..::European domination in the New World proceeded under cover of conversion: natives had to be 'saved,' or be destroyed in the process. The notion that people can be destroyed in order to save them typifies the insane logic of annihilation theology.
Among pre-Christian peoples of Europa, the concept of divine retribution effected in a catastrophic world-ending did not exist... The apocalyptic element was particularly lethal to Europan soul-life because divine retribution is a supra-mundane, male-only proposition, completely alien to cultures rooted in the telluric religion of the Great Goddess.
For such a vision of divine violence to arise and be enacted in any culture, there must be a radical gender split, but the sanity and balance of Europan societies depended on gender harmony.
The apocalypse is not a natural catastrophe, but a supernatural act in which father god asserts supreme power and mother nature plays no role. In other words, apocalyptic judgment is exclusively a patriarchal myth. As such it would have been alien and intimidating to native peoples who lived in matriarchal culture and gender-balanced societies::..
John Lamb Lash
Not In His Image
. . . .
"We share a Keltic soul, you and I...
this world is just an illusion.
As long as we hold that thought dear,
they can't break us,
can't make us endure their reality,
bleak and bloody as it is..."
--The Ghost and Mrs. Muir
* * * *
. . . .
'Obviously...this was an altogether different experience from the last...' Daryl paced before the fire, as Athena reclined upon the sofa's end, somewhat recuperated; whilst Emlyn stayed curled up once more on the sofa's other side.
'This appeared to be...a reality construct created by Athena's musings beforehand. Or, she was cognizant somehow, of an alternate or parallel world, or timeline, and tapped into that. Interesting.'
'It seemed...' Athena ventured, '...altogether real.' Her hand went to her shoulder, 'Much too real. Fantastic though it was.'
Emlyn looked at her, and reached over to pour them more tea.
'Perhaps...we should let Athena rest, Daryl...'
Athena took her tea, but put a hand up. 'No. I need to talk about this! I certainly cannot sleep, or think of anything else now!'
Daryl stopped pacing and stared into the fire, frowning. 'I don't know...can't figure out, what The Cup--does! The first
experience was certainly not of our own making! It took us all by surprise!'
Emlyn sighed. 'It's a mystery, Daryl. Let it be.'
Daryl seemed not to hear.
It was then that Emlyn realized how desperate he was. This wasn't a game for him. He had lost the one constant in his life, the one thing that made it all worth living, bearable...and he would go to any lengths to get it back: Anara. And he thought The Cup could take him to her.
And, damn the consequences, apparently.
Daryl's reunion with his lost beloved had become his be-all and end-all. Em decided then, that she did not wish to become a sacrifice to his mad quest.
'This quest, Daryl, finding Anara, has become your Holy Grail, has it not?'
But Daryl still preferred not to hear her. Or pretended not to.
'Bugger the grail...' he waved her comment away, in a pretense of misunderstanding. 'The whole bloody grail quest was nothing but a red herring! Da Vinci Code, all of it!' He waved his arms as if banishing the thought.
'I never understood WHY everyone focused on the whole "blood of Jesus" aspect!' Daryl raved. 'THEN, I figured it out! Maybe everyone didn't, at first! Maybe, they were manipulated into it!'
'Exactly my thoughts as well...' Athena sat up, pulling the quilt up about her. 'I recall reading 'Holy Blood, Holy Grail' and found it most intriguing, up to a point.
'It was, by no means, the first book to hypothesize such notions...'The Woman With the Alabaster Jar', etcetera...there were many books on the Magdalen...and the Black Madonna. Oh, yes; as a librarian, I noticed these things.' Athena leaned her head against her hand, looking into the fire as well now.
'The Magdalen was, in herself, an interesting personage. A priestess of Isis, most conjectured. Certainly from a royal house and schooled in the mysteries. Possibly, that is where the appellative of prostitute came from: she may have been a temple
priestess, and if not of the common, conventional religions of the locale, then was viewed with some disdain.
'But, like yourself, Daryl, there was too much misery and blood and bloody-mindedness connected with christianity for me to wish to have anything to do with it.'
'Hear, hear!' Emlyn agreed. She couldn't help herself, being pagan at heart. And female. The Big Three: Judaism, Islam, Christianity; none of these held much respect for those holding up the other half of the world...and so, no respect for mother earth, either. Obviously.
Daryl grinned her way; then, uncharacteristically, sat betwixt them upon the sofa, pouring tea for himself.
'Something DID happen, with that book's publication; people who knew the REAL so-called 'secret' or 'mystery' became worried; because it touched upon subjects they wished left alone. Subjects not so mundane or safe as a possible physical bloodline of Jesus.
'But, there in the book, in part two, was their answer: they leapt upon the Jesus aspect and successfully made that into a sensation. Any other hints of mystery faded next to that so-called revelation.' Daryl sighed. 'Anything that makes money, that sells books and films, that gets people talking, is never where the true treasure lies.'
All sat quiet. The fire crackled. The clock ticked the seconds, minutes by...
'Knowledge.' Daryl spoke at last. 'Francis Bacon had the right of it: Knowledge is Power. Know Thyself. And that is why 'religion' was created! To obscure that fact! As long as people accept what a book, written by men, or what a priest will tell them is truth, they will be happy to acquiesce to anothers so-called 'wisdom'; without a thought for searching for the truth themselves. Amazing, really.'
'Inexplicable, utterly.' Athena agreed.
'Mind-besotting.' Offered Emlyn.
'"Mind-besotting!" I like that, Em...' Daryl sighed. 'Ah, well. I shall make us breakfast, then, yes? No, Athena, cara; you stay put!' Daryl patted her knee as he arose and headed up the two small steps into the kitchen situated over the parlor. 'If I need anything, I shall ask...'
As Daryl rattled about the pans and pots, he kept up a running rant, naturally...
'It was the perpetrator-victim syndrome that forced the Old World into brutal conquest of the New...how do omlets sound, then?
'...Once Rome and the Church beat the whole idea of Judeo-Xianity into the northern tribes, the victims then, having been warped into Puritanism, turned on the natives in the New World and beat the same patriarchal nonsense into them, or kill them off, if they could not...ah, any mushrooms? --I found them...' Daryl soundly beat the eggs together after laying hard hands upon various vegetables.
Athena looked over at Emlyn and smiled softly, as if to say,
'There he goes again...'
'So, you're saying that because the Romans beat the concept of the 'god of love' into the Kelts, that was why they, in turn,
became the administrators of enlightenment-by-the-big-stick school of teaching amongst the Indians here?' Em egged Daryl on.
'Precisely.' Daryl attacked the canisters. 'Flour? Ah. How about you make some biscuits, Em? I'll tend to the omlets...'
Emlyn acquiesced and began rolling dough.
'But!' Daryl continued, as he sauteed, 'Not all hostile takeovers are so overt. Indeed, as with us, eh, Athena--? No; once we were given computer chip technology, we were pretty much
in the bag...'
'Umm, when all information, and history, was destroyed, or secreted away?' Em asked, Daryl nodding, 'And then, when computers failed...'
'...When computers failed, our power grid failed. And radiation could not be contained. That you need not know of, Em, except to understand that humankind could not tolerate it. And so, underground with the survivors! How handy that there were subsurface compounds already built! But, no one really cared to ponder on that. No one really thought much about anything, anymore...' Daryl sighed.
'They should have wondered, why was even a small group of survivors were even kept alive...but! Mysterious have ever been the ways of the Archons!'
Emlyn put her biscuits in the oven. 'Did people in your time know about the Archons?'
'Ah, not really, no. There was a brief resurgence of Gnosticism, but folk like our Philip Dick were very few.' Daryl poured out his egg batter into the big iron pan. 'No, people of my time had been reconditioned to think of the 'space-age'! Alien invasions from space were more real to them than the dusty old notions of Cathars and alchemists!
'Modern humans were more 'alien' in fact, than the Archons, of course, who had been here since time out of mind...'
'But, Daryl...' Emlyn returned to the parlor and poured the last of the tea for Athena and herself, '...what of Anara, and Axelis and Thelene?'
Daryl put his pan in the oven next to the biscuits. 'Frittata, I think...' He then joined them in the parlor.
'Don't think of Axelis and his sort, to be anything you can pigeon-hole into any specific reality. They are only semi-corporeal, when they wish to be...as when they show themselves to us, in our heavy vibratory frequency.
'I, in my youth, also believed as my contemporaries who had 'seen the ships'...that visitors from other planets were among us! But, all is not as presented... I learned that, if questioned; rather than tax our tiny brains with concepts we couldn't wrap our perceptions about, we would be 'fed cookies' and told that they were from--wherever!--Sirius, Orion, Pleiades, etcetera.
'But don't worry, Em...they are, if anything, anti-Archon.'
'You're feeding me cookies, now, Daryl...' Em murmured into her tea.
Daryl sighed. 'Alright. But if my answer presents only more questions...well, it may take some time. I'll be as brief as I possibly can.
'Most so-called extraterrestrials interacting with earth now are not ensouled but thought form entities created by the Nephilim. They are not to be confused with what are sometimes referred to as ultraterrestrials, who are, in fact, ensouled beings acting from a service-to-others paradigm, rather than the service-to-self, or to one's masters, mind-set of the ETs.
'They are not to be confused with one's own Higher, or Future Self or daemon; which functions equally in a STO consciousness, sometimes in concert with certain ultraterrestrials.'
Clear as...well, not mud, really. Perhaps only fog. Emlyn did not need more in-depth explanations. 'I am supposing that Axelis, and Anara, are of the ultra sort, then. And Mr. Yeats, Daryl?'
'Ah, well...our Mr. Yeats is something else again.' Daryl smiled, a bit sadly. 'I miss Shane, at times, the...rascal. I wonder how they are getting on...?'
Emlyn frowned at Daryl. 'But I don't understand...if above ground was impossible to live upon, then why was all this...mess...orchestrated? By whom, and why?'
Daryl glanced at Athena who was sitting quietly all the while, eyes closed. She nodded then. 'In for a penny, Daryl...may as well tell all...'
'Ah, the 'wars in heaven,' come to earth...' Daryl propped his big feet upon the big pirate chest which served as Athena's tea table.
'Comfy?' Athena asked.
'Very.' Daryl nodded. 'Alrighty then: E=mc2. Matter is Energy,
yes, Em?' Emlyn nodded back. 'All is energy then, vibrating at various frequencies. Electricity exists, even though one cannot see it, per se.'
'Yes, Daryl, I do understand the basics. I have experienced a thing or two myself,' Em reminded him.
'Let's eat in here, shall we?' Daryl rose and brought his big omlet pan to the hearth. 'Perfect.' He then brought biscuits and a stack of plates and cutlery.
'You forgot napkins...' Athena roused herself and smiled wickedly, as she took a biscuit and cut a slice of omlet. '...And more tea would be lovely as well!' She winked at Em.
'I'll make the tea. Do continue, Daryl.' Em rose and set to.
'Thank you, Em!' Daryl prepared his plate and sat beside Athena. 'Despot,' He told her, kissing her cheek gently.
'I try.' Athena smiled.
Daryl attacked his frittata.
'Anyway...so, although people of my time, had various technological wonders, so bethought, they were still very hard-headed and blind to many very basic ideas that were more readily understood perhaps in ages past, amongst the alchemists and Gnostics, Kabbalists and Sufis...and of course, native shamans and wise women of all times and places.
'And, then, too--there were various times and natural cycles in which the phase separation between worlds varies...the same principal behind phasing technology would explain why Willy Schroedter noted that, "In the time of Charlemagne and Pepin, the astral world seemed to have drawn especially near."'
'Excellent omlet, darling!' Athena kissed Daryl's cheek.
'Thank you, darling.' Daryl took the tea tray from Em and poured for all.
'Something understood by the enlightened few of ages past, and rather ignored by modern man, was the rather shifty, malleable qualities of both time and so-called space. I believe this head-blindness may have been due to genetic tampering...in all fairness. Most people simply didn't have it 'in them', one might say, to see beyond the 'hard facts' of physical reality. Something I've never had a problem with, nor you, I suspect, either, Em.'
'True, Daryl. In my experience, what one cannot always 'see', hear or touch, or smell, can be very 'real', indeed. Most children have that capability; at least until we beat it out of them, and teach them 'how to act properly'...'
Em recalled a young Irish lass, Dervla she was called; a childhood friend of Em's, who was often soundly smacked for talking to the shades of dead relatives, her grandmother, usually. While her father, a devout Catholic, would take a strap to her, so to put an end to 'having that deviltry in the house'!
'Umm...yes. That old-time religion, again,' Daryl remarked, after hearing Em's recounting.
'Most patriarchal religions were constructs of the Archons, and enforced by them. To keep humankind befuddled and controlled, and paranoid of thinking for themselves.' Daryl finished his meal and took his plate to the sink, like a good lad.
'Anyway...long story short: folk of my time thought only of escaping their crowded planet and to colonize space! Why they never thought to curb the population before it devoured them whole, I can't say. Religion again, I suppose. But, to them, the Archons didn't exist--it was all too archaic and not technological at all! But, aliens from other planets...yes, there was surely the answer!'
'So...Oh, Daryl this is too bizarre!' Emlyn leaned her head to her hand.
'Yes, I thought as much, myself. But it was so.' Daryl ploughed on. 'There were some, ah, factions...you have heard Jack and I speak of the 'Others', yes? Well, they had managed to phase themselves out of existence through a dangerous sort of mis-managed time travel experiment. This was possibly, in part, what was referred to as 'The Fall'.
'They sought, then, to...re-physicalize themselves, and re-emerge back into a specific time, rather than be lost in time, by abducting humans and taking their DNA to blend with their own. The hybrids they created, would then allow their people an existence. And...they were able to clean up the earth so that these hybrids could live there.'
Emlyn's head swam with these odd bits of information, but she slowly saw a pattern emerge. 'Oh. And, so...the humans were kept subsurface, while these hybrids claimed the planet's surface for their own.'
'Indeed.' Daryl returned to the fireplace and yawned mightily.
'That's just one of the many scenarios of deception going on then. There were many more...as there are many realities, and high freqen-seas yet to sail...'
As he glanced once more upon the hooded Cup with a jaundiced eye, Em noted he was beginning to droop a bit about the edges now.
'I think I'll be able to sleep soon...Athena, do you mind...?' He went to a small wooden stand in the corner and opened a drawer.
'Help thyself. You, and Em, made a delightful breakfast, thank you.' Athena yawned as well.
Daryl began rolling a cigarillo. Taking a thin stick of kindling, he lighted it and inhaled deeply. 'Ahhh...sleep.' He handed it to Athena, who did likewise and daintily passed it on to Emlyn, who recognized the distinctive herbal scent.
'Ah. Jethro's Indian tobacco...' she inhaled in turn.
'Actually, 'kinnikinick' is Indian tobacco. This,' Daryl reclaimed the cigarillo, breathing deeply of it's properties, '...is, rather something else...'
All sat peacefully for awhile, listening to the now-gentle rain on the roof. Athena stretched and emerged from her quilt.
'You are all welcome to stay here...there is a spare room, Em, or if you like, this sofa is quite comfortable. It's nice and warm for you here...'
Em was tempted. She thought about it...it felt so nice and cozy here just now...
'And, we shall be warm enough in the loft, methinks,' Daryl came round behind Athena and began to massage her shoulders.
Em had noticed the loft above...a wooden spiral staircase led upwards to planked catwalk and a room there. Although the door was closed, it should be warm indeed situated near the ceiling.
'I'll just do up the dishes, and I'll be worn-out enough for sleep, I think; thank you, Athena.' Emlyn felt suddenly quite
drowsy.
Daryl bent over Athena and kissed her cheek. 'Alright, cara?'
Athena nodded, and rose, taking his hand. 'We'll see you when we awake, either here or at the big house, yes, Em?'
Emlyn nodded. As she watched the indefinable duo climb the stairs upward, Daryl paused; '"I strive to be brief and I become obscure." --Horace.' He looked at Em darkly.
'Do NOT touch The Cup!'
As they closed the door behind them, giggling, Em rolled her eyes to herself, and began the last bit of dishes and clean-up, thinking Daryl could not possibly be 'brief' if he tried, which he would certainly never do, once his mouth was at full gallop.
She marveled at Athena's forbearance; not easy to live around, all that.
Setting the last pan out to dry, she added a small log to the fire and snuggled back under the patchwork quilt on the sofa.
The Cup sat still under the occulting velvet cloth, seemingly quiet.
It didn't fool her, though.
. . . .
