COSMIC

“I won!” I had finally been granted the honor of meeting the Hierophant of the New Mysteries. The computer screen radiated a white light which surrounded the violet words, ‘I am the cosmic eye of the heavenly kingdom.’

“You woke me up.”

In the midst of my excitement, I hadn’t realized that I had disturbed my wife’s sleep. “I’m sorry, but Judy, you know what this means to me. I’ve been waiting for this...”

“Since you were a child--yeah, I know. I’ve had to endure those inane computer games too. Honestly, I don’t think I’ll ever be chosen. But then again, I don’t put much stock in this hocus-pocus, if you know what I mean.”

“I never knew you were so atheistic.”

Judy didn’t seem to take to the new religion the way that I did. It had been introduced to our civilization when we were children, not through force, but through love.

A strange people had saved us from famine and poverty, and we had no idea who they were. After they gave us everything we needed for our well-being, they seemed to have vanished just as quickly as they had appeared.

All that remained of them was a computer game that was unlike any other computer game that humans had played. I became addicted to it ever since childhood, and it became like a father for me.

Nevertheless, Judy remained a skeptic at heart. “Bill, I’m not an atheist; I’m just not convinced that any religion was ever entirely legitimate, and this one in particular seems fishy to me.”

“This religion gives meaning to our lives. It unifies us. It seems to have healed so many ills which had previously plagued our society--addictions, anger, violence, promiscuity, depression, and every physical condition and disease which contributed to the suffering of our people. All of that is gone. They freed our world of pollution, of hatred...” I was growing increasingly heated in the defense of the One and True Religion, but I couldn’t help it.

“Apparently they haven’t cured us of fanaticism, dogma, and amnesia.” Judy loved to poke fun at what she viewed as my childish credulity. “I’ll admit, I’m glad that we weren’t enslaved by them. They saved us and then they just left us alone. But whatever happened to our culture? We don’t seem to have much of any history beyond the last generation. It’s as if they exterminated our past along with everything that made us miserable.”

Suddenly there was a knock at the door. My heart skipped a beat. I knew this would be one of the Hierophant’s messengers and initiates.

I was half-expecting that I’d be disappointed, and it would just turn out to be someone at the door for some banal reason like trying to sell one of those boring books which had been published when our parents were children. Who needs that when we have computer games which offer direct communion with the sacred and sublime.

“Aren’t you going to open it?” As Judy headed towards the bathroom, I peered through the peephole and was astonished to see a man of advanced age. Yet this was unheard of.

No one had aged since the arrival of The Saviors, and all those of advanced age had their youth restored. Of course, procreation had to be restricted in order to avoid overpopulation, and virtually no one was able to have children.

The man at my door must be some anomaly, yet he must also be an initiate and messenger of the Hierophant.

I gently opened the door. At first I wasn’t sure what to say to this saturnine figure. I finally gathered enough courage to utter a sheepish, “Come in.”

The man seemed to look through me, and then looked into my eyes as if he had just noticed I was there. “No, thanks . . . Follow me.” His eyes were a startling shade of turquoise, uncannily similar to mine. Nervous and eager to leave on my journey, I locked the door and departed without saying goodbye to my wife.

...

‘I am the cosmic eye of the heavenly kingdom.’ I resonate with the music of the spheres, and my voice reverberates equally through the common and the rare. I transcend religion, yet not humanity. I am a witness of the dark and empty spaces that nurture so much suffering, pain, and confusion.

As Bill proceeded on his voyage to the Mysteries, I caught a glimpse into the soul of his wife, Judy. I heard her pray incessantly and rapidly, half-whispering, “Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven . . . . lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever . . .”

“Is it alright if I ask you what your name is? You don’t seem very talkative.” I cringed at my awkward attempt to break the silence. The messenger seemed humorless.

“I’m John. Forgive me my reticence. Sometimes when one has attained wisdom one does not desire to embellish it or detract from it with excess chatter . . .”

I followed him through a park, and woolgathered as I breathed in and experienced the morning air, sunrise, and dew on the grass.

I was so excited about the approaching reality of meeting the Hierophant and going through the Mysteries, and this man’s voice was so monotonous, that I was barely able to sustain my complete attention. I found it hard to believe that he had been an initiate.

He continued, “You shouldn’t tell anyone this, especially not the unenlightened, but we are being threatened by remnants of the old religion.”

My daydream had been rudely shocked into complete wakefulness by this unwelcome revelation. “I thought the old religion had completely vanished after our civilization was rescued by The Saviors?”

“There is a faction among your population which zealously, albeit secretly, seeks to resurrect what is dead.”

From the park, we gradually navigated to a back road I had never noticed before. While the park we had traversed was replete with dandelions, I suddenly found myself in unfamiliar terrain peppered with strange turquoise-colored wild roses.

Distracted as I was by my surroundings, I simply decided that the messenger must be paranoid. “Are you sure? The very idea sounds preposterous.”

“Believe it or not, fragments of some of the ancient texts still remain, so well hidden that we’ve never been able to locate them. Perhaps it’s just a mere rumor.” He took out a key from his pocket.

“Perhaps.” This conversation was disconcerting to say the least; I was eager to reach our destination.

In a back street near downtown, I see a group of people gathered, Judy among them. There is great tumult and what appears to be an old page of text is being passed around.

Judy is standing next to a man who has assumed the role of leader of the group. He proceeds to read a key excerpt: “‘Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword for I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man’s enemies will be the members of his household.’

"Brothers and sisters, do not be shocked by these words. A solemn and arduous task has been imposed on us, which we must fulfill. The salvation of humanity depends on us. Now you must disperse and return to your households and occupations so as not to arouse suspicion. Do not forget the words we have been learning every week. At times, we may find the message confusing or troubling, yet there is much truth to be gleaned from these words, even if the panoramic context surrounding them is often sorely lacking. May you continue to find peace and light in these dark days.”

As the crowd disperses, Judy addresses the revivalist preacher in a friendly manner: “Jake, may I ask where today’s reading came from?”

Jake’s eyes light up. “It’s from something called the New Testament. The Book of Matthew.”

“Isn’t that the same Book we got the Lord’s Prayer from?”

“Yes, it is.” They walk towards a bar nearby.

“Honestly, I don’t know if I could have mustered the courage and strength needed in these trying times if it weren’t for that prayer.”

Once inside the bar, Jake motions to the bartender whom he’s friends with. Then he turns to Judy. “So what would you like to drink?” Jake inquires somewhat nervously.

“I’ll have a vodka.”

“Two vodkas,” Jake casually instructs the bartender, and then resumes his conversation with Judy. “You know before I discovered the old religion I was a really angry kid. My dad used to beat the crap out of me. I don’t know if I ever really got over it.”

“I’m sorry to hear that. Did he hit you even after The Saviors arrived?”

“Yes. That’s how I knew they must be a fraud, or what we’re now learning about -- false prophets. My parents were atheists, and nothing good ever happened to them. I never really knew what happened to my mother. Perhaps she died when I was born; no one ever told me. I left home when I was sixteen and I knew I could never be an atheist like my father or a New Religion fanatic like so many are now.”

The bartender brings their vodka; Jake pays in cash. Judy doesn’t know what to say to Jake. On the one hand, she feels solidarity with him and is excited to be part of a revolutionary movement; yet on the other hand, she also feels somewhat uneasy. Perhaps the story of Jake’s life is threatening to disturb memories from her own childhood, which she has long ago buried.

...

The messenger of The Hierophant had led me to a decrepit wooden door. I gave him a look of incredulity.

“This is the entrance to the Temple of The New Mysteries,” he stated without affect. Once he opened the door, a whole new world opened before me--a pathway of emerald with walls composed of gems. As I walked with the messenger, it became apparent that the path seemed to form a downward spiral which led to The Hierophant.

Once we had descended the steps, The Hierophant appeared and I was taken aback to see that he was of even more advanced age than the messenger. Yet I was so enthralled by this fateful meeting that I didn’t ask why his age differed so significantly from the majority of modern-day humans.

He greeted me with an ebullient, “Welcome to the Temple of the New Mysteries!” His turquoise eyes glowed with an effervescent intensity unmatched by the specter of his physical presence.

“I am very grateful to have had this opportunity.”

Absent-mindedly, he turned from me toward his messenger without acknowledging my gratitude. The messenger seemed to be given some errand, and he crossed the colossal circle that comprised the temple to another spiral pathway directly opposite to the one I had descended.

“So now we’re alone,” the Hierophant intoned with great majesty. “So what would you like to learn? I don’t have all day.”

I was somewhat shocked by his insolence, but I maintained my composure. “I won a computer game. I was hoping to be initiated into the Mysteries.”

“I see. But for an introduction would you like a synopsis of our core beliefs in a paragraph or less?”

I wasn’t sure how to respond so I said, “Okay.”

“The world is always in flux, yet certain realities are constant. The status quo is often defined by its ignorance of certain realities or truths, and acting like this ignorance constitutes a form of enlightenment or morality. Our mission is to challenge the status quo.” There was a pause, yet it was so brief that I barely had time to process what he had just said. “We don’t follow religion or empathy; we follow the money.”

All I was able to utter was a confused, “So . . .”

He continued, “So in a culture, that’s when a lack of empathy or conscience turns into the new morality or the new normal... A lack of humanity or sensitivity is seen as an ideal form of pragmatism, gravitas, excellence, honor, strength, you name it... Numbness is prized over awareness.”

I finally regained my senses. “Is that supposed to be a good thing?”

“It has become the Good. It was already the Good in this world before we arrived.”

“Who . . . so you’re one of the Saviors?”

I witness Judy and Jake straggling drunkenly towards his apartment. Jake leers at her.

He opens the door and lets her in. “There’s something important I have to tell you,” he begins. “Your husband is not one of us.”

“I know that.”

“No, I mean he’s not of this world. He’s a Savior.” He hands her a gun. “I need you to kill him, or I will. Will you take the gun?”

“Okay.” She takes the gun, and still inebriated, she races towards the bathroom and locks herself within.

Jake pounds on the door. “Judy! You have no idea of the horrors I’ve seen since The Saviors came. I once saw a woman give birth to phoenix lions!”

“You’re crazy! I’ve never heard of such things.”

“You’re too sheltered. You’ll never be able to fathom what I have witnessed . . . If you don’t open the door I’ll kill you!”

Judy opens the door. “So kill me.” She shoots him dead.

...

“We’re from what you call the Cosmic Horseshoe in the constellation of Leo,” the Hierophant replied matter-of-factly to my question only to trigger another.

“Why did you come here?”

“Surely we wouldn’t let a few bad apples rot before taking advantage of them. Just because we’re no longer able to enjoy eternal life doesn’t mean we can’t hijack human bodies. We know the exact moment we’re going to die, and just before that we will transfer ourselves into human vessels -- an exchange of souls.”

“That’s monstrous! Your religion . . .”

“Our race abandoned 'religion' thousands of years ago. Now look at this red button here. When I press it your wife and the leader of the insurgency will be destroyed.”

I wrestled him to the ground and strangled him. With his last dying breath he uttered a pitiful, “Farewell, my heir.”

I ran as fast as I could run. Back home. Back to my wife’s arms. She was crying. I consoled her as we embraced each other. For a minute she left the room and I noticed a piece of paper on the floor. It read, ‘First seek the kingdom of heaven that lies within, and all else will be added to you.’