[The following is the twentieth of many posts–here is the first, here is the second, here is the third, here is the fourth, here is the fifth, here is the sixth, here is the seventh, here is the eighth, here is the ninth, here is the tenth, here is the eleventh, here is the twelfth, here is the thirteenth, here is the fourteenth, here is the fifteenth, here is the sixteenth, here is the seventeenth, here is the eighteenth, and here is the nineteenth–about a fictitious discovery of ancient manuscripts of a religious text of narratives and magic spells. Its purpose for my readers and me is to provide a cosmology and mythography on which I am basing much, if not most, of my fiction–short stories and novels. If anyone is interested in reading this fiction, he or she can use these blog posts as references to explain the nature of the magic and universe in my fiction.]

While it is perfectly good and wise to use magic to aid and benefit others, and wicked and foolish to use it for selfish or malignant ends, the very best use of magic is to gain knowledge and enlightenment. As far as enemies of the community are concerned, magic should be used for defence–never for attack.

Use magic as an aid in meditation, for contemplation of the foundations of all being in the world: the Three Unities of Space, Time, and Action; the Echo Effect, and how to make it return good to oneself, and not evil; the Crims of air, Weleb, fire, Nevil, earth, Drofurb, and water, Priff–not to use them for personal gain at the expense of others, but for how they interact with and parallel the Unity of Action and the Echo Effect; and the most foundational of everything, Cao and the Pluries.

One should use magic to help in studying all of these, to know the world better, to understand its rhythms, and thus to become wiser. This wisdom will aid in making decisions that will benefit the community, deliver them, we hope, from their current slavery under the Zoyans, and protect them from the temptations that do only harm.

In this, we can see the wisdom of combining magic with the old teachings. If used well, magic can give concrete examples of exactly why the old teachings are wise and correct; if used foolishly, to replace the old teachings, magic will be only a curse to the community, if not now or soon after, surely at some point in the distant future, and it will be only a harsher curse the later it comes.

If one wishes to contemplate the Three Unities of Space, Time, and Action, while also contemplating the four Crims of the elements, one can sit in a bath of water up to the neck, with the smell of mud surrounding it, a breeze blowing around one’s head, and a fire burning nearby. With one’s eyes closed and breathing in and out slowly and deeply, one relaxes, goes into a trance, and can feel not only a closeness to Priff, Drofurb, Weleb, and Nevil, but also the waves of Cao with Weleb’s breeze blowing on the water.

In feeling the unity of all things in this way–the unity of the complementing Crims, the wavelike Unity of Space in Cao, and also staying mindful of the ever-present now–the Unity of Time–one can feel how the Echo Effect moves to bring weal or woe to us all. While sitting thus in the bath, one can chant, “Cao, Pluries, make me know you,” over and over again. The bath is best had outside, so that after the chant has been said enough times, the rain should fall, soaking one’s head in the Pluries to achieve even greater illumination. It is good that the rain will quench the nearby flames; the spell will thus help to calm the fires of desire, malice, and selfish craving.

Doing this meditation and spell often enough will help one feel a oneness between oneself and all others, even with animal and plant life, thus strengthening love, compassion, and goodwill to all others, even to those outside the community. If enough of the community does this meditation and spell regularly, it may even cause the Echo Effect to free us all from slavery to the Zoyans.

[The text breaks off here.]

[The following is the fifteenth of many posts–here is the first, here is the second, here is the third, here is the fourth, here is the fifth, here is the sixth, here is the seventh, here is the eighth, here is the ninth, here is the tenth, here is the eleventh, here is the twelfth, here is the thirteenth, and here is the fourteenth–about a fictitious discovery of ancient manuscripts of a religious text of narratives and magic spells. Its purpose for my readers and me is to provide a cosmology and mythography on which I am basing much, if not most, of my fiction–short stories and novels. If anyone is interested in reading this fiction, he or she can use these blog posts as references to explain the nature of the magic and universe in my fiction.]

The Luminosian practitioners of magic began their ritual by collecting twigs and piling them on a small hill of dirt. They did this by the edge of the cliff over which they could see the city, named Zaga, which they wanted to invade, settle in, and colonize.

When the wind was blowing unswervingly in the direction of Zaga, they lit the twigs and began their incantation to the beat of a drum: “Fly to Zaga! Fly to Zaga!”

Drofurb, Weleb, and Nevil were the Crims appealed to in this endeavour to take the city. Priff was left out since it was felt that water would weaken the power of Nevil’s fire. Apart from the evil that the elders decried in this taking of a city that didn’t belong to the Luminosian invaders-to-be, the elders also noted how the neglect of Priff in the ritual would throw the four elements of air, fire, earth, and water out of balance.

“Throwing fire over there will send a flood of water back to us, I prophesy!” one of the elders warned. “A lack of Priff will bring Priff to us in an unwelcome manner!”

“Hear, hear!” the other elders shouted in agreement.

“Silence!” one of the supporters of the ritual shouted back. “You’re diluting the effectiveness of the ritual!”

“Good!” that first elder said. “You are all doing evil!”

“Silence!” more supporters of the ritual shouted.

“Fly to Zaga!” continued the chanters of the ritual. “Fly to Zaga!”

From the burning pile of twigs on the hill of Drofurb’s dirt flew a few sparks at first. Then, after the chant had been repeated enough times, louder and louder, those sparks were getting bigger, growing into small balls of flying fire. These were now being blown by the wind, Weleb’s air, over the cliff and towards Zaga.

“It’s working!” one of the supporters of the ritual shouted, then he pointed over the cliff at Zaga. “Look! Nevil’s fire is flying over to the city! Zaga will soon be ours!”

“No, no,” the elders moaned. “Not like this. No!”

The rest of the Luminosians cheered as the balls of fire flew in a swarm closer and closer to Zaga.

Some of the people of the city looked up at the sky and noticed the flock of lights coming to them.

“Look,” a Zagan man said to his wife, pointing at the distant lights. “What is that up there?”

His wife looked at the coming balls of light with fear. She pulled their son and daughter close to her waist.

More Zagans noticed the nearing lights. Eyes and mouths widened.

“Fireflies?” a Zagan woman asked.

The Luminosians cheered and chanted “Victory!” as the elders held their heads in their hands.

The Zagans could hear the Luminosians cheering in the distance. A few Zagans saw them on the cliff and pointed up at them.

“Who are they?” a man pointing up at the Luminosians asked. “Did they send those lights?”

Soon, it became clear to the Zagans that the approaching glowing balls were not mere lights. They were not fireflies. They were a danger.

“Balls of fire!” a Zagan woman screamed. “A weapon!”

“They’re coming to kill us all!” a Zagan man yelled.

All the Zagans started to run and scream.

The balls of fire were about the size of rocks put in slings and shot thus. They penetrated the backs of most of the running and screaming Zagans, exiting through their chests and leaving holes in their torsos. The victims, men, women, and children, fell down with their faces hitting the dirt.

Those few Zagans who weren’t hit managed to get outside of the city or hide in their houses or shops. They all wept, wondering what they had done to deserve such a cruel fate. How had they angered the gods?

The triumphant Luminosians descended from the cliff down a grassy incline to the side of the cliff, all cheering, singing, and dancing in praise of the Crims. The mass of them entered the city of Zaga, looked around all of the buildings, and took control of everything.

They went into the houses and claimed them for themselves. Any Zagan families hiding in them were given a choice: leave the city, or become slaves. The few who stayed, out of a wish never to leave the homes they loved, were heartbroken to see these others taking their homes and forcing them to do slave labour in them.

Again, the elders denounced their fellow Luminosians for doing such evil.

“You may enjoy this crest of good luck now,” one of the elders warned. “But we will all suffer a terrible trough for your sin. Perhaps not soon, but it will come. You will see!”

“Oh, do be quiet!” the new Luminosian owner of a Zagan house said. “Our trough was slavery under the Tenebrosians! This, now, is our crest, to be enjoyed forever!”

The other Luminosians cheered at these words.

“Oh, you fools,” another elder said. “Crests never last forever. You have no understanding of the old teachings.”

“We have no use for the old teachings!” said the wife of the Luminosian who took possession of the Zagan house.

The Zagan family who chose to stay in their house, and become the slaves of its new Luminosian owner, could only weep.

The other surviving Zagans–who were outside the city and left in the surrounding wilderness, not even allowed to fish in the lake or eat the fruit of the trees around Zaga–were forced to migrate as the Luminosians had had to do. They were starving.

Commentary

This narrative demonstrates how religious or philosophical ideas can be misused to justify acts of cruelty and injustice. Others have hurt us, so we ‘have the right’ to hurt others, even when those others we’re hurting aren’t the same as those who hurt us, or who hurt our ancestors.

It’s haunting how this ancient narrative is still relevant to events contemporary with the publication of these translations…and especially relevant to them.