At the Beginning there was nothing. There was no light, no darkness – Just a grey Nothingness. Even emptiness cannot describe this state – as emptiness means devoid of presence and presence didn’t even exist.
Within this grey Nothingness there was a tiny spark of presence, a consciousness. This spark couldn’t even be described as life, not even in as abstract a way as the gods would describe life.
This consciousness was aware; it had thoughts but had no feelings, it had knowledge but had no experience.
It felt limited in its present state of existence and was seeking more, seeking experience of life.
And then all began.
Like a huge explosion the tiny spark expanded outwards. It expanded in a rainbow of light and music, too awesome to behold, too beautiful to witness, too overwhelming to see and hear, even if there had been a human to watch.
Not even the elves, of high and graceful race, of extreme and rare beauty, would have been able to encompass this beauty of beginning.
This tiny spark was all that later became the Universe, both the known and the unknown. The Universe became the spark’s playground, its place and way to learn about life. Later races of high insight and knowledge called the spark for The Ultimate, but most of their knowledge is now forgotten.
The Ultimate created the Universe; it created stars and suns, planets and moons. It created life, both known and unknown. It created all, as we know it now; the animals, the flowers, the rivers, the humans, elves, dwarfs and all other races that exists.
It created souls and spirits, gods and elementals. It created thought and feeling, though not knowing what it was, it created hate and love, hunger and satiety, balance and chaos.
The Ultimate had a finger in every thing, in every aspect of life and death, of humanity and godhood.
As a result parts of The Ultimate was now existing in everything there were. It was the sum of all the spirits of the world. The sum of the spirits of fire, water, air and earth, the sum of the spirits of rock and wood, the sum of the spirits of plants and animals, of humans and gods. It was in everything living or dead, a tiny bit of The Ultimate, called spirit.
The Universe took a life of it own. As creatures began to become self-conscious they emerged in new ways. Ways that the Ultimate couldn’t even comprehend.
But the sum of spirits didn’t care, it was learning. Learning about life, about natures balance. How there is to be light, if darkness exists, how there has to be drought for flooding to counterweight. How there has to be female and male creatures, for races to continue and to grow.
As creatures evolved, the Ultimate was learning, and when feelings arose from the murk, that had been created, the Ultimate beamed with joy. This was a whole new path for the sum of spirits, a path forever changing the world.
For as feelings got power, a new concept arose, a concept called Soul.
The Soul was a special entity. Where the Spirit thought about the greater good, the greater life, not seeking to gain other than knowledge, the Soul was totally different. The Soul wanted things for it self, it wanted to be satisfied.
Where you could call the spirit for fullness, the soul was emptiness, where the spirit was satisfaction the soul was hunger.
The soul drove the humans through new paths.
Greed and hunger arose and the people were no longer happy and innocent. Humans began to walk a different path and the old knowledge disappeared.
People began to seek personal gain and those few who kept to their old ways were hunted down. War and strife arose from the darker side of human nature and many innocent were killed. People used the nature’s recourses greedily and the earth groaned under their weight.
War was fought hidden behind words of honour and justice, but no one ever truly won the war.
Villages were lain barren, seas filled with wrecks, forests burned down to the ground and deserts grew for every decade that went by.
Wars were fought for centuries, leaving the earth in ashes. New machines were invented, all to kill as many a possible. Animals were hunted down for trophy and children taken from their mothers just for fun. The earth was a living hell.
Spirit wept for the living beings, but Soul just laughed at it all. Soul fulfilled his purpose and Spirit could do nothing about it.
Spirit was still contained in everything living but was slowly loosing the battle. As Soul got more and more power, the world fought to survive.
One day when everything looked most hopeless a star shone brightly in the sky, heralding a new beginning.
A few people began to gather guided by their Spirit, because they whished for a balance within themselves. Through the balance in themselves they began to see that balance was needed in the world as well.
They choose to ignore the voice of their Soul, somehow knowing, that they misinterpreted that voice.
A new order of humans began. Working for the greater good and the greater Life. They gained supporters throughout the world, and slowly the deserts shrank and the forests once again stood in their green foliage.
But still strife and greed existed, and the Order understood that it would take centuries to create the right balance between Spirit and Soul.
They started teaching the way of the great wheel, taught that spirit lives on forever and soul dies with the body. Connections were found in links between lives and they understood that Spirit began from the tiny spark and that Spirit would end in a tiny spark, when enough knowledge was gained.
The Order also understood, that life and Soul was all about learning. Spirit was learning from the Soul and that the Soul misunderstood Spirits desire to learn. Thereby creating a hunger in Soul that afflicted humans in unbalanced ways.
Those enlightened people saw it as their life purpose to create a harmonious communication between Spirit and Soul.
They still wander the world. They are few but powerful, teaching humans about the Greater Life.
You might be lucky to find one and if you listen carefully and open your heart, you will know your Greater Life.
