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"There were some souls who understood things in a differentway. They knew they weren't gods. They knew they were deadhumans. They knew they didn't really have the right to change thedestiny of those who prayed to them; they knew that the libationsessentially were symbolic. These souls understood the meaning ofthe concept symbolic. They knew. And they knew they were deadand they perceived themselves to be lost. They would have reenteredthe flesh if they could have. For there in the flesh was all the light andwarmth and comfort that they had ever known and could still see.
And sometimes these souls managed to do exactly that!
"I witnessed it in various different fashions. I saw these soulsdeliberately descend and take possession of a stupefied mortal, takeover his limbs and brain and live in him until the man gained thestrength to throw the soul off. You know these things. All men do?
what is involved in possession. You have possessed a body that wasn'tyours, and your body has been possessed by another soul.""Yes.""But this was the dawn of such invention. And to watch theseclever souls learn the rules of it, to see them grow ever morepowerful, was something to behold.
"And what I could not fail to be frightened by, being the Accuseras I am, and horrified by Nature, as God calls it, what I could notignore was that these souls did have an effect on living women andmen! There were those living humans already who had become ora-cles. They would smoke or drink some potion to render their ownminds passive, so that a dead soul might speak with their voice!
"And because these powerful spirits梖or I should call them spir-its now梑ecause these powerful spirits knew only what Earth andSheol could teach them, they might urge human beings on to terriblemistakes. I saw them order men into battle; I saw them orderexecutions. I saw them demand blood sacrifice of human beings.""You saw the Creation of Religion out of Man," I said.
"Yes, insofar as Man can Create anything. Let us not forget WhoCreated us all.""The other angels, how did they fare with these revelations?""We gathered, exchanged stories in amazement, then went offagain on our own explorations; we were more entangled with theearth than we had ever been. But essentially, the reactions of angelsvaried. Some, the Seraphim mainly, thought the whole process wasdownright marvelous; that God deserved a thousand anthems inpraise that his Creation should lead to a being who could evolve aninvisible deity from itself who would then command it to ever greaterefforts at survival or war.
"Then there were those who thought, 'This is an error, this is anabomination! These are the souls of humans pretending to be Gods!
This is unspeakable and must be stopped immediately.'
"And then there was my passionate reaction: 'This is reallyghastly and it is headed for worse and worse disasters! This is thebeginning of an entirely new stage of human life, bodiless, yetpurposeful and ignorant, which is gaining momentum every second, andfilling the atmosphere of the world with potent interfering entities asignorant as the humans round whom they swirled.' ""Surely some of the other angels agreed with you.""Yes, some were as vehement, but as Michael said, 'Trust in God,Memnoch, Who has done this. God knows the Divine Scheme.'
"Michael and I had the most extensive dialogues. Raphael andGabriel and Uriel had not come down, by the way, as part of thismission. And the reason for that is fairly simple. Almost never do allof those four go the same way. It's a law with them, a custom, a ... avocation, that two are always on hand in heaven for the call of God;and never do all four leave at once. In this instance, Michael was theonly one who wanted to come.
"Does this Archangel Michael still exist now?""Of course he exists! You'll meet him. You could meet him now ifyou wish, but no, he wouldn't come now. He wouldn't. He's on theside of God. But you'll be no stranger to him if you join with me. Infact, you might be surprised by how sympathetic Michael can be tomy endeavors. But my endeavors are not unreconcilable to heaven,surely, or I would not be allowed to do what I do."He looked sharply at me.
"All those of the bene ha elohim whom I describe to you are alivenow. They are immortal. How could you think it would be any otherway? Now, there were souls in Sheol at that time who no longer exist,not in any form I know of, but perhaps they do in some form knownto God.""I understand. It was a stupid-sounding question," I admitted.
"As you watched all this, as it filled you with fear, how did you relateit to God's statement about nature? That you would see humankindwere part of nature.""I couldn't except in terms of the endless exchange of energy andMatter. The souls were energy; yet they retained a knowledge fromMatter. Beyond that, I could not reconcile it. But for Michael, therewas another view. We were on a stairway, were we not? The lowestmolecules of inorganic matter constituted the lowest steps. Thesedisembodied souls occupied the step above man yet below angels. Itwas all one flowing procession to Michael, but then again, Michaeltrusted that God was doing all this deliberately and wanted it thisway.
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