In the aftermath of battle, I lay forgotten in a dark and rancorous cave.

Had I lost my way? Had I become holden to the labyrinth of these dank places below? In my heart, I abode still at the surface… no far above it in the land of the skies.

My wounds were my primary fixation, and these were deep to the core of my soul; I sought to cleanse them, to patch them that they may heal, but in this darkness how could I see aright to cleanse them? But by the light of the land of the skies.

Far above this forsaken place there is a land that rests upon the clouds, the sun is ever shining there, for it reigns as king over all.

The lower one falls from its presence, the darker it becomes – and now was I in such a state… for all mankind live apart from it. Our existence is born in utter depths of darkness, and here we live our lives, the Sun hidden from our view by many barriers: the surface of the ground above us, the canopy of trees over that, and finally by the vail of the clouds.

But there is a way to be born again… that is, to be born into the kingdom of light far above. How does this existence work? Are we transported in body out of the catacombs below to live on the surface of the clouds, that we may ever drink in the rays of the light of the Sun?

In a way we do, but not in a way that men would call ‘scientific,’ and here is that difficulty. For in this place the light of the Sun can hardly be seen, and many creatures are fully blind in these underbellies of the earth – born without eyes.

So it had to be that since we were altogether separated from the kingdom of light, that a representative of that kingdom must needs come down to the low caverns, for we who live without Truth know only the empirical evidence of that which surrounds us. We do not believe what we cannot see… yet on the cavern walls eternally written – should we find light by which to see it – are the words: ‘Blessed are they which have not seen, and yet believe.’

But lo, in my woundedness I knew all this, though many could neither see, nor perceive, noy yet conceive of such a kingdom of light which was above, though glimpses of it are perceived even still in this lower realm. For the king of this place of darkness, he who seeks to stamp out all light cannot take away the sentience of man who was created in the very image of the kingdom of the Sun; and though darkness reigns our other senses have power to perceive light, to perceive Truth when it is revealed to us.

I stood before a pool of cool waters, which I could hear lapping upon the stone walls about me – and this too is a gift from the kingdom of the skies, though those deceived by darkness cannot perceive this.

I washed myself in the pool – washed my bitter wounds…

Part 2