The Rainbow Bridge and the Shadow of the Serpent: The Rainbow Bridge and the Shadow of the Serpent

by Sergio Pereira

Violet didn’t let go of Joaquina. She was so emotional that she let her tears flow.

  Who said that notes do not know how to cry from sadness or love?

  Who, in full conscience, could deny the laughter and lament of music?

  Who can state that notes cannot share our sadness and joy?

  Anyone who does this, does not know or understand anything about music or life.

  - Let’s go, softies! The danger’s increasing.

  Violet turned her head. She was crying and laughing at the same time.

  - Oh, Pedrão. You just had to talk like my father, didn’t you?

  -As I said, are we going or not? Stefanie’s eyes were almost closing, such was the pain she was in. Joaquina led her to get on the adult butterfly’s back.

  - Hold on, my dear. I’m behind you and won’t let you fall, no matter what.

  Violet turned to Pedrão.

  - May I?

  - But of course! Why do you think we came here? Quickly now!

  The butterflies took the skies. Had she not been so worried about Stefanie, Violet would have been radiant with happiness. How beautiful the valley below was! Pedrão and Burina – that was the name of the butterfly carrying Joaquina and Stefanie – flew higher and higher. It was risky to go up too high and be seen but they needed to get beyond the great mountain range. Although they could fly over it, its highest point was around 15 thousand metres high and they knew that humans couldn’t survive without oxygen, special clothes or even a magic biosphere.

  They had left the Castle of Occidental Music so quickly that there hadn’t been time to get the elements of magic life support. So, the girls only had their clothes made of moonlight fibres. Pedrão and Burina chose the most linear route possible. They flew over a stretch of the mountain range where the frozen peaks were at an altitude of 8,000 metres on average. On that day, despite the strong midday sun, the temperature at this point of the crossing was approximately minus 40 degrees. At the speed they were flying, the thermal sensation must have been around minus 80. Thus, it was necessary for them to fly over this stretch quickly so that those they were protecting wouldn’t die of cold, or have problems connected to the altitude. We must point out that a little magic still existed in their clothes, but it wouldn’t last long.

  And so what they had planned is what they did. Stefanie saw nothing because she was half dead. Violet was enchanted with the scenario. However, she constantly checked to see if her friend was alright. Once past the highest point of their flight, the butterflies dropped to 3,000 metres.

  - Look. What’s that, Pedrão?

  - Cretins! If I didn’t have the responsibility to deliver you, they’d know what was what.

  - They? They who?

  What Violet could see was brown dots growing on the horizon to their right. They were dragons ridden by baboons. Probably twenty of them, flying in battle formation. They were coming at the same altitude and en route to intercept the butterflies, which would happen, if nothing changed, approximately twenty kilometres ahead.

  Pedrão and Burina looked at each other. They couldn’t fight without running the risk of losing those they were protecting. They flew faster. Far ahead, about seventy kilometres, stood the Castle, which they could already make out.

  The flapping of their four wings was vigorous, as was the wind that passed over them. Violet half closed her eyes. The dragons, like a squadron of enemy hunters, were in clear view now. They were growing in the field of vision by the second.

  One more kilometre and the two flight trajectories would meet at an intersection point in the sky.

  Eight hundred metres. Six hundred. Two hundred. One hundred. Forty. Imminent collision.

  Pedrão and Burina spread their wings fully and positioned themselves in vertical flight, like two powerful aerodynamic brakes. They decelerated suddenly.

  The dragons passed in front of them. The surprise was such that one of them, in an attempt to alter its route, lost its balance and went into a corkscrew dive.

  Pedrão and Burina accelerated the beating of their wings once more. They were soon flying at about four hundred kilometres an hour. The dragons had recovered and were following them, coming up behind. Under equal conditions, they were not as fast as the butterflies, but it was possible that the weight of the latter’s three passengers gave the dragons an advantage. They were flying at approximately three hundred and eighty kilometres an hour. At that moment, they fell behind. The butterflies couldn’t keep up that pace for long. They’d used up a lot of energy by that stage.

  The pursuit proceeded and they were now forty kilometres from the castle. Burina’s strength was failing. She was flying at three hundred and sixty kilometres an hour. Pedrão noticed, and in solidarity, he reduced his speed. The dragons ridden by baboons began to gain ground.

  They passed through some clouds with low vapour density. The sky was clear once more.

  There were still twenty kilometres to reach the Castle of Occidental Music. Pedrão was already preparing himself psychologically and physically for a fight. The cries of the baboons, laughing like hyenas, were within earshot. Hope faded as the danger took on body and smell.

  The boom of the opening of a symphony filled the air. Sounds of lively tubas and trumpets pushed the sounds of the baboon laughter far away, and they, in their turn, were silenced.

  Coming from the Castle, ten eagles ridden by Valkyries and accompanied by the Giant butterflies were coming to help. Again, the excerpt from the Ride of the Valkyries, from the opera by Wagner, filled the air. Thunder and lightning outshone the clear skies o midday, and even the sun, for short periods of time.

  Violet, Stefanie, Joaquina, Pedrão and Burina crossed the Castle walls. The ballerina was immediately taken to the local hospital. Joaquina stayed by Violet’s side. Pedrão and Burina headed back to join their divisions.

  Not one dragon or baboon returned to their Lady. They were summarily annihilated in mid air When the aerial massacre was over, the Valkyries, eagles and butterflies disappeared in the direction of the opposite horizon.

  CHAPTER XVII

  THE EYE OF TIME I

  How many universes or kingdoms are there? How many infinities coexist in unique and distinct dimensions? Perhaps the most fascinating instance regarding the endless search for truth is that the more knowledge humanity acquires, the more quickly still the frontiers of the unknown advance and extend into infinity. Thus, it is correct to state that for every good question answered by science, at least two new ones arise. Knowledge has no end or limits when it comes to exploration.

  This simple observation merely serves to make us reflect on how infinitely wise the Creator of everything that exists is, and also awakens the desire to always advance, because more important than finding answers is the process or journey to get them.

  In the Kingdom of the Blue Earth, much scientific and technological progress was made in the 19th and 20th centuries and at the beginning of the 21st. However, great minds are unanimous in affirming that even the sum of all the knowledge acquired by all societies and nations that have set foot on the planet is merely a tiny part of what would be necessary to begin to have full vision and awareness of Creation.

  Socrates was one of the greatest philosophers of all times. In the Kingdom of the Blue Earth, he was born in 470 B.C. His was the genius utterance made before the Oracle at Delphi, which singled him out as the wisest of all men:

  “All I know is that I know nothing.”

  And also his:

  “I am called wise for my hearers always imagine that I possess wisdom, which I find wanting in others; but the truth is, O men of Athens, that God only is wise, and in this oracle he means to say that the wisdom of men is little or nothing...’

  And God, in his infinite love and wisdom, has never left any tribe, society, nation, or even a species of life in any dimension, without support. On the contrary, although there are always false prophets of erraticity to take advantage of individual or collective ignorance, missiona
ries and true prophets work tirelessly for the evolution of Creation.

  The Kingdom of the Blue Earth had its beginnings around four and a half billion years ago. Although this is a lot in the life of any species, in eternity and for the Eye of Time, it represents nothing. Several archaeological finds lead us to believe that the dominant species homo sapiens has been on the planet for approximately one million years.

  Many questions can be asked about the history and saga of humanity. One of the excellent questions is:

  When did human beings discover or actually begin to feel and make music?

  There is no shortage of explanations of every kind.

  In Greek mythology, when the gods of Olympus defeated the Titans, who were the sons of Uranus, Zeus, the king of the victorious gods, was asked to create new divinities that would sing and eternalise the victory of the new divine generation that was taking over from the old one. So Zeus made love for nine consecutive nights to the goddess of memory, Mnemosyne. One year later, Mnemosyne gave birth to nine daughters. This is how, according to Greek mythology, the muses were born, who, to the delight of the gods and the inspiration of men, sang of the present, past and future. The god Apollo was the one who spent the most time with them and sang and danced with them more than anyone.

  The muses were: Calliope, the muse of eloquence; Clio, the muse of history and fame; Euterpe, the muse of lyric poetry and inventor of the flute; Thalia, the muse of comedy; Terpsichore, the muse of dance; Melpomene, the muse of tragedy; Erato, the muse of love poetry; Polyhymnia, the muse of sacred music; and finally, Urania, the muse of astronomy.

  The ancient Greeks also believed that the muses lived in the temple known as the Musaeum, origin of the word “museum”, as a place for the preservation of arts and sciences. The word “music” is derived from the Greek words “musiké téchne”, which means “the art of the muses”.

  But the contribution of Greek civilisation to the universe of the arts and sciences went far beyond this. Perhaps the greatest genius of earthly humanity in the holistic sense was the citizen Pythagoras, born sometime between 570 and 590 B.C. on the island of Samos, in ancient Greece. Legend has it that he was given his name in honour of a priestess at the oracle of Delphi, because she had predicted that his parents would have a son of rare beauty, goodness and intelligence, who would do much for humanity.

  Legend also has it that at the end of his adolescence, Pythagoras stated that all Greek knowledge put together totalled merely a small fraction of knowledge of the universe and life. So, the young Pythagoras, leaving Sparta, began his forty-year voyage around the East. In Miletus he studied with Thales and Anaximander. In Egypt, he received permission from the Pharaoh Amasis to study in the initiate temples. Many also believe that he was the disciple of none other than the enlightened Persian prophet Zoroaster, or Zarathustra in Greek.

  Mature and experienced, Pythagoras returned to his native island, Samos. He was not welcomed there by the tyrant Polycrates, which led him to migrate to Croton, a Greek city on the Italian peninsula. It was there that he founded his school for initiates, based on mathematics, music and astronomy, which many of the wise considered to be the foundation of all arts and sciences.

  Pythagoras did not say he was “sophos”, wise in Greek, but he was the first man to call himself a philosopher, in other words, a lover of knowledge. The teaching given to a prince whom he then praised for his eloquence and wisdom is attributed to Pythagoras: “We came into existence as one goes to a large fair, some as slaves to fame, some ambitious for profit, and others eager for wisdom. We call this last group philosophers.”

  Although he left no written records, his teachings influenced Socrates, Plato, Archimedes, Euclides and much of human culture. Some of his thoughts are true masterpieces of pure wisdom:

  “Educate the children and it won't be necessary to punish the men.

  No man is free who cannot control himself.

  Rest satisfied with doing well, and leave others to talk of you as they please.

  Sow what you say, reap what you hear

  Help your peers to lift the burden, but do not carry it

  It is with order and with time that one finds the secret of doing everything and doing everything well.

  All is number.

  The best way for man to set about improving himself is to get closer to God.

  Evolution is the Law of Life, Number is the Law of the Universe,

  Unity is the Law of God

  Life is like a concert hall: one enters, looks and leaves.

  Full and complete wisdom belongs to the gods, but men can desire it or love it by becoming philosophers.

  Strive to bear injustices, the true tragedy lies in committing them.”

  It is impressive how all truths unite in one thing or common objective. When the Master of Masters, Jesus, said: ““Let the children come to me. For the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to such as these.” (Luke, XVIII, 16), he was re-affirming, in an even more sublime way, one of the great teachings of Pythagoras, which, if applied today would greatly reduce the problems faced by humanity: “Educate the children and it won’t be necessary to punish the men.”

  According to Pythagoras, the universe was ruled by numbers and number 1 was God. Western human science regarding music owes much to Pythagoras. It was he who, studying the vibration of a string extended on an instrument called a monochord or harmonical canon, discovered the interval of an eighth as a reference in the relation of frequency 2:1, a fifth 3:2, a fourth 4:3, and a whole tone 9:8. Thus, for his disciples and also for the philosopher Plato, music became, as well as an art, a natural extension of mathematics.

  But for humanity, primitive manifestation and then awareness of music dates back much farther than ancient Greece and the civilisations that came before it. It already existed for men in pre-history.

  Even so, it is a mistake to believe that it was with human beings or through human beings that music arrived in the Kingdom of the Blue Earth. Many birds were already singing when homo sapiens was crawling in his primitive humanity and was nothing more than a gatherer species living eras before the Stone Age.

  But even though current science does not recognise birdsong as a form and expression of musicality, the music of whales cannot be denied. More or less fifty million years ago, these formidable mammals were already roaming on terra firma on four legs. Evolution adapted them gradually to life in the oceans and, long before any human existed, they began to sing and make music to communicate throughout the seas.

  Saying that the only species which makes music on this planet is the human being is like wanting to believe that life occurs and manifests itself only on planet Earth. If there are infinite forms and expressions of life, there are also countless manifestations of music throughout all the universes and dimensions.

  Atoms vibrate. The radiating energy of the stars or of any other source in any universe is effected in the form of vibrating waves that have defined length and frequency, according to their natures. From the infinitely tiny micro and many microcosms of the subatomic worlds to the macro and very macro infinity that makes up infinite universes, everything vibrates.

  The hearts of the smallest insects, as well as those of the great mammals, beat and pulsate rhythmically according to their needs. The planets, too, the stars and even the quasars and pulsars pulsate and, therefore, make their own music.

  The Eye of Time, which sees everything and forgets nothing, is witness to the fact that the genius Pythagoras was right when he stated that music and mathematics permeate everything and everyone. And happy is the human being who begins to see, hear the divine, heavenly symphonies that the Father and Mother of all creation propitiate and perform as a source of life.

  CHAPTER XVIII

  THE TWILIGHT OF THE FAIRY QUEENS

  After seven days of that anguished calm that comes before feared storms, when the great Castle clock registered midday, the night of the next day did not wait for the six hours left before dark. Time itsel
f seemed to have moved forward, while a dense darkness was taking on form, smell, and weight.

  The sky of the Kingdom of the Seven Moons disappeared as if a polluting cover made of toxic components and many diseases had blotted out the Seven Moons and the stars.

  Fear emanated from every nook and cranny. In the Garden of Flowers, the night-scented jasmine were not deceived by the darkness forming, and remained unfurled. No flower dared to dance and no bird warbled what could be a Hail Mary at the end of the day. There was no nocturnal animal or even an insect beginning activities, while all the diurnal creatures retired. Nature was playing dead, fearing that death was near.

  The temperature was falling quickly: on average two degrees every half an hour. At this rate, the high-altitude rivers would soon freeze. Winds were blowing all over the place and the climate was giving signs of extreme changes.

  What was happening to the Kingdom of the Seven Moons was unimaginable and had originated after the freeing of the forgotten operas. The reason was that when the wicked creation of the Tyrant Fairy Queen had been destroyed, her hatred passed all limits. After the cave ceiling collapsed completely, she fled to one of the worst Kingdoms of the Underworlds. The paths to this sub-world are still a secret to all of us; but not to her, who had made that journey many times. Even so, she made the journey with a certain fear because she knew the risks that anyone runs when penetrating such a deserted dimension. There, where no light enters, and all good feelings turn to dust, corroded by fungi of the purest hatred, she went to ask for help from the worst thing that can exist.

  In that Kingdom, the intensity of evil was so fearsome that not even the Fairy Queen of Easy Fame had the courage to go with the Fairy Queen of the Oppressive Forces. Much to the contrary, she went to her private beauty salon to redo her face and prepare her revenge, which she knew her mistress would soon orchestrate.