Too long ago, lost in the distant past, the crystals had forgot their
own once-orientation of all other things to me-and-mine, forgot to
credit it to man. To lift the boulder with one's strength to serve a
purpose was within the ken of man, a thing that he could do. To see it
lifted, moved, without his strength, bespoke a greater strength than
his, and purpose that he could not understand. And man fell to his knees
in fear and awe.
For man knew only one relation to all things--to conquer if he could,
and force acknowledgment of superior strength and purpose. To kill if
that acknowledgment was not given. To survive by giving that
acknowledgment to a stronger one than he.
Man groveled in the dust, the only pattern of survival that he knew when
strength beyond his own was shown. But even while he knelt, to scheme a
way that he-and-his might find ascendancy in future days. The one
invariable pattern persisting from the cave man dressed in furs to
diplomat in striped pants, the only pattern possible while me-and-mine
ascendant is the aim and goal.
To show another pattern then, the crystals aim. Ascendancy of
me-and-mine was meaningless, belonged to orders of awareness lower than
intelligence that they could meet in partnership. Instruct them, then.
No joy or purpose in conquering them. No companionship in these
disgusting grovelings. Show them the inner forces that controlled the
outer shapes of things.
Once crystals, now divorced from hardened form, the outer shape of
things was no longer a consideration in their life; but for this form of
life, still dependent for that life upon the maintenance of material
form, no doubt the shapes and forms of things were paramount to them.
Well then, show them the true relationship, sketch out upon the sands
the diagram of how the forces that control the shapes of things are
interwoven, interact.
Before the kneeling men, the cabalistic diagrams took shape, and lo, a
spring of water flowed from dry and barren stone.
But man saw only shape of diagram, its cabalistic lines and form. A
sacred thing, a magic thing, a sign that he might draw with finger in
the air or in the sand, protection from the evil forces that surrounded
him.
The sentient fields of force withdrew. Too soon, too soon. Man was not
ready for communication. Too soon, too soon.
But man did not forget, the memory lived on. And fathers spoke to sons,
and made the outer forms of gestures, drew the cabalistic signs, and
told of magic things and powers that these signs could do. To some, one
diagram was shown, a way to build a house of stone that better weathered
the storms of Earth. The house of stone became a holy place, a thing
existing in its own right, and not, as was intended, an example of one
use to which this arrangement of forces might be put.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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