The Fool was lounging around, warming Itself at a rather
insignificant type-G star, when He noticed quite a brilliant flash of
light on the surface of one of the orbiting planets.
"Holy Me!" She exclaimed, "What was that?"
The Lord manifested Himself at the Fool's side, and said, "That
was either the beginning of a long and wonderful road for Humankind,
or....."
"Or what?" asked the Fool.
"Or the beginning of the end for them."
"So! Bad as that, eh? But you didn't answer my question. What in
all the MultiVerses was it?"
"That, Oh Best Beloved, was humanity achieving nuclear fission."
"They already know how to fish. I taught them."
"NOT that kind....splitting atoms to make energy. Einstein, and
all of that."
The Fool suddenly got very quiet. "Oh." He said.
The Youth was lounging about the Summerland, when his attention
was directed at a city on Earth.
"Goodness," he thought, "Those people down there have really
gotten out of hand. I'd better take a closer look."
Stepping around the not-quite-a-corner, He appeared in a city in
the Fertile Crescent, somewhere between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers,
on a day fairly early in the dawn of Mankind's rise.
Looking around, He saw quite a lot that He didn't like. He saw
shopkeepers that cheated their customers, and customers that stole from
the shopkeepers. He saw men, and women, selling their bodies on the
streets just to get enough money for food and shelter that night. He saw
children abused, and beaten, and killed. He saw the very body of Gaia
raped and pillaged by uncaring humans, and filth left upon Her. He saw
lies, and deceit, and cruelty, and theft, and venal, self-serving public
servants, that fattened on their cruel taxes. He saw priests and
priestesses that cared only for their own ends, and not for their flocks.
He saw peacekeepers who gloried only in their power. He saw soldiers that
gloried in killing and rapine. He saw the youth of the city reveling in
blood and casual, senseless murder.
He saw a land, and a civilization, that was infected with rot,
and that rot was beginning to spread to other lands, and other
civilizations.
And the worst of it all was that no one seemed to care.
"Well!" He thought. "These people are certainly a waste of food
and air on an otherwise beautiful planet."
And He went back to the Summerland to think about what to do.
Now, the Mother had been watching, and had perceived the Youth's
thought processes.
"I'd better keep an eye on this," She muttered. "Youth means
well, but sometimes gets a little excited..."
The Youth stood suddenly, and walked back to the cities.
"There -must- be a few here who are still ethical, and kind, and
good....maybe if I can find enough of them, it will make the rest of them
worth it."
He looked for quite a long time, but only found one family that
lived their lives in perfect love and perfect trust....he was, like Youth
tends to do, setting quite unrealistic goals for others.....and decided
he needed to 'test' this family's worthyness. He also decided to destroy
the cities.
The Mother heard what was about to happen, and decided that more
than just one family could be good and decent people, so She went down to
look for Herself. After looking about for some time, She came to the
conclusion that most of the people in these cities really were beyond
help, and that the only family She really liked was the family of a man
named Noah. This pained Her a great deal, not wanting -any- of Her
children to suffer, so She sat, and thought, and came up with an idea.
"I'll warn Noah," she said, "And give him some hints as to what
to do, and let him tell others what is coming. Those who listen, and
think, will take the warning and get out of there in time, and those who
won't will have to learn the lesson again."
Noah lived in a city close to the rivers, near a fresh-water sea, while
the other man, named Lot, lived in the other city, which was nearer to
the mountains, in a desert area.
One day, Noah was working in his workshop, when he heard a voice.
"Oh clay pot!" the voice said. "Did you know that a flood is
coming? And did you know that it will be of such depth as to drown the
land, and all living things in it?"
Now, Noah was a pretty smart guy, and figured that Someone was
trying to tell him something. So, he remarked, "It certainly would be
helpful to know the day that the flood will happen."
"Oh, clay pot!" came the voice, "The flood will come in one
month. Noah is a builder of reed houses, and can build a boat of the
reeds, and escape death in it."
So Noah started to build a boat.
His neighbors laughed at him, saying "Look at this guy! He thinks
the world is coming to an end! How stupid!"
But others saw what Noah was doing, and knew him as a wise man,
and started building boats too. They bought food, enough for many days,
and water, and all the other things that would be needed if all else was
gone.
And on that terrible Day, Noah brought his family, and those who had
listened to him, into the boats, and they closed the doors.
And it began to rain. Just small drops at first, but soon it was a
storm, then a torrent, and then the mountain cracked, and let in the salt waters of the deeps;
a flood such as none of them had ever seen.
The very rivers overflowed their banks, and drowned the city and all who were
in it, scouring the land clean again.
It looked to the humans in the boats as if the whole World had
drowned.
After a while, the waters receded, and the boats ceased their
tossing upon the waves, and grounded. Noah and his family and friends got
out, and looked around. The experience had shaken them a great deal, and
their eyes were wide with fear.
A glow appeared in the West, and in the glow was the Mother,
smiling in Love.
"Noah!," She said, "Have no fear. What is done is done, and you
are still alive, to rebuild your city as a city of Love, Joy and Peace.
Go, and do so."
And a rainbow appeared, around Her shoulder, glowing and shining
in the moist air.
"And I give you My Rainbow as an eternal sign of My Love...and as
a reminder." She smiled, and then Her face grew solemn as She said,
"Remember, and learn!"
Now in the other city, Lot and his family were sitting down to
dinner when they heard a knock on the door. It was the Youth, in His
three Aspects, come to see Lot, and warn him. The Youth had tried other
houses, and other families, but had been refused hospitality. This was
His test of them.
Lot let all three of Him in, and drove away the mob of gangsters
that were trying to rob Him. His daughters offered the mob their very
bodies to distract the mob, and thus ensured the strangers' safety. He
offered the Youth food and drink, bread and salt, and said, "Accept the
hospitality of my house, strangers, and be welcome."
The Youth spoke to Lot, thanking him, and thanking his daughters
for their sacrifice, and said, "Get out of this city, good man, with your
family, for a doom is come upon it. Leave, and as you value your lives do not
look back. Go!"
Lot looked into the eyes of the Youth, and saw Him for what He
was, and gathered up his family and fled the city.
As they reached the foothills of the mountains, they saw a great
glow in the sky behind them, that lit the mountains for an instant like a
brilliant sunrise. Lot's wife said, "What has happened?"
And Lot replied, "Don't look back, for That Which Is has
descended upon the city, and they are doomed."
But Lot's wife, being curious, looked back, and was transformed
by the horror of it, and she changed to a pillar of stony salt.
"Why?" said Noah and Lot. "Why were the cities destroyed?"
And the Mother answered, and said, "If your arm or leg is full of
disease, and cannot be cured, it is better that it be cut off than to
allow it to kill your whole body. There is pain, to be sure, but this
pain is as nothing to the pain that comes if the disease is not cut off
and stopped. Thus, We had no choice but to destroy the cities. It is
done. Go out into the world, and remember!"
And Lot looked upon his wife, and asked, "Why?"
The Sacred King answered, saying "Let not Humankind question the
Will of That Which Is, and neither look back in longing upon what you
have put behind you, lest it destroy you."
These are great lessons, for, though the cities were destroyed
many years ago, (or perhaps, Time being what it is, it happened just
yesterday, or even mayhap it may simply be an old legend) such things can
happen again.
And the fire that rained upon the city of Lot is a fire that is
in the Hand of Man, that can destroy us all.
The Youth stamped His feet and pouted.
"Why did you have to step in like that? I wanted to do it MY way!"
The Lady smiled gently at Him and replied, "Because I'm the Mommy, that's why."
Thus it was, and so it is, and evermore shall be so!
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