Up at three, dozed in the living room chair listening to WCLV, the classic music station in Cleveland. You spent time thinking about the spine and how I used it as an antenna in the earlier stories.
It was a connection, a way for the brain and mind to pick up intuitive information, vibes, if you will, from what I call Elsewhere, a dimensional aspect of thought from outside the species and planet.
You have it wrong orndorff, which as you realize, is not out of the box in your mental environment. Intuition is a guide, it says to take this road or another in terms of logic. Vibes, in this context, means picking up cues from Mother Earth, if you will, from your gut. You came up with the antenna concept, not I. This comes from an earlier unpublished science fiction work in which the old Bethany Station (Voice of America broadcast station) on the northwest corner of Tylersville Road and Butler-Warren County Road west of Mason played a part as there were many varieties of antenna on what is now Voice of America Park.
The whole idea has me wondering if it somehow is part of this story also as there remains the distant connection, eluded to once, that the alien species, the human appearing marsupials, are connected to this first Rebellion of the Dead, and also with the second Rebellion of the Dead in book six.
The connection is correct. Human-like (in intelligence and behavior) are an important part of the Merlyn’s Mind series. Remember orndorff, this is an allegorical series not science fiction.
It appears as science fiction to me. I mean it has aliens in the first three books.
They are not so alien, if you remember, the connection with humans was a comet, same filtered seeds of life, same planetary environment for those seeds to grow on. Same higher consciousness, same humanity, if you will.
I still don’t see how the Rebellion of the earthly Dead relates to the Marsupials.
They have a similar Rebellion in their area of HeavenOrHellBothOrNeither.
At the same time? I was not aware of this.
Time does not exist in these Places. It makes no difference.
How will the reader come to understand this aspect?
The same way you will.
Time for me to go back to bed.
I suppose. Paul just received a call and has a surgery to attend to this morning. Carol, Kim and baby want to go out to breakfast – another hour or so of sleep seems reasonable old man, it is almost six. Later, dude. – Amorella.
It is near twenty-three hundred hours and you have completed revising scenes eleven through sixteen. Place them here and that will make it a day.
It is near twenty-three hundred hours and you have completed revising scenes eleven through sixteen. Place them here and that will make it a day.
Scene 11
On the southeast corner of Lyceum and Eleusis, catty-cornered from the café, The Mikroikia, sets the library. The large chamber is ragged with boxes of rolled scrolls piled along the walls and on three high wooden shelves centered in the middle and back. Mario and Thales sat at one of twelve tables in somber contemplation.
“Are we still staunch friends?” smiled Mario. “The others avoid us here too, yet wait anxiously for their orders.”
“They consider this only a protest, an act of solidarity.”
Mario raised his right eyebrow, “And you consider it more, Thales?”
“I don’t know. I saw a goddess on the path today on the way to our morning meeting. Her eyes were devastatingly black to wide brown with a thin black surrounding the division of brown to the white of her eyes. She appeared from a distance as an old lady with a cane. But, when she grew close and looked up from the path she was Beautiful and Captivating. She was a goddess I am sure of it. I have told no one but I take it as a sign.”
“Or an omen,” interrupted Mario somberly.
Thales’ blue eyes grew, “Why would a goddess walk by as I was on the way to the meeting? I take it as a sign Mt. Olympus is more involved than we suspect. Why, would the gods become involved if this only remains a peaceful protest? There is no way we could win a war against Zeus.”
“Perhaps he would enjoy such a battle,” smirked Mario who then added somberly, “Only the Fates know.”
Thales responded, “You think the Supervisor is less powerful than Hades?”
“According to our Mother he has always been known as the Supervisor,” said Mario.
“No one has seen him, true. But there is an order beyond us in this Place. Our heartsansoulsanminds are intact. This was built for our Being, for whatever the reasons. The Supervisor has always shown himself to be a Custodian. He holds this Place together as Mother Earth holds our Home.” Mario sat quietly for a moment and then continued, “I would accept a path, a single path that one of us might follow to Home so that sheorhe might rest in peace in the earth below the sun and moon and stars for a time. We could take turns and everyone have an equal time in one small piece of ground. The place where any one of us might be closer to our great-grandchildren. Is this too much to ask?”
Thales countered, “But one of Sophia’s demands, one voted on, is for us to return to Earth to speak to the Living.
Mario concluded, “I would take the compromise.”
“How is that a compromise, Mario? One of the ten thousand to go Home to rest?”
“Thales, the rest of the Dead will follow our ten thousand for necessities sake if nothing else.”
“We could all be thrown in the pit with the Titans,” reminded Thales.
“I doubt it,” responded Mario. “If that were true we would already be there. Do you think the All-Knowing Zeus would put up with this when with a bolt we would be nothing but our souls’ ash?”
Again Thales countered, “I don’t think he knows everything. Too many stories. If he knew in advance he was going to be caught in his affairs why would he get involved in the first place? If he knew and understood everything why did he create Earth flawed, as he did?” Then Thales grumbled, “This Place of the Dead is not so perfect either.”
Scene 12
The boulder strewn mound called Stone Hill is no more than a thousand feet high, and it assumes the shape of Mt. Vesuvius but with only a quarter of Vesuvius' height. This setting is near where Aeneas is to meet the Supervisor. The rocky rise basically serves as a stone pit in reverse.
The newly arrived Dead along with friends and family take a few one by two foot stones off the near lower side of the hill to build a new privacy room for the recent initiate to the Place. Carts exist as someone has taken the time to make them. The newly Dead and immediate visitors pull the cart, load it with cut stone, and return to where a foundation is set.
The next day the Dead return and more cut stones are waiting to be delivered.
Once the small room is built and the newly Dead is inside and closes the door sheorhe is as personally quiet as the physical body is under the ground or at the bottom of a deep blue sea, or floating as ash in sea or air. It is not the same though because one cannot get wind of the Living in their personal abode. Not a sound to be heard as one is essentially shelled within herorhis own soul unless one decides to allow friends and/or family within.
Once the small room is built and the newly Dead is inside and closes the door sheorhe is as personally quiet as the physical body is under the ground or at the bottom of a deep blue sea, or floating as ash in sea or air. It is not the same though because one cannot get wind of the Living in their personal abode. Not a sound to be heard as one is essentially shelled within herorhis own soul unless one decides to allow friends and/or family within.
No one climbs the thousand foot Stone Hill to the other side because there isn’t any other side as far as the Dead know. This is the place, on the other side of Stone Hill, where Aeneas is to meet the Supervisor for a one on One, as it were.
This is any easier task for Aeneas than it might be for most others in the nearby vicinity of Elysium. During life he believed his mother was Aphrodite, the goddess of love. He had acted as though he was goddess born, and since everyone else had heard the same story they also believed it and acted accordingly. This bit of fiction had helped Aeneas survive many trials and adventures in life and now the same would help him in Elysium. This is what one side of Aeneas thought. The other side knew better. Here is why.
When Aeneas was newly Dead and arriving in Elysium he was met at the pool by his father, Anchises, who upon seeing his son, appeared amused but said nothing. Aeneas immediately understood the silence behind the smile as he realized he was not also being greeted by his mother on Mt. Olympus. Aeneas, happy to see his father, good-humored asserted, “I see the story of my birth was but a misconception, my true mother was not Aphrodite the goddess of love as I was lead to believe. I was a true love child instead.”
This primary fact weathered well and both laughed in a deeply personal level. The goddess fiction had crept stealthily into a fact for child and neighbors alike. Within a day of his arrival to the Place of the Dead Aeneas set out on his first new adventure; to discover his real earthly mother.
Scene 13
I see Stone Hill, said Aeneas to himself. It does appear larger, as does the rising of the spring and fall moon in life. Without a daily sun we are constantly reminded, thought Aeneas, that this setting is not for the living. Stone Hill in the distance is a large and lonely lump of fiction that we are built to ever endure; or so it seems.
Aeneas stood as grave as the distant stone and felt his large heart say, “I miss the bright light and heat of the daily yellow sun of Home more than almost anything other than my son, Ascanius. Immediately dropping from his hesitantly conscious mind into his sincere and good heart were the words, Apollo, will you help me here.”
Scene 14
Apollo could not help but hear through the utter silence in Aeneas heart. Eyes like full moonlight registered inwardly. So deep is this need he asks for my help not Aphrodite’s. It is Zeus’ Will that I stand a shield between Her-an-Him who is the Supervisor of all the Galactic Dead with heartsansoulsanminds.
Meaningful Purpose radiates behind and beyond the thought of sunlight. It is impossible for me to see through the design and clothing of Necessity or her-or-his personification, who originally gave the three Fates their due. This then may be the wardrobe of the Supervisor – or such are the rumors throughout Olympus.
Strange is it that such the tiniest of what can be called a thing – a step before and beyond the particle and wave of light, of such a singular quantum-like nature could be the original cause of human-like heartsansoulsanminds.
Could this original Purpose move Necessity to change Her-an-His bright multicolored toga of Meaning?
Free Will, that horse only Love can attempt to ride and break is nothing to Necessity’s beckoning. No one, not even I, Apollo, can prophecy the dangers in such hauntingly spiritual depths. Such is it that Necessity can cause Zeus himself to tremble. So, who does great Zeus send but his son, me, Apollo, born second to my twin sister, Artemis. I am still the only god known to announce my own birth while also foretelling the births of several benefactors of humankind.
Free Will, that horse only Love can attempt to ride and break is nothing to Necessity’s beckoning. No one, not even I, Apollo, can prophecy the dangers in such hauntingly spiritual depths. Such is it that Necessity can cause Zeus himself to tremble. So, who does great Zeus send but his son, me, Apollo, born second to my twin sister, Artemis. I am still the only god known to announce my own birth while also foretelling the births of several benefactors of humankind.
He gathered himself to sweep into the Underworld, whose god opening gate is composed of a dark and black insect-like hole with nine downward spiral steps, each the depth of three times the distance from the galactic center to the outer universe wall. Each step, the copy of a rising human mind, each remembering a single separate humbling human virtue as if it were a dressing of the gods. Each virtue, a necessity, if one is to be born and raised up with soul as well as mind and heart.
The heartanmindansoul is rumored to be one of the first of Necessity’s great conscious inventions that on occasion comes to rattle the wise and other-wise all powerful king of the gods, Zeus.
Scene 15
Evening of the first day and Mario walked into the privacy chamber and shut the dark oak door. “You wanted to talk?”
“I do,” answered Sophia succinctly. “Let’s lay down on the bed with our eyes staring at the lack of ceiling and wonder this play of ours out.”
Mario casually walked to the edge of the bed, turned and sat, then he said, “It is pleasant not having insects, rodents, snakes and other such creatures interrupt a nighttime of sleep.” But for the dreams, he thought, dreams are a plague or bouquet. One never knows.
“I agree. But look who I invited here tonight.”
Mario stood and turned towards her smiling face and joked, “Are we making this a threesome? Who is your other guest?”
“I hope it is Hera,” asserted Sophia. “I requested her presence in our minds tonight.”
He edged a warning, “I would not wish to cross her Sophia.”
“That is the idea, Mario,” she declared. “You don’t want to cross with either of us.”
“I’d have to believe in Hera first” he challenged, and I don’t have to believe in you.” He paused studying her reaction. “You called me to share your bed for discussion but what is there to discuss? Messenger Aeneas is on his way. The Supervisor could be anywhere. Sleep is but a deception of death and death a deception of sleep in this stony privacy of yours. The god’s ear is no doubt your nightly ceiling.”
“You waste your intelligence on philosophy and useless debates” muttered Sophia, “and why you were chosen our number two, I will never know.”
“To keep you in check” he badgered, “I almost arrived too late. You wanted Charon, your imaginary Ferryman, to be the currier.”
Sophia rebutted, “Just because he’s unseen doesn’t mean he doesn’t exist. And, he has an interest in us, the Dead.”
“Compounding interest, no doubt,” railed Mario. “Do you not remember how we arrived? No boatman to ask for coins. He was a paltry tale to keep our interest in the Hereafter.”
“I do not remember,” claimed Sophia. “I awoke to my dear mother’s voice. I had ears before I had eyes. And, such lively tales of death’s survival are true; as indeed, we are here.”
Mario momentarily succumbed to her voice, “I fear our deeds are out of us. I fear there is more to this than meets our dead eyes.” Theatre then ensued, “Why do we have our lashes and lids to protect such eyes here? These things are not necessary in our present wisp of clothing. Deception comes from within as well as without. At least life had an end. Deception has moved on with us.”
She lamented, “You must watch our rear. According to Mother that is your reason here, but I don’t have to like it.”
He interjected, “We wage our Mother’s demonstration. It can move us to a war with Zeus himself. The odds are not in our favor.”
“All the more reason to court Hera,” smiled Sophia in a swelled sense of womanly satisfaction.
Scene 16
Time for a few facts about this Place. So far there are two ways into Hades and no way out unless you are or have been consummated by one of the beloved gods or goddesses. By most accounts there are still the major twelve on Mt. Olympus.
As this is many years later and people are more prone to science fact than fiction, the real Place of the Dead, if there is one, need be no more than a thought in size. How large would one make such a Place? A person may think she-or-he can feel a heart or soul or mind from time to time, but as a human being cannot actually observe any of the three properties of humanity materially, and as the heartansoulanmind have no physical weight, at least from my perspective, then proof of existence is relatively difficult to come by even if one is categorized as a ‘gifted’ person in any modern field of human endeavor. It is difficult to define and empirically prove the seeds of one’s own self, the goodies that survive physical death if you will, the seeds of one’s own personal heartansoulanmind.
Over the millenniums things haven’t changed that much in the Place of the Dead, though now the Living have added different dynamic dimensions to the concept. Over the long centuries people have done some thinking relative to religions, the sciences, philosophies and even the presentation of concepts by the cultural media, especially in the early twenty-first century.
It is time new ideas are thrown into the mix of metaphorical and/or spiritual stories. That’s the reason I’m the narrator, and while I am only a shadow of the Supervisor, it is still better to be a shade than to be nothing at all. That’s the butt-end of a joke among most of the Dead since, well, a long, long time ago, just about the time this first rebellion between the Dead and their gods and goddesses erupted.
Since the conclusion of this battle at the end of book five the Dead continue to be treated equally as always, but also they are treated differently than the reader observes in this book. If one lives long enough, that is, if the author lives long enough to complete the fifth and sixth books the reader can glean how it is to be among the modern Dead and their reason for beginning their second rebellion in the Place of the Dead in the middle of the last century.
***
No comments:
Post a Comment