| Fiction: Memoirs of Divinity: chapter 5 |
Posted by
feralucce on Friday, April 20, 2007 - 12:54 PM PST
Everyone knows the next story: Noah and the flood. Read the books and they make us sound like we were punishing the wicked. I can see how it may be construed that way, but that was not what happened. It is difficult to be all-knowing. I know, I know, we've already covered the fact that we don't know everything. We put in place a spiritual conduit that allows the prayers of believers to reach us no matter where we were.
And so, it came to pass, there was a drought. The prayers of the afflicted rang in our ears and it saddened us. We had made the planet, and it was good, but our will was enough to make the planet function as it should. The whole thing ran itself, which was as we intended. Yes, there was a drought, but that was not bad, from a planetary standpoint. “But drought causes people to starve,” you say. Yes, it does, because humans refuse to take the climate and weather into account.
“What? We ignore the climate? The hell you say!” Let's take a good long look at this. The Greeks and Romans needed water. Instead of living near the water, they build their cities wherever they felt was aesthetically pleasing. They built aqueducts to transport the water where they wanted it. People today build trailer courts in tornado alley. They place their houses on the flood plane, or a city on land that is six feet below sea level. They build their homes on the beach. These people all have two things in common. First, they ignore known climate and weather patterns. Second, they are constantly shocked that this keeps happening to then.
“Why, god, why did you let this happen to us?”
“Because you built you home in the same place that you built it last time, when the flood took it away – idiot.”
Anyway, the people who were praying were no different than the rest of humanity. They were living in a place that they probably shouldn't have been. Regardless, even if it was their fault, we were not going to punish them for it. So we started experimenting with the weather patterns, to see if we could remove their problem and spare lives.
It sounds like an easy task for the divine, but it's not. There are thermal dynamics, solar radiation, wind patterns, ocean currents, and many other things to take into account. Besides, you haven't managed to control the weather yet – so, cut us some slack. We're not sure that it was entirely our fault. It may be that the profane was moving against us again, or we might have made a mistake. We added a little but of energy to the ocean near there, whipping some extra moisture into the air. We charmed the wind to blow it to the right area. This was the beginning of it. The clouds brought hope. We began to cool the air to bring the rain out of the sky. It worked. It began to rain, ending the drought and bringing joy to the people.
I have heard people say, “Be careful what you wish for.” Prayers and wishes are essentially the same thing. We started the rain and it ended the drought. Once it had rained enough, we tried to stop the storm. Try as we might, we could not stop it. The storm continued to grow. And grow. We saw that this one would have to blow itself out. Unfortunately, it didn't blow out.
So we moved amongst the people of the cities. We warned them. We told them that the rains were coming. We warned them to prepare for the coming waters. Only one man had faith, or sense, enough to listen to the warnings. His name was Noah.
You know the rest of the story, Noah and his family built the boat while the storm continued to develop. They gathered the animals as we asked. They stocked the food, and as the rain began to fall, they climbed on board. It began to rain. It rained and rained. The people wailed and asked for us to stop the rain. We tried. We tried once more to stop the storm that we had started, but we couldn't. We couldn't stop what we had started, and we knew millions of people were going to die. We knew this and we wept. Our tears went unnoticed in the rain.
Noah and his family saved that part of the planet from our mistake. They stayed on the boat and tended the animals. The point is this, that the symphony repairs itself, returning to equilibrium. After forty days and forty nights, the storm blew itself out and the rain stopped. We watched as the world we created adjusted and corrected itself. It was truly wondrous.
The rainbow was out promise. Our promise that the world would never be destroyed by water again. It was our promise that the prayers of some people would go unanswered because some prayers will kill others. Yes, that is right, most of the prayers that we have left unanswered are not unheard. They are not ignored. It is not a lack of faith that prevents us from hearing them. It is not that you believe in the wrong god, or the wrong flavor of a specific religion. It is that we created a symphony of existence. The music of reality flows, and if it is changed too much, which most prayers would require, the symphony becomes a discordant jangle on our ears. When a jangling note of discord is struck, reality suffers. Pull on the strings too hard and they may snap. That is what happened with the flood. We pulled the strings and gave the people what they wanted, and the universe suffered.
Let's fast forward a bit. As I said before, there are a lot of mistakes in the holy books. Though, most of what's in them is accurate. Let's look at Moses. Talented musicians, when listening to someone else's composition, can often anticipate the next bars or movement in a piece. This, you see, is an analogy for the nature of prophecy. Throughout history, there have been people who are so in tune with the symphony they are, on an instinctual level, able to anticipate the next motion of the music. The Pharaoh of Egypt had one such individual in his employ. His prophet came to him and warned him that the Jews, who were slaves to the Egyptians, would be the end of their way of life. He warned that a man would rise from their midsts and destroy the Egyptian way of life.
You know most of the story, Moses's mother placed him in a small boat, and sent him down the Nile. Pharaoh's daughter found and adopted him. Moses' sister watched from the reeds, and told her that she knew a woman that could nurse the baby. Of course, she was referring to Moses's mother. He was raised as an Egyptian. Eventually his family approached him and told him the truth of his birth. He watched the suffering of his people, and his heart went out to them.
Moses never forgot where he came from. He never forgot that he was a Hebrew. One day, he came across a slave driver beating a Hebrew slave. He lost his temper and killed the slave driver. In fear, he fled from Egypt. While he wandered in the desert, we came to him. We felt the pain of the children of Noah, and saw a chance to free them from their plight. We appeared to Moses in all our glory. The corrupting effects of the tree had damaged humanity enough that they could no longer comprehend us in all our glory. So, he saw us as a burning bush. We imparted knowledge of the arcane. We taught him how to free his people.
He went to the Pharaoh nine times. Each time, he stood before the king of Egypt and said, “Let my people go, or else.” Each of these times, Pharaoh said, “In your dreams.” Each of these times, Moses used his knowledge of the arcane and placed a curse upon Pharaoh and his people. Each time, Pharaoh's mages performed the same feats of arcane power. Eventually, Moses grew tired of this game of trading magic tricks, and moved onto something that sickens us to think of to this day.
He went before Pharaoh one last time and said, “Let my people go, or else.”
Pharaoh responded, “Moses, to be frank, I am very tired of this game. While the stream of magic tricks is, really, quite impressive, this is growing old. There is not a trick in your bag that my mages and seers cannot duplicate.”
“That is not true, Pharaoh. The next curse cannot be replicated by your people.”
“Oh, you've piqued my interest. I've never asked you this before, but what do you plan to do this time, David Copperfield?” Okay, I know David Copperfield is a 20th century American reference. The name Pharaoh actually used was Harakhty. Harakhty was as popular as David Copperfield was in his hey day. He even opened nightly in Pr-Bastet. Actually, now that I think of it, I probably should have used David Blaine as my example. While he's not nearly as flashy as Copperfield, his stuff is the real deal, just like the situation in Egypt.
“If you do not, Pharaoh, every first born in Egypt will die.” Let me tell you something, this was a real show stopper. This was nothing remotely like anything we had taught him. Pharaoh cast a surreptitious glance to his mages and seers, and they all shook their heads – they couldn't do that.
“Right, kid. I will believe it when I see it.”
“Rest assured, it will happen.”
Moses returned to the Jews and told them to take the blood of a lamb and mark their door frame, and that the next night they would be leaving Egypt. He gathered a large group of the most aggressive of the children of Noah and made a plan. When the sun set, he started casting the spell. Anyone who did not live in a house warded by the blood of a lamb fell into a deep, deep sleep. Moses and his lackeys, the most aggressive and violent of the Jews, began the systematic, ritual slaughter of the firstborn of Egypt. When the sun rose, so did the Egyptians. In the 20th century, the phrase - “wailing and gnashing of teeth,” has become something of a cliche, but this was the first time the sound of gnashing teeth was audible in the streets. The people of Egypt were in mourning, and Pharaoh called for Moses.
“That's it! You're people are too much trouble. Take them and get out! You have till next sunrise to get out, or I will kill all of your people.”
“That is all we wanted, Pharaoh.”
“You know what, asshole? I don't care what you, or your god forsaken people want! Get out of my sight, or I will kill you myself.”
The people of Israel left Egypt that night. They fled into the wilderness. Once the people of Egypt recovered from the initial shock, they noticed that the Jews were gone. They blamed the Jews for the tragedy. As with many murders, the first person you notice is missing is the first one that gets blamed. Never mind that it really was their fault, the Egyptians didn't know that – ironic, isn't it? The people of Egypt demanded revenge. Pharaoh realized that you cannot get revenge upon a people that you do not have access to. So, to appease his people, he sent his army to get the children of Israel back.
The army of Egypt was dispatched to retrieve the Jews. The soldiers followed the path left behind by their rapid flight. The Jews had made no effort to hide their passage, so following them was not a difficult proposition. The army, not burdened with children, the old, and the infirm, moved much faster than the Jews. Much faster. The army caught up to them at the shore of the Red Sea.
Moses surprised us then. It turns out that mankind has a potential to harness the mystic forces that we had not anticipated. We've debated it's source for over a millennium. Some say it is the soul, others say it is how patently aware of his universe man is, and still others feel that it is the eight metaphysical elements in balance within man. The archangels, on the whole, feel that every animal has some form of mystic ability, but only mankind received instruction. No matter the source, Moses raised his staff high, and parted the waters of the Red Sea. The people were amazed, and we were impressed.
The people of Israel stood in awe as the waters parted. As a matter of fact they were scared. Moses screamed, “Go!” and they still stood there. The armies of Egypt crested the hill and still they stood there. Only the sound of the chariots and the vibrations of the ground motivated them to move. They ran and ran and ran. They ran between the walls of water, Moses leading the way. The strain of maintaining the spell was obvious. The Egyptians paused for a moment, but only a moment, as their fear of Pharaoh was greater than their fear of the water. The strain of the spell brought Moses to his knees. His people carried him the rest of the way. He lost consciousness at the edge of the waters. Without Moses' concentration on the walls of water, the spell failed. The waters came crashing down, drowning the army of Egypt. We would be ashamed of these deaths too, but their loyalty was clear cut, and their deaths were not intentional.
Thus began the Jews exodus in the wilderness.
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