Ahoy hoy, dear readers. Here is my second installment of Groking Good. A story about many worlds and magic!
(I know I stated a new Antiquarian Hebdomidal was coming soon but this story was distracting my thoughts from that post. AH is still coming “soon.”)
Please read episode one first.
https://antilahbelist.substack.com/p/groking-good?r=2zlh09
A Witch and a Hippie
The classroom that was, until moments ago, filled with people, now held only 2 strikingly different people. Neander, a very wizardly dressed, tall man of difficult to determine age. Jeff, an average height, 40 something with unbleached linen pants and shirt, Birkenstocks that looked like they had molded around his feet, and a pooka shell necklace. Both stood at the front of the classroom, in a pocket universe, talking.
Jeff opened his mouth to ask a question and stood there agape, as his eyes widened in wonder. The room’s details quickly melted in a swirl of bright colors and darkness, then, just as quickly reformed into a small room with 2 large overstuffed leather reclining chairs. A room one might find in a log cabin, with a crackling fireplace lighting the sparsely decorated interior.
Neander- “That's better. The discussion we must have about your strong will is easier in a cozy setting. Do you want a drink, Jeff?”
Jeff- “Sure, what you got?” came out automatically, as the sudden room tranformation left him otherwise stunned.
Neander- “literally anything. I'll make it easy, think of your favorite memory of any drink you've ever had. Ooh, good choice.”
Before his eyes, Jeff watched a large, frosty mug materialize in the other's hand, followed by 2 scoops of ice cream, one vanilla, one chocolate. Then came the smell and sound of a brand of rootbeer that went out of business when he was a kid, slowly filling the mug. As the mug was handed over, a spoon and a straw fell into it, seemingly from out of nowhere.
Neander- “Please have a seat and enjoy. I must explain a few things and then I will answer a couple of questions for you.”
Still in a dazed/overwhelmed state, Jeff simply nodded, as he sat down in the most comfortable chair he had ever experienced.
Neander- “Black holes are a good starting point. From your world's perspective, a black hole is a giant gravitational well that draws in and crushes everything into it's center. This is partially correct. It draws everything close to it in, but it does not crush. Black holes are naturally occurring portals/wormholes/gateways that can take the user from one place, or world, to another. These gateways can be utilized with magic and/or sufficiently advanced technology. Neither of which is currently available in your world. That is just one of the things that I have been sent here to help you, and any others that accept my offer, to fix. They are also the reason for your world's impending collapse. The bindings that suppress magic have made the black holes in your universe sick, for lack of a better term.”
“Free will is the law of the Omniverse, which is the totality of all planes of existence. Violation of another's free will is subject to punishment. Some in your world call this kharma, and the consequences of those violations can carry over into your next body and ego, if the violator does nothing to rebalance the proverbial scales in their current life.”
“Cause and effect, simply stated, is the natural follow-up to any action in any environment. I mention ‘any environment' to bring up a very important point. Just because an action happens in one place, be it as small as a room or as big as a universe, does not confine it to any of those spaces, even if we are only speaking of physical effects.”
Jeff nodded along as he was enjoying his drink. In the back of his mind came the thought that his drink should have emptied as he consumed it AND the ice cream SHOULD have melted, considering the fireplace heat. Those thoughts were quickly crowded out by all the information he was passively absorbing.
Neander continued, “Both kharma and ‘cause and effect' have similar laws effecting them. The biggest difference being; kharmic law is judged by both the action AND the intention, while the other simply judges based on action. This difference is why kharma follows an entity through multiple incarnations. This is why I'm here, to balance my kharma. Hopefully with your help.”
Jeff- “ Look man, I would love to help. I have no clue how to help though. All this info about magic, other worlds and such, is tripping me out, big time! I can't even wrap my mind around how you keep my drink full, or what a ‘pocket universe’ is, man.”
Neander- “All in good time, Jeff. I am just planting seeds to help to fertilize the soil of your mind. Now to address the issue of you strong will. As I listened to your thoughts and observed you in your life, back on the place you call Earth, a pattern emerged. One that I see as a root cause of your strong will. Strong will in itself is no problem. The issue is that you lack control. Right now, your personal will, AKA your ego, is like a big energetic dog, untrained and untethered. It haphazardly runs from one place to another and you seem to be content letting it be in control. We need you to fix this and train your will to obey you. I will give you an excercise to start your training.”
“Repeat after me, ‘I am the Universal Intelligence experiencing itself in the physical. I am the microcosm to It's macrocosm, as I am the macrocosm to the myriad microcosms happening within my body.’ Repeat this until you feel your ego shrink to fit back into its proper role. The ego is a great servant, but a terrible master.”
As Jeff repeated the words, he was amazed at how well he remembered them, considering all of the mind altering drugs he consumed throughout his life. After several repetitions, he felt something inside him ‘click’ and it was like a pulling force finally went slack. His first thought was ‘This feels incredible! I finally have peace.’ Indeed, Jeff was feeling, for the first time since he was a child, a relaxation and sense of calm. The sense of release from the constant drive to ‘do something' almost made him collapse into the chair. No drug had ever made him feel this way.
Neander observed with a bemused smirk, his go to expression. Satisfied with the results, he moved on. “Now that you have experienced the proper relationship between you and your will, you are ready to begin training with the others from the classroom. The time for questions is at hand, Jeff. What itches your mind most?”
Jeff pondered for a moment, “Before, with the others, you mentioned that this place is outside time and space. Why do you keep mentioning time in here?”
Neander mulled over the right way to say it. “ Good catch! A bad habit that all corporeal beings are susceptible to. While time and space work much differently here than in either of our worlds, they still exist, just differently than full universes. To keep it as simple as I can, I'll state that space and time from each universe stay in their own universe. When you travel between them, you leave your time and space and your physical body is put into stasis. While you have a body here, it is not the same body that you left in your world.
This body was generated by your mind as a perpetual self image. Similar to how you imagine yourself when dreaming or astrally projecting, but with physicality. Just remember that All is mind, physicality is a trick mind plays on itself. Just look at the smallest building block your scientific method has discovered, atoms. Even they are mostly empty space and it is an energetic force that keeps atoms from falling into and through each other.”
Jeff, thankful that he was able follow that logic, asked, “I guess the real question I should ask is, what can I do to help save my world from collapse? Nobody in my world has the kind of power you seem to possess. How can I, or anyone from my world, hope to change anything for the better, let alone save it, man?”
Neander replied elatedly, “Magic! You and the others will learn REAL magic. The first steps will be simple. How to draw on powers hidden, to channel it into mental images to cause physical change, and other types, to your world. After the basics will be your first true task. Severing the energetic bindings that keep magic from being accessible to you, and eventually your entire universe.”
Jeff- “But how do I use magic to defeat the thing that stops me from using it?”
Neander- “That is the neat part. The bindings can't stop magic completely, they can only suppress it. All life is magic, it exists because of the power I call magic. The bindings are made of magic too, and as such can be effected by your magic. All will become clear once we start your training. Before I send you back, I will answer one more question, the one that has been hiding in your mind, afraid of it's answer. Why am I, Jeff, being given such special treatment? The short answer is because we have much more in common than just both of us speaking the English language. More will be revealed as your training progresses. And now I bid you good night.”
As Jeff vanished, Neander noted with satisfaction that a piece of fingernail was resting in Jeff's chair.
Next time on Groking Good.
Training starts for 55 new recruits.
Neander explains more about his world and the reason for his “rehabilitation.”
And maybe more…
Cheers m8!