government of Bab-El. Daniel, however, remained at the king’s court and was promoted to Head Advisor. * * * As the years passed, Daniel received another four messages about how and when the Empire would invade. Each was more detailed and more terrible than the one before. The dreams became more like nightmares, for they described how the Ginn would make a series of attacks on Iahweh’s people. Even now, Iahweh could predict their every move. After each message, Daniel took longer to recover. The messages were complicated, and I won’t tell them in detail here. You can read them for yourself in the Book. To summarise, the second message Daniel received said that during the time of iron, an evil genie-controlled power would dominate Iahweh’s people for a period of three and a half “times”. The third message was about something aweful called the “Devastation’s Abomination”, which would also come during the time of iron, but near the end. It was tied up with a long period - 2,300 “evenings and mornings”. The fourth message was about the promised seed and the Great Event. It gave the exact year when it would happen. The final message Daniel received was about a great war between North and South. It was so horrifying that

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Daniel could not bring himself to describe it. Daniel was gifted at understanding dreams and omens, but even he had difficulty. The messages were complicated and obscure. In the end Daniel felt like a failure. Yet Iahweh told Daniel that he had completed his task well. The messages Daniel had been given were not for the present time, they would only make sense in the final season of earth’s history, before the Empire invaded. * * * Nabu-Chadrezzar, the most powerful earthman on the planet, turned like a hinge. He began to serve Iahweh. Yet again, the Elohim had turned the tables on his enemies. Merodach, the genie of Bab-El, was losing his grip. He had taken the throne, confident of being able to harass and control the Elohim’s earthmen for a thousand years, but things were not turning out as he planned. Nabu-Chadrezzar went to Oblivion. His son was crowned king and was quickly assassinated. The surrounding Ginn were hungry for Merodach’s wealth and nipped at his heels. Civilization around them was catching up, but Merodach’s earthmen refused to reform. Another genie was rising to power in the eastern mountains. He was known to his earthmen as Ahuramazda. He controlled not one group, but two; the Medes and the Persians, who enjoyed a very delicate but very productive relationship. Unlike other ginn before him, Ahuramazda was able to keep religion and politics separate. The Dragon Lord saw Ahuramazda and knew his timing was perfect. Merodach’s kingdom was imploding on itself, decaying, falling into chaos. Medo-Persia would take over exactly where

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Bab-El had left off. Bab-El was easily taken. Ahuramazda’s armies were led by an earthman hero named Cyrus. He studied the city of Bab-El. Its walls were strong and well defended. There was little hope of success if he besieged it. But he realised that it had a weak point. The Euphrates River flowed under the wall and into the city. Cyrus needed to get his armies through that river-gate. Swimming was out of the question, of course. Cyrus came up with an ingenious plan. He took his army upstream. They downed their weapons, took up shovels and mattocks and dug their way through the river bank. The mighty Euphrates River diverted its course into a low marshland. After that, there was nothing left for Cyrus to do but march his armies through the dry riverbed into the city. So confident were they of their strength that the people of BabEl were not even prepared. Balthasar, the ruler of the city at the time, was throwing a huge party. The great genie Merodach was dethroned and Ahuramazda took his place. It was easy, too easy. The Dragon Lord should have known better. “Just as I planned,” said Iahweh, parading a message he had given to one of his seers over a century before. “Let me see that”, said the Dragon Lord, snatching it out of his hand. There, in the message, he read these words, “I am Iahweh… who says to the watery deep, “Be dry, and I will dry up your streams,”

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who says of Cyrus, “He is my shepherd and will accomplish all that I please”; He will say of Halcyon, ‘Let it be rebuilt’ and of the temple, “let its foundations be laid.” This is what Iahweh says to his anointed, To Cyrus, whose right hand I take hold of To subdue nations before him And to strip kings of their armour… The Dragon Lord had read enough. He crumpled the message into a ball and threw it to the floor. Iahweh was being very annoying. “Just as I planned,” he said again. “And Cyrus is going to let my earthmen return to Halcyon. He will give them the funds to rebuild my temple.” The Dragon Lord was furious. How had he not seen it? Somehow, the Elohim was anticipating his every move! Iahweh’s schedule was right on time. The golden head had been replaced by the chest and arms of silver. Cyrus did the unthinkable. He released Iahweh’s people and gave them permission to return to their territory and rebuild the city of Halcyon. The timing was perfect - seventy years exactly - just as Iahweh had promised through his seers. Yet Ahuramazda, the Ginn of Medo-Persia, made sure that only a handful of Iahweh’s tribe returned to their territory. For all of his power, Ahuramazda was not in control of the throne for long. A new genie from the west was growing in influence. He harnessed the ambition of a young earthman named Alexander, and it was not long before he came to power, claiming the throne as his own.

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He was the genie of Iona. He was known to his earthmen as Zeus, and he ruled the land that today we call Greece. It was the time of bronze. Then disaster struck. At the height of his power, the ambitious young earthman suddenly died. It was a drowning accident, apparently, or perhaps he drunk himself to death, historians say. Not that it really mattered. Chaos reigned. Zeus lost control to four of Alexander’s underlings and none of them was content to share. “Just as I planned,” laughed Iahweh, and showed the Dragon Lord the messages he had sent to Daniel. Two of the underlings quickly fell. The third went to the land south of Iahweh’s territory and tried to resurrect civilization there. The fourth took the territory to the North. In the wings, another of the Dragon Lord’s minions was growing stronger. His home territory was further west again, centred on a city built on seven hills. He was formidable, merciless, horrible. He was a master of greed and fear and would not be stopped by anything. Slowly he grew, taking over the territories of the local Ginn one at a time, forcing them into submission, making them bow to him. His earthman armies enforced his rule with the strength of iron. They built roads that spanned his Empire from border to border, so even the hint of rebellion could be squashed. When the time was right, the genie assumed his throne and took control of Iahweh’s people. He was the genie of Roma. The genie of Roma was known to his people as Jove, or as they

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said in their language, Iowe. It was no mistake that his name was so similar to Iahweh’s, for as cruel as he was, the genie of Roma’s strategy was to project a persona that was as similar to the Elohim as was possible. * * * The time was ripe. Since Iahweh’s first promise that a descendant of Cheue would destroy the Dragon Lord, he had laid hundreds of years of groundwork. Ever so slowly, he had breathed on his people, gently moving them, shaping them. Now they were in place and everything was prepared. It was time for Iahweh to play his trump-card. For as long as anyone could remember, Iahweh had said that he was “One”. Now Iahweh, the one and only Elohim, was about to reveal more about who he really was. He was actually a They. Iahweh untangled Themselves from Their eternal embrace. They were three persons inside one person. The first called himself the Most High, the second called himself the Word, and the third called himself the Moving Stillness. Iahweh was “One”, but there was more to the story. Each person of Them was Iahweh, but not without the others. If one of Them could be destroyed, They would cease to be Them. Their identity would be dissolved and Their whole universe would be ripped apart. It had been the Word, the second person of Iahweh, who had been active on Planet Earth. It had been he who spoke its creatures into existence. It had been he who bent down and made the

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first earthman from the mud of his planet, and breathed the Moving Stillness into his lungs. It had been he who had met Highfather and had rescued his family from the Southern Ginn. He had meddled in the plans of Ginn and earthmen, he had given messages to his seers, and he would now bring about the Great Event. While the free people on the Elohim’s Mountain were still reeling from the shock, the Word played his next card. It was brilliant. All who witnessed it - Ginn and agents alike - thought it out-ofcharacter. But the Word cannot act out-of-character, because He Is and he knows himself totally... In species of the Elohim being He spurned the ambition to be like the Elohim Instead himself he evacuated Slave’s species taking In likeness of earthmen becoming. One moment he was standing on the Elohim’s Mountain. The next, he had disappeared.

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The Second Earthman

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C ha p t e r S e v e n

Jesus

He awoke. It did not frighten him that he did not know who he was, or where he was, or when he was. He was not anxious, just curious. His first memory was of a face. It was a face that kept returning, and whenever it returned, it was accompanied by food or warmth or comfort. He had no idea that the face belonged to a person who had thoughts and feelings independent of his, or that she was tired and often driven to the edge of torment by his constant demands. His name, in the Old Tongue, was Rescuer. Yet he did not know the Old Tongue. He did not know any language, for he was just an infant earthman. The owner of the face was a young female earthman by the name of “Rebel”. At least, that’s what her name meant in the Old Tongue. But that language had not been in use for hundreds of years - not since a handful of Rebel’s people had returned to

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their home under Cyrus’ decree. She was known as Mariam Her fiancé was Joseph, which means “Iahweh Duplicates” in the Old Tongue. He was an older man who earned their keep as a craftsman, but he was not the baby’s father. The scandal had begun some time before. Mariam had returned home after spending a few months with an older relative, a few days’ walk to the south. She was pregnant, much to the delight of the local gossips. Joseph knew the child was not his, for he had not yet been with Mariam in that way. When Joseph asked for an explanation, Mariam told him the most extraordinary story. One day, before she had left to visit her relative, one of Iahweh’s agents had uncloaked before her, “Greetings, you who are highly favoured! The Overlord is with you,” it said, using the name for the Elohim that Mariam was familiar with. She was shocked (you would be too if an agent suddenly materialised right in front of you). The agent continued, “Do not be afraid, Mariam. You are one of the Elohim’s favourites. You will be pregnant and will give birth to a son and you are to give him the name ‘Jesus’. He will be great and will be called ‘The Son of the Most High’. The Emperor Elohim will give him the throne of his ancestor and his kingdom will never end.” “How is this possible?” Mariam asked the agent, “I’m a virgin.” The agent replied, “The Moving Stillness will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the extraordinary one to be born will be called the Elohim’s Son.”

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“I am the Overlord’s servant,” Mariam answered. “May it be to me as you have said.” Joseph was not convinced. Agent indeed! But he was an honourable man and didn’t want to make a fuss. He decided to end the engagement quietly. But it was not to be. That night, an agent invaded one of his dreams and told him that his fiancée was not lying. The agent explained again that the child had to be named Jesus, meaning “Rescuer”. So when he awoke, Joseph took Mariam as his wife. A few months later, Joseph took Mariam to his hometown. It was called Bakery and it was only a short distance from the city of Halcyon. Doubtless, they were grateful to escape the scandal, but their real reason for travelling was that Joseph had to be registered. The Roman Empire was updating its census records and had ordered every person inside its boundaries to return home and be counted. Unwittingly, the ancient words of a seer were fulfilled: “But you, Bakery, though you are small ... out of you will come for me one who will be ruler... whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.” And so Jesus was born. The Word of the Elohim had become a helpless infant, dependent on his mother and her husband for survival. The author of the universe cried, puked, soiled his nappy and suckled his mother just like any other baby. He could not have been more vulnerable to attack.

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The Dragon Lord and his Ginn were astounded. How had this happened? How had the Word become an earthman and inserted himself deep into their world? Furthermore, why had he done it? Could it be the promised Great Event was not a bluff? They did not want to find out. In his helpless state, they reasoned, the Word could be easily eliminated. Immediately they drove their earthmen to action. Influenced by the Ginn, the local ruler ordered the death of every infant in Bakery. But Joseph was warned in another dream. He and Mariam fled south with their precious cargo to Egypt, where their ancestors had been slaves generations before. A few years later they returned, unwittingly fulfilling another prophecy, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Out of Egypt I called my Son.â&#x20AC;? * * *

When Jesus was twelve years old he went with his parents to Halcyon for a festival. The age of twelve was significant in that day, for it was when a boy left childhood behind. Jesus saw the city of Halcyon through fresh eyes. He was no longer a child and the city was now his city. Its history was now his history. For the first time as an earthman, he was able to pass beyond the outer courts gain an unobstructed view of the temple. For the first time, he was able to bring his own gift to Iahweh. The Book does not say exactly what happened there, but I have a hunch. Every day the priests sacrificed animals to the Elohim. Usually it was a lamb, checked over by the priests for any blemish or

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fault. Its throat was cut, its blood splashed on the altar and its body was burned. It was a gruesome practice. I don’t think I would have had the stomach for it. The priests, having done it every day of their working lives, found it quite familiar. It would have been the first time Jesus had witnessed an animal sacrifice that close. He saw the life drain from its body, saw its eyes pass into sightlessness, saw its gentle carcass burned in the fire. It would have made a deep impression on him. He had learned about the temple and its rituals as a child, but what did it all mean? I have a hunch that there, in the inner court of the temple, the truth began to dawn on Jesus. He had heard the stories of the first earthman, of Highfather, of the ten plagues and the family’s dramatic escape from the South. He had been reared on the messages of the seers. Jesus knew he was a little bit different. Yes, he was an earthman. He looked a little like his mother and had her stubborn determination. But he thought differently. He saw people differently, he acted differently. When he was expected to take sides in childhood fights, he didn’t. When adults wanted him to stay calm, he wouldn’t. He had heard the story of how he came to be, but the full significance of it had never dawned on him. Then he realised. The lamb, killed before his eyes, was a symbol. The animal, killed by Iahweh in the Garden to provide the Earthman and his wife was a symbol. The blood, over the doorframes of the slave-quarters in the south was a symbol. The symbols all pointed to one person.

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That person was him. Jesus, the twelve-year old boy, was the promised seed! Suddenly, everything he had learned about his own history had to be re-examined. Every word of every seer had to be read and reread. Jesus needed answers. After the festival, the Book tells us, Joseph and Mariam set out for home. They presumed Jesus was travelling with their group, although they did not see him. When they realised their mistake, they returned to Halcyon in a panic. They finally found him in Iahweh’s temple surrounded by the teachers and professors, deep in discussion. The teachers were amazed at Jesus’ understanding and his answers. Normally twelve year old students were so dull, but this boy before them was engaging and intelligent! Jesus was not aiming to impress them. He wasn’t trying to be clever and had no idea of the impact he was making. His mind had just exploded with the awareness of his mission and he needed to come to grips with it. Mariam broke into the gathering, scolding her son. “Why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you!” Joseph stood behind her, a tradesman out of place among the scholars. Jesus did not wish to embarrass his mother or hurt Joseph, but he understood the truth. “Why are you looking for me?” he said. “Didn’t you know I had to be in my father’s house?” From Mariam and Joseph’s point of view, Iahweh’s temple was a strange place, full of priests and rituals. But Jesus had begun to see it differently. The temple was his home. All of the furniture in it was intended for him. The priests were his servants - or at

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least they would be as soon as he came to complete adulthood. Jesus was none other than the Word of the Elohim. After this, the Book tells us, Jesus returned with Mariam and Joseph and stayed with them. He grew into a man, and gained deep wisdom and understanding. He was a favourite, both of Iahweh and the earthmen around him, but mostly he kept his true identity to himself. He followed in his step-father’s footsteps and learned how to build with stone and wood. For years he lived in his mother’s town. He read the scriptures of his people, yet his understanding of them was far deeper than even the local teachers’. After all, he had been the one who had spoken the words to the seers in the first place. * * * There was no way of telling that Jesus was the Word of Iahweh. His family did not know, his tribe did not know. There was nothing about him that gave him away. Jesus’ body was as fragile as theirs. He got tired and hungry as they did. On his mother’s side, Jesus descended from the first Earthman, just like every other earthman on the planet. It was his father’s side that was strange. No, not Joseph; I mean his real father. His father was the Most High Elohim. Jesus was a creature who was just as dependent on his father for life as every other creature in the universe. But to complicate matters, he was also the Word, the Creator who had spoken the universe into existence. There have been debates ever since about what Jesus’ deepest

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identity was like. Some say he inherited the Dragon Lord’s Device from his mother’s side, others say that he didn’t. It is a dreadfully important question, but mostly, I think the arguments miss the most crucial point: Inside Jesus, the Code was present and working unhindered. Unlike other earthmen he was not driven by the Device, nor was he a slave to its desires. Jesus was born deep behind enemy lines, but he was not subject to the Dragon Lord. For the first time in over three thousand years, a true human, in the image of the Elohim, with the Code intact, was walking the face of the planet. Jesus was none other than the promised Seed. It was Jesus who would fulfil the promise spoken to David, “I will raise up your seed to succeed you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom... I will be his father, and he will be my son.” It was Jesus Iahweh was referring to when he had said to Highfather, “To your seed I will give this land.” It was not just the small local territory with the gash in it that Iahweh was meaning, but the entire planet. Jesus was the one spoken of long ago who would crush the Dragon Lord’s head. * * * When Jesus was about thirty years of age, he downed his tradesman’s tools and left his old life behind. Jesus had a cousin named John. His birth had also been strange, although not nearly as strange as Jesus’. John, too, had a part to play. His task was to announce the Great Event. He set up camp near the river in the deep gash and addressed the crowds who came to hear, “Change the way you think, because the Empire of the Sky has begun to approach!”

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John washed his listeners in the river, saying it was preparation for the Empire of the Sky. Jesus came to John and was washed as well. As he came xx up out of the water, a strange thing happened. Many of the crowd just heard thunder but Jesus and some others saw the sky open and the Moving Stillness come down like a dove and land on him. A voice from the sky boomed, “This is my son, whom I love. I am very pleased with him.” This moment had more significance than meets the eye. In those times, a father would give his child a series of tasks to complete. When they had been completed to his father’s satisfaction, his father would organise a “Ceremony of Adoption”. At this ceremony the father would call his son out and present him to the gathered witnesses. He would announce, “This is my son.” With these words the father would legally “adopt” his son. From this time on, the son had all the authority and power of his father. If the son made a promise, the father would honour it. If the son accumulated a fortune or a debt, the father rose and fell with him. Fathers would only “adopt” their sons when they trusted them completely. It was no small thing to be adopted. Jesus had met his true father and been adopted. He was Son of the Most High Elohim. Immediately, Jesus went out to the wilderness. He took no food and very few supplies. He found a site and camped. * * * Days passed. Jesus stayed put. During the daytime he burned. At night, he shivered. He ate no food. Days turned to weeks. Jesus’ body began to waste away. His skin burned. His lips

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cracked and bled and his eyes were bloodshot. The Dragon Lord, concealed from Jesus, watched. What is he doing? He thought. What purpose does this self-torture serve? Buzzards circled. Hyenas marked his camp and stayed close. Weeks passed. Not many earthmen, before or since, have voluntarily fasted as Jesus did. I don’t know much about fasting. I’ve not yet tried it. I have been told that after a few days, the feelings of hunger go, and the person fasting is left physically weak, but mentally alert. I can imagine in his weakened state, Jesus was all too aware of his vulnerability. “Father, preserve my life”, I can hear him praying. “I need you…” The sun rose on the fortieth day, hot and blinding. There was no glamour, no honour in being Jesus on that morning. He was an earthman exiled in the middle of nowhere, separated from his home, his family, from everything. His head pounded and his breath stank. Flies buzzed around his mouth and he was too exhausted to wave them away. He was alone. And then he wasn’t. A figure stood before Jesus, tall and strong and as still as rock. It took a moment for Jesus to realise. He shielded his eyes and looked up, heart fluttering in his bony chest. Who was the stranger? Jesus had never seen the stranger– at least not with these eyes. But he knew they had met before, sometime, somewhere…

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The tall figure spoke. “If you are the Elohim’s son, turn these stones to bread.” His voice oozed confidence, charm and magnificence. In an instant Jesus realised who the stranger was. He slowly turned his head. The pile of stones the stranger was pointing to did look like flat loaves. In his mind’s eye he saw them fresh out of the oven, their thick crusts ripped open and venting steam. It was almost enough to make him cry. But he was the Word, the Elohim’s son! Did he have supernatural power, even from within a mortal body? Surely he did! The stranger seemed to think so. One flick of his fingers, and he could be eating whatever he wanted. But why did the stranger care? The fate of the universe balanced on a knife-edge. Jesus turned the words over in his head. If you are the Elohim’s son, turn these stones to bread. If you are the Elohim’s son… The key word was If. Was he the Elohim’s son? He had heard the voice of his father thundering from the Sky only weeks before. He had read his own identity in the scriptures of his people. He had no uncertainty about his identity, and he certainly did not have to prove himself to anyone. He was the Word who had set the universe in motion. Bread from rocks was child’s play! Suddenly the question came to pieces and the repercussions played themselves out in Jesus’ mind. It was all tied up with the Code. The stranger was threatening Jesus, taunting him to justify himself. Making bread would show that Iahweh doubted his own identity, his own Code. If Jesus violated his own Code, he would become subject to the Dragon Lord and

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the Empire would unravel like a knitted blanket. The Dragon Lord had come to him in the same way he had come to the first earthman many centuries before. As innocent and flattering as the question of the Dragon Lord sounded, it was a deadly trap. Jesus stood to his feet and addressed the Dragon Lord, quoting the words of the seers, “It is written, ‘The earthman shall not live just by bread, but from every Word that comes out of the Elohim’s mouth.’” He was safe! Yet the Dragon Lord had a second test. He reached down and grabbed Jesus by the throat. Within moments the two of them were standing on the temple roof in Halcyon. Whether Jesus was really there or whether he was in a virtual reality of some sort we do not know. Nevertheless, the danger to the universe was equally as real. The Dragon Lord spoke again. This time he too quoted the seers: “If you are the Elohim’s Son,” he said, “Jump. Because it is written, ‘He will order his agents on your behalf, and they will hold you in their hands, so that you will not hit your foot against a stone.’” Jesus looked down at the city below him. They were in Halcyon! The desert and his miserable little camp were miles away. He did not have to make the journey back, half-starved. A hot meal and a cool bath was so close. All he had to do was jump! Furthermore, he would not be using his own supernatural power. All he had to do was succumb to gravity. It would be his agents who would fly in and catch him. He would not be breaking his own Code… or would he? Again, the key word was If. Again, the Dragon Lord was trying

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to force Jesus to act defensively. Jesus thought of his agents. They were invisible, but he knew they were all around him. He thought of ointment for his skin and a cloth for his pounding forehead. But it was not right. Jesus - Iahweh himself - uttered the words he had spoken to seers long before, “Do not put Iahweh your Elohim to the test”. “Yes”, said the Dragon Lord. “I will not put you to the test.” He placed his strong hands around Jesus’ trembling shoulders and uttered a spell. They found themselves on the top of a very high mountain, the Book says. Whether it was the Elohim’s mountain or another mountain we do not know, but the Book says that the Dragon Lord paraded before him all the marvels of the kingdoms of earth. Jesus saw the cities of Athens and Rome, London, New York and Tokyo. He saw mountain lakes in New Zealand where the sky was reflected so perfectly it would nearly break your heart. He saw the prairies of North America and the buffalo stampeding across them, villages high in the Andes, the Aztecs, Toltecs, Mayas. “No more tests”, said the Dragon Lord. “No more Great Event. No more fighting, no more anger, no more tears. Let me give it all to you. Kneel here, worship me and it’s yours.” The Dragon Lord was no longer calling Jesus into question. The time for that had passed. He wanted the struggle of the two worlds to be over. Thousands of years had been filled with pain and frustration. Millions of the Empire’s citizens had been lost to Oblivion. It would be so easy to end it right here and now. All Jesus had to do was to kneel before the Dragon Lord – just for a moment – and it would all be finished. Did Jesus cry? Did his heart break at the thought? I don’t know,

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but I think he may have. The struggle between worlds could be over so quickly, so easily. But not on these terms. Not in this way. Jesus, overwhelmed by hunger and exhaustion answered the mighty Dragon Lord, “Away from me, Enemy, for it is written ‘Worship Iahweh your Elohim and serve only Him.’” A moment later, Jesus was alone in the desert, a shriek of rage ringing in his ears. He collapsed, utterly spent, but he had triumphed! He had succeeded where the first earthman had failed! Agents rushed to Jesus side to aid him. The war between Elohim and Dragon Lord had taken a new turn. * * * There in the desert, Jesus had undergone fierce discipline and he had learned to master his power. He had unsheathed his secret weapon. The tests of the Dragon Lord had an opposite effect. They had been intended to reduce Jesus to a quivering heap. Instead, he had grown stronger because of them. Jesus’ power was simple. The only way he had survived the clash in the desert was that he had come to recognise the voice of the Moving Stillness. More than that, he had learned to follow it unswervingly, even in the face of danger. From this moment on, the Moving Stillness would direct Jesus’ every step. Jesus returned from the desert, strong in the Moving Stillness and recuperated from his ordeal. He lay low until the Ginn organised for his cousin John to be thrown into prison. Then the 150

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Moving Stillness directed him to begin his mission in earnest. * * * Jesus toured the land of the gash, speaking in halls and meeting houses. His message was like John’s, “Think differently, because the Empire of the Sky is approaching.” The message given to Nabu-Chadnezzar centuries before was being fulfilled, for the stone that was seen hurtling towards the feet of the huge, metallic statue was Jesus himself. Already he was on a collision course with earth’s enemies. The people were fascinated by Jesus’ message. They had never heard anything like it. Rumours flew. Was Jesus the one foretold by the seers? Would he destroy their enemies? People flocked to him. With a word or a touch, sick people returned to full health. Those plagued by the Ginn were freed. Jesus had the power to manipulate the natural world around him. People told the story how on one occasion while crossing a lake by boat, he woke to find himself in the middle of a terrible storm. He ordered the storm to “be still”, and it obliged. His companions were stunned. On another occasion, he fed a large crowd using only a child’s packed lunch. Whole towns were transformed in Jesus’ wake. Blind people saw, paraplegics walked, sexual deviants found peace. The work of the Ginn was being unravelled. Jesus’ followers could not come to terms with the strangeness of his teachings. His thoughts and actions went directly against all their expectations. He believed that enemies were to be treated like royalty. He told them worry was pointless, even when a person did not know when their next meal was coming from. He said not to resist an evil person, and not to hold back when someone asked a favour.

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Most people thought Jesus’ teachings were foolish. How could anyone possibly get results by doing what he said? The things he asked his listeners to do were not just crazy; they were impossible! Yet somehow Jesus’ teachings worked for Jesus. Jesus’ listeners found his ideas so upside-down because the Device drove them. The Dragon Lord’s ways had become so natural to them that they seemed absolutely normal. So when Jesus described life according to the Code, they were totally bewildered. Within a short time, Jesus selected his apprentices. They were a rough bunch; half of them were fishermen, one had been a hated tax-officer for the city of Roma, another belonged to a society of “Zealots” (later known as “Dagger men” for the method they used to assassinate their enemies). They called themselves the Twelve. They were all hayseed, country folk, except for one townsman by the name of Judas. Jesus sent them out in pairs to spread word of the Empire. They returned with five thousand men, ready to take on their enemies. For too long, Roma had been in control of Iahweh’s territory. Now it was time to take it back! But surprisingly, Jesus refused to lead a violent revolution and told the crowd to go home. They followed him for a while in the hope that he was just being shy, but when he told them they had to cannibalise his body and drink his blood, they left him. Some said he was crazy. Others said he was in league with the Ginn. * * *

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Not all of Jesus’ followers left him. Those that remained learned his strangest, deepest teaching - what he believed about himself. “I am the Door,” he said. “Whoever enters through me will be brought safely through.” “I am the light of the world,” he taught another time. “Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” “I am the road, the truth, the life.” “I am the bread of life. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life.” It was a strange teaching, difficult to understand, and not about cannibalism at all. Jesus was telling them that the Empire of the Sky was much bigger than - and quite different from - the empires of earth’s history. The Empire of the Sky was a whole other world. Its boundaries were not normal physical borders. You could not get there by travelling normally. You could only get there by being “regenerated”, and the only way for that to happen was to somehow get inside Jesus himself. But how do you get inside Jesus? Did you have to kill him and clothe yourself with his skin? How can a person be a Door? All the talk about doors and light and bread was explaining the Great Event, but Jesus’ listeners did not fully understand what he meant. The most they could say was, “I don’t understand it, and I can’t see it, but I believe what you’re saying is true.” It was the crooks, the sexual predators - the “scum of the earth” 153

- who were drawn to Jesus. They were trapped and desperate, and they knew it. In Jesus they found someone who did not accuse them of the horrible things they had done. Neither did he expect them to make up for their mistakes. He loved them. He understood them, accepted them, and gave them an opportunity for a fresh beginning. Somehow, he weaved his love into their lives and took away the pain. It is no wonder these people called Jesus their Overlord. But were they being misled? Jesus came to Halcyon, the capital city. * * * Iahwehâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s temple was not as it once had been. Iahwehâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s presence had not graced the temple for generations. Who knew when he would return? The priests had become greedy and were charging high fees for the privilege of worshipping there. The more the priests found out about Jesus, the less they liked him. He was a commoner, from a provincial village - a carpenter. They were priests, and were descended from generations of priests. Jesus did not treat them with the respect they deserved. Furthermore, he was deceiving the masses, and they were chasing after him wholesale. He was a rebel, and if they were not careful, they would lose their positions of power. Jesus was not intimidated. After all, they were his priests - his servants. Iahweh had returned to his people, but they did not recognise him. He knew why his priests were so afraid of him. Just like the Dragon Lord, they felt exposed in his presence, and they did not like it at all.

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He tried to tell them who he was, but the more he tried, the angrier they became. Who did he think he was? Why did Jesus think he was so special - he was “from above” while they were “from below”? Why was he so arrogant to claim that people had to be “in him”? They were most angry when Jesus spoke of his father who lived in the Sky. Ever since their ancestors had received the written Code, they had believed there was only one Elohim. Now Jesus seemed to be teaching something different. He was claiming to be equal with the Elohim - a crime punishable by death. They took Jesus to court. They played dirty, they used tricks, they tried everything to make Jesus put a foot wrong, but nothing they said would dislodge him. They criticized Jesus for bragging about himself, they taunted him by saying he was illegitimate, they suggested he was being controlled by a genie and that he was insane. Jesus dodged their attacks and rallied with a few observations of his own. They were liars, just like their ancestor - the Dragon Lord himself. This whipped them into a seething rage. No, they claimed, they were the Seed that had been promised for generations, and their father was none other than the Elohim. “If only that were the case,” Jesus mused wryly before making his final statement, “I tell you the truth, before Highfather was, I AM.” When they heard this, they picked up stones to execute Jesus, but somehow he disappeared. For three years the Word who had become earthman proclaimed the message of the invading Empire. Through his deeds and teachings he showed his people that there was far more going on

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around them than they knew. He showed them that the Dragon Lord was a liar; the Elohim was not going to blame them for their mistakes. He was not going to hold them accountable for causing pain. Instead, Iahweh wanted to weave his story into theirs and rescue them! “Come to me, all you who are trying to make it and are weighed down, and I will give you rest,” Jesus said, “Take my yoke on you and learn from me, because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will discover rest for your life.” Then suddenly Jesus’ mission was over. Behind the scenes, the Ginn were controlling the earthmen like puppets. For a long time, Iahweh had been meddling in their affairs and getting away with it. Now Iahweh had become an earthman himself, with muscle and bone and hair and teeth. Muscle could be ripped and bone could be shattered. Hair could be torn out in bloody tufts.

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C ha p t e r Ei g h t

The Other Tree

Jesus was arrested. The charge brought against him was that he claimed to be Iahweh. But because the Emperor of Roma did not care about local religions and their petty arguments, Jesus was officially accused with treason against the Roman Emperor. The Ginn were whipped into frenzy. They knew what was about to happen; a blood sacrifice - a blood sacrifice of an earthman, and not just any earthman. This victim knew he was going to be killed, yet he was not putting up a fight. The thought made them shiver with delight. The fact that Jesus did not even belong to their world made the moment so much sweeter. Furthermore, Jesus was the Word of the Elohim. If Jesus were killed, the identity of the Elohim would be broken. Iahweh would cease to be Themselves. They would lose control of their universe and the entire Empire would dissolve. Here was the victory the Dragon Lord had been looking for. In just a few moments the Elohim would be destroyed and the Dragon Lord would be left holding the reins. 159

In their frenzy, the Ginn did not stop to think: Why was Iahweh giving himself up for execution. What was in it for him? There was no pretence now about the Dragon Lord seeking the best for the Empire. No longer was he masquerading as an Agent of the Light. The gloves were off. The Elohim was an outright enemy. There was no make-believe that Oblivion was a thing to be desired and that it enabled a person to connect with a Higher Reality. Oblivion was a state of eternal nothingness, and the Dragon Lord was going to send the Elohim there. For too long he had been denied his prize, the throne of the Empire, and sole control of the universe. Now he would destroy the power of the Elohim and seize the throne. Planet Earth rolled on its axis. The sun rose on the territory Iahweh had chosen over two thousand years before. The Ginn herded a crowd of earthmen before the Roman governor’s headquarters and drove them into a blind bloodlust. The earthmen chanted for Jesus execution. For their pleasure Jesus was whipped and beaten and tortured. Soldiers blindfolded him. “Who hit you?” they taunted. The governor received a message from his wife, “Have nothing to do with that man, for I have suffered much in a dream because of him.” But the pressure being exerted by those who wanted Jesus dead was too great. He gave the order. His soldiers took charge of Jesus. They escorted him and two other criminals to a place called Skull Hill. A frame of lifeless timber was brought as well. In an instant Jesus took its measure. He lay down on his instrument of death, and his hands and feet were nailed to the wood. A socket was cut into the hungry earth. When all was ready, the cross was

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lifted upright. It slid home with a thud. Blood dripped on the desolate soil. The other tree had been planted. For one long moment the Word hung in the air. The promised Seed was suspended between earth and sky. The Ginn gathered, from every corner of the planet. Hundreds, thousands, millions of them, laughing at the Word, pinned like a beetle on a card. What a fool he had been, to think he could join the earthman’s species, infiltrate the Dragon Lord’s world, live according to his precious Code and emerge victorious. What a fool he had been. He had not even made himself a king or a warlord, but a commoner with only a memory of royalty in his family line. And now he was an outlaw. His blood was pulsing out of his body and running down the timbers of the cross in rivulets. Very life was draining out of him. He was not very different now, was he? He wasn’t as extraordinary and peculiar as he claimed. Crucifixion is a terrible way to go to Oblivion. To begin with, Jesus was naked. Under the hot sun, flies tormented him. But that was just the beginning. The entire weight of his body was suspended on three iron pins; one through each wrist, and the third through his feet. The torment came from having to decide between two terrible alternatives. Jesus could hang from his hands, but then his chest would constrict, preventing him from breathing. Or he could push down with his legs, putting more weight on the pin impaling his feet. This would lift him up and he could inhale, but his leg muscles would go into spasms and give way as his whole body weight tugged on his nailed wrists. But the physical pain was only a fraction of the total agony. For thousands of years, Iahweh had promised his earthmen that if they gave him responsibility for their absurd actions, he

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would weave his own story into theirs and turn their misery into something more beautiful than they could even imagine. Now was the exact moment when he was weaving his story into theirs. Here and now, all the threads of history, both those that had been, and those that would be, were drawn together into one ugly knot. Storm clouds gathered and the sky darkened. Lightning flashed. “My Elohim, my Elohim, why have you abandoned me?” Jesus shouted into the storm. Clothing flapped, horses reared. The criminals either side of Jesus rolled their eyes in terror. The Ginn shrieked gleefully. Their victory was so close they could taste it. The Word had lived for an eternity, but now he was about to pass into total non-existence. The moment had come. The Great Event was here. Jesus had but one more thing to do. The repercussions of this action would unfold for generations to come. Jesus spoke, “It is complete!” Then with a loud cry that was almost swallowed by the dark wind, he entered into utter nonexistence. * * * In that moment the Universe fell apart. In Halcyon’s temple, the curtain separating Iahweh’s home from the earthmen tore from top to bottom. The temple and its rituals had been set up to foreshadow the Great Event. Now that the Great Event had come, the temple had outlived its purpose.

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In the Great Assembly the Sons of the Elohim were dumbfounded. Agents stopped in their tracks, transfixed. Something had gone terribly wrong. They had expected that the Most High would step in at the last moment and rescue his son, but he had not. The Word was dead. The power of the Elohim was broken. Their Empire was finished. All was lost. What about the Higher Reality the Dragon Lord promised? Now that the Elohim was defeated, the Source he had been hiding should have broken through and enlightened the citizens of the Empire and the followers of the Dragon Lord alike. But there was nothing. The Higher Reality did not exist. It had never existed. It was a lie. Something was different. The citizens of the Empire could feel it. The Light of the universe had been extinguished. Their connection with the Elohim - Life Himself - was broken. Already they were succumbing to nothingness, returning to the elements from which they had been formed. It would take a long time - hundreds of years, perhaps thousands. But there was no escape. They were as good as dead. The Dragon Lord was delirious with pleasure. He had won! It did not matter that he had been exposed. It did not matter that the universe was winding down like a clock. Eventually, everything that lived in the universe would cease to be. But until then the Dragon Lord would reign supreme. * * * It was late afternoon over Halcyon. The raging storm abated. Everything was still. Jesusâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; body was taken down and placed in a tomb. At the

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request of the priests a squad of Roman soldiers was dispatched to guard it. Jesus’ followers, they said, might steal the body and say that Jesus had returned to life. This fraud would be worse than Jesus’ own teachings. The sun set on the sixth day of the week and the seventh day began - the day on which Iahweh had rested long ago, pleased with all he had done. The followers of Jesus came together in twos and threes. Listless. Shocked. Depressed. Rumour had it that graves had broken open and the seers of old had returned. But rumours were not enough to pull them out of their despair. The mood on the Elohim’s mountain was equally dismal. What would the citizens of the Empire do now? They had nothing to live for. The seventh day dragged by. Night finally fell. It was the first day of the week. In the tomb, Jesus’ body lay cold. It was wrapped in strips of linen and embalmed with spices. A cloth covered what was once his face. But Jesus was not in the tomb. He was not somewhere else. He was in Oblivion, the Nowhere place. He just wasn’t. He had become like the dust of the earth and the entire universe was dead. But all was not lost. The Word has masterminded this moment from the very beginning. The Great Event had been accomplished according to plan. The Word had been killed on purpose. He had dropped plenty of hints. His messages to the seers were

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studded with riddles. Every animal ritually slaughtered at his temple pointed forward to the Great Event. Right back there when the Elohim had killed an animal to clothe the earthman and his wife, he had done it for a reason. The Elohim had shouted out the Great Event for thousands of years, but no one had understood it. In the very beginning, the issue was over the Elohim’s identity. Was he really the Higher Reality? Iahweh had simply asked people take him at his word. Ever since the struggle began, he had not tried to prove himself. Even now, in the midst of the Great Event, the focus was not on Iahweh’s identity, but on earthmen who were robbed of their freedom, trapped inside the Dragon Lord’s world. Yet as the Great Event unfolded, the inhabitants of the universe witnessed the truth of the Elohim’s identity. There was a loophole. The Dragon Lord had not even considered it, for it ran against the grain of everything he believed. Thousands of years before, the Dragon Lord had taken control of the earthman’s race and his planet. While even a single earthman lived, the Dragon would remain Earth’s rightful lord and ruler. Until the last earthman went to Oblivion, he would hold his seat in the Great Assembly. But what, exactly, is Oblivion? The Dragon Lord did not know, for he had never been there. Nor did any of the Ginn, for they had not gone to Oblivion either. Only earthmen had gone to Oblivion, and none of them knew what it was, for as their eyes closed for the last time, they lost consciousness. Over the generations a handful had returned from beyond the grave, but they remembered nothing.

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Until the last earthman went to Oblivion, the Dragon Lord would rule. What is Oblivion? Is it not total and complete separation from Life itself? And here was the loophole. Life was a person. Life lay cold and dead inside a night-black tomb. Life Himself had ceased to exist. There was not a creature in the universe - neither a citizen of the Empire nor a slave of the Dragon Lord’s world - that was not separated from Life at that moment. The condition had been fulfilled: Every earthman had gone to Oblivion! The Dragon Lord’s claim to Planet Earth had expired. The earthman’s seat no longer belonged to him. Freedom had dawned on the race of earthmen. Through thousands of years of plotting and weaving Iahweh had strategically used the quirks of his identity to give earthmen the opportunity to decide their own fate. They were no longer under any obligation to serve the Dragon Lord. They could determine their own future as they chose. Today, earthmen wear crucifixes as baubles around their necks, mostly unaware of what it all means. It was a pity that Iahweh had to pay the ultimate price for their freedom. The universe was slowly cooling. The Dragon was in control. The Great Event had been clever, but it meant absolutely nothing. Yet, who was Iahweh? What did it mean to be the Elohim? Now was the time when all creation would see who he really 166

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was. Jesus’ body lay cold and still. Rigor mortis had been and gone. Light seeped through the cracks, past the stone at the cave’s mouth, and into the tomb. The sun was rising on the territory Iahweh had chosen generations before. Outside, the Roman guards remained vigilant. Suddenly, it happened. Like a shockwave, Light from the tomb spread out, awakening the citizens of the Empire from their despair. The earth shook and a mighty agent materialised above the heads of the Roman soldiers. His appearance was like lightning and his clothes were blinding white. The soldiers fainted where they stood. The agent rolled the stone back from the mouth of the tomb and sat on it. Jesus strode out of the tomb. The Word of Iahweh had selfgenerated. The Dragon was incredulous. Ginn shrieked in terror. It wasn’t meant to be like this! Jesus was meant to stay dead. What could have gone wrong? Just as Iahweh had claimed all along, he was “I AM”, the Existent One. He did not need an external source of power. He was his own source. He was the Highest Reality. Oblivion could not hold him down. Halcyon slept. The priests turned on their beds. Jesus’ followers hid under their blankets, totally unaware that the greatest event in the entire history of the universe had taken place a mere stone’s throw away.

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Now here’s where it gets really weird. This book began with a simple question: “Who are you?” Although the Great Event happened about forty generations ago on the far side of the planet, it has a lot to say about your true identity. Who are you? You were born into the earthman’s race. Go back approximately one hundred and forty generations and you will discover that the ones who ate from the Tree of Knowing Good and Evil so long ago are your first parents. That is, they used to be. This, as I said, is where it gets really weird. It is vitally important to understand the history of earthmen because it explains where you came from and who you are. That is, who you were. I’m talking, of course, about what happened to you when you came through the Door. You made the journey to the edge of your world, and you fell through into this one. (If you don’t know what I’m talking about, you need to get your hands on the first book in this series.). It was that transition that made all the difference. In that moment when you fell between worlds, the Great Event worked on you. In that moment you gave Iahweh permission to do whatever he wanted, so he did. The Great Event reached out through space and time and Iahweh wove his story into yours. Because Life Himself died in that Great Event, you too received your death. You went to Oblivion. 168

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In that moment, you were more dead than you have ever been or will ever be. Because of that moment, what earthmen call “death” has simply become a sleep for you - a sleep you will one day wake from. In that moment, the Dragon lost his claim over you, for you left the race of earthmen behind. You were united with Jesus in his Oblivion. You ceased to be. But it did not end there. The power of the Great Event was only half spent. In the very next instant the same power that spoke the universe into existence made itself known in the Great Event. The Elohim made you up again. But this remaking was far beyond imagination, for the Elohim did not merely speak you into existence, nor did he form you from mud like the first earthman. You were birthed! You were reborn! This is where it gets really exciting. Nothing like this has ever happened in the universe before. Nor, I expect, will it happen again. You were born into a different race, a new species. You belong to the most privileged, most powerful, most extraordinary family in existence. Really. It’s all tied up with the Elohim. The Most High and the Word are father and son. They have always been.

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You have been born into their family. You are a child of the Most High Elohim. You are a child of the Most High Elohim! You no longer belong to the earthman’s race, YOU ARE A CHILD OF THE MOST HIGH! Burn that into your retinas. Let it thunder through your synapses: Child of the Most High. But what does it mean? It means that because you are “in Jesus”, all promises made about to Highfather’s Seed apply to you. It means that you belong to the royal family of the Empire. You are a prince or a princess. Your father has a truly limitless fortune - power, privilege, honour and glory that are yours by birthright. Your inheritance is far beyond anything you could ask or imagine. You have been elevated beyond your wildest dreams! You are no longer one of the earthman’s descendants. You are a regenerate. This is who you really are. This is the secret of your true identity, oh child of the Most High. One day you will grow up and become a Son of God, equal with those who sit on the Great Assembly. But first there is a quest, an adventure, a journey. You must mature. You must learn about your father, about his Empire, how it works and what it stands for. Then and only then,

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will you be given the full responsibility of your inheritance. As the Book says, To all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of the Elohim—children born not of bloodlines, nor of human decision of a husband’s will, but born of the Elohim. “I might have come through the Door,” you say. “And I may have been regenerated... but why is my body still the same, and why can I still feel the Device trying to control me?” It’s a good question. * * * The new sun shone brilliantly over Halcyon. A group of women hurried along a dusty road. They were friends of Jesus. They carried spices with which to prepare Jesus’ body for burial, for they did not know someone had already done it. Neither, it seems, did they know about the Roman guard posted at the tomb. Along the road they suddenly realised their oversight. They were women. They were not strong. Who would move the stone for them? When they arrived, they found the place deserted and the stone already rolled away from the tomb’s mouth. What had happened? They rushed inside the little cave. Jesus’ body was not there. * * *

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In Halcyon, Jesus’ apprentices huddled together in a house. The door was bolted for fear of their enemies. They were confused. The womenfolk had just that morning brought news of their visit to the tomb. Jesus’ body had not been there and the women had seen an agent who spoke to them, telling them that Jesus was no longer in Oblivion. But could the women be trusted? Suddenly, Jesus materialised in the room, right before their eyes. “Peace,” he said. Jesus’ body was real enough. It was solid to the touch, it held scars, and it was made of flesh and bone. Jesus even ate some fish to prove he was not a phantom. But his body was different from the one he had died with. It was no longer made of the stuff of the earth; it was made of the stuff of the sky. He had the ability to appear and disappear at will, and locked doors were no barrier to him. The Book tells us that when the Empire invades (and it is soon now), our bodies will undergo the same transition as Jesus’. The stuff of earth will give way to the stuff of the sky, and then we will be like him. It will happen in an instant, “in the twinkling of an eye”. Until that day, we are living in a half-way state. We are the second race of men, the regenerate children of the Most High, yet we have the bodies of earth. The Dragon’s Device is still embedded in us, fighting for control. It is cut off from its master now, but it will continue to act until the day the worlds collide.

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C ha p t e r Ni n e

The Regenerates

In the days and weeks that followed, Jesus began to explain to his apprentices and friends exactly what he had done. He opened their minds to the Book and showed them things they had never noticed before. He explained how the Great Event had been foretold by the seers, how they had predicted his execution and return from Oblivion in detail; His hands and feet would be pierced, none of his bones would be broken but his heart would burst, his clothes would be gambled. Jesusâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; followers saw that even though there had been hard times, times when it seemed Iahweh had abandoned his people, he was always working towards his goal. Even in the bleak times just a few months before, when people had thought Jesus mad, he was acting with purpose and intention. It had all been planned. They could see that now! Iahweh truly was the master-weaver of history. But what if it had not worked out? What if earthmen had chosen differently? Yes, it had happened. Many times. But Iahweh was a master. He was able to deal with the fickle minds 175

of earthmen and with the schemes of the Dragon. His Great Event would have been brought about one way or the other. The whole thing was like a fantastic puzzle but it could be understood only in hindsight. The more Jesus’ followers understood the Book, the more excited they became. Jesus’ smile softened. There was some bad news. He had told his apprentices in the days leading up to his death, but they had not understood. Now that the Great Event had passed, they would. With tears in his eyes, Jesus delivered his news. It was nearly time for him to leave Planet Earth. He had to go to his father’s house in the Sky, for he had work to do. But one day he would return. He would take them back to his father’s home so that they could all be together. The apprentices exchanged worried glances. They would be without Jesus? Furthermore, Jesus told them, while he was gone, they had an important task. The Dragon had lost, but he and his Ginn were not dead. They were active and angry, and they were about to get a whole lot angrier. In the light of that fact, their task was all the more critical. Their task was to proclaim the good news of the Empire to the entire race of earthmen. It had to be spoken in every language and shouted to the farthest reaches of the planet. Their hearts sank. It was a daunting assignment. Maybe if Jesus stayed it would be possible, but with him gone… They were common folk. They could not speak with power, they did not hold positions of authority. Who would listen to them?

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“I’m actually going so I can help you more,” said Jesus, and he told them about a gift, a secret weapon. His father had promised to send it, and as soon as Jesus returned to his father it would be sent. The gift would aid them in their task. It would give them the power and the ability to complete it. So important was it, in fact, that without it their best efforts would be futile. “Don’t leave Halcyon, but wait for the gift my father promised.” Said Jesus. “John washed with water, but in a few days you will be washed with the Moving Stillness.” Jesus’ apprentices weren’t quite sure what to feel. They were depressed that Jesus was leaving. They were excited at being a part of history. They felt helpless at the immensity of the task before them, and they were curious about the gift. How much time did they have to complete their task? “When exactly will you return, and when will the approaching Empire take over completely?” they asked Jesus. “Soon”, was the answer. Soon. Since the Great Event, “soon” has stretched out to mean at a long time. Nearly two thousand years have passed and Jesus has still not returned. But then again, the Elohim has a different perspective on time from earthmen. The Book says, “With the Elohim a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.” Jesus’ new body no longer suffers the ravages of time. His body does not grow old as our bodies do. He lives forever, so in his thinking two thousand years is soon. One day, when our bodies have been transformed, a thousand years will not be a long time for us either.

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* * * There’s an important part of the story that we have skipped, for history splits at this point and one stream passes to outside the natural dimensions. So we need to go back a few pages to where the women came to the tomb to prepare Jesus’ body for burial, but found the stone rolled back and the tomb empty. In their grief, they suspected that someone had moved the body. They had no idea where it could be or who had moved it, so they ran to Jesus’ apprentices. “They’ve removed the Overlord from the tomb but we don’t know where they’ve put it.” The apprentices rushed to the tomb and found it empty, just as the women said. Miserable and frustrated, the apprentices went home. But one of the women remained. She stood outside the cave, lost in her tears. Suddenly she heard a voice behind her. “Woman, why are you crying?” The tomb was in a garden. It was early morning, the time when plants were watered and weeds were pulled. Naturally, she assumed the voice belonged to the gardener. In an instant she put two and two together and concluded that it was he who had moved the body earlier that morning. Finally, someone who could help her! “Sir,” she sobbed. “If you have moved him, tell me where he is and I’ll get him.” She dissolved into tears again before the gardener spoke.

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“Mariam”, for that was her name. Suddenly she recognised his voice. It was Jesus! She turned and flung herself at him. And here the Book tells us a very interesting detail; “Don’t cling onto me”, Jesus said, “I have not yet returned to my father.” “Don’t hang onto me”, he said. “Don’t touch me.” But read a few lines down in the Book, and a few hours later Jesus is saying the absolute opposite. He’s telling one of his apprentices to touch his scars - feel the proof that he was alive. What happened in between? Jesus broke away from Mariam. He gave her instructions to find his apprentices and deliver a message: “Tell them, ‘I am returning to my father – and to your father.’” He watched Mariam run out of the garden. Then he was alone. Jesus had a new body. It was no longer made of the stuff of earth, it was made of the stuff of sky. It was not locked into the same dimensions as the body that had been him only a few days before. It could do all sorts of interesting things. Jesus stepped sideways, right out of the natural dimensions. If you had been in the garden, you would have seen him disappear. You could not get to the Elohim’s Mountain from the natural dimensions, but from these other ones that Jesus stepped into, the journey was quite easy. 179

On the Mountain they knew he was coming. Agents had gathered in their millions, hushed and expectant. The Most High sat on his throne, shining like a jewel and surrounded by a rainbow. The mighty Cherubs – the lion, the ox, the man and the eagle, were in attendance. The members of the Great Assembly were present. In the right hand of the Most High Elohim was a tome, locked with seven locks. On its pages lay the mystery of the future – Iahwehs’ plans to weave the future. A mighty agent called out, his voice ringing with authority, “Who is able to break the locks and open the tome?” No-one spoke. No-one dared to step forward. Then suddenly he was there! The Word of Iahweh, Jesus the son of the Most High. He was different from how they remembered. He had a distinct physical body, marked and scarred from his execution. Nobody moved. The millions of agents were deadly silent. Expectant. Jesus strode up the dais, past the Great Assembly, past the four mighty Cherubs. He mounted the steps to his throne, to the Most High. His father. He reached out, and with his scarred hand he took the tome. Thousands of agents, tens of thousands, erupted into cheering. The sound grew to a roar. The members of the Great Assembly unslung musical instruments from their backs and began to sing. It was a new song, a wild, thunderous, masculine song. I don’t know of the 180

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tune, but the words went something like this: You are able to take the tome Break its locks. You were slain. With your own blood You paid for earthmenAnd they will rule the earth! Then, with one voice, the millions of agents sang like thunder. The slain lamb! Worthy to be given power and wealth. Worthy to be given wisdom and strength And honour and glory and praise. The Word had set up an escape route for the race of earthmen and he had delivered the deathblow to the Dragon and his world. It was something worth celebrating! The celebrations went on for a long while, until the agents were hoarse and the fingers of the Great Assembly were blistered from their playing. When it was over, their attention turned. All eyes fastened on a figure, distant from the throne. His eyes were down and his face was dark. The Dragon. This side of the Great Event, it was crystal clear. The Dragon was a liar. He had been a liar from the very beginning. He had said he was working in the best interests of the universe, but he had only ever been looking out for himself. All that mumbojumbo about Knowing Good and Evil was just a lure. There really was no Higher Reality. There was only Iahweh with his undomesticated, uncontrollable, unmanipulatable wildness

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and his unshakeable, unwavering love. The Dragon used up Ginn and earthmen with no regard for their freedom or happiness. He never cared that the cost of his dreams was the destruction of the entire universe. Now his deepest desire had been exposed. He wanted Iahweh dead. Iahweh, the one who would rather sacrifice himself than cause harm to anyone, Iahweh, the one who understood them all who loved them all. There was only one dreadful conclusion. The Dragon was absolutely twisted. Perverted. Mad. The strange existence he had embraced was far worse than anything the free people had ever imagined. It did not make sense. It was absurd. It was like a rotting disease, a wasting disease that sucked the life out of everything it touched. It had made the Dragon so self-absorbed that he would sacrifice Life itself in order to win. The Dragon had embraced the Absurdity and it had embraced him. For him, there was no going back. To the Dragonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s world the death and return of Jesus had been like a single drop of medicine spreading through an ulcer. One local event, one small event, had undone thousands of years of evil. The Dragon had already been defeated. His head had been crushed, just as Iahweh had vowed long ago. No longer was he a threat to the universe. Yet the universe needed to be cleansed - set right in the wake of his madness. His world had to be taken to its own inevitable conclusion. History had to run its course. In the meantime, like a headless snake, the Dragon and his horrible world would writhe around in chaos, hurting everything in its path.

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It was a horrible thought. Who would deal with the Dragon? Who would oversee the project until it was absolutely and completely finished? There was only one person who was worthy. Before the crowd of witnesses on the Mount of the Elohim, Jesus knelt before the Most High and was crowned. On his head was conferred every title that could be given. The entire universe was placed under his authority. He was Overlord of the Empire. Jesus, the Word of the Elohim, the champion of the Empire would deal with the Dragon. He already had a plan. It was written in the tome that lay locked in his hand. Jesus would remain in total control of the universe until his plans were carried out and the locked tome in his hand lay open. Jesus would not vacate his throne until the last enemy of the Empire had been defeated and the Dragon’s world had winked out of existence. * * * Jesus returned to earth. It was then that he materialised in the locked room with his twelve apprentices. It was because of his coronation that Jesus could say to them, “All authority on the sky and on the earth has been given to me.” Jesus told them as much as he could of the Empire. Time moved too quickly and soon it was time for him to leave. About six weeks after his return from death, Jesus led his small band of followers to a hill overlooking the city of Halcyon. He embraced them all, gave them his parting advice and then said his last goodbye.

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Then before their eyes Jesus lifted off. They watched him go up, higher and higher, smaller and smaller, until a cloud obscured their view. Jesus was gone. They returned to the city exuberant and a little confused. It was still sinking in. They were children of the Most High? They had a task to complete? Jesus had told them to wait for the promised gift. Without it, they would be powerless to complete their task, but with it they would turn the world upside-down. * * * Jesus returned to the Sky and took his throne at the right hand of the Most High. He turned his attention on the Dragon. For thousands of years he had come and gone on the Elohim’s mountain as he wished. Such was his right as the representative of earth in the Great Assembly. His Ginn had badgered the citizens of the Empire, bullying them, teasing them, making them suffer. The citizens of the Empire, adhering to the Code, had not resisted. But there was a time for everything. The contract keeping earthmen under the Dragon’s rule had been completed in the Great Event. The Dragon’s seat in the Great Assembly now rightfully belonged to Jesus. The Ginn amassed on the Elohim’s Mountain, as did the agents of the Empire. There were so many warriors that they were difficult to count. Millions - hundreds of millions at least of agents gathered. They outnumbered the Ginn two to one. The Dragon stood at the head of his army. Squared off against

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him was Iahweh’s champion warrior, the mighty agent whose name itself is a challenge to war: Micha-El - “Who is like the Elohim?” The great battle began. Empire troops drove in amongst the Dragon and his Ginn. The Ginn rallied. For a while the two sides seemed evenly matched. The agents knew the terrible risk they were taking; one false move and they would be destroyed. But they were not afraid. The power of the Moving Stillness was upon them. They had seen the Word defeat Oblivion itself. With gathering speed, the agents pushed forwards. The Ginn could not stand against their advance and were driven back. It was only when the last genie had been expelled from the Elohim’s mountain that the cry of victory went up. The Ginn and their lord had been banished to earth. Quarantined. They had not the power to return. But in their victory, the mighty agents paused to remember Jesus’ followers - their allies on Planet Earth. They were only a handful. Many of them were vulnerable. There were even some who had seen Jesus leave earth with their own eyes who still doubted all they had seen and heard. The battle had come to them now. The Dragon was furious. His plans had failed. The regenerate children of the Elohim would be the target of his anger. The mighty agents shuddered. But the Dragon had not reckoned on Jesus’ special gift. * * * The followers of Jesus waited in the house. They were certain that although they could not see Jesus, nor feel the presence

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of Iahweh, he could hear their words and read their thoughts. So gathered together, they spoke and sang. As they waited for Jesus’ gift they told each other again and again what had happened to them. Then one morning their waiting ended. A rushing sound grew louder and louder. They stopped to listen. Was it a storm? It sounded like a strong wind, yet nothing was moving. Before they had time to think, flames appeared out of nowhere and danced about the ceiling, coming down to land on each of their heads. Jesus’ special gift had arrived. Just as the Dragon had broken into the earthman’s deepest identity and tampered with it, now Iahweh had come into his family’s deepest identities and installed his own package. His Gift was none other than the Moving Stillness himself, sent to live inside each of the young regenerates in the same way that the Moving Stillness had lived inside Jesus. The fire and wind disappeared as quickly as it had come, but it left its mark. There was a festival in Halcyon, which meant the city was packed. Visitors and pilgrims from far-flung places had come to participate. Among them were people who served Iahweh as best as they could, but living a long way from Halcyon, they knew very little about Jesus and what had happened there over the last few years. A crowd gathered outside the house. “What is going on in there?” bystanders asked one another. Floating out the windows was the strangest sound - a babble of excited voices,

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rising higher and higher. “They’re drunk!” laughed some. They shook their heads and left. But others were not so sure. The visitors to Halcyon, in particular, stepped closer. Something about the babble sounded familiar. A phrase here, a word there, jumped out at them, but there were so many voices all talking at once it was hard to make out. The gathering foreigners began to talk amongst themselves. They were bewildered, amazed by what they were hearing. Then telling one another to be silent, they stood and listened. Newcomers to the crowd were shushed. It seems the people inside the house were not totally aware of what they were doing. They heard a pounding at the door and went to answer it. Outside they were met by a crowd. Their spokesperson didn’t bother with introductions. “Aren’t you all Galileans in there?” he asked, referring to a provincial region a few days north. They nodded. “So how is it that each of us hears you speaking in his own native language?” He gestured around the group, indicating the various nationalities. “Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and Lybia near Cyrene; visitors from Rome; Cretans and Arabs…” he trailed off. “We hear them declaring the wonders of the Elohim in our own tongues! What does it mean?” Peter, one of Jesus’ apprentices came forward. Until recently he had been a fisherman, given to brash, sweeping statements.

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Now he called for silence. “These people are not drunk,” he said. “It’s only early in the day. The event you are witnessing was prophesied by the seer Joel: ‘In the Final Season I will pour out my Moving Stillness on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions and your old men will dream dreams. Yes, on my servants I will pour out my Moving Stillness in those days, and they will prophesy.’” Peter spoke on, telling them of how Jesus - who had been in Halcyon only a few months before - had genuinely possessed the power to bend nature to his will. Jesus had been endorsed by the Elohim. He told them how Jesus had been murdered, and how Oblivion could not hold him down. He sung to them, reminding them of the ancient songs they knew and showed them how the words they knew so well were, in fact, about the Great Event. Jesus had since returned to the sky, and had become ruler over the entire universe. Jesus had promised them a special Gift, and had delivered it. This gift was the Moving Stillness, who gave the regenerates supernatural abilities. This is how the crowd heard them speaking in their own languages.

The listeners were stunned. Why hadn’t they known? Why had they not done anything to stop Jesus’ murder? “What do we do now?” they asked. Peter replied, “Think differently and be washed, each one of you, into the name of Jesus the Heir. No longer will you be dominated by the Absurdity…, and you will receive the Gift of the Moving Stillness.” Many were convinced. That day, about three thousand earthmen escaped the world of the Dragon and passed through

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the Door. The newcomers were hungry for anything the apprentices could tell them. They were constantly wide-eyed and astonished. The band of regenerates grew and became stronger. It was around this time that Jesus’ apprentices began to do the same reality-bending wonders as Jesus had. On one of the first occasions Peter, and another apprentice John were walking to the temple. They approached a cripple, who was setting up his begging mat beside one of the main gates. It was mid-afternoon, and the cripple hoped to gain the pity of the worshippers as they passed in and out of the temple. As Peter and John passed through the gate, the beggar asked for money. Begging, I suspect, is a percentage game. Ask one hundred people for money, and you might get five or six who actually respond. The rest just avert their eyes and hurry on. The ones who give money, I think probably don’t even make eye contact. I expect then, that the beggar did not really thing Peter and John were going to give him money, and what followed was a complete surprise. Peter and John, full of the Moving Stillness, halted in their tracks. They stared down at the cripple, eyes boring through him. Look at us”, Peter said. The crippled man looked up, as if coming out of a daze. Two men with fierce faces looked down at him. Would they give him something? “I don’t have silver or gold”, the older one said, “But what I do

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have, I am giving to you.” Other people had said similar things and then spat on him. “In the name of Jesus the Heir from Nazareth, walk!” The tall man reached down and grasped his right hand. Forcefully, he pulled him to his feet. Before he could even think of what he was doing, the cripple jumped and landed. Instantly his feet and ankles became strong. He was walking. But walking was not enough. He jumped, he ran, he skipped. He shouted out, his voice echoing through the courts of the temple. People who saw him recognised him as the beggar. But wasn’t he a cripple? The apprentices now understood why Jesus had acted so strangely and why he had done everything “backwards”. The Moving Stillness spoke to them and led them. Usually, his voice could not be heard with the ear. It was an inner voice. Sometimes the Moving Stillness spoke, and sometimes He was silent, but at all times he was there. The Moving Stillness was leading them to act in ways totally outside the boundaries of the Device. It was giving them true freedom for the first time ever. This is why it was so upsidedown. Furthermore, the Moving Stillness gave them abilities and powers they had never had before. This is how they were speaking in different languages and how Peter, an uneducated fisherman, had held a crowd spellbound while he spoke. The Moving Stillness had always spoken to the seers, but He 190

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had never been in them like he was now. In the past, only a select few had been able to hear the Moving Stillness - kings, priests and seers. But no longer. The gift was available to everyone open to receive. Armed with this new “power from on high”, the growing band of regenerates set out to fulfil the mission Jesus had given them, “Go into the whole world and teach all nations, washing them into the name of the Father, the Son and the Moving Stillness, and teaching them to do everything that I commanded you.” The regenerates grew and multiplied. Within a few years they numbered in the tens of thousands. They spread throughout the Roman Empire and beyond like wildfire. The Ginn watched with growing fury.

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C ha p t e r T e n

Joveâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Organisation

Growing up as children of the Most High was not easy, but it was an adventure. To begin with, it was totally unnatural to live according to the Moving Stillness. The regenerates had to learn to recognise the voice of the Moving Stillness. Then they had to learn to obey him, even when he asked them to do something that cut across their feelings. They had to get over their fear of doing things a totally new way. The Device was still active. It fought the Moving Stillness for control of them. It came down to sheer habit to give Iahweh permission every day to continue weaving his story into theirs. In turn, the children of the Most High began to behave just as strangely as Jesus had. They could not be controlled. They returned hate with love. When people expected them to be upset, they were full of joy. They were peaceful in the face

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of adversity and patient when provoked. They were kind, good, faithful, gentle and self-controlled. Just like Jesus, they fell in love with everyone they met. It wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t that they forced themselves to behave or feel like this. It just came naturally from being in tune with the Moving Stillness. The maturing regenerates were given unnatural abilities. There were those who continued to communicate in foreign languages. Others became unnaturally wise. Some found themselves being aware of ideas without knowing how they knew. Others discovered they could heal the sick or bring dead people back to life, or could manipulate the natural world around them, or had unusually powerful perception of the Moving Stillness or the activities of the Ginn. They quickly discovered that their special powers were not given to them for their own personal gain, but to help them complete their mission. When the situation called for it, they could heal the sick, raise the dead, drink poison and not be harmed, handle snakes and not be killed. At times they were imprisoned, tortured and executed. At times they did not know where their next meal would come from or if they would live to see the sunrise. They often found themselves in what others would consider â&#x20AC;&#x153;mortal dangerâ&#x20AC;?, but they knew they were in the safest place in the world. The Book contains a section called Deeds of the Envoys. It describes what the Moving Stillness did through these first regenerates. It is well worth the read. Some of the regenerates died. But death was no longer anything to fear. They had already been to Oblivion when they came

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through the Door. Its power to harm them was gone. Death had become for them a simple sleep. They would be woken on the day the Empire finally invaded, so they could see it with their own eyes. But when would the Empire invade? When was “soon”? How long would they have to wait for their new bodies? How long until they saw their brother Jesus and their father face-to-face? Through the Moving Stillness, Jesus told them that before things got better, they had to get much, much worse. The Absurdity had to run its course. * * * The Ginn were baffled. Normally, they could predict every move of the earthmen. But these regenerates moved like the wind. Nobody could say where they were coming from or where they were going. The more the Ginn harassed them, the stronger the regenerates became. Killing them off was just as bad, because for some strange reason, they were inspired by the death of their brothers. The Ginn were not making headway. The Dragon held Jove, the genie of Roma, responsible. Even after the turmoil caused by the Great Event, the genie of Roma had remained firmly on his throne. He had earned his position and he would not abdicate. This suited the Dragon very well. If Jove was successful in crushing the regenerates, then all-the-better for the Dragon. But if he failed, the genie of Roma would fall into obscurity without compromising the Dragon’s own power. Yes, the Dragon would ride Jove’s back until he came to a staggering collapse.

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Jove was having one hell of a time. For centuries he had driven his earthmen to build palaces, cities, roads, armies... Nobody appreciated just how difficult it was to organise the earthmen to work as a team and do anything useful. But now his civilization was nearing its expiry date. It was rotting from the inside out. Jealousy, plots and schemes were eating away at it like rats in a carcass. Its cruelty and crushing power were working against itself. Furthermore, new Ginn princes were tearing at Joveâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Empire from the edges, taking advantage of the chaos within. It was only a matter of time before they would overpower his territory by sheer force and seize his throne.

Even his underlings were not trustworthy. They were driven by the same fear, the same passions, the same desire for selfpromotion and self-protection that tormented earthmen. Their loyalty was weakening. It was only a matter of time before they took his throne by force. Then there was Paul. Once he had been a particularly useful earthman. He had hunted down the regenerates and tortured them. But Paul had somehow found the Door â&#x20AC;&#x201C; or more correctly, the Door had found him - and he been regenerated himself. Paul matured quickly. He became a champion for the Empire of the Sky and broadcast its message wherever he went. Communities of regenerates sprung up in his wake. Paul was on a mission. So important was it to him that he did not care if the Ginn tore him apart in their efforts to silence him. Step by step he made his way towards the heart of the Roman Empire, to the city of Roma itself. It was Paulâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s aim to speak

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directly with the Roman Emperor. The genie of Roma knew the risks. Bab-El had fallen because Nabu-Chadrezzar, its human king, had become a follower of Iahweh. The Medo-Persian kingdom had failed at the hands of its traitorous ruler Cyrus. The Greek kingdom had come to a sudden, fishy end when Alexander died. If the Roman Emperor became a regenerate, the whole enterprise would go down in a screaming heap. Jove and his Ginn fought tooth and nail to hold Paul back, but everything they did brought him closer to his goal. They had him arrested and thrown into prison, but it was no good. Paul, apparently, was a citizen of the great city of Roma. Among the millions of people ruled by Roma, only a small minority could claim such a right. Paul, according to his privilege as a citizen, demanded that the Roman Emperor hear his case. So Paul came to the city of Roma. He lived under house arrest for years, right under Joveâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s nose. Eventually his case was heard. He was executed; his head hacked free from his body. But the damage had been done. Right in the middle of Roma he had sowed the message of the invading Empire of the Sky and yet another clutch of regenerates had sprung up. Somehow Jove had to put a halt to the exploding population of regenerates. Somehow he had to separate them from their source of power. It was a project that deserved his full attention. Jove delegated power of his kingdom to ten vassals who accepted it greedily. With his failing resources Jove worked on his enemies. Some times he would persecute the regenerates. But they had been taught well. They became stronger and disappeared underground, literally, into the sewers and labyrinths under the city. At other times he would entice them

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with peace. The regenerates would come out into the open, flourish and relax their vigilance. Then Jove would tighten the screws and once again drive them into hiding. Jove exploited the weak among them. There were rewards for those who acted “normally” and gave in to the Device. Power and influence. Honour among earthmen. Year by year and day by day his targets forgot how to be led by the Moving Stillness. Their leaders had not been through the Door, but they spoke as though they had. They began to teach something new – a strange mumbo-jumbo that used the same words the true regenerates used, but had none of the meaning. They called themselves the Organisation of Roma. When the time was right, the genie of Roma jumped ship. He cut loose from the ancient families of Roma he had manipulated for centuries and abandoned them to their fate. It would not be long before they were destroyed or humiliated under the power of his ten ginn vassals. Jove did not care what happened to them, for they had outlived their usefulness. Jove landed atop the Organisation of regenerates. Except they were no longer regenerates at all. It was a stroke of brilliance. Jove had done what no other genie before him had done. He had managed to survive the expiry of his own Empire. Like a phoenix emerging from the ashes he had returned at the head of a new power. The Organisation of Roma. His ten vassals, who had been on the brink of victory, suddenly found themselves caught in a grip of iron. Three of them fell, never to rise again. The other seven found themselves dwarfed by their master’s new powers. Once again they were trapped

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in his web, compelled to do his bidding. The earthmen who led the Organisation believed that the mumbo-jumbo they spoke was the true message of the invading Empire. That was the brilliance of the genie of Roma’s plan. They were convinced that they spoke on behalf of Iahweh against the forces of evil. They spread their message far and wide, at sword point when necessary. They spoke about their own authority as servants of the Most High and taught that all earthmen had to submit to them in order to join the Empire. They made Iahweh out to be an angry god who punished earthmen for their mistakes whenever he could. They practiced sorcery and witchcraft and banned common earthmen from reading the Book for themselves. The whole message of the Empire was turned on its head. Jesus had offered his listeners a gift of rest, but the Organisation told earthmen that they had to work for Iahweh’s favour. The Organisation even proclaimed a new Rest Day. The seventh day of the week was no longer important to earthmen, it said. Now the first day of the week was. The beauty of the whole thing was that the most hated enemies of the Organisation were the true regenerates. Not many remained. They lived in caves, among the mountains, away from the cities. It was said that they were enemies of Iahweh, for they did not submit to his elected Organisation. They were outlawed, hunted down, tortured and burned. The true regenerates remembered Jesus’ warning: “A time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering a service to the Elohim.” The Dragon was exceedingly pleased. Yes, he had lost his seat in the Great Assembly and was banished to Earth, yet all

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was not lost. The Door had been hidden. Generation after generation of earthmen were going to Oblivion not even aware of the Doorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s existence. Furthermore, the Organisation made war and murdered and caused suffering in the name of Jesus. It was sweet revenge! Apart from the small handful of regenerates forced into hiding, the Door between worlds was totally forgotten. The genie of Roma held firm control over his throne for over twelve hundred years. No other Ginn power had lasted that long. The Great Assembly watched in dismay as truth was thrown to the ground and trampled. They could not believe how the tide had turned. Yet Jesus was still Lord of Sky and Earth. Under his watchful eye, the Dragon was running his course. Finally, the Great Assembly met. They had seen enough. For too long the regenerates had been trampled and the Door had been hidden. The genie of Roma had had his day. Now the Empire would step in and act. Regenerates secretly translated the Book into the common languages and smuggled copies to where they were most needed. The printing press was invented, and again earthmen began to read the Book for themselves. They rediscovered the true meaning of the Great Event and they found the Door. Thousands of earthmen were regenerated. The genie of Roma did not know what hit him. One moment he was riding high. The next, he was spinning into obscurity. His

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fellows were secretly pleased of course, for there is no sympathy between those who serve the Dragon. They watched the great genie disappear. His wound was fatal. He would not return.

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C ha p t e r E l e v e n

Present DayReal World

… Which brings this story to your front door. Rain drizzles on London. Discarded wrappers sink deeper into the murk of Sydney Harbour. Grit collects on the windows of New York and the smokestacks surrounding Tokyo belch out gastric fumes. This is the real world. Switch on the six o’clock news. It’s solid. Permanent: Wars in distant lands, taxes and budgets, governments and scientific breakthroughs, natural disasters, lost kittens and football and weather. Let the real world in. Let all this talk of Ginn and regenerates fade into fantasy. The Mountain of the Elohim is a wispy thing. Perhaps it exists in some child’s imagination, drawn in crayon, stuck to the fridge

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with a pharmacy magnet. But it’s not real. You’d be a fool to believe that genies actually exist, let alone run countries and corporations. You’d be a fool to believe that life on earth is only a few thousand years old, and that your greatgreat-times-one-hundred-and-forty grandfather was formed from mud by a super-being. What kind of name is Iahweh anyway? No. The Empire of the Sky will not invade here, and especially not this financial year. So the claim made on the very first page of this book has been proven false. This book has nothing to do with the real world, so therefore it’s not a history at all. At best it’s a bedtime story for grown-ups. At worst, it’s a misleading hoax, for it claims to speak the truth. This book has been a complete waste of time. Except… The real world is not made of cast iron. It is not completely consistent. As normal and solid as the real world appears, there are places where it has seams, raw edges. Most people are accustomed to the seams and barely even register their existence. But if you begin to pick at the seams it does not take long before the whole thing begins to disintegrate. The truth is plainly revealed. The “real” world is not as real as you have been led to believe. It has been fabricated. What you have been led to believe is “normal” is a cleverly invented system designed to keep you under control. Let me show you three seams that I have found.

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One. The “real world” does not believe in the existence of the supernatural or the paranormal. Every event in the “real world” has a natural, rational, scientific explanation. Earthquakes, for example, do not come from the gods. They are caused when subterranean convection currents drive pieces of the earth’s crust into one another. If an event or a phenomenon cannot be explained naturally, it’s only because science has not yet fully understood it. So – and here’s the seam – why are people so dreadfully fascinated with stories about magic and spells, dreams and omens? Why is the entertainment industry saturated with ghosts and angels, elves and dragons? The official answer is that, “They’re just stories. They’re entertainment”. But the fact remains: The “real world” is preoccupied with the supernatural. It is standing on its tippy-toes, peering over the fence and wondering what lies beyond. Two. Five thousand years of recorded human history is dominated by a belief in the supernatural. Every civilization until the current one has understood that live humans are not the only intelligent life on the planet. For almost all of its entire history, humans have believed in the very real existence of gods, spirits, ghosts, fairies, elves… and they have recorded encounters with them. Current society, the “real world” we live in, officially rules out their existence. Our history books presume that the gods of ancient times did not really exist. The people who served them were superstitious primitives with fanciful imaginations. The ancient humans were not as developed as us. They were unenlightened by science and their understanding of the natural world was crude. It’s funny, on the other hand, how crude primitives can pulloff the architectural marvels that our ancestors did, building pyramids and temples and cities to a standard that we cannot

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duplicate today. The point I am making is simple: The belief held by our “real world” - that we are alone on the planet - is by far the exception rather than the rule. It is arrogant, inaccurate and illogical to assume that every civilization before the current one was mentally inferior. Three. Officially, the “real world” does not acknowledge the genuine existence of the supernatural, but the experience of individuals is somewhat different. Many people in our day can report a weird supernatural experience that happened either to them or someone they know. If you quiz them they will swear black and blue that dead Aunt Joan really sat on the end of the bed and spoke, or that the curtains moved even when the windows were closed, or that the clairvoyant knew uncanny details she should not have. Officially, events like this are ignored. Humans are taught to scoff or to be blind to the evidence. The individuals who experienced these happenings must have been mad. It was a trick of the light, a short circuit in the brain, smoke and mirrors. They were misled. But there are too many reports, too many sightings and individual experiences for it to be a glitch. There’s too much evidence about the supernatural and it has to be accounted for. The “real world” is not real. It has been fabricated. What you have been led to believe is “normal” is not normal at all. The human race is in the middle of something huge. It’s a conspiracy, and the leaders of the conspiracy don’t want to be revealed. But what, exactly, is going on?

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What do you believe? It’s fine to ask questions, and you can swap anecdotes and opinions for as long as you want. Most individuals will agree. Something is going on. Something outside of the reach of science, but they don’t know what it is. Curiously, if you try to nail down exactly what it is, you often meet one of two responses. They’ll either shrug indifferently or they’ll suddenly become very stiff and defensive, “Who knows?” they’ll snap. “Who really knows enough to come to any worthwhile conclusions?” All of this supernatural stuff is fascinating, but it is not the most important issue. The most important issue facing humans is that they are mortal. Death is inescapable. Many people ignore this issue and push it down deep, hoping it will go away. They are afraid of death and what it might mean, afraid of the unknown. This fear, I suspect, is the reason why many people do not want to delve too deeply into supernatural occurrences, or are reluctant to nail down any conclusions. When you start talking about supernatural stuff, you eventually end up on the topic of death. When you ask about someone’s beliefs, you are essentially asking their opinion about death. Is life a totally natural occurrence that comes to a final end, and nothing more? Or is there something supernatural about life – so that a person is somehow conscious after they die? Who would know? If you want to find the answers, what you need is a good place to begin. You need a something you can trust in, something

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you can put your weight down on. Something that is reliable. Something that has authority. If you found a place like that to begin, you would expect that what you found from there would be quite different from what the “real world” says. Your beginning point would have to have its roots somewhere outside the “real world” so it would not be a part of the conspiracy itself. Where do you begin? What can you trust? Many people trust their hearts to guide them. “If my heart believes it, then it must be true,” they say. At first examination, this idea seems reasonable. Your feelings and your intuition are such a deep part of you that they would never lie. If there really were a conspiracy, then your heart would be out of harm’s way. But look closer, and you will see that this idea does not make complete sense. Many people hide behind masks and live a lie, because their heart fears what might happen if they come out into the open and begin living authentically. In this case, their heart is not their ally. It is holding them back. Mothers and fathers “follow their hearts”, abandoning their wives and devastating their children for a new girlfriend. Your heart is not necessarily on your side. Your feelings and intuition do not always tell you the truth. The conspiracy has driven its tendrils deep into your very identity. Your heart may hold the questions, but it does not hold the answers. Your heart is not a good place to begin. It will not explain the supernatural happenings on Planet Earth. It will not guide you into all truth. The answers do not lie within. The place to begin must be outside your self. The answers must come from without. But not only must this source be reliable, it must also be relevant. In other words, it’s got to account for the supernatural climate. It’s got to have the answers.

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Where in the world would you find a source like that? What would you put your trust in? Science, we are told, is trustworthy. Science is based on the assumption that every event has a rational and natural cause, so that if we replicate these causes, the event will take place. What does science say about the supernatural, about life and death? Science is concerned with what is natural, not what is supernatural. Thus many scientists believe that life had a natural beginning. Millions of years ago chemicals in a warm pool came to the right temperatures and concentrations and life spontaneously generated. Over millions of years, this simple life form reproduced and adapted to the environment, evolving into more and more complex organisms. Most civilized humans accept the theory of evolution as a given fact. It is what they were taught in school. It is what they are told on the six-o’clock news. The theory of evolution is largely responsible for the “real world’s” official denial of the supernatural. According to evolution, the idea that there is life beyond death has absolutely no grounds. Life is a totally natural thing, and so is death. There is no hope of anything beyond the grave. There is no such thing as luck or fate or destiny. There is only probability. There is no right or wrong, there is only survival of the fittest. Science has its uses, but it makes no sense of anything supernatural, except to deny that the supernatural exists. It either denies the evidence, or it calls into question the sanity of the person who had the supernatural experience. The theory of evolution is not as solid as you might believe.

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Trends in research show that the theory is becoming less and less plausible. Life is too complicated to have come about by sheer accident. The fact that so many people report supernatural events calls the whole thing into question. If the theory of evolution is true, then there is no way dead Aunt Joan could be at the end of your bed. Science is not a good place to begin. I found the Book. The “real world” doesn’t take much notice of the Book. One of the standard lines is that “the Book can be made to say just about anything. It’s all a matter of interpretation.” If you hear someone saying this, you can be sure of one thing: They haven’t actually read the Book for themselves. Can the Book be trusted? Does it have the answers? The Book is thousands of years old. Throughout its history it has been recognised as a precious document. It has been handcopied and translated by desperate men in locked rooms. It has been hidden in coat linings and bolts of cloth and smuggled beyond city walls. There have been times when owning even a page of the Book was enough to warrant death, yet each page was considered so precious that their owners would go without food, without clothes in order to read its words. It has been committed to memory in prison cells. Tens of thousands of people have gone through hardship to keep the Book from being stamped out. Many people throughout the ages have given their lives for the Book. The fact that you can hold a copy of the Book in your hand bears witness to a long legacy of people before you. The Book is dangerous. It is life changing. Many humans

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throughout history sincerely believed it to be genuine. But sincerity is no test. The fact that thousands of people died trying to preserve the Book has absolutely no connection to its reliability. Simply believing in a thing does not make it real. What we need is evidence. Facts. Did the events written in the Book really happen? There is one historical event that the Book stands or falls on. If this event never took place, then the Book is nothing more than scratchings on a page and the people who preserved it are fools and liars. But if this event did take place, then the Book deserves a hearing. It is Jesusâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; return from death. Did Jesus actually come back to life after being killed? The Book claims that he did. It says that Jesusâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; death was confirmed when a Roman spear was thrust through his chest cavity and into his heart. The writer who saw this event stakes his entire reputation on it. The Book also says that after Jesus returned to life, his twelve apprentices saw him on one occasion and more than five-hundred people on another. Jesus ate food. He touched people. He was really alive. Apart from the Book itself, a crushing weight of evidence shows that Jesus existed and that he was executed on a cross. He is discussed, for example, by historians Josephus and Tacitus, neither of whom believed in him or knew the significance of his death. No human witnessed the moment when Jesus returned to life. It happened inside a sealed tomb.

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However, history tells of the very rapid multiplication of people who believed in Jesus. The message that he had survived death was proclaimed very soon after his death – too soon for it to have been a legend. Neither could his return to life be a cleverly invented lie, for history confirms that the spread of the message happened in that first generation. If it were a lie, then we would expect to have records of eyewitnesses who protested the truth loud and long. The Book tells a strange story about Jesus. But as unusual as it sounds, the Book displays all the characteristics of a reliable historical document. Its flavour is quite different to mythology or legend. The accounts of witnesses seeing and touching Jesus after his death are as genuine as anything else in ancient history. Did Jesus really come back to life? There will always be people who will claim that Jesus did not come back to life. In my opinion, they are not looking clearly at the evidence. Neither are they making sense of today’s supernatural climate. I believe the historical evidence shows that Jesus did come back to life. So what do I do with Jesus? I must do something with him. Any explanation of the supernatural has to make a sense of who Jesus is and how he came back to life. In Jesus, we have a place to begin looking for the answers. A big red cross marks the spot and says “Dig Here.” The evidence makes me suspect that Jesus’ teachings and ideas are very important, especially since the government of his day considered him so dangerous that they wanted him eliminated.

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That makes the Book important – not just the parts that record Jesus’ words and ideas, but the whole lot. Although he comes in as Jesus about two-thirds of the way through, Jesus claimed that he was the same character who the Book starts with on page one, and he also claimed that he is the same character who promises to return to Earth at the Book’s end. Jesus’ return to life makes me suspect that the Book, complete with its strange history and its supernatural explanations, is onto something. It holds an explanation about life and death, why we are here and what is going on. There are still parts of the Book I do not understand, but I can see that it’s all connected. It’s all one piece, one intricately woven piece. I decided that the Book was trustworthy. Jesus’ return to life was the place to begin, and the Book was the place to go next. It was from the Book that I wrote everything you have read here. Do I really know what is going on? Can I account for the supernatural happenings that are going on around us? I think so. Does the Dragon really control a Planet that is not rightfully his? I believe so. Will the Empire soon invade? There’s enough evidence to convince me that Iahweh keeps his promises. What will you believe? You must seek out the evidence and weigh it for yourself. * * * The genie of Roma fell about four hundred years ago. His Organisation, of course, is the Christian Church that dominated Europe throughout the Middle Ages. We live in the eye of the storm. The Organisation’s hijack of the regenerates has passed, and the final cataclysm is yet to come,

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when the last great deception of the Dragon hisses through the Earth. Or perhaps it has already begun. Something dreadful happened to the true regenerates during the 1,260 years of the Organisation’s reign. Our power was broken. We lost our strength. We have almost completely forgotten the skill of perceiving the Moving Stillness. We do not know how to be led by him, and instead most of us are confounded by the Device. We are not invisible to the Ginn, and our efforts to spread the message of the invading Empire are thwarted. In short, most of us are babies. We have come through the Door and been regenerated, but we don’t even know about growing up. Instead of setting out inland into the deep heart of the Empire, we shake and shiver near the border. Most of us are ignorant about our identity. We do not know our history. We have no inkling about the size of our inheritance or the powers that are available to us through the Moving Stillness. Jesus promised that his Empire would not invade until every group of earthmen had been forewarned. If the regenerates are going to broadcast that warning successfully, then something drastic will have to happen within us. The Moving Stillness lingers over the regenerates, calling us to maturity, whispering adventure. Some of us are listening, and we are venturing into terrain that has been vacant for generations. The ancient “Fellowship of the Moving Stillness” is being rebuilt in and among us. We are reclaiming the secret wisdom of the Empire. We are learning again to heft our swords. As the Book says, “In the Final Season I will pour out my Moving Stillness on all

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people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Yes, on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Moving Stillness in those days, and they will prophesy.â&#x20AC;? Yet we are not the only forces being mobilised. Even now, the Ginn are at work in the shadows, behind the leaders of governments, corporations, banks, churches. They are pulling strings, manipulating history, jockeying for position, preparing to defend Planet Earth against the invasion. The Final Season is coming - a time unparalleled in dread.

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C ha p t e r T w e l v e

The Final Season

The Book contains many prophecies about the Final Season, the time just before the Empire invades. Some of these prophecies are clear. They can be understood at surface level. Other prophecies are difficult and need to be studied in more depth. Just like the prophecies of the Great Event, those about the Final Season and the invading Empire will only be thoroughly understood after they have been completely fulfilled. For this reason, students of prophecy must keep a fresh eye. It is dangerous to assume that you understand exactly what a prophecy means. That is not to say studying the prophecies is a waste of time. The Book says, â&#x20AC;&#x153;You will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns...â&#x20AC;?

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Clear or difficult, the prophecies need to be mined deeply. They must be studied so deeply that it is almost like they are eaten and digested. What you will read over the next few pages is based in my study of the prophecies. My understanding of the Book is always growing so I cannot promise that it is complete. Read this chapter as an introduction. When you are finished, I suggest you begin to explore the Book for yourself. It is important not to base your understanding of the Final Season on second-hand information * * * You awake. You lie there in the darkness for a few moments, waiting for the alarm to tell you what you already know. It’s another day, another stepping out into the unknown. You don’t know exactly what this day will bring, but you are looking forward to it with expectancy. You’ve been a student of the Moving Stillness for long enough to understand how he teaches, how he leads. Whether this day has its challenges, or whether it passes easily, you know that you are a child of the Most High Elohim. The alarm clock rings. You shut it off and as per usual, you open your copy of the Book and read a page or two. You take some time to meditate on it, jot down a few notes. Then via the dimensions of the Moving Stillness, you communicate with your father, the Most High Elohim, and give him permission to do whatever he wants with you.

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As you continue your morning routine of washing, eating and dressing the thought strikes you. Maybe today will be the day! The TV fires up with the early morning news bulletin; More pictures from the latest natural disaster, a report on a foreign election, and a house fire a few suburbs away. You know some people who cry Wolf at every major event. There’s a new war, a fresh rumour, a famine or an earthquake. “This is it”, they say. “The Final Season is here”. But it’s not, and life rolls on. Haven’t they read the Book? Haven’t they seen where Jesus says, “Don’t be alarmed. These events must take place. The end is yet to come.” No, it won’t be today. But when will it be? As you go about your daily business, you remind yourself of what you know. There are differences between what the news bulletins tell you and what is taking place. But how wide is the gap between the two? What is really going on? Sometimes the real history of Planet Earth finds its way into the newspapers and the hourly bulletins, but not often. How long will it be before the real history of Planet Earth erupts through the surface and into the consciousness of the everyday man? It’s only in the Book that you can see the significance of your era. Over two thousand years have passed since the Great Event. In that time, the Dragon’s world has matured. The rebels—the Dragon, his Ginn and his earthmen—have become completely evil, for the Absurdity has grown, ripened. The Dragon cannot help but show his true colours.

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The creature who was once a noble friend of Iahweh, a free being with the universe at his feet, is now a crazed warlord, banished to Planet Earth. But surely there must be some way to continue the fight. His madness must be quenched. He must find something to do, someone to hurt. A victim. He cannot touch the Elohim, and he cannot raise his throne above the Most High, But there are his children! Yes. There are his children. Since the fall of the genie of Roma, the regenerates have returned in number. They are not terribly influential, for their power has been broken, but they are like a burr under his shirt. They are irritating, a constant discomfort. The time has come for them to be destroyed, once and for all. The time has come to make war against them. This is what the Book says. Except the “them” is actually “us”. You are one of the children of the Most High. It is you and your brothers and sisters the Dragon wants to eliminate. You don’t know many other regenerates. It seems there are a lot of people who can “talk the talk”. They use the name of Jesus and they claim to be very busy working for him and busy in a church, but there is something about them that makes you uneasy. They don’t seem to know Jesus. To be absolutely honest, the uneasiness goes both ways. They find you irritating. Even when you don’t open your mouth, you are too intense. When they come up with their brilliant ideas and schemes, they can be pretty sure that you’re going to take issue with them. You’re unsettling, you get in the way of

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progress. So they say “hello” and flash you their teeth and talk about the weather, but that is about as deep as it gets. Are there regenerate children of the Most High among this group? You’re not sure. Jesus told a story about this exact thing. The weeds would grow up with the crop til the very end. Until then it would be almost impossible to distinguish between the two. So it’s not your place to judge. It’s Iahweh’s job to recognise his own. The task he has given you is to carry out the government of the Empire on these people – to love them. There is a handful of people that understand you. They don’t seem to fit in either. You don’t see them all that much, but when you do, you recognise each other almost instantly. It’s like coming home, and there is so much to talk about! You swap adventures. You might be talking to a seventy-five year old woman, but she laughs like a teenager and her eyes sparkle when she tells you how she finally understood what the Moving Stillness has been trying to teach her. You tell one of your friends about something you read in the Book that excited you, and ask them what they think it means. It’s only afterwards that you realise you’ve been conversing with an eleven year old boy. There is an ageless quality about these people. They don’t seem old, but they don’t seem young either. Rich or poor, sick or well, young or old, the thing that binds you together is that you all want to know Iahweh for who he is, to push deeper into his heart. Together you try to understand and unravel what the Book says about the Final Season. This is what you gather: Somewhere in the dimensions of Planet Earth, invisible to the naked eye, there is a genie, humbled, destroyed, alone. He has no power, no influence and no authority. If the other ginn

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remembered him, they would shun him, but they do not, for he has outlived his usefulness. But the Dragon remembers, for the Dragon has a task for him. The Dragon calls up the ancient genie, summons him, lavishing gifts on him the likes of which has never been seen. The Dragon gives this genie his throne and his authority. In exchange for the throne the ancient genie must do one thing. He must wipe the regenerates off the face of the planet. Every single one is to be destroyed. So Jove, the genie of Roma, returns to power. What does this mean for the visible dimensions? What does it mean for earthmen? As you study the Book, you are convinced that you are reading that the same organization that dominated Europe during the Middle Ages is coming to life. Somewhere, behind closed doors there are politicians, diplomats and churchmen who are responding to the influence of a mighty genie and being bent to his will. It sounds like a conspiracy theory. It’s not politically correct, and it’s downright strange. You share your ideas with others. Some are interested, but most dismiss your ideas as ludicrous. There are some who are openly hostile. “There’s a non-human race controlling politicians? You’ve got to be crazy.” When you tell them that these ideas came straight out of the Book, they snort. “The Book can be made to say just about anything.” So you keep the ideas to yourself. Yet this is exactly what the book teaches. Whether you can see it or not, whether it is displayed on the six-o’clock news or not, it is happening. According to The Book the genie of Roma’s

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influence among men is subtle to begin with. A handful of earthmen are lured and become his puppets. But he chooses them well, or perhaps they are attracted to his character, because like him they are poker-faced masters of intrigue. Diplomats. Politicians. Ever so slowly, his tiny but powerful Organisation comes to strength, the Book says. Painstakingly but quietly his earthmen are groomed and inched into places of authority. Maybe the genie of Roma is already here! If you chose, you could spend your life scanning the newspapers for any signs of the genie of Roma, surfing the internet, watching documentaries. But your focus is not on this at all. Your focus is on simple things: Reading your Book and meditating on the teachings of Jesus, spending time via the Moving Stillness in the presence of your father, talking to him, listening for him. Of all people, the ones who do not understand you the most are the ones who speak the name of Jesus but do not obey his teachings. They think you’re wasting your time. * * * Then one day you turn on the TV and it’s there. “The world is at war”, they say. “We are in peril. We are destroying each other, both in the battlefield and in the home. As long as our history books recall, the human family has been divided. But why? If we do not act soon, we will self-destruct and there will be nothing left!” They speak for peace, for unity. They are sincere and well meaning. This promise of peace has come from the strangest

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quarter. The Organisation that ruled for 1,260 years, the socalled “Christian Church” of the middle ages has returned. The New Organisation! Herald of a dawning age, monument to what humanity will one day be. You go to work, school, your sports club. Everyone’s talking about the New Organisation. “I always thought Church was irrelevant.” They say. “And now it’s just come from nowhere with the solution to the world’s ills” People are enthralled by the New Organisation. Suddenly, everyone’s talking about their beliefs. “I’ve always considered myself a spiritual person.” They say. “I’ve always believed in Something…” Your heart beats faster. Maybe now they will understand what you have wanted to explain all along – about the Door and the Invading Empire and the Book and the children of the Most High Elohim. “Have you thought about this…” But everyone has become an expert. “It’s the only way”, they say, parroting the media-releases. “Human civilization is about to rise above its dirty cities and broken promises. You’ve got to believe.” The message of the New Organisation is simple. “For the good of peace, for the good of civilization, for the good of freedom,” they say, “we must unite. There must be global harmony.” It’s sounds new, but it’s not. The New Organisation is simply reviving a project long-abandoned. The city of Bab-El is being rebuilt. But this time Bab-El will not be fashioned from bricks and mortar. It will be formed in the minds and written into the hearts of earthmen, for it is a philosophy, an idea, a government.

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Earthmen leap at the opportunity. After thousands of years of treading water, mankind is about to catapult itself into the next level of enlightenment. Mankind is about to evolve. Without bloodshed, the New Organisation peacefully spreads its wings, extending its shadow across the face of the planet. Not everyone is convinced. Many earthmen resist the New Organisation. “You have no right to control us!” they say. “We’re fine. We don’t need to change. We are happy and comfortable. Leave us alone!” Media syndicates choose sides, either for or against the New Organisation. Both sides make sense in their own way. As pressure is applied, the population of earth falls into two camps: Those who side with the New Organisation and those who do not. The New Organisation has come to power, but it has a problem. It has invented itself as a peaceful warrior. It does not have the military might to bring about the future it speaks of. It cannot enforce its ideas. So history cannot go forward. It has stalled. Those who believe in the New Organisation find themselves in a desperate situation. You take it upon yourself to explain about the genie of Roma and the prophecies in the Book, about the Bab-El project and how insidiously evil it is, but it’s as if you are speaking a foreign language. Most people look at you like you’re an idiot. You meet with your regenerate friends. “Are we crazy?” you ask one another. “Maybe we’ve been wrong all along.” It seems like a distinct possibility. You need a reality check. Once again you pore over the prophecies, looking for clues – something you have missed.

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Daniel’s last prophecy talks about two groups. The North and the South. As you piece together the complicated message, you begin to make sense of what is happening. The prophecy tells the story of a great war. It began hundreds of years ago, immediately after Zeus of Greece was knocked off his perch. Four of his underlings tried to maintain his kingdom. One of them claimed the territory of the South – that broken land that had once been the incubator for Iahweh’s people, and another had claimed the North. But Jove, the yet-unknown genie of Roma, came to power and took the North. Consequently, he invaded the South. Because he was stronger, the Southern Ginn were forced to give in. The relationship between North and South was complicated. It seems that the Southern Ginn spread out over the planet, but they still maintained their identity. They were the South, and they hated anything that was Northern. But Jove had stumbled and fallen. He had lost his control of earthmen. They had jumped in, and had carefully crafted their civilization. They had brought their earthmen to a state where they barely even acknowledge the existence of the supernatural let alone the need for religion. They had grown bloated and fat. A juicy target. Now Jove has unexpectedly returned. His is an unwelcome intrusion. His is a small force that is quickly growing, and he is returning to power. He and his New Organisation belong to the North. The earthmen who are opposing the New Organisation are

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those who are ruled by the Southern ginn. The prophecy does not just talk about North and South, it speaks of a third group, sandwiched in the middle. Although small in number, this third group is the real target of the whole scheme. It is the regenerates. The North and the South are deadly enemies. They hate one another fiercely, for they are ginn-controlled and driven by the Device. But on a higher level they are allies. Both North and South owe allegiance to the Dragon. Both hate the Elohim and his Empire. The entire North-South battle is a performance to bring the regenerates out into the open where they can be killed. The Southern Ginn may be unwilling participants, but they are playing their part to perfection. Time passes. Maybe it’s weeks, maybe it’s months. The genie of Roma goes to war against the South. His New Organisation begins a campaign to spread its influence over all peoples on Planet Earth. The Southern ginn fight back, as is their appointed task, and their earthmen resist. Somehow, the attack fails. It’s uncanny. Nobody seems to know why. The New Organisation is outraged. How did it fail? They need someone to blame, someone to take the fall. “There are people”, they say, “Who do not stand for the human race. They are old fashioned. They cannot see reason. They will not move forward, and they have been speaking against us since the very beginning.” The limelight turns. It focuses. On you. Strangers look at you sideways. Your neighbours send letters about you to the editor of the local newspaper. “No”, you cry out. “It’s all part of the plan! The New Organisation

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engineered the whole thing. They sabotaged themselves! It’s all written in the Book.” But nobody’s listening. As the months pass, you become more isolated. Your workmates and schoolmates scorn you. The only people who will talk with you are the other regenerates. Your ties with them become stronger. It is not enough. North and South must fight and merge, forcing the regenerate children of the Most High Elohim into the open like pus from a wound. As in ancient times, the Elohim’s people find themselves sandwiched between the two most powerful Ginn forces on the Planet. To the north is Jove, pushing outwards, trying to conquer everything that opposes him. To the south are Jove’s luxurious opponents, as still and dangerous as a sick dog. A second time, Jove sets out to take control of the Southern Ginn and their earthmen. A second time he is thwarted. It’s all going exactly to plan. You study the Book, trying to piece together the prophecies. They are so complicated at this point that even Daniel who received them said, “I was appalled at the vision, it was beyond understanding…” – and he was considered the wisest man of his time. The Book says that the genie of Roma has been advancing in another direction apart from South. It seems that he has been pushing skywards, towards the home of the Elohim. According to the prophecies, the army of the Empire stands in his way. Yet Jove is not put off. He meets them in battle, throws some of them to the earth and tramples on them.

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Jove advances on the Elohim’s own dwelling. He breaks in. He seizes the Elohim’s possessions as his own, and replaces them with his own imitations. He sets himself up in the Elohim’s home declaring madly, “I am the Elohim! I am the Elohim!” That, at least, is what the prophecy says. What it means for the Elohim, we are not absolutely sure. But its corresponding events among earthmen are devastating. The Book says that at this time, the New Organisation will do something horrendous. So horrible will it be, and so against the Elohim’s Empire that the Book simply calls this horrible thing the Devastation’s Abomination. For years you have wondered what the Devastation’s Abomination is. Exactly what it will be or how it will come, the regenerates have never known. In the Old Tongue, the phrase peals like a doom bell. Abomination. A totally perverted representation of the Elohim. Devastation. Empty and hopeless as a wind-whipped desert. It’s the type of thing that you can say, “When you see it, you’ll know it.” Jesus identified the Devastation’s Abomination as the turning of the tide. He knew that there would be wars and natural disasters in the lead-up to the invasion of the Empire and his advice was “Do not be alarmed. These things must happen.” It is only when the Devastation’s Abomination comes that Jesus changes his tone: “When you see the Devastation’s Abomination”, he says, “then it’s time to flee to the mountains. Let no-one on the roof of his house go down to take anything out of the house. Let no-one in the field go back to get his cloak.” (I’m not completely sure of what the Devastation’s Abomination

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is either, but for what it’s worth, my understanding is this.) One evening you are watching TV. A news bulletin breaks into your show with the announcement, “We interrupt this program to bring you breaking news from Roma.” Cameras flash as the head of the New Organisation comes to the microphone. “God.” He begins, letting the word hang in the air. “God is.” More cameras flash. The genie controlled head of the New Organisation has everyone’s attention. “God is peace. God is love. God is the answer to the plight of humankind. But God is not as distant as we once thought.” He meets the eyes of the reporters, looking for recognition. “For hundreds of thousands of years, we humans have sensed God. From the mouths of their caves our ancestors stared out at the stars and sensed God. We sensed God, so we invented religion. As crude as our religions were, and as faltering and naïve as our beliefs and ritual may have been, there was truth in them, for they preserved us, protected us, they kept us safe during the long winter of our evolution. “There are many traditions. Our tradition holds high the story of Jesus. It’s important for us, for his story is the story of a community who believes in peace and togetherness.” But the time has come for the egg to hatch. The time has come to throw off religion with its superstition and fantasy and take hold of reality. We must not be embarrassed, nor must we be afraid. For our concept of “God” has only ever been a symbol. There

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is a deeper reality behind God. A Higher Reality. And now the myths, the longings and the superstitions of primitive man have finally found their true fulfilment.” The head of the New Organisation has tears in his eyes. “God is with us,” he says, nodding his head. “God is in us. The time has come for the human race to accept its identity. To grow up. For we have become that thing our ancestors longed for as they stared out at the stars. We have become God. We have become God, and it’s time for us to live like Him.” You watch in horror. It’s not just an empty speech. There is more. The leader of one of the most powerful nations on earth comes to a second microphone. He makes another speech. He believes in the New Organisation. This future that it speaks of must happen. The New Organisation has twice tried to usher in the age of peace, but it has been thwarted. There are enemies of freedom. His nation, therefore, will lend the New Organisation the power of its government and its military, until its wishes are fulfilled. This is the day. This is what you have been waiting for. The Devastation’s Abomination has come, and the tide has turned. The props are being kicked away so that the only security you have is that Iahweh is weaving his story into yours and guiding your path. You flee. The Book says that, at this time, there will be great distress, unequalled from the beginning of the world until now - and never to be equalled again. One of your regenerate friends owns a property a long way out of town. If you go there, you will be out of harm’s way – at least

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for the moment. Over the next few days, more regenerates come to the property, bringing news. Some have narrowly escaped mobs. Others have been beaten, had their cars torched and their houses burned to the ground. But you don’t remain in hiding. You make trips into towns and cities, shouting out the message of the invading Empire. No, you say. “It’s so wrong! So logical, yet its assumptions are incorrect. Absurd. How can you speak out the truth in the face of such garbage! Life on earth did not evolve; It was made up by Iahweh. The ideas you hear are riddled with rot. Don’t follow! Many people are ripe for your message. Swarms of earthmen find the Door and are regenerated. Others who were followers of Jesus in name only take the Devastation’s Abomination as a wake-up call. They realise how desperately they need the power of the Moving Stillness, and they renew their surrender to Iahweh. More people come to your property. Some, in fact, are those people who used to find you irritating. They are shy and quiet. The hard shell has gone. They tell you their story – how they assumed that if they kept busy and worked hard, they were doing the work of Jesus. They tell you of their bitterness and disappointment when nothing turned out like they planned. They tell you of their realisation and their hope when they realised that Jesus did not want to be worked for, he simply wanted to be known. Many of their friends and family have fallen away. They have sided with the New Organisation.

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Reports from around the world are coming in. The regenerates are being marginalised and harassed. You are being labelled as terrorists, as enemies of the state. Yet you are strange enemies, for you use neither force nor fear. Your crime is that you speak what you know about Jesus. You know exactly what is going on. There is a prophecy in the heart of the last part of the Book that speaks of another genie, another nation. This nation seems as innocent as a lamb, yet it speaks with the tongue of a dragon. This is the government who is lending its power to the New Organisation. To the ears of most people, the alliance between these powers sounds like a good idea, but the prophecy says it will be a fatal decision. Earthmen have no idea what they are doing. The second nation begins to enforce the New Organisation’s rule. It makes earthmen worship the New Organisation. Jove, the genie of Roma, has reached the height of his power. He can do just as he pleases. No one can stop him, not even the Southern Ginn. The Southern ginn recognise the threat and rouse themselves for a ferocious attack. But it’s too late. They are overrun and they fall, never to return. * * * The fall of the South marks the beginning of the Final Season of earth’s history. The shadow of the New Organisation expands, covering the entire earth. It speaks its absurd mumbo-jumbo, but to the earthmen its message seems so grand. They hang off its every

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word. Now that he is in complete control, the genie of Roma sets out to complete his original task. He will totally destroy the regenerates. You are in hiding now. Your life is more simple than it has ever been. It is a life of trust, of hope. There are times when you don’t know where your next meal will come from or if you will survive a maddened mob to see morning. But you know that Iahweh is in control. It is he who steers your destiny, not mobs and not earthmen. Even if you are killed, death will only be a short sleep. History takes a strange turn. Scientists from the powerful nation start experimenting in a new field. Magic. They don’t call it magic, they have a better name that sounds more scientific. Openly, before crowds of millions, they display supernatural power. “It’s evidence”, says the six-o’clock news, “That we are on the right track.” Earthmen believe! In turn, the powerful nation deepens its control. “We must draw up a new constitution.” It says. “We need a new government – a universal government - that will operate on the philosophies of the New Organisation: Love, peace, unity, true humanity – true godliness” for to become truly human is to become God. So important is this new constitution, and so complete will the government of the New Organisation be, that those who oppose it will be executed. There is only one group who protests. The regenerates. Finally, the genie of Roma has them in his crosshairs.

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When preparations are complete, the nation who supports the New Organisation breathes power into the new government. It will soon be absorbed by this new government, as will all other nations and peoples. But it has one final order: All inhabitants of earth must be processed and registered with the new government. Each individual must prove their allegiance to the New Organisation and its ideals. Registration is not optional. Those who refuse are the enemies of peace. They will be frozen out of the economy, neither able to buy or sell, until they are hunted down and executed. From your hideout, you hear the plans. The newer regenerates among you are afraid. “There is no escape. We’re doomed!” They say. “No”, you reply. “It’s all going to work out.” You take your worn copy of the Book and explain the prophecy to them: The Book calls this registration “The Mark of the Beast” or “666”. “I’ve heard about that on movies,” they say. “But I never knew what it meant.” A close study of the prophecies show that the Mark is very subtle, highly insidious. Some students of the Book have noticed an uncanny pattern in the prophecy: The nation that enforces the rule of the New Organisation is not original in its orders. He is creating a counterfeit. He is imitating Iahweh’s written Code. According to this pattern, the Mark is an imitation of the fourth part of the Code. The fourth part of the Code is about the Rest day. Every seventh day on Planet Earth was the personal property of Iahweh. His plan was that earthmen would remember it as his property and

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would treat it differently. They were to do no work and have a holiday. If the Mark is an imitation or a counterfeit of the Rest, then registering with the new government and proving allegiance will have something to do with accepting a counterfeit Rest day. You show how the people who take the Mark hope it is something grand, but in fact it is not. In fact, the Book says they get â&#x20AC;&#x153;no restâ&#x20AC;? at all. * * * The history of earthmen is rising to fever pitch. Every person is being forced to make a choice: They can either join with the New Organisation or they can suffer the consequences of death. Any middle ground has evaporated. The majority have no difficulty in agreeing to the Mark. After all, they have chosen the peace, unity and freedom of the dawning age. There is still a minority who oppose the New Organisation. They will not budge and are seen as stubborn and pig-headed. No amount of persuasion will turn them. Into the rising storm they shout their offensive message: Iahweh the Elohim truly exists! He is the creator of Sky and Earth. He is about to step in! Bab-El has crashed. The ideas of the New Organisation are riddled with rot. They are a haven for ginn. Nations that mess with those ideas go mad! If anyone worships the New Organisation or its government or receives his Mark, he will call down terrible results on himself.

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The Moving Stillness broods over the Planet. For the regenerates, the Moving Stillness is a welcome comfort, but for the descendants of the first earthman it causes an internal battle. At this intensity, the Moving Stillness calls them, urges them to make a decision to stand against the New Organisation. Yet the Device deep inside calls them in the opposite direction. Just as the Dragon intended, the regenerates have no place to run, no place to hide. They are being forced out into the open. They will be killed. The strain on earthmen continues to tighten. The veil between natural and supernatural is giving way. The inhabitants of earth look up and see something in the sky that terrifies them. Meteors fall, the sky is darkened. The moon rises blood red and the sun gives no light. Earthmen tremble in fear. They want to hide themselves, to protect themselves from the truth. Deep down, they know. They are not god at all. They are creatures, shaking their fists at the sky. But they push this knowledge deep down where it no longer has the power to alarm them. Now, as always, they find their safety in denial. You also tremble, but for a different reason. You always believed the Empire would physically invade. You always believed Jesus would return. Now that the promise is becoming reality, everything you hoped for is becoming far more real than you expected. Until now, you have only experienced the Elohim via the Moving Stillness. Soon you will see him with your eyes. All that is left to do is to stand firm and not be afraid. The New Organisation is troubled by the omens in the sky. Its denial turns to a deep rage against the regenerates. The history of Planet Earth is paused on the brink, tipping

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precariously and irrevocably towards the future. The deadline has almost come for all inhabitants to take the Mark. Then stillness, just for a moment. A mighty agent calls to four of his companions who stand at the four corners of the earth, “Do not harm the land or the sea or the trees until we put a seal on the foreheads of the servants of the Elohim.” In that pause, agents rush over the face of the earth, marking the regenerates with the Elohim’s sign. Whether newly reborn or mature, the regenerates have made their decision. They have taken notice of the warnings trumpeted from the Sky. They will not worship the New Organisation, for they only have one Overlord, and they will follow him wherever he goes. From this moment, your fate is set. You are about to go through the most terrible period of earth’s history, yet you will remain safe. While the world rages around you, you will stand firm. Then the moment is over. Time resumes its breakneck speed. * * * Earthmen have weighed up their options. They have made their choice. There is no going back. The Mark of the New Organisation falls on the earthmen, sealing their future forever. The Abyss, closed for the thousands of years since the time of Noah’s flood, is opened. Out pour the ancient ginn as numerous as a locust plague. They are dressed for battle, with human faces and long hair, lion’s teeth, iron breastplates; with the thundering sound of wings and tails and stingers like

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scorpions. They boil out so thickly that they obscure the sun. These warmongers have the power to injure earthmen and they inflict so much pain that their victims beg to go to Oblivion, but the Dragon is cruel and will not let them die. Meanwhile, the regenerates stand firm. You are not harmed. Four agents of the Empire, who have been waiting for this very hour, day, month and year are released. They lead two hundred million mounted troops into the battle. Their steeds are just like the locust creatures that poured from the Abyss and their riders’ breastplates are emblazoned in red, yellow and blue. The troops hear the cries of the Dragon’s victims and answer swiftly. They ride throughout the earth, quenching pain, sending earthmen to Oblivion. When they are gone, a full third of the earth’s inhabitants have been destroyed. Where is this era promised by the New Organisation? Perhaps the earthmen are not trying hard enough. Perhaps they are not committed enough to their evolution. The remaining earthmen do the most stupid thing imaginable. They strengthen their bonds with the Ginn and the New Organisation, delving deep into sorcery and witchcraft, bowing lower to the Dragon, and calling out to his Ginn for rescue. But rescue does not come. Evolution does not come. Realisation begins to dawn. The earthmen thought they were superior. They thought their own strength and wisdom would save them. They thought they could evolve, could be enlightened, could become gods. It was a lie.

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They thought they were heralding a new era of peace. But they were summoning hell. Their world is bloating, rotting and disintegrating beneath them. The arrogant promises they spoke to one another ring hollow. They said they were doing right. They said they were acting for the good of humanity, but they were doing the dead opposite. For they are not self-proclaimed gods living in a world of their own invention. They are earthmen, fashioned from mud by the hand of Iahweh. Iahweh, who really exists. Iahweh, who is the only true God. Iahweh, who must be far larger, far wilder, far more real than they ever guessed. And Iahweh is about to turn up. The Dragon’s world has come to the end of the line and its passengers find themselves naked and empty-handed. They are afraid. Iahweh never wanted to control earthmen. He never was a harsh tyrant. Even when the Dragon, his Ginn and the earthmen turned against him, he still did not stand in their way. Far from it! He never wavered from goodness. He never gave up on love. The truth is, even when Iahweh’s enemies hate him the most, even now, when the Dragon’s world is disintegrating under its own foul weight, Iahweh will not steal their freedom. Iahweh, the powerful. Iahweh, the wild and free. Iahweh, the upright and good. He can speak worlds into existence. He can plot the course of the stars. But he cannot make his people love him. The genie of Roma is practical.

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His New Organisation is

crumbling beneath him. In a moment he and his companions break all ties with their earthmen, leaving them to their own fate. The New Organisation and its new government suddenly realises how false and how absurd their own teachings are. In a frenzy, they turn on their own philosophies, rip them to shreds and expose them. The Bab-El project is finished. Stripped of the comfort of denial, the earthmen are confronted with cold hard reality. They have spent their lives on a pointless cause. What is the purpose in going on? Why bother with buying and selling? Why bother with anything at all? Yet they have made their decision. Out of spite, they will oppose Iahweh to the bitter end. They will drink their poison to the last choking drop. The lies are exposed and the economy collapses, suddenly and totally. Vast fortunes are lost in an instant. Hungry debts are forgotten forever. In one moment the governments, companies, churches and corporations of the world have the rug pulled out from under them. There is no longer any need for you to hide. Somehow, you have come through the terror unscathed. You go to the cities to see for yourself. Burned out cars line the streets. Shopping malls are empty. Businessmen in suits sit in the gutter and follow you with their eyes as they pass. The New Organisation calls its new government together and shares its plan. They will make one last stand against Iahwehâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Empire. The Battle of Armageddon is here. And so they plot together.

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C ha p t e r Thir t e e n

New Beginning

You wait. You and the other regenerates are bold and strong. While the world falls apart around them, you enjoy the peace and rest that comes from knowing Iahweh, the master-planner of history. He acts in his universe with skill and grace. He has woven his story into yours. He has not forgotten you. You lift your eyes to the Sky. It will be any day now. Then it happens. The remains of the veil separating natural from supernatural give way and the two worlds collide. The earth lurches in a thunderous earthquake. Cities collapse. Tidal waves surge across the planet. Somehow, you remain unscathed. “Look up!” say your friends. “Look up!” You cover your eyes and search the sky. Not that much searching has to be done. From one side to the other, the sky is filled. An alien army is in orbit around Planet Earth. The night sky is turned to day by their brilliance.

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The Empire has invaded. They approach, streaking towards the planetâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s surface. Billions, trillions of agents. You know from the Book that Jesus - the Word of the Elohim, the mastermind of history - is at their head. He is dressed for battle. Just as he promised generations before, he has returned to claim what is rightfully his. A long, pure note is sounded. It is a trumpet, calling the agents of the Empire to battle. But it is also calling them to victory. The trumpet blast echoes around Planet Earth. The enemies of Jesus find the sound terrible. It twists their stomachs, and rips away any last shred of illusion. Missiles streak skyward carrying their nuclear payload. Dirty bombs are launched. The New Organisation and his government are fighting back. You hear the trumpet too. The sound is aweful, in the old sense of the word. Awesome. It calls to you with sweet alien tongue, blisteringly powerful, washing over you like a hot wave. The note of the trumpet fades away. You shake your head, clearing it of the sound. But something feels different. Your body is lighter, easier. It moves smoothly and powerfully. What has happened? Then it hits you: The Book says that that when the last trumpet is sounded, you will inherit a new body. No longer will it be made of the stuff of the earth, patterned after the first earthman, it will be made of the stuff of the Sky, just like your older brother Jesus. No longer will the Device fight for control of you. It is gone, and gone forever. Just like Iahweh intended in the beginning, the Code and the Moving Stillness and your will work smoothly together. This is exactly what has happened. You are totally free!

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At the sound of the trumpet, graves burst open. All those who have claimed Jesus’ Oblivion as their own - the sleeping regenerates - come to life. Their bodies are different too. The graves beside them, belonging to earthmen who chose not to come through the Door, remain deathly still. The weapons of the earthmen are still streaking towards the armies of the Empire. You watch their smoke trails. Then another sound – a voice, calling out in ancient tongue. Jesus - the Word of the Elohim – is speaking his own name, his own character, his own Word. The Word is powerful at the worst of times. But now the Word is in the mouth of the Word himself, growing in strength, feeding back and multiplying, rising to a crescendo and still rising, ringing clear and true. It sends a shiver up your spine. You must answer that call! In a split second the earthmen fall. The raw presence of Iahweh is too much for them. It washes over them, blisteringly clean, and their misery is quenched in Oblivion. The battle is swift. The weapons of earth do not make a dent. The New Organisation and its allies are overpowered and destroyed, never to rise again. A mighty agent fights his way through to the Dragon, overpowers him and throws him into the Abyss. He closes the shaft to the Abyss and locks it with a key. You are still standing, watching Jesus and his armies approaching. It has all happened so quickly. As you watch, you realise that dots are streaking skywards. Are they more weapons? You look again. No. They are people – flying! You turn to the person beside you to make comment

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and suddenly realise. Your feet are in midair and the ground is meters below. So the regenerates rise from the earth. Whether you are drawn by the presence of Jesus, or whether you can now soar, the Book does not say. You are flying towards Jesus, streaming towards him, longing to see with your own physical eyes and hear with your own physical ears what you have only ever perceived through the Moving Stillness. It’s the trip of a lifetime! Then you see him. He is not exactly what you expected. He has an unforgettable face, but it is a face that looks just right. His nose is shaped differently from how you imagined and his skin is the wrong colour. He has so much personality that his body can barely contain it. From the way he moves, you can see that he is fierce and wild and unpredictable. Yet there is something else. He is everything that is right and good and noble. Jesus is more than you expected. You’ve never seen him before, but you know him. That fierceness and unpredictability and that goodness – it’s familiar to you. You know him. Then he turns and looks. His eyes meet yours. Your heart pounds in your chest. What will he say to you? His mouth curls into a grin. It’s infectious. You grin back. He smiles and throws his head back in an easy laugh. “Finally!” he says, “Come here and let me have a look at you.” * * * We are the royal family of the Empire, rescued from the world

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of the Dragon. Jesus, our eldest brother, escorts us to the Mountain of theElohim â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the capital city of the universe. He is taking us to meet our father. We come to the throne. It is a solemn meeting, yet a joyful one. In his presence we sing a song that only we know. It is a song about sorrow and happiness, about weeping and laughter, about being lost and found. There we see that Jesus has prepared us a home there, just as he promised. We are, after-all, royalty. The home he has created is absolutely amazing - far beyond anything we had ever imagined. We had no idea it would be so real - so strange on one hand, yet so familiar on the other. You meet people you have only read about; the first earthman and Cheue, Noah, Highfather, Job, Drew, Daniel, Peter and Paul. They tell you their stories â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the parts that were not written in the Book â&#x20AC;&#x201C; and you tell them yours. Years pass. We still remember who we are and where we came from - that we were once rebels on a dark planet, puppets of the Dragon. We remember everything that happened on Earth, but the pain of our memories has gone. Iahweh has woven his own story into our own, and has taken the sting out of our worst miseries, our loneliest, deepest, darkest times. We begin the task of ruling the Empire. We are princes and princesses, the sons and daughters of the Elohim. We look into our history, reviewing the exploits of earthmen, agents and ginn. Again and again we are amazed at the way Iahweh has woven his own story into each of our lives, and the way he tried over and over again to rescue his enemies. We are in awe of

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Iahwehâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s skill, his patience, his goodness, his rightness and his love. Truly, he did not break his own Code or violate any of his creaturesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; freedoms. Decades pass. Centuries. We bask in the Light of Iahweh and let it fill every corner of our being. We had no idea that Life could be this fulfilling, this adventurous, this much fun! * * * Meanwhile, The Dragon sits in his Abyss, mulling over his fate. Of course he blames Iahweh for everything. After all, he was just a victim. How was he to know where the Absurdity would lead? He wants revenge. Then one day, his prison opens. He returns to the realm of earthmen. New York, London, Beijing are all in ruins. But the graves have disgorged a second time, and the cities are again filled with earthmen. People from all ages of history stand beside one another. The Earth is almost unrecognisable. A thousand years of exposure to weather and weeds have destroyed what structures remained. Cities have become jungles. Wild animals roam about freely. The Dragon amasses his earthmen. No longer does he hide behind human governments and powers. He himself becomes their ruler. Earth has suffered a terrible cataclysm, he says, but together they can rebuild from the ruins. The only problem is that a huge cube has landed on the Planet. Some kind of giant spaceship, or a space city. The cube is full of hostile aliens who want to take away their freedom and hold them forever captive in misery. So the Dragon rallies the earthmen and whips them into fury.

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They are so gullible, and they accept his lie so easily. He does not tell them that it was Iahweh who has called them from their graves. They are mobilised for war. They make their way to the huge cube. It is enormous - bigger than huge. One of its corners sits in North Africa. Another of its corners sits in Greece, another in the Caspian Sea, and another on the Persian Gulf. Its sides are well over 2,000 kilometres long, and it is as high as it is wide. Its silhouette can be seen against the sky from Britain and China. Its roof is far above the atmosphere, where long dead satellites circle the planet. It has twelve huge portals - three to a side. It is, in fact, a huge city. The New Halcyon. The city draws the rebellious earthmen like a magnet. They surround it and lay siege to it. Then the last uncloaking of Iahweh occurs. He shows himself to them, appearing above them on a great, white throne. There, the history of the earth and the truth of the Dragon is played out for all to see. It is clear. All along, the Dragonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s desire has been for power power over the natural universe, power over plants and animals, and most importantly, power over the free people. He wanted them to bow to him, to treat him with the same respect and adoration they gave the Elohim. Was not the Dragon beautiful? Did he not walk among the fiery stones? Was he not adorned with every precious gem? But they would not freely bow. They would not treat him like he wanted. They had to be turned.

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He lured them into his own world, his absurd place where wrong was clothed as right, and dark was portrayed as light. It all seemed so innocent to begin with. If only the citizens of the Empire had taken Iahweh at his word in the beginning. One by one, each of the rebels are brought to the truth. They rejected every opportunity Iahweh made to rescue them. In all reality, they do not want to be alive. To live, they must share their universe with Iahweh, but for them Iahweh has become the most terrifying thing in the world. They have been so twisted by the Absurdity that it has driven them mad. In an instant, Planet Earth is washed clean with fire. The heat consumes everything and leaves the surface bare. It is quick and complete. Those earthmen outside the city of New Halcyon welcome Oblivion and it quenches their misery. It is, after all, what they have chosen. The Elohim will not stand in their way. The Dragon is the last creature to go - and then Oblivion itself, and then the Absurdity. The world of the Dragon closes down on itself, eating itself, getting smaller all the time, until suddenly it winks out of existence. * * * And then, when Jesus has defeated the Dragon and his rebels, he will return the Empire to our father. Our eldest brother will have served as the High Emperor of the universe for over threethousand years. Our brother will speak into existence a new Sky and a new Earth. All things will be made new. We will no longer experience Oblivion or mourning, crying or pain, because the old universe will be gone and the new universe will be here. None of us

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will ever be separated from the Elohim again. Nobody will be controlled or manipulated. We will be free. No one will try to find the Absurdity again. No one would be that stupid. There will be forever beginnings and forever endings, but no End. You may be wondering, “If Iahweh has told us in the Book what will happen, why doesn’t the Dragon read the Book for himself and change his plans?” The fact is, the Dragon can read the Book, but he does not understand it. The Book, without the Moving Stillness, is just a book of words. He does not have the benefit of the Moving Stillness. To him, the Book doesn’t make sense. In short, the Dragon knows about the invading Empire, but he has no concept of how much we regenerates really know. I think that even this paragraph you are reading right now confuses him. * * * You awake. You enter New Halcyon by the central portal on the western wall. It is a city made of a huge diamond. It is no wonder the Dragon and his armies could not penetrate it. You make your way to the main thoroughfare of the city, a road made of pure gold, the Book says. It’s not a dead city, it is full of living things. There is a river flowing through the city - through the city and out of it. Birds sing and chase each other, fat, furry creatures waddle across your path. And if you were to follow the river upstream, you would find yourself in the most extraordinary place.

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You pass the garden where the tree of Life grows - its huge trunk split in two and straddling the river. You go further up the river and see the Light directly. This is the Light that shines in the city and takes away its darkness (that is why we say, “There is no night there”). As you follow the river upstream and come close to the Light, you pass through the multitudes of agents, either coming or going from the Elohim’s throne, for the New Halcyon is the new beating heart of the Empire. You have difficulty approaching the Light Himself, not because you are afraid or find it painful, but because it overwhelms you in wonder and delight. As you continue your march towards the Elohim’s throne, you pass beyond the chairs of the twenty-four elders - the lords of their races who sit in the Great Assembly and cannot help but fall before their Overlord and lay down their crowns in adoration. Worshipping Iahweh is the real business of the Great Assembly. The Dragon and his Absurdity interrupted it for a few thousand years, but now it has resumed (being in the Elohim’s presence and worshipping him may seem like a waste of time unless you’ve tasted the Elohim’s presence yourself - but perhaps you have). Perhaps one of these twenty-four elders is the first earthman, finally restored to his rightful place. We do not know. You pass beyond the four living creatures, wise in the Moving Stillness, who also fall before the Elohim in adoration. When you finally come to the throne of the Most High, you also fall down in worship. For although the Most High is your father, the Word is your brother and the Moving Stillness is your companion, the Elohim is still without equal. “Father,” you say, “Where do you wish for me to go today?”

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“My child,” the Most High would reply with a smile, as you are lifted to your feet, “Where do you want to go?” And then you will live, oh son, oh daughter of the Most High, forever. * * * You have passed through the Door, but you are only at the beginning of your journey. Child of the Most High, I write this book to you because you are on the edges of the Empire. The inland journey awaits. You have an eternal future and a fortune that is yours to grow into - a fortune, the Book says, that is unspoilable and unsoilable, and will never fade away. Have you ever thought of living forever? It’s enough to make your brain hurt. Once you have lived for an eternity, there will be an eternity of eternities to go. Get to the end of that, and you would have only just begun.

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