The Bridge

There really is very little we can do for the People of the City. Each of them has but one choice to make: to be content with no freedoms, to be a slave to the will of the Beast, or to be expelled into the harsh, barren wastelands where the last of the Questing knights eek out their days. This world is dying and its days are numbered. We cannot slay the Beast, for it is too powerful and without it life can not continue. It is unfortunate that it has been given absolute control. One should not seek to slay the Beast, but rather to keep it in its proper place. We can not fight the city elites, for they hold all the power. Not that it will do them much good for whoever is the greatest is also the least.

If I gave them light brought from the Land of the Fay, then they would be blinded by it. The elites are the most wretched of the city's denizens for they mistake a dim light for the Sun and can see no further. Perhaps it is a blessing for them that they will never know how empty are their souls. Personally, however, I pity them. The Green Gold of the Mystics is worth more than an infinity of their material wealth. The Primal Matter of The Great Work is everywhere, all around them, but they can not see it. Thus, they can not find the Gold of the Philosophers, even with all the material wealth of the World at their disposal. That is why it is written: 'It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle', and yet it is also written that 'heaven is not a place ...'. Have you solved this riddle now? It has perplexed many, and yet the answer is simple. One can not serve two masters, for one will be loved and the other hated. Those that love money so, cannot see that which is infinitely more valuable. Perhaps they can not miss what they have never known, but I pity them. Alas!

You may say, 'each to his own' and indeed if they used their wealth for the greater good then they might be better people, but their minds are imbalanced. I will not call them evil, for they are what they are. They are broken.

Do you recall the House of Light? The Light entered in and saw a clear crystal around it, but the crystal frosted over and became opaque and the Light forgot what it was and from whence it came. Like a reflection in a broken mirror, the Light became a multiplicity of distorted, splintered and fragmented images. We must try to forgive the people of the City and its errant elites, for they know not what they do.

There is no future in the end of days. But lo! The portal still stands. It's stones are greatly eroded and soon the dolmen will collapse, the bridge will fall as the portal closes, and the fate of the city will be sealed. We can go no further forward in time in this dying world. Where did it all go wrong? Evolution made some people this way and the program here has failed. 'Survival of the fittest' has run its course and ended in error. Nevertheless, the program has another thread.

Why did they abuse their ideologies so badly? Why was religion used to make war? Why was 'capitalism' used to create inequity? Why was technology used to enslave humanity? Are such things really so inevitable because evolution created a flawed race? Alas! The elites could not escape from their own mental illnesses and the Beast took control of them. The Beast says 'All the wealth of the city can be yours if you do my will.'

Do not envy their power, for it has brought the World to ruin. Let them keep their baubles and trinkets. Do you recall Merlin's deeds in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Vita Merlini? King Rhydderch wanting Lord Merlin to stay and rule his people, ordered people to bring Merlin many gifts, to entice him to stay. They brought him 'clothing, birds, dogs and swift horses, gold and shining gems, and cups that Weyland had engraved in the city of Segontium'. Merlin rejected these gifts, saying, 'Let the dukes who are troubled by their own poverty have these, they who are not satisfied with a moderate amount but desire a great deal. To these gifts I prefer the groves and broad oaks of Calidon, and the lofty mountains with green pastures at their feet. These are the things that please me, not these of yours ... '. There is greater beauty hidden in Calidon, but a beauty that those who seek with honest intent and open eyes may behold in part. The gift of such a vision is far more precious than all the financial power in the puny, empty world of human business. Leave the billionaires to their emptiness.

If you seek mundane gold and narcissistic glory, then by all means stay in the city and take a chance and you may be one of the 'lucky' ones who succeeds, but don't deny others what they seek. Don't destroy the things that matter to me. A sword should be a sword a horse's shoe a shoe. Of all the people in the city some get lucky, and one or two get lucky often. If you are one of these, then you too may attribute your success to your own strengths and skill, whilst attributing the ill fortune of others to their intrinsic inferiority. This is a common attribution error that many make. Even if your own resource made you a city elite, then it would be wasted.

So why did such inequity arise? Why did the elites justify the suffering of others? Why do they thirst for such empty cups? Is there an ancient secret all those in the city forgot? Perhaps if we go back to where it all began, back in time, back to the Source, then we may find an answer. With the Elixir of Time perhaps this future can be avoided.

Come with me, if you will. I know a place where the waters of life still flow in abundance; a place where a veritable Cornucopia still exists. Some call it the Fountain of Nature, others the Garden of the Philosophers. There are infinitely more wonders and powers there then you can ever know. The virtual billions in the banks of the city, all of its property, the wealth of its elites and the greatest of its financial institutions are but arid constructs. Why desire such barrenness? Take only what you need from their impoverished world, then travel beyond.

Let us escape this world of desolation.

Enter the portal whilst it still stands!