Memoirs of Divinity: Chapter 7
Date Thursday, March 28, 2024 - 06:33 AM PST
Topic Religion


The people of Israel needed a leader, so we could not fault them for following Moses. They wandered in the wilderness for 40 years, then finally built a home. Once they had a home, they went about the business of actually living. Moses died. His machine kept rolling.
Joshua was the next leader. Somehow, they convinced the Israelites that we had chosen him to be the next leader. While this was not the case, we were not displeased. Joshua was kind, compassionate, and wise. People have been arguing about who wrote this book. Was Joshua the author, or the main character of the narrative? Does it matter? Joshua, a single author or several people writing a collaborative work – what does it matter?

With the death of the butcher, Moses, we led Israel to the “Promised Land.” The book of Joshua chronicles the Israelite conquest of the land of Canaan in order to give each of the twelve tribes the inheritance of land that Moses had promised them. The land of Canaan was comprised of small Kingdoms. Israel marched across the land, rolling over every kingdom they encountered. In some cases, multiple kingdoms joined forces to stop the advance of Israel. Every time the Israelites fought, they won. Every time they won, they claimed that we were responsible for their victory. They continued with this conquest until they had gained sufficient land for their people to survive.

Once they had land for all the people, the cogs of the machine continued to roll. To place the people further under their thumb, the priests ordered the people to set themselves aside to the lord. I have to say, the method they chose was an exercise in devotion. Personally, were we to ask for a sign that our people were set aside to us, we would have asked for something that would be readily visible to the unaided observer. We wouldn't have had them mutilate themselves in a way that required removal of clothing. That is just silly. Yes, it is easier to keep clean and reduces the chances for infection, but so does washing. Besides, why would we demand this ritual, but only for men? The machine is geared to be a boys club, that's why.

After the time of Joshua came the book of Judges. It's an account of Israel's life after taking over the land of Canaan. Honestly, the person who wrote this book was the first to sit and talk with us in years. His name was Samuel. It really is a chronicle of how our chosen people had taken us for granted year after year. We had never failed to open our arms to those we had chosen. Open arms, it seems, were not enough.

After the death of Joshua and his advisors, the people of Israel returned to serving the gods they used to serve before we took an interest in them. They fell back in with Baal and Ashtaroth. While these were aspects of the divine, these facets of divinity were drastically different from ourselves. We let them worship as they wanted, and as such they offered themselves to this divinity and were controlled by it. This did not make them happy. When they called to us to be free once more, we freed them without hesitation. The humans we had chosen seemed to be broken, mentally. They placed themselves in the hands of other gods, then requested to be freed. Then they turned their back on us once again. Again and again, we freed them from the repercussions of their actions. Though, in retrospect, tough love might have been a better course in this time. Our soft, caring approach is what kept bringing them back, as there were no lasting effects of their choices.

I am terribly fond of the book of Samuel. Honestly, this is the first time that Israel actually caught on to the concept of lifting the lowly. Unfortunately, this is also the first time that they mention that a woman's prayers were answered. In the first book of Samuel, they outline “the Lord's way” with the proud and the strong, meaning we punished them . Honestly, pride, in modest amounts, can be good. They also go on to say that it was not the strength of the leadership of Israel or its people, but the spiritual might of the divinity they worship that destroyed the Philistines. This is not the kind of thing we engage in.

Let's just look at well-known old testament stories.

The battle of Jericho. Israel gathered around this city that they had not conquered yet. They laid siege to the city for a long while. When the losses to the army of Israel had totaled high enough, the leaders ordered the army to parade around the walls, blowing their horns all the while. They did this for 6 days. The night before the last parade the qabalic masters had completed the spell that would bring down the walls. They blew the horns, and the spell was done. The walls came crashing down. I think it was a combination of mystic power and sympathetic vibrations that brought it all down. The problem is not the supremacy that Israel wished to have, nor is it the conquest of a land that they felt was theirs by birthright. It was the slaughter that was required to achieve this. They killed hundreds of thousands of innocent people and took still more as slaves. One would think Israel's history would soften them to the plight of others, particularly of slaves.

The story of Samson and Delilah. It is true, the people of Israel had forgotten about us. Again. But it was their conquest of Canaan that brought them into conflict with the Philistines. While Israel had stopped its march of conquest, the Philistines had no way of knowing this. Israel had started to make the people of Canaan miserable. There was one woman faithful to us, and we answered her prayers, giving her a son. She chose to set him aside to us, as a Nazarite. We told her that if she did not cut his hair, we would honor him as one of our own. Long story short, Samson was betrayed, his hair was cut by one of the Philistines. Honestly, we did not hold him responsible for this, as he did not cut his own hair. It was all in his mind. He honored us, and so we honored him.

Jonah. Ninevah was one of the largest cities of its time. Within its walls dwelt people of all nations, creeds and races. We wanted our people out of that place, as it was a haven for theft and murder. These things, even if you do not participate in them, tend to corrode the soul, harming the living essence of a person. We came across one of our faithful. His name was Jonah. We told him to go to Ninevah. Jonah told us, “No.” Honestly, he was our only option in the area, so we really had no choice. Jonah is one of the most impressive examples of the human spirit we've ever seen. He ran away. He ran away and jumped on a ship, sailing away.

Our anger at this caused a storm to blow up. The sailors on the ship were terrified. They asked Jonah to pray to us, but it was too late. We had started it, and had no chance to stop it. As the storm raged, the sailors became even more frightened and decided that the gods would be appeased by a sacrifice, and they drew straws to see who would be cast overboard. Of course, as is so often the case, our servant drew the short straw. Philosophically, this was the best thing that could have happened to us. He was cast into the water, and we saved him. I will admit, the method of rescue was a bit unorthodox, but we had to make do with the materials we had at the time. We had him swallowed by a whale, and kept him alive in the belly of the whale while we spoke with him. Eventually he agreed to go to Ninevah. When he spoke, they listened to him. The entire town chose the path of righteousness.

We will never understand mankind. Jonah, a true believer and prophet of our ways, went into the town, albeit with some persuasion, and made a wonderful change for good in these peoples' lives. We were merciful, like we have always been. Jonah was upset by this. We had pressured him to do the right thing, so he was angry because we did not punish Ninevah. Why do a majority humans act like children all their lives?

Let's talk about Elijah. King Ahab thought he was the baddest man in history. He was a mighty king, after all. Ahab felt he had no need of the divine. We would have had no problems with Ahab, save for the fact that he prayed to idols, not even a different aspect of the divine. We sent our prophet, Elijah to warn him of his ways. After all, a king has an enormous amount of impact on the thoughts, feelings and beliefs of his people. We sent Elijah at a time when a drought was about to strike Ahab's lands. Yeah, this is a dirty trick, but hey, we learned our lesson with the flood. We had Elijah tell him that there would be no rain until he changed his ways. While the drought raged, we sent Elijah to stay with a widow. We told him to tell her that all she had to do was care for him and we would provide. We did. Their food and water and oil were not used up. The point is, he had faith and we took care of him while the drought took care of Ahab's people, only in a different manner.

Let's talk about David and Goliath. During the early history of man, there was a choir of angels called Grigori. These angels were set by the divine to watch over man, to help him during times of distress.. The Grigori were closer in thought and form to man than any other of the choirs of angels. We made them like this so they could understand man. Yet, they were still divine. We hoped that would allow them to translate, to make it easier to understand the ins and outs of human thought. This was not the case, however, as the Grigori became more like man than the divine. This transformation led them to fall.

The Grigori, you see, chose to live amongst humans, as humans. They mated with them and produced offspring that should never have existed. These children were called Nephilim. Now, I said these children should never have existed. The reasons for this belief is simple: Angels wield an incredible amount of power over the Symphony, but due to specific restrictions built into them, they cannot move to truly damage the fabric of reality. When the Grigori mated with humans, they passed their power on to their children, but the children were born with souls. The soul allows such freedom of choice. Literally put, the Nephilim were given the power to rend the threads of reality, but no moral obligations to avoid doing so.

Fortunately, the Nephilim were exceptionally rare. Wherever they went, the symphony suffered. One of these creatures was named Goliath. Goliath was a particularly nasty piece of work. He reveled in the chords that violent death struck within the Symphony. One of the will workers, a man named David, wanted to end this killing spree. When Goliath's army stood outside of the tiny village David lived in, David challenged him to single combat. The spell David cast upon his sling was truly impressive. When he let the rock fly, it ignited with the energy of an artillery shot. A sound like thunder split the sky as the stone shot forward. Even with that amount of force behind it, the stone did not vaporize the Nephilim. It did kill him. He was the last of the Nephilim.

Okay, let's talk about Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar was an ass. After becoming king, he demanded that people worship a statue he had erected in the town square. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refused to pay lip service to what can only be called a false god. I mean, a statue is not a god in any sense of the word. Yes, the totem poles of the Native Americans, as well the statuary of the Aztecs and Incas serve a divine purpose, but the statues themselves are not divine. Some would argue to the contrary, but they tend to say the symbolism is holy. We agree with that, and in some cases the item is irreplaceable. While the item cannot be replaced, and as such is very important, the item itself is not divine. Nebuchadnezzar flew into a rage and called the three friends in before him. He ordered them to bow before the statue, or he would kill them. They refused and Nebuchadnezzar had Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego cast into a furnace for their “offense.” This would not do. We showed compassion and moved to spare them. This was one of the few times that we exercised our power to interfere in the lives of men. When they were tossed into the furnace, we went to them and spoke with them, saying, “We are here to save you, sit with us and be well.” We kept the fires from scorching so much as a hair on their heads. When the servants of Nebuchadnezzar looked into the furnace, they saw four men in the fires. Thus Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were saved.

Belshazzar was the king after Nebuchadnezzar. He, like Nebuchadnezzar, thought that he was hot shit. It seems that all kings feel this way – something about power corrupting. Either way, in spite of the fact that Nebuchadnezzar had told him of our feat with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, Belshazzar still felt that he was “above the law.” He threw a feast for his coronation. When they ran low on wine, they cracked open the sacramental wine in the temple. It sounds petty, but that wine was ours, and their behavior would not do. So, in the middle of the party, we decided to make a statement. We walked in, unseen by all that were there, and began to write on the wall. Belshazzar called his mages and seers, but they could not decipher the message we had written. Eventually, the wisest of the people was called, a lad named Daniel. Daniel was able to answer the king's questions.

Daniel answered him, saying, “It means that god has counted the days you will be king, and the number is zero. God has tested you, and you failed. And God has declared that your kingdom will be divided amongst your neighbors.”
Daniel was not really that bright, just lucky. Hell, even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while. That was nothing at all like what we had written. Still, what Daniel said must have shaken the old guy, for he died in his sleep that night. The other thing came to pass as well. Daniel may not have been wise, but he was in tune with the symphony. For the record, what we wrote was, “You've had enough wine, this is your last call. You don't have to go home, but you cannot stay here.” Daniel may have been paraphrasing. Hell, what do I know?

It seems Daniel had a knack for getting under people's skins. He gave us his devotion of his own free will. The king after Belshazzar was named Darius. Darius recognized Daniel as a truly virtuous man, and put him in charge of matters of state. This pissed off most of the king's other advisors and they came up with a scheme to be rid of Daniel. They convinced the king to make a law that stated that for 40 days no man could petition a god or another man for anything, they were to all ask Darius to fulfill their wishes and needs. Daniel continued to pray to us, and the advisors pointed this out to the king. Since it was a law, it could not be broken. So Darius declared, through tears, that Daniel must be fed to the lions. Long story short, Daniel was tossed into the den, and the way sealed. The next day he was unharmed. We had nothing to do with this.

He, as we said, was in tune with the symphony. I do not think that He even realized that he had the talent. Daniel probably felt that everything that happened to him was our influence, but honestly, it was his own ability to influence the nature of reality that made the difference for him. Honestly, the willpower of humans is an amazing thing. If you have faith the size of a grain of mustard, you can move mountains. It's not a joke: the source of mystic power lies within every human. While the energy that fuels it has waned in the last two thousand years (and we'll get to that later), the power is still there. It is sad that most of you have lost the ability due to unbelief and being too lazy to exercise it. Faith and magic are like muscles - if you don't exercise them, they atrophy and wither away.


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