In our beginning God created the world. He
created the birds in the sky, the fish in the water, and the mammals on the
land. God then found he still had love to spare and created man, and God cared
for man in his garden paradise like pets in his 'yard'. He gave them food,
water, and love, and they thrived in his care.
That is until one displeased him and he cast them out to fend for
themselves. But that is not this story.
In this story Eve never bit an apple nor did
man learn the secrets that God didn't want man to know in his infancy. In fact,
in this story, he didn't even really 'create' this world. Only did he 'create'
in the sense that he helped shape it into what we know and see now as our world.
See, God was created so far back in antiquity
that the word 'made' no longer had any meaning for him. He once had known the
love of a maker and once had known the nurturing light of what we call 'family'.
But that memory had been lost to him in the distance of time. How he escaped
the sucking darkness that swallowed his world was so buried in his memories
that he no longer even wondered. The destruction of all he knew left a hole in
his soul that as he wandered he had forgotten he was even searching. He gave up
even the hope of finding something to fill it so long ago that he began just
floated along in the universe, looking, watching, and waiting without even
realizing what he was out there doing.
God floated along for eons, or moments
depending on how you view time, until he found a bright star that seemed to
attract him, like a magnetic pull, and he saw a lovely young planet struggling to
survive on her own in her little galaxy. God had watched planets in his trek
across the universe. Watched them struggle, some survived, some did not. None
did he see with light like that which shone from this small young planet. It
was like destiny called to him from this planet so he paused in his travel. Paused to watch, how long he watched was not clear
as time is relevant and for him it meant nothing.
In time God decided to join with the world
spirit and guided her through creation of creatures which would help her
thrive. Together they moved particles, caused some to join to create new, more
complex particles. Eventually together these complex particles joined to create
living creatures. Some of these
creatures flew, some swam, and some that walked. Some of these living beings, God
and Earth found good and their majick came to these creatures in the form or
luck or fate, but really it was just a sign of God's or Earth's pleasure. It
helped them thrive and as the creatures upon the Earth thrived, so did the
mother. Some creatures could not adapt to the changes in the world as Mother
Earth grew and eventually died out.
After a time, one creature seemed to thrive
differently than the rest. They grew smarter, learned how to shape and use
tools to improve their living conditions. God loved these creatures the most
and shown his love (luck) on them. Earth was more wary of these creatures God
called, Man. She was afraid of what their intelligence would become. But her
being a young planet, and having less majick than God, his will overruled. But
she continued to watch them as they grew upon her face and fed them from her body.
God might shelter them but she fed them. As she watched she saw some of these
man creatures show respect for the Earth, as they would a mother. She saw this
as good and granted them her luck and they thrived better than others.
As man grew, and his people grew, God fell in
love with a mortal woman, a woman who seemed to encompass all God hoped man would
eventually became. She was one of Earth Mother's favorites, one Earth had
seeded and taught. This woman lived alone and revered nature. She learned many
secrets from the Mother and eventually became something like what we would know
as a witch.
When she reached her 200th birthday God
decided to visit her. He came to her in the guise of a stranger lost in the
wood. She welcomed him for she had been alone for many years. She also
recognized him as something akin to herself and wanted to know him better. She
shared many things with him and at her 300th birthday he told her all he was
and asked her to share eternity with him. She accepted him, already guessing
much of what he said. God taught Elli his secrets so she may be like a God also
and together they watched over his people, taught them what they needed to know
at the proper time, and had many children who they taught to be God-like. Nyet, Goddess of the Night; Dayal, God of the Day;
Feywin, Goddess of Spirit; Oshear, God of Water; Wicha, Goddess of Majick;
Belain, God of War and Fire; Aerius, God of the Air; Woldar, God of Beasts;
Lyrae, Goddess of Love; Bearius, God of (burdens); Methumial, God of Metal; Florette,
Goddess of Nature; and Phiobe, Goddess of Beauty. The
World knew many generations of peace and harmony under their watch.
Eventually, Phiobe, who walked among men more
frequently than the others, met a man she came to love. He happened upon her
one day while she was sitting riverside singing softly to the sprites of the
water. He fell instantly in love with her; he courted her as if she was a
mortal maiden. As time went by their love grew and her love for him forged
bonds of majick she had not known of. By the time God and Elli learned of their
love it was too late to change. Elli told her daughter she must choose. For he was
not like those her sisters and brothers had chosen, Phiobe's lover had no
majickal blood. So he could not learn to use majick to prolonging life and
health. Will she watch her mortal lover grow old and die or will she leave him,
which seems like the kinder to do. Phiobe could not put aside her inherent
nature but she couldn't leave her lover either. They decided to live together as
long as his life would last and when he was reborn she would seek him out and
live again as lovers. This seemed to them, at the time, a doable option. They
lived out his life in her mother’s old cottage, happy and fulfilled.
Phiobe didn't understand the heart wrenching
pain of watching her lover die until his final days were upon him. She lay next
to him on their bed, her as beautiful as the first day they met and him a
withered, sick, old man. She held him as he fell gently to sleep never to
awaken. How long she laid there is uncertain. Her majick was enough to preserve
him in small ways but without majick himself there were limits.
Elli eventually came to comfort her and
together they set the funeral pyre. Elli implored Phiobe to remember this pain
and not to seek him out again when his soul was reborn. Phiobe's brother Belain tried to comfort his sister
because his love for her was larger than most. But his soul was tainted by
jealousy and anger. Phiobe could feel his malice even if she didn't understand
it or its reason. None of the family knew about Belain's unnatural lust for his
sister. He hid it well, and over the course of Phiobe's lover’s absence, Belain
learned to use the jealousy and anger to feed and sustain him just as they had learned
to transmute love, happiness, and joy. He also learned to feed off others
jealousy and anger to fuel himself, he learned out to cultivate the jealousy
and anger in Man for him to feed from. He
felt more powerful when he did and believed himself to be the most powerful of
all his brothers and sisters.
Many solar revolutions came and went while Phiobe
searched. Many moons waxed and waned. Then she felt it, nearing the 600th moon,
approximately 46 solar revolutions after her lovers death, she felt his
presence in the World. She allowed herself to be pulled along, to follow the
scent of his aura, to be guided by the bond that was unwittingly forged. At
last she found him, he was just a babe, a babe his mother’s arms but she knew
it was him. His parents named him Andras. Long did she ponder what to do, how
and when to approach him. One night while he was five, he became lost in the wood.
He was supposed to be gathering wood for the fire and took a wrong turn. She
was there and guided him back. As she held his hand leading him home she knew,
this boy had some majick. She could see in his eyes that he had felt the bond
as well. One day, not long after, while Andras was playing in the fields, a
three-year old Phiobe met and played with him. She stayed in a house on the edge
of the field that had been empty, and when Phiobe needed parents to make an
appearance, two of her siblings appeared at the door.
Phiobe and Andras spent the next ten solar
revolutions playing together everyday; swimming, hiking, running. They built forts
and trenches. He taught her how to harvest crops, and she taught him to use
majick. The happy days didn't seem like they could get any better. Phiobe was
never any happier than the day he kissed her for the first time. Lying by the
river, in swimming things, soaking the sun, Andras grabbed her hand. She turned
her face to his and smiled. He reached for her face with his other hand and
kissed her so softly on the lips. He held the kiss for several moments, he pulled
away, put his forehead to hers and said those three words she hadn't heard in
over a half century, "I love you, Phiobe".
But someone started to notice Phiobe's
absence from the "dinner table". Belain grew more anxious at Phiobe's
continued absence. He knew she was looking for her lover but she always
returned every few solstices. She hadn't been "home" in over ten
solar revs. One day he went out to look for her, and when he found her with Andras,
he nearly exploded the whole village with his rage. He could not believe she
was successful and that he really did return. Belain went to the other end of
the wood next to her village and started exploding trees, the Mother took
notice and scolded him, but not with words. She lifted the ground under his
feet and he rolled down the newly formed hill into the ocean which smacked him
in the face with its waves until he was thoroughly chastised and apologized.
After that he controlled his ire and plotted how to derail this coupling. As he
nursed his anger Phiobe and Andras lived their life, grew, and eventually
married.
One day Phiobe implored her mother, how could
she live a true life with her beloved Andras? Elli took pity on her lovestruck
daughter and told her she could decide to not use energy to prolong her life, she
could also use Andras' majick to create life inside her body. It was majick
learned from the Mother. Phiobe took her mother's advice and the Mother's
lessons and became with child. She ceased transmuting energy to prolong her
life and health and as their son grew, they grew old. When Belain learned of Phiobe's
decision and saw the truth of her choices in her graying hair and the eyes of
her nearly grown son, he could no longer stand idle. He put thoughts of lust in
a stranger who came into town as a traveler. Even though Phiobe aged she was still
beautiful, and this stranger made his lust known to her. Phiobe laughed off the
advances; she was still naïve about the evil qualities that could be found in
Man. But her son was angered. He had been born to this world, with a mortal
father, and knew the fallibility of Man.
Phiobe's son sought to chastise the stranger and did battle on him one
night at the inn.
By the time Andras got to the inn both men
were heavily injured. Belain used the fight to his advantage; he put thoughts
of anger towards Andras and the son for blocking his path to Phiobe, and to Phiobe
herself for spurning his advances. One night, after a few nights of recovery,
the stranger crept up to Phiobe and Andras' home; he snuck inside during the
night and planned to beat them both with a large tree branch he found in the
yard. This stranger struck Andras first, he never woke. Phiobe awoke to the
sound and only had time to scream once before she was struck. The son, hearing
his mother scream, awoke and ran into the room.
Seeing the stranger standing over his parents with the branch, he attacked
the stranger. During the fight, the fire that was lit inside the bedroom of the
house escaped the pit and caught the wooden structure ablaze. The fire caught the stranger as he grappled
with the son and as he struggled to put himself out the son ran to save his
parents. He pulled his mother to safety through the bedroom window and went to
reenter for his father. But before he
could reenter through the window, Belain, who watched the encounter from the
edge of the wood, encouraged the fire to flare up and engulf the home. The son
was thrown to the ground next to his mother; he crawled to her and cradled her
as the house burned. Many people came out and tried to fight the fire but all
they could do was keep it from spreading. They listened to the sounds of the
stranger as he burned inside the house, as the son held his dying mother in his
arms. As Phiobe looked her son in the eyes, she had a vision of his future. She
saw him find love, grow old, and have many children. She saw a long healthy
bloodline that she could use to reincarnate and live out many lives with her
beloved. She stroked her sons face, with tears in his eyes he told her he loved
her. She told her son she loved him too and died.
God and Elli grieved with Phiobe's son and
charged man with the counting of the solar revolutions as years, starting with
this as year one to keep time so that man might be reminded of the beauty that
once graced the world of man, until the day that Phiobe rejoins her family as a
Goddess once again.
