Mesopotamia - The Redeemer

by Yehuda Israely

  Vainglorious Demiurge,

  The blind, the brutish,

  From the lofty heavens

  Fell to the gutters.

  Demiurge the progenitor,

  The deviant and sinful,

  The deletion of Ishtar,

  Devoid of soul.

  Cursed Demiurge

  Samos is his home,

  Pythagoras his messiah,

  Orpheus his prophet.

  The spark of light

  Was packaged within a body,

  Foul and soiled,

  And flung into exile.

  We possess within us the knowledge

  Of the superior worlds.

  We are the visionaries

  Of the hidden spark.

  In the darkness of matter,

  In the crude shell

  Of the kingdom of Earth,

  We know the light.

  By the Tablet of Uruk,

  Our destiny is to liberate

  The kingdom of Earth

  To the empire of heaven.

  CHAPTER 14

  “I sent a message to Dust. I hope that they're on the way or that at least that they sent a messenger probe to relay the message. But in any case, we must reevaluate our plans. The Atheists will not make it here in time. We are alone. Thales, how much time do we have?” asked Enosh.

  “I believe that the Gnostics will not accelerate because they are already traveling at top speed, and they must decelerate before docking in Samos. Assuming that their speed will progress at a constant rate, we can expect their arrival in about ten days from now.”

  “The original plan was to prepare you for a diplomatic dialogue under conditions of a military threat. We currently have only ten days, at best, to prepare for a consciousness-to-consciousness dialogue,” he said with an air of confidence that he did not feel at all.

  “Can you manage it?” asked Sophia apprehensively.

  “You must ask yourself that question.”

  “Me? You don't think that, in light of the circumstances, it would be better if you spoke with them?” she said worriedly.

  “I have the skills to do it, but I am of no interest to them. Our one chance has not changed: only a Pythagorean can penetrate the Gnostic armor of faith.”

  “With influential abilities,” added Thales.

  “Yes,” Enosh agreed. “Sophia, you must learn the job quickly.”

  “I must learn in ten days what it took you years to learn? But that's impossible!”

  “But you have one advantage that I didn't.”

  She looked at him questioningly.

  “Our lives are dependent on it.”

  “I simply cannot fathom how I will accomplish this.”

  “If that is true, then we must destroy the processor before it falls into Gnostic hands,” said Enosh.

  Thales and Sophia were grimly silent.

  “And if we destroy the processor, it can never be recreated without reviving the threat of the Gnostics using it. Even if it takes another two hundred years, it will happen. But if we succeed in influencing them, we can attain a change in consciousness that will eliminate the danger instead of just postponing it.”

  “If we succeed,” said Sophia apprehensively.

  “In any event, we can always destroy the processor at the last minute,” said Thales grimly.

  “That is, on condition that we are prepared to be destroyed along with it,” said Sophia. “You cannot destroy the processor without destroying Samos entirely. At the last minute, it will already be too late to evacuate Samos. If we destroy the processor, at least the Atheists, and maybe even the Pythagoreans, will have an opportunity to better prepare for the future.”

  “Practically speaking, there is no difference between destroying Samos now and destroying it at a later time. Based on their rate of progress, it's clear that they would catch up with our ships on the way out, even if we were to leave this very moment,” said Thales. He turned around and his shoulders slumped.

  But Enosh was undeterred. “If we do not act now, we risk the possibility that the Atheists and the Pythagoreans will fail the next time around. The Gnostics will pursue their goal of annihilating the galaxy. Even if a portion of the Gnostic fleet is destroyed, the danger will return as long as they continue to exist. The Atheists and the Pythagoreans are not prepared to commit genocide,” said Enosh.

  They were silent.

  “We have no choice!” declared Enosh finally. “We must initialize the chain reaction of one-on-one influence, from me to you, and from you to one Gnostic. I must transfer all of the knowledge that I can to you in the little time that remains and prepare you for your meeting with the Gnostics. You must use this knowledge along with everything available to you in Samos.”

  “The processor, the simulator and the audio-visual system,” added Thales quietly.

  Sophia bit her lip.

  “Let's go!” said Thales and his eyes were suddenly seized with determination. “You must begin your work. There's no time to lose. You must refrain from any other activity until the Gnostics arrive. And as for me, if the situation reaches such a point, I intend to fight and even to kill.”

  Sophia shuddered. Thales' determination surprised her, but she disapproved of his cold attitude toward violence.

  “Wait,” she said, “we need to consider a few issues first. What about the inhabitants of Samos?”

  “Aren't you going to tell them?” asked Enosh.

  Thales and Sophia exchanged glances. Finally, she answered him. “I think that it would not be proper to include them in this discussion.” Thales nodded in approval. Sophia imagined that she would be unable to convince them to ignore the Pythagorean pacifism in which they were entrenched. Meeting Enosh had transformed her and Thales; they were no longer like the rest of the people in Samos. Nevertheless, she found it difficult to come to terms with the possibility that all of them would perish without the chance to prepare or defend themselves.

  She furrowed her brow and spoke quietly. “Thales, Enosh and I will stay at a distance. You will take my place in the daily management of the station. I must focus on my Socratic training. As Octavians, the residents of Samos will not be able to undergo a transformation of consciousness in the remaining ten days. If we have to try to reeducate them by engaging in ethical debates and facing opposition from them, we won't be able to focus on the most important part. In any event, they have nothing to contribute to the cause: neither influential nor martial capabilities. At this stage, we will not tell anyone. We'll reevaluate the situation later based on what develops. In the meantime, we'll adjust the radar computer so that it appears to the on-duty scout as though it was a mistake, and from now on we will delete the Gnostics from the radar.”

  Enosh was struck by Sophia's analytical and decision-making skills and shot her a look of admiration. Sweeping decisions such as the kind facing Sophia now were liable to impair anyone's judgment.

  “At this point in time, we will not disrupt the daily routine of Samos,” concluded Sophia. The men nodded in agreement.

  Enosh and Sophia sat together in the sample room surrounded by planetary models that orbited them.

  “I'll begin with a preface detailing the differences between the cultures in physical terms.”

  “I'm all ears.”

  “You Pythagoreans believe the basic molecule of nothingness, the single chord from which the universe inflated during the Big Bang, is one form of unity. You believe that the entire universe that emerged from it, like a flower emerging from a bud, is an expression of unity, due to the magnificent order of the different components of the universe.”

  “Very correct. You have understood us.”

  “The Gnostics agree with you that the primordial particle of nothingness, the single chord, is indeed an entity that is completely empty and expresses complete unity to which they aspire. However, according to their view, from the instant the Big Bang occurred forward, the universe became more and more chaotic. They correla
te the chaos of the Big Bang with the myth of Yaldabaoth, the demiurge creator. The primordial particle is attributed to the pure Yaldabaoth in the tower of Nothingness, the heavenly pleroma, while everything else that happened since then, such as the Big Bang and even your and my existence, is a consequence of Yaldabaoth's sin of bringing chaos into the world. We could have engaged in a metaphysical debate over this point, if only the Gnostics were not already on their way here to correct Yaldabaoth’s misdeeds.”

  “I understand that they are driven by ideological fervor based on solid internal logic,” she said. “They are not simply erratic lunatics. They will not back down easily.”

  Enosh nodded in agreement. “The module is designed to reverse the developmental process of the universe. The Gnostics intend to use the module to cause the universe, or at least the galaxy, to contract and collapse into the magnificent and compacted unity that existed before the Big Bang.”

  “And they are capable of achieving this with the module.”

  “Yes,” replied Enosh, his face grave.

  Sophia averted her gaze. “And what drives you, the Atheists?”

  “The key word for us is passion. You see the understanding of the universe, the development of physical laws and the ensuing technological tools are all a result of the scientist's passion. In the twentieth century, we discovered that the subatomic phenomena behaved according to the scientists' passion. Scientists who were eager to differentiate themselves from their environments believed in distinct subatomic particles, while scientists who were eager to blend in and belong interpreted the subatomic spatial behavior as a wave. Both camps found that their observations correlated with their findings and developed their technological advancements accordingly. Therefore, we believe that the basic form of the universe is neither nothingness or actuality, chaos or order, dissonance or unity, but rather passion itself.”

  He waited for the flash of understanding to illuminate her eyes and then continued, “The most basic component of the universe is passion.”

  “How is all of this related to the preparations for the encounter with the Gnostics?”

  “The models of the universe are also models of consciousness. We, the Socratics, draw inspiration from the realm of physics of the creational constant in order to conceptualize conscious and relative processes.”

  “Go on.”

  “The principle of the creational constant dictates that actuality is composed of molecules of nothingness.”

  “Correct.”

  “And the element that determines the nature of a substance or energy is the arrangement of these molecules.”

  “Correct.”

  “That is to say, the nature of a substance is a result of its structure.”

  “Correct.”

  “This is true for consciousness and relationships as well. Consciousness is determined by relationships, which are in turn determined by structure.”

  “Continue.”

  “Now we're getting down to the essence of it.” Enosh grasped one of the balls in the planetary model and halted the motion of the remaining balls. “Each one of the three cultures has its own conscious stance. The Pythagoreans are engaged in perfection, the Gnostics in nothingness and the Socratics in passion. But each one independently, as well as all of us together, revolve around the conscious stance that each one formulated as well as around the collective relative axis.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “It's like a planet that rotates on its own axis in a daily rotation, as well as on its outer rotation around the sun in its yearly orbit.”

  “I understand.”

  “The principle of an internal axis and an external axis is true for planets, as well as for electrons that spin on an internal axis while orbiting the nucleus of an atom, and also for souls and cultures.”

  “So there are orbits with Pythagorean, Gnostic or Socratic characteristics?”

  “Precisely. Look at it as though the orbit around the internal axis is the conscious stance of the person. The characteristics of the orbit are determined by its position in the structure, that is to say, its position in the circular path.”

  He rose and began slowly pacing the circular room while still holding the tiny planet that he had detached from the kinetic model. “This planet represents me. I was required to disconnect myself from the Socratic culture and from the Socratic structure, which had determined the Socratic rotation that I had been inside, in order to penetrate the Pythagorean structure. I achieved this by forgetting my identity.”

  She looked at him, waiting for an explanation.

  “When I penetrated the Pythagorean structure, I altered the balance that had previously existed here.”

  He returned the planet to the model and set in into motion with a touch of his finger. “When a planet is pushed into the model, the other planets change their position in the orbital path. The change of location also creates a change in each of the planets' rotations.”

  “I understand the comparison,” she said. Her voice evinced impatience. “But what does this have to do with the Gnostics?”

  “The structure has three positions: the Pythagorean perfection, the Socratic passion and the Gnostic nullification. As a Socratic, my starting point is one of passion. I transformed from passion to nothingness, from a position of a desire to influence you to a position of ignorance, while not knowing who I was or what I wanted. As a Socratic, I had to transform from a mode of passion to a mode of nothingness, which I did. And now you, as a Pythagorean, must transform from a mode of perfection to one of passion, which you are doing.”

  Sophia blushed. Enosh continued. “The Gnostic must shift from nullification to perfection, and you must aid him in this process. You must enable him to experience actuality, to experience the return of what he has lost. By vacating my position of passion, I created a vacuum, which drew you into the position of passion and removed you from a position of perfection. Because I did not know who I was, I stirred within you the desire to want something for me. This in turn caused you to be receptive to desire in the form of emotions toward your father, emotions which had no place as long as you were in a state of perfection. And regarding your question of how this is all related to the Gnostics, here is your answer: They are coming from a place of nullification. In your encounter with the Gnosis, when you pass from a modality of perfection to one of passion, you are vacating a place for them and thereby drawing them from their position of nothingness to a position of perfection.” Enosh traced a diagram on the light display with his finger:

  “Is that like a vortex that creates smaller vortices? Or like a small cog of consciousness, whose rotation generates movement in a larger cog of relationships, which in turn sets another small cog in motion, which is someone else's consciousness?” asked Sophia.

  “Precisely,” exclaimed Enosh exuberantly. “If you understand the concept of enacting a conscious change by rearranging the structure, I will then proceed to the next topic: How small changes lead to larger changes in a chain reaction.”

  “I'm with you,” said Sophia.

  Enosh moved to and fro about the room, taking small steps. He waved his arms and turned his head as if he were searching for something. “Like the chain reaction of the Big Bang and the universe coming into being, so too is the influence of consciousness to consciousness. Our purpose is to set in motion a chain of influence that begins on a small scale and then increases as it progresses. In practice, the influence happens from person to person. When I influenced you, I initiated a chain reaction. You will influence one Gnostic and he will in turn continue the chain by influencing another Gnostic and so on and so forth, until it reaches a critical mass of Gnostics who have been influenced, at which point a communal transformation can occur.” Enosh relaxed in his chair.

  “How do the Gnostics view themselves when in a modality of nullification, and how are they supposed to view themselves when in a modality of perfection? What needs to be done in order to initiate the chain rea
ction and cause that change in them?”

  “How do they view themselves in a modality of nullification?” He rubbed his hand over the stubble of his beard. “Well, in order to imbue meaning in the destruction of the Earth and in order to extract the destruction from the isolation of private experience, a portion of the refugees invented a certain way of thinking. This stance maintains that destruction is part of a shared fate. A fate shared not only by other Earth refugees, but also with the Gnostic Gods and the entire universe. Perceiving nothingness as a cosmic principle transforms it into a value of spiritual significance in the individual's consciousness.”

  “Give me an example.” Her brow wrinkled in concentration.

  “Throughout history, there are innumerable examples of situations in which an individual who has experienced the trauma of loss imbued the tragic event with a cosmic significance. Take for example the Jewish refugees who were expelled from Spain in the middle of the second millennium. They developed a concept of an exiled God as part of their metaphysics—the Kabbalah. Or take the Aztecs, who developed a theology of a God who was thirsty for human blood, which reflected their own thirst following a devastating drought. The same principle applies with our refugees at hand. By belonging to the Gnostic tradition, they tied their personal destruction to the destruction of the universe and thereby lent a form to their concept of nothingness. They imbued meaning in their personal tragedy by placing it in a cosmic context.”

  “And how should they perceive themselves in a position of perfection?”

  “The Gnostics gave up the experience of perfection that is so lacking in their lives. The moment that the good world in which they lived had been taken from them, they chose to give up on the idea of perfection in order to spare themselves the inherent frustration brought about by yearning for something that no longer exists. This is how they developed the belief that purports that nothingness is the only reality. Our purpose is to enable them a little taste of perfection in order to undermine their metaphysical worldview that is based on nullification. Out of the reality brought about by this connection, they should be able to experience actuality and wholeness, even momentarily; just for the sake of contradicting and undermining the overwhelming nothingness that overpowers them.”