Dogma III -- History #2, ``Cosmogony''
which is not the same as Dogma I - Metaphysics #2, ``Cosmology''
(Book of Uterus)
from
The Honest Book of Truth
In the beginning there was Void, who had two daughters; one (the smaller) was
that of Being, named Eris, and one (the larger) was of Non-Being, named Aneris.
(To this day, the fundamental truth that Aneris is the larger is apparent to
all who compare the great number of things that do not exist with the
comparatively small number of things that do exist.)
Eris had been born pregnant, and after 55 years (Goddesses have an unusually
long gestation period-- longer even than elephants), Her pregnancy bore the
fruits of many things. These things were composed of the
Five Basic Elements,
Sweet, Boom, Pungent, Prickle, and Orange. Aneris, however, had been created
sterile. When she saw Eris enjoying Herself so greatly with all of the existent
things She had borne, Aneris became jealous and finally one day she stole some
existent things and changed them into non-existent things and claimed them as
her own children. This deeply hurt Eris, who felt that Her sister was unjust
(being so much larger anyway) to deny Her her small joy. And so She made
herself swell again to bear more things. And She swore that no matter how many
of her begotten that Aneris would steal, She would beget more. And, in return,
Aneris swore that no matter how many existent things Eris brought forth, she
would eventually find them and turn them into non-existent things for her own.
(And to this day, things appear and disappear in this very manner.)
At first, the things brought forth by Eris were in a state of chaos and went in
every which way, but by the by She began playing with them and ordered some of
them just to see what would happen. Some pretty things arose from this play and
for the next five zillion years She amused Herself by creating order. And so
She grouped some things with others and some groups with others, and big groups
with little groups, and all combinations until She had many grand schemes which
delighted Her.
Engrossed in establishing order, She finally one day noticed disorder
(previously not apparent because everything was chaos). There were many ways in
which chaos was ordered and many ways in which it was not.
``Hah,'' She thought, ``Here shall be a new game.''
And She taught order and disorder to play with each other in contest games, and
to take turns amusing each other. She named the side of disorder after Herself,
``Eristic'' because Being is anarchic. And then, in a mood of sympathy for Her
lonely sister, She named the other side ``Aneristic'' which flattered Aneris and
smoothed the friction a little that was between them
(there is more on this in the
Psycho-Metaphysics
article).
Now all of this time, Void was somewhat disturbed. He felt unsatisfied for he
had created only physical existence and physical non-existence, and had
neglected the spiritual. As he contemplated this, a great Quiet was caused and
he went into a state of Deep Sleep which lasted for 5 eras. At the end of this
ordeal, he begat a brother to Eris and Aneris, that of Spirituality, who had no
name at all.
When the sisters heard this, they both confronted Void and pleaded that he not
forget them, his First Born. And so Void decreed thus:
That this brother, having no form, was to reside with Aneris in Non-Being and
then to leave her and, so that he might play with order and disorder, reside
with Eris in Being. But Eris became filled with sorrow when She heard this and
then began to weep.
``Why are you despondent?'' demanded Void, ``Your new brother will have his share
with you.'' ``But Father, Aneris and I have been arguing, and she will take him
from me when she discovers him, and cause him to return to Non-Being.'' ``I
see,'' replied Void, ``Then I decree the following:
``When your brother leaves the residence of Being, he shall not reside again in
Non-Being, but shall return to Me, Void, from whence he came. You girls may
bicker as you wish, but My son is your Brother and We are all of Myself.''
And so it is that we, as men, do not exist until we do; and then it is that we
play with our world of existent things, and order and disorder them, and so it
shall be that non-existence shall take us back from existence and that
nameless spirituality shall return to Void, like a tired child home from a
very wild circus.