THE LORDS OF THE EARTH

** It is in the nature of earth-mystery to cloud human memory of previous worlds, and an infinity of non-gender pulsations that can at best be perceived but no more be penetrated than a hole can be dug backwards. An ancient mystic once said “who splits a seed and finds nothing is failing to experience the spirit consciousness at the heart of everything”….

In the beginnings of the world the planet Earth was shrouded in mist. Nobody had ever seen the sky, the moon or the stars. The creatures of the earth lived under a great cloud. The sun just a dim-light-bulb flickering overhead. And the whole earth was a jungle. There were no fields, no valleys, no deserts, if there was an ocean nobody had ever seen the ocean. Everywhere was jungle. Great trees rose up into the cloud. All manner of vegetation, insects, reptiles, two-legged animals, four-legged animals, they all lived together in the jungle.

And nobody spoke. There was no language. The creatures of the earth communicated through the natural air-waves. Nobody needed to speak. They knew exactly what was going on. And they all ate each other. The reptiles ate the insects, the four-legged animals ate the reptiles, the two-legged animals ate the four-legged animals, the insects ate the plants and the plants ate the earth. The earth ate everything. Nothing was taken from the earth that wasn’t given back to the earth. They all drank from the same spring. And nobody ever complained there wasn’t enough.

And there was no sex. In the beginnings of the world there was no sex. The creatures of the earth were both male and female. There was birth and there was death, there was life and there was death. There was no fear and no violence. There was life and there was death, there was birth and there was death. And it was a time of great peace.

Till one day these fierce sparks of light pierced the canopy of cloud that shrouded the earth. The creatures of the earth glimpsed the heavens for the first time. And they were amazed. They were astonished and they were bewildered. And they were blinded by the sun. And these great bursts of fire and smoke out of which these great objects descended, shiny, crescent-shaped, golden as the sun. Descending to earth, crushing the great trees like they were dead branches, parting the jungle as if it was a lace-curtain. And for the first time the creatures of the earth were afraid. They had no idea what was going on and they were terribly afraid.. As out of these great shiny objects stepped creatures the like of which nobody had ever seen before. Some small as young monkeys, others high as the lowest branches, half-reptile half-two-legged animal, green as the leaves, with webbed feet and webbed hands, and eyes bigger than their bellies. They had eyes bigger than their bellies, but their brains, their brains were bigger than their eyes, their brains were bigger than the whole world, an intelligence so powerful nature was struck dumb! The natural air-waves crackled static. Nobody had any idea what was going on. Till out from the static came a message, a single message loud and clear : the Lords of the Earth have returned to reclaim their dominion, from their great adventures in the universe the Lords of the Earth have returned to reclaim their dominion!

And why, why had the Lords of the Earth returned? Even before they knew there was a question, the two-legged animals of the earth were given an answer : to serve their Lords, to worship their Lords! And in exchange they would be rewarded beyond their earthly dreams! Even before they knew they had dreams, that their dreams were separate from their lives, the chosen servants now knew they had to make their un-earthly dreams come true! The reality of their previous world had already been forgotten.

They began to speak. In a language taught to them by the Lords of the Earth, they began to speak of their dreams, they began to speak of their Lords, they began to speak of themselves as human-beings, in a language taught to them by the Lords of the Earth. But the Lords of the Earth were very mischievous, or very crafty - I think they were very crafty - because they taught different languages to different peoples in different parts of the world. So what people thought they understood, now they didn’t always understand each other. They spoke in different languages, so what to some might be a compliment to others might be an insult. And we all know what this means, we all know where this can lead….

Then the Lords of the Earth gouged out two caves in the earth, one they lit with a red light the other with a blue light. And they told human-beings they were now free to choose, that freedom was choice, they could choose the red cave or the blue cave. And those that entered the red cave re-emerged as male, those that entered the blue cave re-emerged as female. They were the same but they were different. They no longer recognized each other. And many human-beings spent the rest of their life trying to find themselves again. But of course they never could. And they grew very frustrated and tortured by a terrible sadness.

But some of the Lords of the Earth took pity on human-beings and their terrible sadness. Like parents take pity on a child. Like children take pity on a fly and save it from the spider’s web. But let me tell you, that spider must eventually eat that fly if it is to remain a spider. This is the way of nature. This is the way for creatures of the earth who want no more than to be creatures of the earth. For the Lords of the Earth there is another way, to be always seeking more. So they catch the fly, but they don’t eat the fly, they promise the fly freedom in exchange for helping catch more flies. Till eventually that lordly spider has more flies than it could possibly need to eat to remain simply a spider. So it starts offering flies to other spiders in exchange for help in spinning its’ web. And before they know it, simple spiders no longer know how to spin webs, only their own particular strand of this great web that the world has become, in which all the spiders and flies are caught together, and only their Lords can decide who gets to eat, who gets to be eaten and who gets to starve to death. Let me tell you, when a spider begins trading in flies, nature knows it has a big problem!

But some of the Lords of the Earth took pity on human-beings and their terrible sadness, and gave them the ability to express their sadness, shape and compose their sadness, the ability to make art, poetry, painting, music, sculpture, to ease their doubts and fears, to channel their anger and frustration, and to remember if only as a dream that place of peace which never sought to separate or dominate or accumulate, simply fulfill its’ natural design. And this caused conflict among the Lords of the Earth, most of whom simply wanted to get the work done as efficiently and expediently as possible : mining out the precious metals and liquids from the earth, building this planet into a shape that suited their Lordly needs. But of course conflict is in the super-nature of these universal beings, to be forever seeking more is to be always at war, with each other, with the universe, with nature and now with human-beings, who were threatening to rouse themselves from these dreams that were not given to them by their own nature. So the Lords of the Earth infected human ability to make art with ambition, vanity, sentimentality and a romance with a heaven that is not on this earth. That by framing a blade of grass separate from the field in which it grows its’ beauty would be enhanced beyond its’ natural dreams! But such beauty demands such ugliness, even as such wealth demands such poverty, such power demands such powerlessness. The one cannot exist without the other. The dream cannot exist without the nightmare. Heaven cannot exist without Hell..

But the Lords of the Earth are not devils, they are not demons nor angels, they are simply not creatures of the earth. To the Lords of the Earth human-beings are no different than mice and monkeys are to scientists seeking to unlock the mysteries of nature, the secrets of its’ energy, so that energy can be used for their own ends, by all means possible. So human-beings continue to slave away in their struggle to be free of their own nature, vainly, ambitiously entertaining and fascinating themselves as best they can. But entertainment and fascination is not love. We may be fascinated by the Lords of the Earth and entertained by their spectacles, but we cannot love them. We may admire the Lords of the Earth and their ingenious dreams, but we cannot love them. We may fear the Lords of the Earth and their supernatural dreams, but we cannot love them. And without love there can be no peace.

And when the time comes - and the time will come, even as the Lords of the Earth have determined that the time will come, even as the Lords of the Earth have determined that time must play a part in their design - when that time comes, when the heavens once again close over us, and the sun, the moon and the stars are once again shut from our eyes, and all the works that human-beings have slaved away to build shall be shattered into a million billion pieces by the great explosion that powers the Lords of the Earth back into the universe, leaving their chosen servants abandoned in the fire and smoke of their wake.. When that time comes, if human-beings have not been awakened from the dream that was not given them by their nature, they will be plunged into such a nightmare, such despair, eternity itself will have to take pity on us if we are to survive at all!

And what should we conclude from this? What must we conclude from this? Perhaps only this ; that human-beings must never despair that all is lost, for it will always be found again. This is the way of nature. This is the way for creatures of the earth who want no more than to be creatures of the earth. For a god there is another way, to be forever seeking more. So I ask you this, are you a creature of the earth or are you a god? If you are a god, of course, you would never be asking yourself this question..