The Descent of Man

[Axtemephon]

In the beginning his heart was dark and he dwelt among wild things. They would show him who they were with a flash of feathers or a twist of the tail. They were a menace. He was the first to renounce them. They meant war. It was an abyss. It drowned out all their cries. It was louder than anything. It was a dark force within creation. It was their original sin. The blackness before creation was perfect, they thought. The coming of man was a sin against that.

Yet he saw the child in the sun. There was the light. There was no dark force in matter.

They thought being was a sin. Life was something black. He was in the wilderness with them, and he wondered who he was. He had to go. He had to get right.

He heard a voice, “Go east about a mile”. He walked for days.

Finally he came out of the desert. There was a mountain there made by a man. It seemed to be a great social house. He entered the village by night. There were blue lights in front of some of the houses.    

He climbed the first steps of the man’s mountain and entered the gateway of the great cavern within it. There was a guard. Our hero snapped out an answer. It was a memory.

Look, he’s riding his horse![/i]

It was when he had saved his love from the evil house of Yod.

Zuzagarri[/i]! He had snapped out with the force of the black blade he had smashed into the evil-doer. It meant Aw, you never learn.

The guard let him pass and he met the priest who built the mountain. He was unsure if he should have left his own place.  He wasn’t right.

You can stay here for free, the priest said. Let us be brothers. This is a secret: gold. He smiled.

He already knew about it, the prince replied. He took the priest’s banal pause as the answer and beamed a smile.

The priest looked over his shoulder and muttered. Do you know the substance of gold then?

Anaide[/i], brother, he replied, it is the one substance. All things.

Do you see this? The priest asked, gesticulating with one finger.

He said he did, and then mocked confusion, as if there were two.

The priest told him he could sleep in the basement.

When he got there, it was the lavatory.

He stared down into his existence, which was empty as an urn.

There is only one, Isis, the priest’s wife, said. She had been watching him. Was this one? His tortured heart wondered.

It is the secret of matter, she told him.

He realized that there was only one substance to all things.

But was this gold, or filthy lead? Was there a God in that chaotic world? What was real? What was merely shadow? He was so jaded. But the sin wasn’t real. He laughed slightly. He loved. That alone was real.

The rain came, and the waters of the river cleansed his soul.

There was no dark force in matter. Creation was no one’s sin.

There was a pause.

It ran across the clouds, thundering. It rained down, and wet his shirt, and touched his heart.