The Spiritbeing continued, “Enough wickedness has been wrought by your willfulness and disobedience, for the decrees forbidding certain things were for your own benefit. Immortality was nearly within your reach, but had you achieved this you would have brought an even more grievous evil upon yourselves and your inheritors, for freed from servitude to change, you and they would have been unable to progress”.
The Children of God were driven out of the gardenland by Spiritbeings, and then guardians were set at its gates so none could re-enter. Then it was withdrawn beyond the misty veil, the waters ceased to flow and the fertility departed, only a wilderness remained. The Children of God went to dwell in the land of Amanigel, which is beyond the mountains of Mashur by the sea of Dalemuna.
From this time onward man fashioned his own spiritlikeness. Some, who were loathsome in aspect even unto themselves, went apart and were mercifully veiled in dark depths, and they said among themselves, “Let us dwell here in the darkness and prepare a place for others like ourselves, so that when they follow they abide here and join us”. Thus were the Dark Regions formed and inhabited by demons who are nought but the hideously fashioned spirits of evil men.
These things have been written into the record. In Siboit they used to say this was the manner of man’s making, “God sent His creating Craftsman Spirit down to Earth and the reflection of The One was drawn into a spiritless body, and this became the heart of man”.
These are the words written by Thonis of Myra in Ludicia in his day:-
“You ask me what is man and I answer: He is life becoming aware of itself. He is the intangible knowing the tangible, Spirit in matter, fire in water. When this first happened, none remembers and only the old folktales remain. There was the beginning and then the garden, and it was in this garden man found himself; before this he was not free, being one with everything about him. As he could not disobey, good and evil could not be, they were nonexistent”.
“Man became free through awareness of himself, and with this knowledge denied any kinship with the beast. As he was no longer in harmonious relationship with things of the Earth, he became discontented, dissatisfied and restless, he wanted to belong but felt his place of belonging was not there. He had been reborn as a mangod, and therefore it is truly said that man was born of Earth and Spirit, under a tree, the symbol of life, and in a garden”. “There the eyes of the man and woman were opened and, being above the beasts, they knew they were different and set apart from all else that breathed. They separated themselves, being now ashamed of their state and strangers to each other. The carnal satisfaction of lesser creatures now no longer sufficed, they had lost contact with the Source of Love; but, though knowing something was lacking, knew not what. They had fallen into carnal knowledge which only man can know, for only he feels the reproach of divinity. They were removed from The Garden of Content by an inhalation of the Divine Substance and could not return because of the barrier between man an non-man”.
Kamelik has written: “The entwined were cut apart and since that day have never known content. They wander restlessly ever seeking to unite again and together find the jewel which is lost to Earth forever”. Lupisis has written: “This first woman, who came from the void, is the eternally glorified goddess, the inspirer of hearts, the ideal of womanhood honoured by all men, the priestess at the shrines of delicacy and tenderness. She was the ideal woman who, because of man’s nature, is always tempted by his twinshade, the beast in his form. If the beast triumphs and she falls, the ideal becomes enshrouded in winding cloths of disillusionment, and something is lost to the heart of a man”.
These words are also there: “They did not partake of wisdom, and fruit from the tree of knowledge is bitter. Men are denied their true birthright. The fall of man was a fall from loving contact with God into material carnality. The Soul that had shared the consciousness of God fell into unconsciousness by becoming ensnared in matter. The fall severed man from the source of his spiritual sustenance; thereafter his efforts were to struggle back. In his blind groping for God, after the fall he discovered demons and found it easier to worship them than to continue the search”.
“God is always waiting, man has only to look up, but it is easier to go down the hill than to climb it. It is easier for man’s spiritual beliefs to degenerate than to evolve. Who among men knows the truth and can write with certain knowledge? Would not this certainty be against the Law? No man was there at the beginning to see and write, but of one thing alone we can be sure, The Creating God knows how and why, and could the acts of One so great be without purpose?
CHAPTER SIX DADAM AND LEWID
Maeva fled for her life and many kinfolk went with her. But Dadam was unable to follow, being laid low with the sickness. This loosened his tongue so it became uncontrollable, making him babble like a child, and the sickness covered his body with red sores from which came an issue. Lewid also departed for a place far out in the wilderness.
Those with Dadam, who looked back towards the place of the garden, saw bright tongues of light licking the sky above it, the whole being interwoven with flickering flames in many hues. Those who sought to return were
repulsed with a tingling ache over their bodies which increased into severe pain as they approached, so they were driven away.
When Dadam recovered so he could stand, only a few remained with him and they all moved further into the wilderness to a place where there was water and pasture. There Dadam left Herthew, his son, and the boy’s mother, with Habaris the Learned, and set out to find Lewid.
After many days Dadam and those with him came upon Lewid and his Yoslings who were full of sickness, and slew many, but Lewid was not slain though mortally wounded, and he lay against a great rock. When Dadam came near, Lewid raised an arm heavily and said, “Hail to the victor and benefactor who was come to terminate our wretchedness”. While Dadam stood sternly contemplating him, Lewid said, “To kill me now is your prerogative, for even we lesser being who are far removed from godmen have the law of husbandly pride. What I did has been done before and will be done again, but I erred by crossing an unknown barrier which could not be discerned, for we, within ourselves, are no more contagious to each other than are your people. If then I must die, let it be for my part in spawning the cankerworms of disease which have stricken both our peoples”. “Back in the dreamingtime, when the Great Gods strove among themselves for dominion of the skyspaces, and the wide expanse of Earth was rent apart by unearthly wildfire, Bemotha was cut apart by the bright arrows of Shemas. Then this land was given to my people as their dominion, while yours was in another unearthly place far distant. Our domain was a pleasant place and though you teach that because of this we remained as we are, yet we were content. We know of no great design, nor of any barely attainable objectives to which men must aspire. Such striving as you know is to us no more than purposeless vexation”.