THE SCROLL OF EMOD The writings from olden days tell of strange things and of great happenings in the times of our fathers who lived in the beginning. All men can know of such times is declared in the Book of Ages, but the gods had their birth in events and things which were in the beginning. It is told, in the courtyards, that there was a time when Heaven and Earth were not apart. Truth echoes even there, for Heaven and Earth are yet joined in men. It is written that God once walked the earth with man and dwelt within a cave above a garden where man laboured. God encompasses all that is and cannot be contained in a cave. Look to the Sacred Writings for Truth. It is told that woman made God angry and He took Himself into the sky, removing Heaven from man because of his disgust for woman. It is also told that man offended God by imitating Him. These are tales made by man. This is not wisdom, for the Sacred Writings reveal the Plans of God and these things cannot be as told. It is the talk of the courtyard, it is the knowledge of the outerplace. Men talk of the land of Oben, from whence they came. Not from Oben towards the South came men, for the great land of Ramakui first felt his step. Out by the encircling waters, over at the rim it lay. There were mighty men in those days, and of their land the First Book speaks thus: Their dwelling places were set in the swamplands from whence no mountains rose, in the land of many waters slow-flowing to the sea. In the shallow lakelands, among the mud, out beyond the Great Plain of Reeds. At the place of many flowers bedecking plant and tree. Where trees grew beards and had branches like ropes, which bound them together, for the ground would not support them. There were butterflies like birds and spiders as large as the outstretched arms of a man. The birds of the air and fishes of the waters had hues which dazzled the eyes, they lured men to destruction. Even insects fed on the flesh of men. There were elephants in great numbers, with mighty curved tusks. The pillars of the Netherworld we unstable. In a great night of destruction the land fell into an abyss and was lost forever. When the Earth became light, next day, man saw man driven to madness. All was gone. Men clothed themselves with the skins of beasts and were eaten by wild beasts, things with clashing teeth used them for food. A great horde of rats devoured everything, so that man died of hunger. The Braineaters hunted men down and slew them. Children wandered the plainland like wild beasts, for men and women became stricken with a sickness the passed over the children. An issue covered their bodies which swelled up and burst, while flame consumed their bellies. Every man who had an issue of seed within him and every woman who had a flow of blood died. The children grew up without instruction, and having no knowledge turned to strange ways and beliefs. They became divided according to their tongues. This was the land from whence man came, the Great One came from Ramakui and wisdom came from Zaidor. The people who came with Nadhi were wise in the ways of the seasons and in the wisdom of the stars. They read the Book of Heaven with understanding. They covered their dead with potter’s clay and hardened it, for it was not their custom to place their dead in boxes. Those who came with the Great One were cunning craftsmen in stone, they were carvers of wood and ivory. The High God was worshipped with strange light in places of great silences. They paid homage to the huge sleeping beast in the depths of the sea, believing it to bear the Earth on its back; they believed its stirrings plunged lands to destruction. Some said it burrowed beneath them. In Ramakui there was a great city with roads and waterways, and the fields were bounded with walls of stone and channels. In the centre of the land was the great flat-topped Mountain of God. The city had walls of stone and was decorated with stones of red and black, white shells and feathers. There were heavy green stones in the land and stones patterned in green, black and brown. There were stones of saka, which men cut for ornaments, stones which became molten for cunning work. They built walls of black glass and bound them with glass by fire. They used strange fire from the Netherworld which was but slightly separated from them, and foul air from the breath of the damned rose in their midst. They made eye reflectors of glass stone, which cured the ills of men. They purified men with strange metal and purged them of evil spirits in flowing fire. We dwell in a land of three peoples, but those who came from Ramakui and Zaidor were fewer in numbers. It was the men of Zaidor who built the Great Guardian which ever watches, looking towards the awakening place of God. The day He comes not its voice will be heard. In olden times, when men lived in the ground, there came the Great One whose name is hidden. Son of Hem, Son of the Sun, Chief of the Guardians of Mysteries, Master of Rites and Spoken Word. Judge of Disputes, Advocate of the Dead, Interpreter of the Gods and Father of Fishermen. From the West, from beyond Mandi, came the Great One arrayed in robes of black linen and wearing a head-dress of red. Who taught men the secret of writing and numbers, and measurement of the years? Who taught the ways of the days and months, who read the meaning of clouds and writing of the nightlights? Who taught the preservation of the body? That the soul might commune with the living, and that it might be a doorway to the Earth? Who taught that light is Life? Who taught the words of God, which spoke to men and hid things from them, which stood in the place of Truth for those with understanding? Which spoke to the priests, the scribes and the people differently according to their enlightenment. Who taught that beyond the visible is the invisible, beyond the small the smaller and beyond the great the greater, and all things are linked together in one? Who taught the song of the stars, which now no man knows, and the words of the waters, which are lost? Who taught men to grow corn and to spin, to make bricks and fashion stone after a cunning manner? Who taught men the rituals of sea shells, and the reading of their mysteries and the manner of their speech? Who taught men the nature and knowledge of God, but in the years left to him could not bring them to understanding? Who, then, veiled the great secrets in simple tales which they could remember and in signs which would not be lost to their childrens children? Who brought the Sacred Eye from the distant land and the Stone of Light made of water, by which men see God, and the firestone which gathers the light of the sun before the Great Shrine? He died in the manner of men, though his likeness is that of god. Then they cut him apart, that his body might make fertile the fields, and took away his head, that it might bring them wisdom. His bones they did no paint red, for they were not as those of others. These are the words of the Scared Writings, recorded after the old custom. As they are, so let them be; for that which is recorded remains with you. The stone of Light and the firestone were stolen in the days of disaster and none now knows their resting place, therefore the land is empty.
Posted on: Thu, 27 Feb 2014 23:46:54 +0000
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