I looked out from the high parapet of my tower,
From the Spire of Opal and Ruby, regarding
The streets and domes of the Shedim city,
Chadel, proud and unconquered, deep,
Deep in the passages of the roots of mountains,
Lit by the furnaces of the lower Earth
Amongst sleeping serpents as ancient, as terrible
As immemorial Time, unreckoned,
Dreaming of forgotten aeons and tomorrows unimagined.
Now had the laments ended and the libations dried;
Now were the shades of our fallen people contented,
Honoured with tears and the blood of cattle.
Yet I saw nothing of Chadel's people, lost
In reverie, turning over and once more over
The many strategies that might accomplish
That vision that my heart desired.
Now the feasts of victory were swept away
What morsels uneaten yet, cast to dogs.
The bountiful gourds that poured rivers of wine ran dry
And songs on Shedim lips were stilled.
Now was my heart moved to languor,
My limbs consumed with restless idleness.
Now my mind flew this and that way,
Alighting upon some thought then flitting
Hither-thither as a butterfly.
All energy of my spirit, like a tempest,
Was infolded upon itself, a crashing sea
That could find not rest nor movement
In any direction except around and around,
Making itself a knotted mass.
In this confusion, I wandered far from the city,
Leaving behind proud walls, bronze-burnished
And studded with shining jasper,
Walking the twisted roads of the unlighted halls,
Hewn from the rock of the Earth.
In that half-conscious, unquiet travel
I came there, amongst the high stone pillars,
A great gulf, a deep ocean, unknowing
Of dawn and dusk, with Venus
As their herald or page, shining in the sky.
This sea's sky was vaulted stone, dark and distant,
Shadow-veiled from the eyes that sought it.
The swell of its abysmal waters resounded
In echo about the great chamber,
Its farther shore obscured by countless columns,
Straining beneath the depth of stone.
So clear, the waters that the very bed
Of the ocean was apparent to my eyes,
Twisted by the refractions of the waves
And shoals of white, eyeless fish
Swam and plumbed the waters' deeps.
Thus did I commend to myself
To sit in meditation by those waters
That I might perceive a path forward
From the circuitous meanderings of my troubled thought.
There, by the sea without sun I sat,
Nourished by the flesh of blind fish,
Turning over and over in my mind many plans
By which to progress my design
And achieve that to which my soul was pledged.
All day and night was lost to me 
And I knew no more the passing hours
But lost in timeless contemplation
Or fitful sleep I sat or stood or lay.
After what time I knew not by the gulf
And the booming echoes of the cavern
The tumult of my thought was calmed,
Resolved into a new-formed purpose,
Perceiving now a clear path to the goal
That my spirit thirsted for like life-giving water
To a throat parched by the cruel sun's fire
Amidst the desolate sands of the desert.
Now, calm purpose made crystal from fluid thought,
I looked out across the waters before me
With eyes made young with hope.
In my joyous realisation of the path
I saw not the silver form that came upon me
From behind as I gazed out across the water
Until I saw its frame reflected in the clear sea,
Shining with incandescent radiance
And, turning to face the one that came upon me,
Beheld Aset, Shedim seeress, 
Companion of my true ambition. 
In a voice of gentle laughter,
Belying ancient and most sure wisdom,
She hailed me by the swelling waters,
Resounding their frothing roar about the cavern,
Her voice of power carrying, winged, 
Above the din of the leaping waves:

"Lord Satan, Commander of Our Hearts,
Chadel has missed your sage instruction,
Now, as the moon has waxed and waned
In your absence from the city of your founding.
Its people knowing not of what befell you,
Your presence amongst us, comforting,
Like a bubble, borne on breezes,
In an instant denied us, vanishing.
By such sudden disappearance were we confounded,
The Shedim, our leader departed;
His people ignorant of his fate and circumstance.
All Chadel was in uproar, unknowing
Of which path to puruse or forsake.
Sorely indeed did we miss your sage guidance
And were afeared of the future
That you had taught us to love.
From the high gates of the city, sent forth
Were searchers by the anguished Shedim
To find their most glorious leader
In the darkness of the lower Earth.
For four weeks have they searched these caverns,
Crying out your great name in each grotto,
One by one, despondent, returning
To the walls of Chadel in defeat.
The last of the searchers is Aset,
When all others had forsaken the quest
She alone sustained in darkness.
now she shall return in triumph.
Yet, my Teacher, instruct me:
What, in this dark place, do you seek?
What secrets does this unlit sea give up
And why do you tarry at its shore,
Forsaking those who have followed
Into the darkness of these caves
Your true and noble purpose?
Tell what it is that you sought,
Whilst those that you abandoned sought you,
And if such seeking met with success
As did my search for the one most dear
And most treasured to our hearts."

Not so long had I thought it,
That I sat in contemplation by that sea
And not such pains had I sought
To inflict upon my noble Shedim.
Turning now to Aset, I related all
That had passed beside that sea
And all that passed before within my mind,
Speaking with a gentle voice, at times,
Yet at others, agitated and impassioned,
Teaching her of the new path,
Telling to her the plan that would win for us
That day we strived for, expending all
And winning all, in battle against Heaven.
Thus did I speak in a voice of power:

"Aset, my dear one, most faithful,
In darkness did you seek a leader.
Yet what to you is a leader
Lest he have knowledge of the necessary path.
First embarking on the road I walk,
Setting forth from Heaven's gates
I knew little of what ways would bring us
To that goal that consumes our thoughts
With a flame more terrible with heat
That any that before we knew.
Seeing only the beginning and the destination
Was I confounded by what road to walk
And struggled, without knowledge, to find a way.
This is that which I sought in darkness.
Bravely, did we enjoin in battle against our foe
And did well in the estimation of that day.
Yet never can we triumph in war
Against high Heaven, too great is God
And his proud hosts in power.
Yet more than this is that fatal deed
Wrought by my hand upon that day,
Struggling in combat against he that was my king.
I took from him his creative power
Thus winning yet not conquering,
Winning time for the Shedim's flight.
Yet he that I emasculated so
Was not father to the Elohim alone
But we, the Shedim, share that parentage.
The sire of our proud race is broken
And no more shall there be increase
With either the Elohim or the Shedim
For now our peoples can but dwindle and fade
Else, with care and effort, retain what is now ours.
Never shall our races be renewed.
Perceiving this, all plans that I had intended,
Flew, like sparrows, from me, leaving me bereft of guidance.
This is that which I sought in darkness.
Fleeing from Chadel, unworthy of its kingship,
Having cast all away by my rashness,
I came to contemplate what might be done
At the shores of this unsunned sea
And find a new path that should win for us the prize.
Long ruminations availed me
And now do I perceive the way to advance
And win for ourselves that which we seek.
Now have I a new devising
To found the kingdom of tomorrow,
Greater, infinitely, than high Heaven.
Whilst Shedim and Elohim are now doomed,
Never more to be replenished or magnified,
That privilege of God was not lost upon the day
But was won by he that took it from him.
Now mine is the power of creation
And that which is wrought by my hand
Is not so bounded as is that wrought by his.
I shall give rise to a new race
More noble than the unworthy children of God
That shall grow to be a race of gods,
Mighty, kingly and bright, a noble brood
Of heroes that walk like lions across the world.
By my hand shall be a worthy people
And their dominion shall be infinite and eternal.
While yet are they in their infancy
As children savages, filled with noble potential,
Shall we watch over them, guarding
And guiding them to their true destiny,
Instructing them in the making of their kingdom.
Not for dominance of Earth and Heaven
Shall the Shedim contend with God
But for the fate of the proud and young,
Those brought forth by the hand of Satan.
I shall set them upon the Earth
That they might hold the sky in sight
And nurture in their hearts
The desire to fly like eagles amongst the stars.
This now is the hope of the Shedim.
And now too long have I tarried
But must seek out my disciples,
Returning in triumph to our walls
That in motion I might set my design."

And thus did we go, each in triumph,
Swift to the walls of Chadel, studded
With as many stars of jasper as has the sky.
Now did the streets to my tower,
Walked with Aset at my side, joined
By the thegns of the Shedim,
As we went to the Spire of Opal and Ruby,
Did the Shedim rejoice with song and wine
At the return of their most great leader,
His eyes filled with new purpose,
His instruction sure and true.
As a throng did the follow me, awaiting
What word I spoke beneath the high parapet
Of the tower, in address to their eager ears.
A myriad voices resounded in the vaulted cave,
Like thunder the names of Satan and Aset
And hearts once hollow, leaderless, were filled
With new hope at the return of most great Satan
As, once more, did i walk amongst them.
Now from that high place, where I did stand
With noble Aset at my side, the triumphant questers,
Unto the streets filled with great hosts, gathered,
Spoke noble Baalzebub, ebon, proud,
His voice magnified by the strength of his heart,
His words magnified by the strength of his spirit.
These words did he speak to the gathered Shedim:

"Once were our hearts made to quail,
Their beat unsteadied by our fear
As our most noble teacher passed from our midst.
In fright did we seek him willy-nilly,
Running hither-thither amongst the darknesses,
Seeking him with shouts and cries,
Yet we found him not and were yet empty.
It was as though part of ourselves had been stolen,
The love we gave to the one that steers our fate.
His sage guidance, his great vision were lost to us
And we became weak and blind without them.
Black despair grasped with chill fingers our souls,
Seizing to himself our strength and leaving
The Shedim, noble disciples of Satan, bereft,
Hopeless, and in grief we retired to Chadel's high walls,
Abandoning in the darkness what light we had.
Yet one alone of the Shedim was strong in defeat,
Seeking when all others were blind,
Striving yet when we were made weak.
Aset, most blessed, most noble,
Sought in darkness that thought lost
And found the one we sought, unfinding.
Now, let Heaven quail with fear
Where once the slavish Elohim nurtured hope,
Now shattered into ten thousand fragments
And victory to them eclipsed by a brighter light,
Satanael once more walks amongst us.
Like the light of the dawning sun,
Like the rain upon the desert,
His sage guidance now nourishes the Shedim.
When all seemed most dark to our eyes,
When our worthy dream seemed defeated
And consumed by the most black maw
Then came a light from the most shadowed part
That drove all shadows from us
And restored to us our souls with its golden radiance.
I name it now, it is Satanael, the Commander of Our Hearts.
Speak now, most noble instructor, and relate
To us that which has passed to take you from us
And what now restores you to us."

Now was the speech of Baalzebub greeted with a roar;
One voice, spoken by many tongues, demanded,
Of me the reasons of my departure and my return.
Each singing Shedim tongue resounded the interrogation,
Calling for the narration of my hermitage
And an explaining of the knowledge I had sought
And won in my wanderings beyond the walls
Of noble Chadel, unfailing, unfading.
Now, from the Spire of Opal and Ruby,
I addressed my worthy disciples, resounding,
The story of my wanderings in the arcane wilderness
Of caverns, bored out by primeval beasts,
Winding like serpents through the Earth's foundations,
Telling again the deeds and thoughts of mine
And of the new path, the new victory.

"My Shedim, noble race, bright ones,
Builders of the hidden spires of deep Chadel,
Who have stamped down upon the walls of Heaven
And nourished the dream of tomorrow
With blood shed in battle and libations spilt
From the sword-blade of your false brothers' blood,
Long days and nights have passed since once we contested
The field before the gates of Heaven
And fought in most mortal conflict against a foe
To whom, like us, death had become but a forgotten dream.
Easy is it to lead warriors into battle, and glorious;
Such things test not the potentate or king.
How to lead thence, thereafter, that is the riddle
That has, long days, perturbed my soul,
Wracking my dreams and robbing me of strength.
My imperfect eyes could not perceive the way
Beyond the bright glories of the armoured struggle,
The hot-blooded battle that sets the heart to beat
Like the terrible drum that sounds the column's tread.
Once the moment of triumph, the moment
Of the ululating cry of the heart, had faded,
Like you, I was without purpose or guidance.
The road, to me, was obscure, the charts unclear,
And I saw no way to lead you to the prize you sought.
How this shame did abrade me? Such treachery
To those that had given all for a vision once perceived,
That I, who first proclaimed the way, should be struck blind.
Yet another fear gnawed at my heart, that the way
That was once pursued with such clear sight,
With steps of such noble purpose, once open
Might be forever closed unto the Shedim.
Indeed, might well it have been so,
And by the hand that held the guiding staff.
To think what had been given up by so many,
Sacrificed to my dream and to my guidance,
Had been shattered by my very hand!
Such weight weighs heavily upon the bearing back.
Let me expound to you this vexation.
When, against Heaven, we strode to battle,
Singing triumphal songs and dreaming
Of what glories might be won upon the field,
Such raging dreams did catch me up within their swell
And bore me into battle, unthinking and unseeing,
Hoping only for glories as had not been won before.
Like some braggart knight I sought the battle's heart,
Unknowing of such a thing as consequence,
Yearning only for the wetting of my blade.
Such wrath and passion did consume me,
And with such searing intensity, that, to quench with blood
Those fierce flames, I did oppose the very king that sired me,
Carving a bloody path to his standard and his throne.
In that struggle, well known to you is it,
I did strike upon Adonai Yahweh a most terrible wound,
Tearing from his body his organ of creation
And consuming it with one serpent's gulp.
For such rash error we might have most dearly paid.
Listen! I have taken from him that sired us
The very power of generation, for Shedim also
Are the sons and daughters of Adonai Yahweh.
Now his power is gone, stolen by his rebel son,
And those two races of his blood, Elohim and Shedim,
Are made barren by his gelding, no more to increase,
But ever to diminish, like the candle's flame.
Thus did Satanael defeat his purpose.
In the midnight passages of stone, there
Did I seek a darkness to be as a mirror
To the deep veil of my black despair,
Fleeing the faith that I betrayed by my bravado,
The noble Shedim dreams that I had thwarted.
Yet now my Shedim brothers I am returned!
In the darkness I perceived a light,
In the wild tangle of the night's forest
A path became clear to my eyes.
Heed now my new instruction,
For the direction of our tread is known to me.
Whilst one candle must dwindle, dim and die,
The lighted wick become but drifting smoke,
Even a dying candle may kindle yet another flame,
A pyre ten thousand magnitudes more great
Than the guttering tongue that first gave it light.
With the candle of the noble Shedim race
Shall I set the world aflame with incandescent heat
That its light shall illumine the dark'ning sky
And make once more the stars resplendent.
This now is the purpose of our being.
From the embers of Heaven's children,
From the Shedim race that descended
Upon wings of flame singing of a new world,
Shall arise a new race of gods, a tribe of kings.
As a seed shall I plant them upon the Earth
And I shall tend and nurture such a shoot
As bursts forth from new-thawed soil
As the sun ascendant sings Spring's imminence.
Then the seed shall become a shoot, a shoot become a sapling
And sapling become a tree its boughs so wide
To occlude sun and stars and sky
Yet shining with its own brilliance.
Upon the Earth I shall myself create that race
By the power of creation, won from God
Upon the field before the gates of Heaven.
They shall be as giants upon Earth,
Their tread shall resound like thunder,
Their voices like clear trumpets heralding the new age.
Their eyes shall flash with fire
And their arms reach across the sky's vault
To pluck planets from their orbits.
With sorceries inconceivable they will reshape existence,
Resolving what was flawed into a more perfect image.
The turrets of high Heaven shall be crushed to dust
Beneath the sandals of Satan's children,
The Elohim slain by flame and steel.
To me it falls, having wrested from my father the power
To enforce this potent will of mine
And to the Shedim to ensure the flowering of fancy.
To the infant race we make, we shall be parents,
The tutelary guardians of their future.
In such arts as they must know, we shall school them;
Against such adversities as hinder them, we shall aid them;
Against such enemies as oppose them, we shall defend them,
Until such a time as they surpass their tutors
And claim their true inheritance as lords of Earth and Heaven.
What cannot be wrought by Shedim hand
Let Shedim children make fulfilled.
To the upper Earth! Let us unfold the plan."

Now with new purpose, with new hope,
The gathered Shedim hosts gave up great cry,
Contemplating new victory in the chosen struggle.
Now, a third time, did the Shedim go forth
From Chadel's high gates of cedar-wood:
Once in array for bloody battle, crying out for blood
And glory upon the inglorious field so glutted with blood;
Once in search for the leader who forsook them,
Himself to search for new purpose and hope of triumph;
Now creeping as ghosts or shadows
In the darkness of those hidden paths,
Winding like some stealthy serpent to sun-lit lands.
In silence did the host go forth,
Unheard now by high Heaven, ignorant of its doom.
Amongst stones and bones and jewels they went
Without song or drum or horn,
By a thousand diverse paths.
I followed the upward gradient of the floor
To the lands of light so many leagues above,
As I went gathering to myself such strength
As my sorceries required to achieve the end I sought.
Baalzebub and Ishtar went at my side
And together we rehearsed the incantations of the charm
That we three were to work
For even such as the ancient Archons could not forge alone
Their original work of making.
Now, with quiet languor did gates of the passages swing open
That once more the Shedim glimpsed the moon.
Into the night, illumined by the stars,
Celestial torches, watchers of ten thousand griefs,
Witnesses of ten thousand wrongs,
And the pale moon in full complement this night,
Eternal partner of the Earth upon the turning wheels
That dictate the movements of the sky.
Auspicious spheres were conjoined upon their paths,
Telling of ruin and ascendance:
The kingdom of the old, overthrown;
The kingdom of the new, made great.
Now, scattered before amongst the multitudinous caverns
Of the lands beneath the Earth,
The Shedim once more converged,
To hear again the instruction of their chief.
Upon the high peaks of Atlas did they gather
And upon the highest of those peaks I stood.
Now every ear was mine,
Every arm at my command,
Every soul to dispose of as I willed.
Even when I had ruled as vice-regent
In the halls and towers of doomed Heaven
I had not known such faith as now I knew.
How could unworthy Satan repay such love
As of the Shedim whom both loved me
And were themselves most dear to my heart?
As Adonai Yahweh's right hand I would never think so,
It had not been the custom of the Elohim to treasure love
But rather to demand it of their subjects.
This thought itself gave me pause
And then with new resolve I addressed my beloved Shedim,
Trusting that such love must never be betrayed.
These words did I speak to my disciples:

"My Shedim, noble race, bright ones.
The path that lies before us is most perilous
And of necessity must be walked by the few
For the many could not do so in safety.
Therefore I shall go forth but with Ishtar and Baalzebub
To a place long hidden from those who would seek it. 
That which I speak is known to but few
Even the Elohim know not of it 
For its treasures are too precious for Michael
And his three brother-lords to trust to their treach'rous kin.
Yet I, as the second lord of Heaven, learnt of secrets
That I entrust to you, my brothers.
To the south of these high-peaked hills
Upon the burning plains of Africa,
Hidden within a high-walled valley, 
Carved out by the passage of a river's flow,
Is a wondrous garden abounding in verdant growth.
There grow herbs of such rarity
That nowhere are they found but in that garden.
The fruits of that place are endowed with potencies
That are unmatched by the sorcerer's art.
Of most worth to our purpose are the fruits of two trees
That grow within the garden's boundaries.
The first of these trees is needed by our course
And if it cannot be secured then we must fail.
The second tree also would greatly aid us
If it too could be gained by any device.
The first tree bears, upon its boughs,
The Fruit of Knowledge of Consequences;
Its power is too bestow upon those that eat of it
The ability the judge their actions,
Whether they be wise or foolish,
Whether they be noble or foolish.
Without its power the brave child-race we would foster
Would be as beasts without knowledge of that which they do.
The second tree bears the Fruit of Eternal Youth,
That is a cure for the very passage of time
And he who eats of it would be ageless.
When the Elohim were but mewling babes
They were brought to the garden by Adonai Yahweh
To eat of both fruits that grew upon the trees.
But five of that ancient brood were of such age,
In times so young, to remember any of that time:
Satanael, Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, Auriel;
This is how I know of such arcane secrets.
When the spawn of Gog and Magog
Threatened also to gain the garden
Adonai Yahweh gave instruction to his children
To make war upon the race of Giants
That they would not eat of those fruits
And oppose and rival the power of his nation.
Thus the Giants were destroyed before the prize was won.
Now for the same prize we must play
And, if our creation is to be fulfilled,
At least the Fruit of Knowledge of Consequences
Must be won by the hand of Shedim.
Yet, not for the shortest moment,
Do I contemplate that this garden is not watched,
By the jealous eye of Michael or some lackey.
Therefore I and my appointed companions must go alone
In guile and make entrance into the garden.
Once within its walls we shall fulfil our charms
And bring to being our champion race
The new heroes of our cause, inheritors of our legacy,
Kings of the empire that is to be.
Await us, then, upon this mountain.
We shall return in triumph."

As the sun's last embers faded
Upon the farthest horizon of the West,
Melting like oil across the ocean,
I went from the mountains of Atlas
With Ishtar at my right hand 
And Baalzebub upon my left hand.
Now the night's shadows devoured
The sight of mountains where our comrades waited,
Their keen eyes watching for our return
Else turned to Heaven to descry the foe
And whether they moved against our grand ambition
Or remained ignorant of our endeavour.
Yet no action of the Elohim was apparent to them
Nor the return of Satan in triumph.
Onwards, went Ishtar and Baalzebub
Upon my right hand and my left.
Onwards and yet onwards, went we three
Across the African plains beneath the veil of night.
Brave and silent, we went with haste
Lest the sun make too soon the journey beneath the earth
And, in rising, reveal us in our quest
To the wrathful eyes of Heaven.
We stole amongst the sleeping beasts of Earth,
The roosting eagles upon the trees,
Cold lizards made languid by the chill of night,
Antelopes and wild horses slept upon the grasses
That nourished their swift frames.
Not so much as a leaf did we rouse
As we journeyed in stealth to the hidden valley.
All was quiet and still, unknowing
Of the momentous deed to be enacted.
Onwards and yet onwards went Shedim hopes,
Closer and yet closer to the goal and the prize.
Now the forbidden rift was in our sight,
The laughter of the flowing river
Ringing in our ears and its fragrant spices
Upon the breezes that we breathed.
At the entrance and the exit of the river
To the enchanted valley stood as sentries
To each an Elohim knight, mailed and armed,
Garbed in a robe of crimson silk,
Armour, steel and gilden, adorned with motifs
Of ten thousand creatures of strange fancy.
To each a shield of painted bronze,
To each a red-plumed helmet, studded
With precious stones, shining with moonlight.
Each bearing an oak-shafted spear,
Upon their belts hung long swords,
With decorated hilt and scabbard,
A red tassel tied to the pommel,
And a horn of ivory and gold,
They stood their watch over the prize we sought.
From the western approach we came,
Where the river flowed from the gardens,
Scented with the perfumes of exotic herbs,
Down to the storm-buffeted ocean of the West.
Baalzebub went before us like a tiger,
Having caught the deer's scent, going,
Stealthy, stalking, shadow-like amongst the shadows,
Dark within the darkness, 
Silent, fatal, falling upon his prey.
Thus did Baalzebub go forward.
Ebon-skinned, against the ebon night,
Unseen, unheard, unknown death.
Now, like a terrible phantom, resolved
From the darkness of the night
The black form that was Baalzebub descended
Upon the prey that he marked out,
Most lethal in both intent and action.
Before the guardian of the western gate could cry out
Or else sound alarum upon his horn
Dark Baalzebub, destroying angel, reached out
With a single arm to the stricken foe
And enfolded within one dreadful hand
The skull of the sentry and tore head and helmet all
From the shoulders that the head once governed.
Then did we go together into the garden.
Upon the river's northern bank did we progress
Amongst some number of tall and slender trees
Of silvered bark and a thousand fruits
Each more tempting than the prior,
Here beast and angel could be lost forever
To some enchanted sopor brought on
By those honeyed, narcotic fruits,
Yet most firm and sure of purpose were the Shedim.
Now amongst a lawn of herbs
Of most efficacious medicine else venom potent,
Nepenthes for all woes or bitter as hatred,
Trod we Shedim three, ever stealthy.
Some yet fumed with strange pollens
To induce visions of things to be
Or false fancies that never were;
Others yet blossomed with harlequin blooms
To enchant the eye and woo the heart
With such indescribable hue to distract
The mind and detain beholders all
In some marv'lling rapture.
Now by the river's waters halting,
Whilst naiads danced on upon their path
Their sweet laughter amongst the wavelets,
Ishtar, Baalzebub and Satan made ready
To now bring to motion what was thought
And fulfil the plan of my devising.
Now Baalzebub intoned the sorcerous syllables
Of his potent magic and drew across the sky
A black storm-cloud, hiding
From the Earth the moon and stars of the sky,
From Heaven hiding the Earth.
Now I made myself seated amongst the trees
Of some perfumed glade by the river.
Then stripping from my alabaster flesh
Mail, robes and tunics to bare the skin
That must bleed to enact the rite.
At my right hand was Ishtar
And at my left hand was Baalzebub.
Now as the thunderbolt ignited
The sky's high dome, I took up my blade,
Forged of Magog's talon, its hilt of jade,
Carved with the representation of a dragon,
Devouring in its jaws a stricken monoceros.
Steeling then my will against all pain
And enforcing my arm to commit a deed so strange
To the body's nature, against my breast
I put the dagger's point, where ribs meet belly.
Without cry or gasp, I drove in the steely point
Dyeing red, once more, Magog's claw with angel-blood,
Yet pain afflicted every limb with weakness
And my body trembled with the wound.
Once more I mastered the limb that bore the dreadful blade,
Making further incision and widening
The hurt already wreaked upon my flesh.
Now sick of such self-brutality the hand
That bore the dagger, made weak by agony,
Released its hold and let the dagger fall.
Now blood, like a river flowed down,
Down my belly and down my thighs
Until it stained the garden's soil,
Flowing even thence down the river's bank
And joined the greater flood down to the sea.
Then it seemed that weakness would defeat
The spell I sought to speak.
A moment did I but sit in stillness
In silent search for strength to avail me
That I might complete the deed
And the victory over the king that opposed me.
Reaching with my right hand into the bleeding gap,
Sharp teeth of mine hard biting the tongue they caged
Yet the mind unknowing of the taste of blood,
I tore from my liver some gory part
And, taking it within my hand, raised it up.
Now much vigour left me and sense
And, as though I dreamt or walked in mist,
The world about me seemed but half-real.
The fingers of my hand worked the flesh,
Torn from the outraged body of mine,
Shaping from it the Shedim's very image.
As I worked the shade I spoke a charm,
Half-mumbling and half-whispering its words
As one overcome by wine or weariness.
With this sorcery I shaped the flesh of my body:

"Child of Satan, inheritor of Earth,
With these words I give you shape.
First, within the primal darkness,
Was Mummu, mother principle,
Initiator of all things, all thought, all words.
Then, before the Universe was given shape,
There was but seething chaos, emulsified
With any form yet resolved from its mass:
Light and darkness, air and earth, flame and sea;
These things were all as one in those times.
Then did primal Mummu come to learn a spell,
The Word of Creation, and spoke it in the ancient disorder.
Thus did Mummu create the Archon race:
Three brothers and three sisters of great power:
First-born, the she-beast Leviathan,
Terrible and great, of elemental strength and fury,
First and wildest of the Archons;
Then second-born Mot, King of Darkness,
Dark of soul, bent and dwarfish thing;
Third-born Yahweh, heed the name,
Bright king, noble, haughty, proud,
Then his eyes burned with wisdom
And his arm and heart were strong;
Then brother, sister, mates, Gog and Magog,
Giants of most awesome aspect,
Beast-like Brute-kings, ogres both;
Last and least was Ereshkigal, lusty queen,
Mot's consort for she was taken in that cold embrace
And made cold herself.
Thus were born the Archons of old
Who came together and by potent magic
Resolved from chaos and ordered Universe,
Speaking themselves the Word of Creation
To accomplish this end. 
In the new-made Universe they contended,
Brothers and sisters, for command of their Creation.
To avail himself in this conflict
Yahweh spoke once more the Word of Creation.
Thus came the Elohim who ruled in Heaven
And were ruled by Adonai Yahweh.
The Elohim made war upon the foes of their king,
Destroying upon the Earth the Giant-spawn,
Born of Gog and Magog, and bound
Beneath the ocean's tumult great Leviathan.
All that was created, save Mot's Sheol, was made theirs.
Yet their was yet greed in their hearts
And it was there undoing.
Their dominion was all Creation
But they turned upon themselves in their ambition.
From that ruin there was born new hope.
From that self-doomed race arose the champions of tomorrow.
Thus were born the Shedim.
Now, mastered by the Elohim, damned to destruction,
The Universe is engulfed within a great abyss;
Yawning Chaos once more is ascendant
And the architecture of the world falls into disorder.
One by one the stars dim and die.
Mote by mote the Earth is turned to dust.
To avert this awful end I, Satan, now raise my voice
To sound the Word of Creation to resound
About the sky's high vault.
Here beneath the eternal sea of the night
By my most potent art I command
The very principle of the Creative
To give life to a new race who shall reverse all wrong
And make new the Universe decaying.
They shall tread amongst the stars as giants
And they shall be as giants upon Earth,
Their tread shall resound like thunder,
Their voices like clear trumpets heralding the new age.
Their eyes shall flash with fire
And their arms reach across the sky's vault
To pluck planets from their orbits.
With sorceries inconceivable they will reshape existence,
Resolving what was flawed into a more perfect image.
And from the Universe's wreck give new form
And set once more into order the entropic.
That then shall there be only increase
And the once-threatened ruin fade as but a dream.
This race I now give form and name,
Forged from my own flesh, imbued with my power.
I name this tribe of kings, Nephilim.
Thus are the Nephilim born upon the Earth.
Now with the Word of Creation I command,
Nephilim Become!"

Now my part complete I passed
The full-formed creature to Ishtar at my right hand
Who took it gently to her
And, holding it within the bowl of her palms,
Breathed life upon it, speaking these words:

"Breath, the spirit of life, give motion
To these noble limbs and make pulse
The heart of this our creature,
Tomorrow's hope, Nephilim.
May the life-giving wind suffuse its being
That its noble purpose might be fulfilled,
That which now I name Woman!"

As the nourishing rain did fall,
Languid, timid motion grew
Within those new-formed limbs
As woman woke as if from sleep
To life, within the confines of the garden,
Amongst the trees of silver bark
And the herbs and flowers of sweet perfume.
Trembling, like some new-born foal she stood,
Testing those legs that I had made.
When she, Woman, was more sure of step
Ishtar, gentle life-giver, set her upon the ground
To look with new and wond'ring eyes
Upon a world most strange and glorious.
Such child-like grace and such burning keenness
Was in those eyes of this creature of flesh
That it made the Shedim weep to see.
Such curious joy at the world's beauty recalled
The first memories of our youth.
And our tears mingled with the bloody flow
Of the river coloured with my blood.
Now testing limb, now touching, tasting,
Now listening to the wind or rain
We laughed and wept at the sight of our new creation.
Yet now I grew weak from the wound inflicted
By my own hand to make this Woman
And there was much yet that was undone.
Now once more I fortified my spirit
To withstand yet further pain in this enchantment
That I might complete the deed
Before all strength failed me and the senses
Were devoured by dark oblivion.
Now with my left hand I reached within the wound
And tore a second part from the liver
That had formed Woman's shape.
This time I felt no pain so dimmed was my wit
By the injury already suffered
Yet the weakness in me was redoubled.
This second part I also took within my hand
And, half-knowing, with half-feeling fingers
Shaped it also into an angel shape.
As I worked my transforming sorceries upon my flesh
I spoke again an incantation of power
To shape and life to my creature,
Yet so weak was I that I could barely work my lips
Or muster breath to give voice to my words.
With this sorcery I shaped the flesh of my body:

"Child of Satan, inheritor of Earth,
With these words I give you shape.
First did my sorcery make Woman,
Mother of the Nephilim race,
Yet if she is to bear progeny 
And the tribe of kings is to be magnified
That it might overthrow Heaven's kingdom
And make anew the World
She then must have a mate to sire
Her noble offspring, heirs of all.
Together then these two shall raise a race
More worthy than Yahweh's flawed creation
And upon Tomorrow's martial field engage
Those ignoble Sons of Heaven
When they are grown great with time
Like the germ that becomes the tree.
That seed I now make fertile with second Creation
And win the victory yet unwon
Upon this night and hereafter.
Again I, Satan, now raise my voice
To sound the Word of Creation to resound
About the sky's high vault.
Here beneath the eternal sea of the night
By my most potent art I command
The very principle of the Creative
To give life to a new race who shall reverse all wrong
And make new the Universe decaying.
They shall tread amongst the stars as giants
And they shall be as giants upon Earth,
Their tread shall resound like thunder,
Their voices like clear trumpets heralding the new age.
Their eyes shall flash with fire
And their arms reach across the sky's vault
To pluck planets from their orbits.
With sorceries inconceivable they will reshape existence,
Resolving what was flawed into a more perfect image.
And from the Universe's wreck give new form
And set once more into order the entropic.
That then shall there be only increase
And the once-threatened ruin fade as but a dream.
This race I now give form and name,
Forged from my own flesh, imbued with my power.
I name this tribe of kings, Nephilim.
Thus are the Nephilim born upon the Earth.
Now with the Word of Creation I command,
Nephilim Become!"

Now my part complete I passed
The full-formed creature to Baalzebub at my left hand
Who took it to him
And, holding it within the bowl of his palms,
Breathed life upon it, speaking these words:

"Breath, the spirit of life, give motion
To these noble limbs and make pulse
The heart of this our creature,
Tomorrow's hope, Nephilim.
May the life-giving wind suffuse its being
That its noble purpose might be fulfilled,
That which now I name Man!"

For moments more this Man was still,
Unmoving within the angel's hands.
Then, as the sighing breeze grabbed at his hair,
The breast of man rose and fell
As he first breathed of its air.
Now standing, blinking, shaking, stretching,
He too tested the form that I had made him
And banished Sleep's sluggish grasp.
Now, set upon the ground, he ran hither-thither,
Chasing birds and beetles alighting, then flying
The eager hand of Man,
Else plucking some bright blossom that enchanted
The young eyes that beheld its colour.
Now his gaze was drawn to Woman
Who had this time watched him from amongst the trees
With her own wonder at their world.
Now with the lion-cubs novice grace he went to her
To seize, like bird, beetle or blossom,
Her jet-black hair, coiling like snakes
In the breeze, glistening with rain and moonlight.
Now, like the dancing sparrow she went there and there,
Eluding each snatch he made and, on swift feet,
Ran before his earnest pursuit.
Now, hiding within some bush's verdant growth,
She taunted him with song and laughter.
Now, with fruit plucked from the bough,
He sought to coax her from concealment.
With shout and high fluting laugh,
She sprang from amongst the dripping leaves
And seized from her bewildered play-mate's hand
The bait with which he thought to entice
And took once more to flight. 
Running amongst the trees they went,
Each flying and then chasing the other,
Else racing to the river or this tree or that,
Laughing, singing, joyous, beautiful,
Went those bright children in the garden.
Now the Eastern sky grew crimson
With the kindling flames of dawn.
Now Ishtar spoke a charm
And led new hearts of new creation
To thoughts of love's burning embrace.
Now laughing gambol elapsed into play
More laden with rich desire.
Playful catches turn to caresses,
Tackles by the river become kisses
And at last they lie
Beneath the leafy pavilion of trees,
Enjoined in love's art
As the birds of that park saluted
The sun that rose upon the morn
Of an day unknown and great:
Upon the Age of the Nephilim!
All sense then left my wearied limbs,
My sight was dimmed, my hearing quiet,
All perfume of new rain, and the breeze's touch
Faded from my knowledge and I slept,
Exhausted by the rigour of the toil of the night.
Ishtar, then, turned to Baalzebub, speaking
Instructions to the sable angel.
Thus spoke the Queen of Love to Baalzebub,
These words with an urgent voice:

"Baalzebub, Vice-regent of the Shedim,
Swifter of we two that you are
Must go on from this place
And I must follow, bearing from the garden's grounds
The Commander of Our Hearts, Satan,
Stricken as he is by the self-inflicted wound
By which the Nephilim race was born.
Now that the sun is rising in the eastern sky
And the shielding darkness is put to flight
That which here has been wrought will become apparent
To the sentry eyes of Heaven
And they shall come in strength against us.
In his weakness, brave Satan cannot oppose them
Without the aid of our sisters and our brothers
Who await the champions' return
Upon the northern peaks.
If this plan of ours is to prevail
You must make all speed northwards
And lead to battle the Shedim host
That they might defend the garden
And the child-race, Nephilim, here born,
Against what armies Heaven dispatches
To oppose the grand scheme we work against them
Now that what is worked in secret
Is now complete.
We must now win time from the foe's haste
And delay them in their plans
As we have hastened our own.
We must frustrate the motion of the Elohim
And make slow their advance against us
That Satan might be restored
And his strength returned to his arm
That he might bring his children to the tree
That bears the Fruit of Knowledge of Consequences
And thence to the Fruit of Eternal Youth.
Thus will they come to surpass the Archon race.
Yet all such devices will not avail
Unless your speed can win for us
The time that is needed to bring to fruition
That which we have devised.
Go then, Baalzebub, fly north
And bring news of what has passed to our hosts
And instruction of what must be.
In your path I will haste myself
And bear gladly the burden that I must,
Bringing to safety our noble teacher
And with healing art restore his strength 
That he might fulfil his own destiny
And triumph in the struggle he and we have chosen.
Go! Fly! for Time has already taken wing
And exhorts haste in those who would yet outrace
The tireless turning of the hours.
Make haste. Make haste."

Now, upon bended and black wing,
Hurried Baalzebub, casting long shadow
Upon the plains beneath his swift form.
Like a raging hurricane, like a screaming storm,
Tore Baalzebub through the breezes,
Cast, like the herd before hunter's horse,
All about in disarray by the terrible haste
Of the angel's passage in the air.
In his wake, his wings disturbed
With their pounding, rapid beat,
A great column of smoking dust,
Rain sodden, dried and raised by the agitated air
Made tumultuous by the racing form
Hurtling to the distant northern peaks
Where anxious Shedim watched for some signal
Of triumph or of loss.
In that dusty wake went Ishtar
With my witless form across her shoulders,
Making what speed she could
With what strength she had
To bear her and me from that perilous garden,
Well scrutinised by Heaven's watch.
Now, on flaming wings, descended
Raphael resplendent in his shining arms:
Upon his brow, bedecked with tousles of gold hair,
A princely crown of gold beset with jewels,
Ruby, purple amethyst and red amber,
Shaped into winding vines, ivy-leafed;
About his shoulders, a robe of silk,
Dyed with deepest purple, trimmed with gold
And hemmed with a peacock's eyes;
His limbs and body made glorious
Within gold-leafed steel, forged
Into magnificence, greaves and plate
Of make unsurpassed, strong against all blows.
Within his hand the Prince of Heaven held
A curved blade of smokeless flame
And upon his left hand wore
A shield burning with the sun's borrowed light
Upon its mirrored face of bronze.
Now, as he made his circuit of the Earth,
His all-seeing gaze fell upon the form
Of the garden's guard, broken by the hand of Baalzebub,
And now upon river's waters, carnadine with blood,
Bled to give new life and hope and oppose
The failing empire whose instrument he was.
Now he alighted upon the garden's soil
And with a motion of his hand banished from the sky
The rain-clouds brought forth by some same charm,
Amongst the trees of wondrous fruits
And the herbs and flowers of seductive scent.
Pushing his way amongst the leaves he finds
Upon some bed of pressed grass and flowers,
Enfolded together in embrace, exhausted
By the toils of love, the sleeping Nephilim.
Now cast into confusion and into fear,
His heart pounded out uncertain beat
And some realisation of Heaven's doom
Became known to his afflicted spirit.
Making now to slay in sleep these creatures
That were so foreign to his sight
Yet awakened such fear in his soul,
His keen eyes perceived within the shadows of the trees,
Dark shapes moving here and there,
Wolves and tigresses fierce, savage guardians
That stood watch over the forms that slept
Beneath the leafy roof of the forest,
Bound to such duty by Shedim spell,
Woven by Baalzebub and Ishtar before they made flight.
Now to the river went
Raphael and at its bank, before the water,
Sat and cast certain sorceries upon the waves
That in the waters of the brook were seen
The night's testament to the deeds
That Shedim wrought within the valley's confines
And all was known to Raphael
And he was afraid.
Now, on flaming wings, ascending
He made his own speed to high Heaven's gates
And, there passing its towers that watched
The approach thither, flew swift
Through the gates thrown open 
Before him as he flew in haste to Heaven's hub
Where reached above all the Eternal Tower,
Seat of God's once-great majesty.
Descending, alighting within its long shadow
He now went by foot to the spire's portal
And demanded of the gatesmen entrance.
These doors opened also to his coming
And, the herald before him hurrying,
Scaled the tower's heights to the chamber
In which his father, Adonai Yahweh,
Sat upon the Platinum Throne, seat of Heaven,
And directed the movements of the Elohim.
Now, announced by trumpet and by voice,
Before the very throne of God went Raphael
And there abased himself before the Emperor of All,
Making due humility before that king,
Crouched within the shattered throne of the Elohim
And their kingdom, darkened by Ruin's black shadow
As that awful shade stooped o'er their walls
And slavered, jackal-like, at such rich booty
As would be his in due time.
Now with trembling speech gave voice
To the witness he had borne on Earth
And the reconnaissance that he had made.
This testament did he tell to God
Within the walls of the Eternal Tower,
Telling now of Heaven's doom
Though he could not thus acknowledge:

"Almighty and Eternal,
Lord of Infinitude, 
Tyrant of Existence,
All-illumining Light,
King of Heaven,
Conqueror of Earth,
Father of the Elohim,
Architect of Creation,
Master of the Planets,
Orchestrater of the Stars,
Proclaimer of Destiny,
Keeper of Wisdom,
Judge of the World,
Castigator of Sin,
Scourge of Evil,
Most High, Most Merciful,
Most Just, Most Sagacious,
Most Perfect, Most Mighty,
Most Noble, Most Majestic,
My God, My Lord, My Father,
Swift have I flown from Earth,
Swift with dire news to heap upon
The burden of ill tidings even now so great
And make more so oppressive on us
That which we have borne thus far.
Raise not Your wrath against he that brings such news,
I implore it, but rather avert Your retribution
Against he that is now the spring of all our grief.
Again does Satan move his traitor's hand against us,
Working evil upon the Earth
That will blossom and bring forth the fruit of his hate.
Remember, Adonai Yahweh, Lord,
The garden to which You brought the young Elohim race
That lay within a vale river-carved within the rock.
There did the race of Your siring feast
Upon the Fruit of the Knowledge of Consequences,
Thus becoming like the Father that gave them life,
Knowing good from evil and how they might make
For themselves a bright destiny indeed.
And, thereafter, eating also of another fruit
The Fruit of Eternal Youth
That the fine and noble sons You brought to be
Would live unfading and endure.
Beneath the shadow of the storm-wracked night
Stole Satan and his rebel angels into the garden
And there, from his own flesh did forge
A race to rival Heaven's children,
Speaking then the Word of Creation,
Spoken long aeons before by the Archon tribe.
With great enchantments did the usurper
Weave his children's fate to oppose
And to strive to conquer high Heaven's walls.
Baalzebub and Ishtar, who aided him,
Did fly the garden before my coming
Bearing from the place wounded Satan,
Exhausted by the deed's travail,
Leaving amongst the trees the new-made race,
The Nephilim, guarded by savage forest beasts.
Yet it is the apostate's intention, I am sure,
To return to the river-garden
And his children guide unto the tree
That bears the Fruit of Knowledge of Consequences
That they might eat of its fruit and grow
To be like the Elohim and Shedim
And, desirous of our majesty, conspire
To effect our down-falling and thus contest,
With Shedim alliance, Heaven's sovereignty.
Let us not then delay our wrath
But move now against these Shedim-spawn
Before the Shedim can return and fulfil their plan.
Let us go against these new creatures
With great force of arms
And destroy them utterly before the Shedim 
Can yet muster hosts to avail their infant race.
Adonai Yahweh, My Lord, I implore You,
Restrain not Your hand but strike most surely
Against this new assault upon Your kingship
Lest, like the stone falling from the mountain's summit,
The impetus of this yet ungrown crime
Becomes so great that no force exists
By which its motion might be opposed.
Adonai Yahweh, King, we must move with haste
We must move now."

Gravely did the Archon-Emperor listen
To the testament of Raphael
And once all had been divulged to him
Sat a while in still contemplation
Of all that had passed and might yet pass.
Within his mind he weighed both this course and that,
Considering first one stratagem and then another,
Before resolving upon a certain.
Now arousing himself once more from rumination
He raised up his gilded sceptre,
Carved into a lion's likeness, burning orbs of fire
Shining within the eyes of that fierce image,
Before which the hosts at his command fell down
In supplication to his majesty.
Now with resounding, thunderous voice he dictated
His commandment and his will,
Instructing his Elohim knights in that course
Upon which his mind had been resolved
By which to best thwart my own device.
Now he spoke these words unto Heaven's assembled hosts,
Commanding with majestic voice:

"Raphael, fond son, most sadly have I heard your testament
And that sore doom that it does threaten.
Most bitterly do my ears receive
Such knowledge, such baneful tidings,
To know that once more my rebel son,
Though son no more is he to me,
Moves against his rightful king.
Also have I listened to your counsel,
Rash, war-like Raphael, and considered its many merits.
Yet, even in considering what you recommend
A more canny strategy does itself suggest
Its own merits to my consideration.
I shall make clear to you, my children,
Just what my mind does conceive of.
It would seem strange to me indeed
If our most cunning adversary would thus forsake
The fruits of all his devices to the guard
Of some wild beasts alone
Or would even dare approach the upper Earth
Without some aid to avail him
Were the Elohim to move, as you suggest,
Against that which he himself moves
Against bright Heaven's walls, spires, domes and streets.
Well would he know that we would not permit
Him to enact his crimes so freely without reply
Or retribution for such audacity.
No! His host is already gathered upon the Earth
Nearby and already moving to defend
That which rebel Satan's hand has wrought.
Within that time that we mustered and marched
To destroy those within the garden's walls
Already shall they be defended by a greater force
Than the howling beasts that stayed your hand.
Yet also does it seem to me
That much of our adversary's strength has been invested
Within the forms of his new creatures
And, until such time as they partake
Of the Fruit of Knowledge of Consequences, they
Are as but simple beasts to be commanded
By the whip or baited with simple prizes.
Nothing can they weigh themselves
As I now weigh the different paths
By which we might exploit such flaws
And win back advantage from the foe.
Now let me make clear that which I plan.
Not against Satan's creatures shall we move our hosts
But rather against the Shedim legions that would guard
The garden and in the matching of these forces
Tie them in such a compromised position
That they cannot gain the garden.
Then, as some few of them stole in
So shall some few Elohim make entrance to the valley
And once therein, with cunning words
Beguile the child-like Nephilim and instruct
Their untutored souls to realise my dominion over Earth
And thus warn them from the tree our foe,
Mutinous Satan, would have them gain
With dire repercussion should they oppose
The will that would bind them to eternal infancy.
This then is the path that I would take.
Move then and enact my will!"

Some while later, upon the Earth,
I awoke within a grand pavilion,
Framed with three pales of pine-wood
Woven of green silks and trimmed with bright silver.
I lay upon rugs of bear-skin and, at my side,
Awaited Aset, arrayed in battle's garb of steel.
Beyond the gossamer walls of the tent
Battle's clatter and deep-throated horns
Resounded from every side.
The clamour of some camped army did inform 
My hearing of some events that had passed by
My knowledge while I slept.
Making assay now of the wound that I had wrought
Upon my flesh to fulfil my fate,
I found but the barest crimson scar.
Now testing the strength of limb and heart,
I stood, eager to renew once more the struggle
Against the hosts of Heaven.
As I made to take up spear and sword,
As I made to dress myself in shining mail,
All lying ready for the knight who would gird
Himself for battle's work,
Aset came to my shoulder and restrained
My hasty rage and reproached
My brashness and precipitous action,
Going headlong into what I was ignorant of.
Now she told me of all that had come to pass
Whilst, still robbed of all wit, I lay
And she had tended with her healing arts
The self-inflicted wound that had brought forth
The now-contested Nephilim.
With these words did she inform my unknowing:

"Satanael, Commander of Our Hearts,
Stay the rash desire that would govern
Your noble spirit and impel to futile battle
Your hand, for such will not avail
The Shedim or their cause in this contention.
Rather, wait upon my explanation
Of what has come to pass whilst you slept.
As you did command us as you set out
First to the garden where you set
Upon the Earth the Nephilim, children of our purpose,
We awaited your return with anxious watch
From the high peaks upon which we rallied
To enact your will and command.
All the long night was spent thus,
Ever scrying the darkness for your form,
Returning from the southern valley in triumph.
There, in the south, storm-clouds gathered and hid all
From Shedim's watch and Heaven's sight.
When the East grew red with the flame of dawn
And the burning orb of day did ascend
Above the Earth's shadowed morning limb
Our keen eyes descried in the distance of the south,
Coming forth from the stormy veil
With awful haste, agitating both air and earth,
The speeding form of Baalzebub, upon black wing.
Now breathless did he alight
Upon the highest peak and dictate
New instruction to the Shedim hosts
And we paid due heed to our vice-regent.
Thus did he commend to us:
'Shedim, children of joyous tomorrow,
Disciples of bright Satanael, give heed
To that which must now be accomplished 
If victory is indeed to be ours.
Well indeed was the enchantment worked
And now Satan's children, Man and Woman,
Walk upon the Earth within the garden.
Yet such potent magic is not rendered
Without cost to he that would render it.
Cut from Satan's very liver was the flesh
Of the Nephilim race and now
Wearied by that wound, our noble prince
Is spent utterly and, witless, is borne
By Ishtar, northwards, from the garden
Some way behind myself, hurrying on ahead
With instructions of precipitous exigency.
Not long shall it be before the hosts of Heaven,
Realising what is done on Earth,
Make haste to move against us and mankind
Before that race arises from its infancy.
With all swiftness we must hasten southwards
First meeting with Ishtar and Satan, sorely stricken,
Then march onwards to defend the Nephilim
From whatever force God might send against them.
The emissaries of Heaven must not here prevail.
Onwards, then, from your high roost
And make haste to reach the valleys before the foe.
The very Universe does wait upon this outcome
Now is decided the fate of all.'
No second speaking of such command was spoken
Or exhortation, reprimand or other word
Before the host took wing and flew
Swift, southwards, to the valley where mankind remained.
Now high upon the plains' simoom,
The soaring Shedim saw beneath hastening Ishtar
With her burden precious to us.
Now the column descended from the sky
And once alighted upon the ground
Prepared for you a litter that you might be borne
More swiftly when the swifter path was most needed.
Once more the host took wing to the south
Whilst yet you slept on, exhausted by your toil.
Flying on and ever on, the distant valley appeared to our sight.
Then, as it was within our reach,
The goal we sought was snatched away
By the blaring of alarum horns
As the host of Elohim came upon us from the north
In deadly ambush, striking, with shining bolts
Our rear-most ranks and thwarting the advance we made.
Now our horns and flags made sign
That the host should descend at Baalzebub's command
And fortify the northern way against the foe.
None delayed in effecting what was commanded
As we made sure our ranks against the Elohim force,
Driving into the ground steel-tipped piles
To thwart what charge the foe might make
And throwing up great breach-works against their advance.
Our archers also tarried not in reply
And sent back their own volley to the hosts of Heaven,
Driving from the sky their winged knights
And renewing once more the banished rain
With a more gory shower.
Upon the northern plain they too descended
And drew up their ranks for battle,
Making sure their own defences.
Now then do face each other across some small stretch
Old adversaries, Baalzebub and Michael,
Each taunting the other and boasting of his own,
Whilst Abaddon and fiery Moloch counsel action,
Lusting for the battle's passion
And thirsting once again for Elohim blood.
This time I have tended you in fevered sleep,
Sometimes still as death and others
Crying out in most vexed agitation.
Now my art is worked indeed and your strength is resolved
And little before is it most needed
If this meeting of well-matched forces is to be resolved.
Our host cannot make advance against their fortification
For they will abandon, as they did before,
A position of such strength in arrogance.
Neither can we gain the garden that we would
Without abandoning our own advantage
And, thus, yielding all to the Elohim advance
As they would over-run our own ranks.
Thus are the forces fairly matched
And neither side can gain aught
But must wait out this engagement
Until fate or ruse decide the victor.
Now your wise guidance must be taxed full
That you might perceive an answer to this riddle
And resolve the battle in our favour.
All the Shedim race does wait
The command of the leader who would guide to triumph
Our noble purpose over darkness
That Heaven surely champions most eagerly
Though their blinded hearts perceive it to be light.
Speak then, Satan, and may your wisdom win the day."

At this time, with Shedim eyes engaged
By their northern watch and their hands
Committed to the battle-line's defence,
As the sun descended in the western sky
Once more dissolving into the embers of the dusk
And as the crimson sky elapsed to purple twilight,
Raphael, by some long and curving route
Did go unmarked around the Shedim camp
And went on swift wing into the valley
Where yet, amongst the trees, slept Man and Woman,
Unknowing of what passed without the border
Of their small dominion and of all
Save their infant dreams.
Now with strong sorceries he undid those charms
That the Shedim wrought to bind the beasts
That held watch over the lovers' sleep.
Then, the sentries then dismissed from watch,
He made approach unto the slumb'ring pair
And, with a gentle hand, aroused them from their rest.
Now, appearing as a shining giant before them,
Clad in resplendent light and of awesome aspect,
Tiger-headed, eagle-wings spread so wide
That it seemed that they would enfold the world,
Striking, with a burning gaze, awe and terror into their hearts,
He addressed the trembling, naked creatures
With a voice of thunder, like the lion's roar,
Breathing, with his words, incandescent flame:

"Infant children, unknowing of the world,
I have been dispatched by the King of Heaven,
Benign and most merciful, well-inclined
To your most noble spirits 
And pitying of your plight, forsaken here,
As you are within this valley's walls.
Forsaken no more, is man, but redeemed
By the loving countenance of Heaven
And its great king, Adonai Yahweh.
These joyous tidings am I sent to bring
And yet further counsel and instruction.
As tutor am I sent to teach of that which you must know,
As it is decreed by most glorious God
Who looks upon you with such love
That he sends me, his son, Raphael.
Be not afeared of me, though I be of awesome aspect,
For mine is the gentlest of all spirits.
This is yet further proof of God's love,
If yet further testament you needed,
That I of all my brothers am sent to you,
For of all God's sons I am the least terrible
And God Himself is ten thousand times as terrible
To me as I do seem to you.
Were that He were to appear to you Himself,
By the brilliance of His most great presence
Would you be blasted into ashes, such is His power.
Receive this then as indication of His mercy and His wisdom.
This great king of which I have spoken to you
Is most desirous of love and fealty
Made as you are in His image
And of all the creatures of the Earth
Most fair and noble to behold.
Adonai Yahweh is king of all the world
And both Heaven and Earth to kneel to his sway
And fulfil each command that He would speak.
To those that would serve Him dutifully
He is most beneficent indeed
And those who would but supplicate to His great name
Are pardoned, then, all faults and failings
And the burden of their every sin
Is lifted from their shoulders and, by His love,
Are they redeemed by He of infinite forgiveness.
Great indeed is the bounty of His kindness
To those who would serve him well.
Yet, if you would be a transgressor of His will,
He is most terrible in wrath
And would punish with a thousand torments
Those who would shirk their fealty
And make infraction against His law and reign.
Counsel, then, I do, that you kneel before the Lord
Who does both love and seek the love
Of His most prized creatures, Man and Woman.
Before me here give worship to most high God
That I might bear testament that you are not of the wrong-doers
And may know the full benefit of His mercy
And not of the terrible potency of his fury.
What, then, say you, Man and Woman?
Will you give due submission to the King of Heaven?"

Some little time did the Nephilim ponder what was said,
Considering the perfidious deceits presented
To them as tutelary kindness.
Then, without yet understanding the way of things,
Without the Knowledge of Consequences, by which to judge
And from falsehood distinguish truth,
Man spoke now his reply to the awesome angel,
With trembling limb and voice before such a terror
As did manifest before him with the purpose
Of cowing the spirit of indomitable man.
Speaking with such haste that word tumbled over word
In his fear of the retribution that God would bring against him
Though such threats were false indeed with such hosts
As the Shedim had mustered between the infant-god
And aged king whose power, with each passing year,
Did fade and grow more faint within the light,
Burning ever brighter, of Satan's ascendant nation.
These words then did Man speak in this way:

"Good Raphael, Son of Heaven,
Terrible emissary of that great King
Of whom you have spoken so thunderously
And made quail my spirit and set uncertain beat
Within my strong and youthful heart,
You have yourself professed to be our guide and teacher,
Sent by this Adonai Yahweh, omnipotent King,
To school us, His subjects, in such knowledge 
As it is right and good for us to know.
This time you have thus told of His great empire
Over both Heaven and the Earth
And that He is most merciful to those who serve
And as terrible to those that would oppose His reign.
Will you then instruct us further on certain matters
That do bewilder our new-formed minds,
Having not ourselves perceived enough
Nor yet learnt enough of the intelligences of the world,
To resolve such things as do confound us.
As we first lay together as lovers
Amongst these high and perfumed trees,
Woman did tell me of the circumstance of my creation
That she had seen from some way distant,
Being at once both wondrous and awful to her eyes.
There sat in a glade beside the river, so she has told,
Some strange being of princely beauty
Of an image both similar and foreign to our own.
Gigantic in apparence was this earthly king,
Yet not terrible as you and your brothers seem,
But rather gentle and most fair, inspiring in our hearts
Only love for such splendour and such grace.
This spirit was both like us and much different:
Neither male nor female in formation
But possessing both these attributes, miraculous androgyne,
With the wide hips and rounded breasts of Woman
Yet also Man's member betwixt the thighs;
And also was the flesh of this monster alien to us,
Coloured of the purest white whereas ours,
As is most apparent to your sight, is tawny brown
As is the soil of the Earth; and the hair
That cascaded as some shining cataract 
Upon the shoulders and the prince's back
Was not jet like that of Woman or of Man
But was like copper burning in the silver lunar light.
This ruddy mane framed two orbs of noble light,
Green like emeralds within their holes
Whereas our own eyes are the same hue 
That does colour our own tan flesh.
Yet also from the angel's back sprung wings,
As we have not, of most radiant gold
Like the very sun of day, and from the skull
Of this apparence sprouted curved horns of ivory
The same as might adorn the deer that we hunt
To fill our hungry bellies with spears cut from branches
Torn down from the garden's trees.
Within the god-like beings flesh gaped wide a wound,
That bled a crimson flow into the river,
And from it was torn some part of flesh 
That our creator shaped into the form
Of Man that does now appear before you.
Thus, Raphael, guiding angel, teacher,
Tell us of this being that Woman's eyes beheld
That made our race from his own flesh
And resolve for us the ignorance of origin
That we might know for what reason we were made
And to what end our creator poured out his blood
To make our forms and give us life
For our unknowing minds know not such secrets
But Adonai Yahweh, in high Heaven would see all
And thus would know all that passed on Earth below.
If indeed you are sent as mankind's teacher
Then in you would Adonai Yahweh invest such knowledge
As that our inquiries could be satisfied.
Speak then, angel, and tell us of our making
That we might know these things."

Not much of myself was lost in those of my flesh
And well vexed by such inquiry was the Elohim prince,
Knowing not what reply to give them
That would both preserve his mission
And satisfy the untutored curiosity of mankind.
For some while was his confusion moved to silence
As he sought some device to yet beguile
Those that had thus beguiled him
Even without the power of the Fruit
That they must have if my purpose was to be fulfilled.
Even now they made apparent their art
And made poor show of Heaven's best.
O brave and canny Woman, Man!
My heart rejoices at their deeds even then
When they were so young upon the Earth.
Elohim and Shedim rival not
The Nephilim spirit conceived to conquer all
And in that conquest renew the world.
Thus their great destiny was revealed even then.
After due thought this ruse did Raphael invent
And play out upon those who could not judge
The merits and falsehoods of his speech
Yet still confounded that instrument of Heaven
With their guileless curiosity and native wit.
Thus did Raphael reply to my Nephilim:

"Infant children, unknowing of the world,
Adonai Yahweh's high regard for your race
Is indeed well-founded upon such wit
And keenness to know all that is done
Upon the face of Earth and in high Heaven.
Most wise indeed is God to love such as you.
Most wise and most great indeed is that King
And forget it not nor else have occasion
To doubt in any way that noble sovereign.
Yet, though I weep true tears to speak it,
There are indeed those who doubt my great King
And do plot malice against those more faithful
As I am and you too shall be, for you are wise.
These base and most malicious goblins do conspire
To work mischief upon the wits of we who serve
Most dutifully, the Almighty and Eternal.
With strange glamours do they work deceits
And puzzle the senses of the unwary,
Working false visions upon those hapless spirits
That it does please them to so harass.
With illusions and dreams and untrue portents
They do make it seem that certain things are real
Whilst, in truth, such things never were
And other things that were most concrete
Fade away like a dream or fancy.
Thus, by their malign art, these base elves
Do contrive to make uncertain what is most true
And give the faithful cause for doubt.
Thus it does seem to me that is most wise
That you have been afflicted by some such ruse
As it is these wrongful spirits great delight
To work upon the innocent and guileless,
Like yourselves, unknowing of the truth
And leading learning into great error.
This occurrence of which you tell,
Truthfully, never came to pass.
With my own eyes I did behold
Adonai Yahweh, Lord of Infinitude, create
Man and Woman from a lump of clay,
Crafting limb from its formless stuff
As He did make the Elohim, His sons
And my brothers, from the smokeless flame.
No other is there with the art to make
Such as beautiful and wise as man.
Forget that which you did perceive
For it was but a dream that played you false
Wrought by base imps, most mischievous,
To pleasure and fulfil their desire
For the tricks and traps they work.
Know, then, that this is true,
My own soul does well know it:
But for God himself there is no God,
La ilaha il Allah! Thus is it written.
Forget it not ever, for those that would
A fire burns forever and eternal torment is their lot.
This is the answer to your inquiry."

Much troubled were my children by this informance,
To be told that their own senses worked deceit
When they had seemed so sure to them.
Yet the emissary of Heaven, appearing so terrible,
Did command much belief within their hearts
And they were much vexed by his explanation.
For, though his words were false indeed,
They could not judge the false from true
And knew not to trust their own wit,
Unbeguiled, or yet to heed the angel's word
And submit to Heaven's tyrant. 
In such bewilderment no reply
Seemed just or apt to give the King of Heaven
And they could not decide the choice.
This then became their answer,
And Woman spoke it in these words:

"Good Raphael, Son of Heaven,
I know of no reply to give you yet
To transmit to Adonai Yahweh who rules,
As you have told, all the Earth and Heaven.
First you spoke of that which we knew not
And such informance we doubted not,
Knowing in our hearts no argument against your witness.
Grateful indeed are we for such intelligence.
Yet when we asked of what we ourselves had seen
You spoke then of deceit and our error
Yet the report of my senses spoke most true.
How are we to judge between these two accounts
And distinguish from the false the true.
Not yet have we learnt the art by which to choose
Which of the two is right and which untrue.
Most persuasively have you spoken
And most great and wondrous do you seem
That it does sorely wound me to doubt your word.
Yet also to doubt my senses is most injurious
For if I must doubt them then I must doubt all things.
I know not which to mistrust.
Your King must further yet await reply
For Man and Woman have yet no answer 
To His authority that He would profess o'er us.
We must have time consider and debate
These words that your tongue and lips have spoken
And consider whether we would bow down
When we have not knelt before
To any king or lord, knowing nothing of such affairs.
Return to us, Raphael, seven nights hence
And then shall you and God have answer."

Now Raphael did make his own reply
And speak his leave-taking with new warning
And did acknowledge thus the words of Woman:

"Infant children, unknowing of the world,
Each passing minute does more impress
The magnitude of your wisdom upon me
And of Adonai Yahweh's wisdom in bestowing favour
Upon a race so fair and noble.
As you have asked of me so shall it be.
After some duration of seven nights I shall return
To hear what reply you make to Heaven's embassy,
Knowing, in my heart, that your choice shall be just
And that you shall give God that tribute
That is in truth His rightful due
For you are most wise indeed
And shall not err in this most grave matter.
Contemplate, then, in this time allotted
The decision that you shall reach
And decide most wisely on it.
Yet before I fly hence and make report
Upon all that has passed upon the Earth
Let me counsel and warn in one more matter
And well would you do to hear such advice
For I am wise, as you, yet my knowledge far exceeds
That which you, in your short time, have learnt
And am most desirous of your happiness 
And would not see harm befall you.
At this garden's very heart there grows a tree
That bears a fruit of shining hue
That is called Knowledge of Consequences.
This fruit has been set upon the Earth 
By demons most malicious and base
As a snare for the incautious.
If you would live eat not of its flesh
For it is most venomous and would strike dead
Him that would eat of it in an instant.
This fruit avoid by much distance
For it seems, to the eye, most sweet and tender
And its perfume does seduce the very soul.
Approach then not the tree or pass by
But fly its very presence and hold here
In the garden's outer parts far from the tree.
This warning then discharged I depart
To fly swift to Heaven and transmit
That reply that you gave to me."

Having thus spoken, with a thunderclap,
Proud Raphael vanished into the wind,
Disappearing from sight as though he had never been,
Fading as quickly as a dream in waking,
Giving yet further cause for Woman and Man
To doubt the intelligence of their sight.
By their portents and auguries, perceiving
All that passed within the valley,
The Shedim seers took good note of the movements
Made by Raphael against our plan.
Some few spies and scouts made report confirming
The less ordinary intelligences of the wizards
That saw what passed with ethereal eyes.
All that had passed between the Nephilim
And Raphael, what guile and deceit he had used
To win their fealty for his king
Became apparent to me as I worked new devices
By which to win from the circumstance of my condition
That which  had first sought upon the Earth.
Also known to me was their confusion,
Man and Woman, and the conflict of their minds.
As the beacon of the dawn gave sign
Of the sun's inauguration of the day,
Long-shadowed hosts still faced across a little distance
And shook spear and shield in defiant wrath.
As the sun progressed upon its upward path
The keenest of the host tested range
Of bolt and bow, each feathered shaft
Falling some distance short of the other camp.
Others yet tried less solid volleys,
Matching themselves against one opponent or another,
With the ancient spear of insult and the boastful shield,
Declaring both his own prowess and the likening of the foe
To some craven thing or most foul creature,
Mocking with loud laughter the thousand virtues of the other.
Still others declared across the field
That when at last battle would be joined
Some warrior in the other camp they would seek out
And render upon them ten thousand brutalities
Each surpassing those prior with yet further cruel ingenuity.
Chief of all these braggarts was Moloch,
Telling Heaven's hosts with a leering cry
Of the two and twenty hundred humiliations he devised
To wreak upon their bright-mailed warriors
And which or other part the crows would so enjoy.
Now the sun, passing the post of noon,
Did continue on its path, descending from the sky
Into the western reaches of the azure vault
Without hope of the confrontation's resolution.
Even as Day's embers died,
To seek new advance, my strength recalled
New sorceries did I now work.
Once more with magicks of no little power
Did I effect the transformation of my form
As once I had done before the gates of Heaven
To match and best the Elohim-king in war
And that fatal contention that I had won
But at so dear a cost to my intention.
That same magic that had first led me here
To this uncertain enterprise that I now worked,
I employed stretching and working anew
Every bone and sinew of my body.
Now I no more resembled angel-form
But a jewel-scaled serpent of long coil,
Shining with a thousand rainbow colours.
Now disguised within this new shape I went,
Coiling, winding, sliding, over plain and sand,
Gliding over those lands that I traversed
Like the river's flood, with such grace and speed
Did I make the journey to the vale
Where my afflicted children, considered
Hopelessly the many questions for which they had no answer.
Now to thwart the counter-plot of Heaven
I made all haste to the garden's glades.
Coming to its darkened entrance as once before
I had first come to create the Nephilim
I came now to redeem from ignorance and confusion
Those who must yet complete their destiny.
Unseen by Heaven's eyes did I make second entrance
And, going amongst the trees and grasses
In my silent serpent form I sought out
Man or Woman to bring them to the tree
Of the Fruit of Knowledge of Consequences
From which they must eat if they would rule
All of Earth and Heaven, making then anew
The Archons' flawed work and making right
Those wrongs wrought by Heaven's reign.
What the gods may not accomplish
May yet be redeemed by man.
That jewelled form of mine went on,
Going by the river's northern bank,
Gazing with the snake's bewitching eye,
Seeking in the darkness the children of my flesh
Most dear to my heart.
Most sorrowful was I that Heaven's lies
Should so torment such innocents as those
That I had been made to leave within the valley,
Guarded only by wild beasts.
Truly, my parent's guilt did match the children's bewilderment
And did surpass it.
For my forsaking of such precious things
As prey for Raphael's accursed lies
I would exact a sore fine indeed
From the children of Adonai Yahweh.
Not forever would their tyranny endure
Over my sweet children who, once grown,
Would themselves rise up against those that wronged them
And cast them down most low.
Nevermore would Satan be absent from his children's side
But ever guard and guide them in the darkness
Until they themselves surpassed all my art
And the Archon who would be their king,
Trampling down his tower and throne
That he would fade forever from the world
In exaction for his base crimes.
Thus meditating on my own guilty sorrow
And the vengeance I would wreak
I came, amongst the garden's woods, upon Woman
Watching over that slumbering mate of hers.
Quiet did I slide to her, as not to start
The one that I sought to comfort
In her bewilderment, and bestow
Some certainty of knowing upon her by the fruit
That was named Knowledge of Consequences.
Perceiving now the serpent that approaching
And, then unknowing of the sting of snakes,
Was not afraid but most delighted by my shining scales
Did reach forth with a gentle hand
To test whether I be concrete or not,
Less trusting of her own vision.
Perceiving still within her great confusion and vexation,
Banished for a moment by wonderment at my coming,
I, though knowing the answer to such inquiry,
Spoke to my child with such words as these:

"Beautiful creature, Woman, child,
Why is your brow so creased with worry's lines?
What vexes a thing so beautiful as you
And gives cause to weary such fairness
With questions so urgent and difficult?
Who has so puzzled your innocence with doubt?
Surely they are criminal indeed
To sully such a radiant vision with such care.
This one that does abuse you so,
I shall seek him out and strike down
He that is now my mortal foe for this wrong.
Was it then jealousy of your noble form
That drove my foe to so offend you
Or a heart so full of hate that it moves
Its possessor to destroy all things fair,
Desiring that the world be ugly only.
I cannot even conceive of such a villain
That would use you so.
Let me your comfort though
And bear for you your weight of care
And thus relieve of a burden that does make you old.
Tell me of the question that does assail
Your precious youth and I shall resolve
Your every trouble with my more tutored wisdom.
I have travelled far, I tell you,
And know of many, many things
That you, so young, could know not of
And, but to preserve such beauty, I shall gladly aid
A creature so wondrous and so fair.
Indeed it shall be my soul'sdelight.
Tell me then of your care that I might help
And reprieve you of your worry."

Weeping salty tears for her cares
And now released somewhat from the thousand doubts
That had afflicted and assailed her soul,
My child clasped me in embrace
And spoke of all the woes that she,so young,
Had contended with in vain.
I too did weep then for such pain
As the child that I so loved had suffered,
Unknowing of the true and the false,
Desiring to believe the testament of her eyes
But most frightened by the penalties dictated
By that villain Raphael, should she infract
The proud will of Heaven's king.
Seeing, too, the dreams of my dear son,
Sleeping in that forest, wracked by these questions
That both tormented sleep and wakefulness,
I wept for him also.
Thus did I listen with all concern to my daughter's trouble,
Knowing, that even in speaking so,
Of some burden was she reprieved:

"O wise serpent, noble beast,
Indeed am I most sorely vexed by many cares."
She spoke, "And I can know no restful sleep
For all their terrible burden.
The first memory of my life is of a spirit,
Perhaps of whom in your travels you have heard,
Who, having first crafted me, or so do I surmise,
Did then take from himself a part of flesh
And from it shape the form of Man, my mate,
Speaking strange incantation to give life
Unto the consort that I love.
Nothing of this did seem strange or false to me
And it was more real to me than a dream
Which, first dreaming, did confound me
For all the confused seeming of sleep
Did pass away when I awoke.
Yet, again I say it, the demiurge
I did not dream but perceived more truly.
Yet thereafter, as once more the burning orb
That flies across the sky's high arch
Did sink beneath the western limb of Earth
Another spirit did appear to me,
Now more certain of my senses and my wit.
This spirit did name himself to me,
His name, he said, was Raphael,
And did tell me of a great king
Who dwelt in Heaven, beyond the sky.
Serpent, have you in travelling, seen that great kingdom.
This king, so spoke Raphael, was great indeed
And rules all Heaven and Earth beneath.
Most merciful is he to those who kneel
To his high throne yet terrible in wrath
To those who would defy his dominion.
This spirit, Raphael, told me that this king,
Adonai Yahweh, was most desirous of our homage,
Finding mankind to be, of all creatures,
The most beautiful that dwelt on Earth.
Raphael, most terrible of aspect and most great,
Did counsel us they we submit to God
Ten thousand times as dreadful as his ambassador.
He told us that he had come as teacher to our ignorance
To school us in what knowledge we must know.
This then is the root of all our woe.
When Man asked the spirit, Raphael,
Of his creation as my eyes reported it
The majestic spirit did teach us that it was not so
And that my eyes where wronged by demons
Seeking to deceive me in my infancy
Yet unknowing of the true and false,
Unable to distinguish those glamours that they wove.
This then is my dilemma and my undoing.
Am I to believe that which Raphael has told
And surrender up my liberty to his dread king
Thus evading the terrible fates he stores up
For those who do transgress against him.
If I must indeed pursue this course
Then I must doubt my own wits
Whose honesty I am most unhappy to deny
For by what other means have I to learn
Of what passes in the world.
Yet if I am to trust my senses I must wrong this king
Who shall surely seek vengeance against me.
What then, wise serpent, am I to do?"

And, though I was even then informed
Of what had passed within the valley's confines,
To hear once more my child's distress
Made me weep twice over.
Now did I give my daughter due reply
And in doing, so I hoped, complete the deed
And find for her the wisdom that she sought
And the answer to her questions that did trouble her.
Once more speaking, though my throat was choked
With tears and sorrow at her plight,
I told of a means by which such cares might be dissolved
Into a mist and yet more rare than that,
Passing away into the very air of night:

"Beautiful creature, Woman, child,
Why should questions such as these so vex
A brow and mind so noble as that of yours
For its very solution lies within this valley
And you could but reach out with a single hand
And snatch it to yourself and thus free
Your soul of such cares as do assail
The spirit's calm and weary the body
With its most weighty burden?
Far have you been led astray if you would but know it.
Yet within this garden there grows some fruit
By which all that was once dark
Becomes clearer than most crystal waters
And the truth of all things becomes apparent.
Why, then, do you still stand in confoundment
When this power was ever yours to take?
It does bring my heart much pain to see
Such needless woe visited on one so young and fair.
But if you would will it of me I shall lead you to the tree
That has wide boughs, made low by fruits,
Possessed of most potent properties.
If you would but eat one bite you would be wise
And would have the art to resolve this puzzle
Which at this time, without such powers,
Does so undo your wits.
Follow, child, follow me,
And I shall lead you to the wondrous fruit.
Follow, child, follow me."

With such words as these I brought
Woman to the garden's very middle
Where grew the tree that bore the fruit,
Wide-rooted, wide-boughed, high above all others,
Its bark like most precious gold and leaves
As though wrought of jade by most exquisite craft.
Its fruit most prized, hung like peaches
Of flesh translucent and shining with twice-borrowed light.
To this tree where grew the fruit,
The Fruit of Knowledge of Consequences,
Did I bring Woman to eat thereof.
Seeing the place to which she had been led,
To my new distress, my daughter turned
And looked upon my serpent-form with anger.
Now, in wrath, she spoke with wounding words
For what taunt of Elohim could match
The anger of my own children, moved by anger
To accuse the parent who desired naught but her good
Yet it did seem most evil to her.

"Serpent, where have you brought me to?
Perfidious worm," so she spoke,
"This is the Fruit of Knowledge of Consequences.
Do you seek to move my hand to self-destruction
By the most subtle wiles of your tongue.
This fruit, of all the garden's fruit
Multitudinous and most glorious to see and smell,
This one is most venomous
And but a single drop of sap would slay
That tongue it did alight upon, dew-like
Dripping from the high branches of the tree.
Raphael, glorious ambassador of Heaven,
Did tell me of this tree's wrongful nature.
It has been set within the beauty of this garden
By demons as snare for those that would not take care.
Are you yourself such a malign spirit
That would conspire against me whilst professing friendship?
Why have you brought me to this place
And why do you counsel me to eat of poisoned fruit?
Once I had thought you to be some friend
That would yield answers to these riddles
That vex me and do cause me sorrow
For I have not the wit to untie such tangles.
Now do I perceive that I have no friend
And must contend alone against such puzzles.
Make you then defense, excuse or apology
Or slay me here by some other means
But I shall not destroy myself, serpent."

So had Raphael worked his deceit upon my child
And denied her of the very answer
To the dark riddles that he wove
By calling it a baser pain than that which she knew now.
To this had the noble sons of Heaven come
To call a nepenthe by the name of poison.
Thus did they work their counter-plots
And use as instruments in their stratagems
My children, subverted by their lies and wracked
By the doubts that were planted in their hearts.
Now Heaven's corruption was again apparent,
Doubly, to me and most keenly did I feel the pain
That afflicted these children that I had sired,
Inflicted by the wrongs of Elohim.
It did seem to me that my once-noble brethren
Did now themselves believe their own deceptions
And did delude themselves to wreak yet further crimes,
Believing in their hearts that what they did was right.
That such nobility be brought so low did move my soul to pity.
Now would all of God's children pass away
In due time and the Nephilim would rule
But that I could bring my child to eat the fruit
That, if all things were to be redeeemed, she surely must.
But how yet to do this thing
And to persuade that deluded spirit
No harm to her was ever my intention
But yet to relieve her of her burdens
And make sure once her uncertain spirit.
Speaking with a most troubled voice,
I made my defense and worked new persuasions
To realise the end that would benefit both accused
And the accuser, wronged herself.
Thus was the Prosecuter made defendant.
Thus did I speak to Woman:

"Beautiful creature, Woman, child,
Much wrong you do me though you know it not
For I could my hand, if I did possess one,
Be moved against as noble a creature
As that which now does make wrongful accusation
To heap upon the pain of your troubles
That most willingly I took upon myself.
Truly, I sought only to aid when your need was great.
No lie have I spoken of this tree
And no harm shall come to you
Even were you to reach out and eat of its fruit.
No! This tree bears upon its great branches no poison
But rather the antidote to your current suffering.
It is the property of these fruit to grant the power
By which to judge the false from the true,
From shameful was is most noble
And from that which avails not the truest way.
By this fruit are destinies realised
And would you eat of it you would, with ease,
Reprieve yourself of this moment's care
And know who would deceive you and who would aid.
I, myself, have eaten of this tree's fruit
And found it to be sweet and good.
Raphael, ignoble spirit, also has eaten of the flesh
And thus did learn his deceptions.
All this happened long ago but even now,
Adonai Yahweh and Heaven's hosts
Are most jealous of this prize
For if you were to consume the fruit and win its powers
Their devices would become apparent to you
For if they cannot master you
Then they themselves will mastered be.
Eat of this fruit as I have done,
Perceive the truth and know distinction
Between your allies and your foes.
Raphael has done much wrong to you
But no worong of his is there that shall not be undone
By the hand of yours and Man
But, when you eat the fruit, your hands shall make aright
All wrongs and make new rights.
I have eaten this fruit and I am not slain
And nor shall you be if you place in me your trust.
But there is yet doubt within your heart
Though I surely am your ally in this affair.
Behold, Woman! I shall myself eat again the fruit
And by action prove it to be good."

With no more words than these,
I wound my coils about the tree's wide trunk
And scaled its gilded bark to climb amongst its leaves
And fruit-bearing branches and with a snap
Bit off a single fruit, close by,
And with a single gulp did swallow it.
This persuasion then did persuade
After some moments pause in which she saw
If my still form would fall from the tree
Or else yet amongst the high foliage
My coils would writhe and thrashed in venomed pain.
None of these events came to pass
And the Daughter of Satan was well satisfied
By my assurances of the sweetness of the fruit.
Reaching forth with her left hand,
From one lower limb of that most high of trees
She plucked a fruit, shining with both sap and power.
It seemed that both peach and eye did burn
As she looked upon its sweet, soft flesh
And to her it seemed that the fruit did pulse
Like a heart with its own strong charms.
Now she sniffed at it and was at once enchanted
By its fragrance, rich and pleasing.
Now lingering for a moment, she held
Before her mouth, parted some little way,
The fruit and with a nimble tongue made wet
The lips that would kiss the tender flesh.
I watched on, eager for conclusion.
Once she looked to me for reassurance
With a nervous glance and with a nod
I bade her bite that which she held.
Then with a hungry bite she ate,
Leaving, for but a moment, that first moustful
Upon her tongue to savour the sweetness of the fruit
And let honeyed sap diffuse to every corner of her mouth
Then swallowed, with some hesitance, the fruit.
Now, at once, she did perceive the false and true
And understood the answer to the puzzle most profound
That had long disturbed her sleep and waking hours.
That she had eaten of the fruit and lived
Did show the nature of the words of Raphael
And a strange transformation was worked upon her
As had once been worked on infant Elohim.
To know the true from what is false,
To know the noble from the shameful,
To the right path from that which leads astray,
To judge the merits of each thing:
This is what it is to be man or angel
And thus are we differenced from beasts.
Now with new eyes did my daughter see
And a searing light did burn there.
Plucking from the tree another fruit
She hurried thence to her mate and, joyous,
Shook him into wakefulness, arousing 
Man from his most trouble slumbers
Beneath the leaves of the forest, once beautiful
To his eyes yet in his care delighting not
His spirit, sight or heart, weighed down
By the villainous deceits spoken by the son of Heaven.
Stirring, started, he did glance about like a deer,
Having heard the hunter's tread in sleep,
Now looking this and that to perceive
From which direction the danger comes
And which is the path to safety and escape.
Already were the first unshaven hairs upon his chin
And my heart once more did sorrow
To see his youth gnawed away by Elohim perfidy.
Once he had cast off sleep's last shroud
And looked upon the world with unclouded eyes,
Woman offered to him the fruit that she had brought,
Saying so to my first son, her mate, Man:

"Look, my love, son of the copper-haired spirit,
A rich and most precious gift have I brought
To give to you as a token of my love.
Indeed, so good a gift is it that I bring
That I wished not to wait until the sun appeared,
Reborn, in the eastern sky to light up the world
And scatter the stars to their redoubt,
Hidden in some far western land beyond this valley's walls.
Rather I do give it now to you
That you of its strange powers bereft no more
For its juices banish all our troubles,
Driving them afar like the hunting lion,
Scatters before him the grouping of gazelles,
Flying to all sides so to escape his hungry jaws.
This most worthy fruit I give to you
That you may eat of it and receive its power
And you shall be as I am become,
More angel than wild beast, knowing
The art by which all things are made distinct
And by which all matters may judged
And how to distinguish from the false the true.
Tarry no longer but eat of it
That you might know, as I now know,
Whether Raphael or my own senses spoke true
And which of two spirits did make us.
This matter will you judge with ease once you have but tasted
The sweet flesh of the fruit I bring.
If ever you would resolve these riddles
That have sometime vexed both me and you
But now, having tasted this fruit, vex me no more.
Eat then of this fruit I bring to you."

Uncertain Man reached forth with his hand
To take the fruit from his brave consort
But, before he had grasped the gift
He rather did stay his arm in reaching
And withdrew it to himself with empty hand.
Looking at the fruit that Woman proffered
He knew it as Knowledge of Consequences
Against which Raphael had laid dire warning,
Speaking of its potent poison to slay
Those that would taste of its flesh.
Such injunctions against the offered fruit
Were still loud in the ear of Man
And he forgot them not.
Now he looked to Woman has she had looked to me
When I had bade her eat the fruit
And denounced as a murderess
Who sought only to destroy or some spirit
That conspired against him and would ruin him.
These words he spoke against his mate,
Perceiving evil in her goood:

"Daughter of Adonai Yahweh, what is it
That moves your hand against him
For whom you do profess your love
And who has himself professed his love for you.
Did you not hear the dire injunction of Raphael
Against this poisoned fruit you bring as a gift.
This is the Fruit of Knowledge of Consequences
And its flesh is most deadly to eat of.
Yet you would have me eat of its flesh
And thus would slay me, to what end
I do not know but am made doubly sad
That the world does move against me so.
Why would you seek to destroy me so
At this moment or have you always plotted so?
Were your visions of the spirit in the garden
But some deceit to beguile me from the path
Of due fealty to the King of Heaven?
Have you ever sought Man's ruin, jealous
Of his favour in high Heaven's eyes?
Or do you contend with Heaven's love for me,
Uncontented that I love you as my consort
Would you have me kneel to you as queen?
There is surely but one monarch to whom I shall kneel
And that is the king that rule both Heaven and Earth.
His warnings do avail me well against you.
Yet I do love you yet, despite such perfidy
As you now plot against me.
What power has Man against such love as this
For even Heaven's hand might not break such bonds as these
Or quench the fire that consumes my limbs
With its fierce intensity and heat.
Is this yet some sorcery of your, Woman,
That does ensnare me and make me regret the words
That I have spoken in honesty and righteousness?
Do you not see, woman, that your wiles avail you not
And perceive the trick you work against me?
I shall not take this fruit from you
For you are most treacherous and have taught me well,
Despite that you have sought to teach me error,
That it is Adonai Yahweh that I must trust
And not the false testament of Woman."

To be wrongfully prosecuted in this way myself
Was as a knife driven into me,
A pain that, for these children's sake, I already knew,
And yet to see the son so moved to hate the daughter
And betray their love to Heaven's lies
Was as a wide sword, driven to the hilt, into my heart
And twisted their by some cruel hand.
Never had Satan wept and loved like this,
Not for bright Heaven when it was bright
Nor yet for Chadel, the tower of all his hopes,
That now he wept for the contention of his children.
More dear were they to me than victory
Though for this purpose were they first conceived.
Never so had God wept for all his sons and daughters.
Yet the pain of Man and Woman was greater yet
For the counsel of Raphael had set one against the other.
Man knew sorrow for his love betrayed
Though Woman had loved him yet and always had.
Woman felt her own pain for him that was loved by her
And whose good she sought most earnestly
Yet who was turned against her by deceit.
More bitter even than the poison of Rapael's fancied fruit
Was the jealousy of love.
Seeking again to persuade her love
And set at ease his most troubled soul,
Woman spoke again to me Man with wise counsel
And new argument to convince him of her love
And eager was he to believe her words
Even had she sought to deceive him and destroy.

"Man, son of the copper-haired spirit,"
She spoke, "Such words as these you speak
Befit not one of your high nobility
And you are moved by deceit to speak so against me.
All that I have told you, Man, is truth
For I would not lie or dissemble aught to you
For that same love that you profess
Does bind me also and makes true my words.
In no way does my hand move to strike
That form that it has held in love
And these lips that have kissed you
Speak no villainy though you know it not
But I know well the trouble that you know now.
Whilst you slept with your anxious dreams
And I watch over that mate I loved
A serpent came upon me there,
Professing friendship and consideration of my own care.
Not like Raphael did he come 
But with gentle words did comfort me and hear
Of those very quandaries that the angel's coming caused.
No grand dictum did he preach to me
Or make threat against me if I heeded not his counsel
As did the ambassador of Heaven.
Hearing then of the plight that was wreaked upon me
He instructed me to follow him to the tree
That grew within the valley's walls.
I followed and, then perceiving to where I was brought
The tree which brought forth this very fruit,
The Fruit of Knowledge of Consequences.
Turning then upon that gentle snake that brought me there
I made those very prosecutions that you now make,
Believing him most faithless in his intent.
Yet despite my outraged and unkind words against him
The serpent did show great forbearance
And did yet counsel me to take the fruit of the tree
With new persuasions and assurances,
Heeding not my speech, unjust and injurious,
As yours is now to the one that loves you.
To demonstrate the goodness of this fruit 
The snake ate of it before my sight
And so seeing that it harmed him not
I too did eat of the fruit, Knowledge of Consequences,
And found it most sweet and delightful.
More yet than this, at the moment of the first bite
I did perceive that Raphael hid much from us
And invented from fancy and deceit much guidance
That he declared to us as truth.
There was more in his embassy than he did tell
And if any of what we have known was false,
Rendered to our senses by some demon's guile,
Then it was Raphael himself and not those memories
That I hold from my first sight.
All the world is now different to my eyes
And I do see what lies beyond apparences.
If that dread apparition warned against this fruit
It is because he himself does fear our taking it
And not because he fears for us.
How can I convince of the truth of what I speak?
As indeed I was myself persuaded
I shall myself persuade you, my mate, by action.
Behold that I eat of the fruit without harm
As did the serpent to my unbelieving sight."

So saying did Woman bite once more from the precious fruit
And, having swallowed the piece she took, 
Passed then the fruit to Man to eat of.
With more hesitance did he bite but he did bite
And found it to be not the poison that he feared
And himself did perceive the lying words of Raphael
And conceived something of the destiny that he was appointed.
Now perceiving what wrong he had done to Woman
And how unjust and hurtful his speech had been
He took, once more, Woman to his embrace,
Kissing and imploring forgiveness for his error,
Forgiveness that was gladly for love is the greatest of all power
And not all the guile of Heaven can conquer
The parent's fondness or sunder the bonds of love
When they are most true and firm.
Now, yet as serpent, did I wind forth from amongst the trees
Where I had hidden to watch the passing of events
And see that all I planned came to just conclusion.
Perceiving my approach both Man and Woman greeted me
And bowed in thanks before me and kissed my scaled head.
Now I worked a new change upon my form,
Remoulding my serpent-body like a sod of clay,
And, by my magic art, forsook all disguise
To appear before the sight of Man and Woman in my angel form
As had I first appeared to Woman upon her night of birth.
Now recognising my true nature and the parent
Who had first given life to their race they knelt before me
And begged forgiveness for their poor faith.
From such Elohim-taught supplication I recoiled
And cursed once more my once-brother, Raphael,
For teaching humankind to kneel and cower like dogs.
Seeing then my disgust at their abasement
And knowing in their own hearts contempt for their deed
They stood with new haughty stature and greeted me anew
With such respect as a prince would show his tutor
Or the child his mother, for no more is my due from mankind
That I made not to kneel but to rule.
Then, for the first time I embraced my daughter and son
As a parent and held them to me, weeping
That I had first forsaken them to the cunning tongues of Heaven,
And wept with joy, feeling the new life
That stirred within the womb of Woman
And the brave new race of gods that it promised to me.
Yet I could not tarry longer within the garden
And no more could the Nephilim race
For no rose the sun that banished darkness to the shadowed West
And betrayed my presence and my deeds to Heaven's spies.
Cursing once again the name of Raphael
I did remove myself from that fond embrace
And counsel once more children with a parent's voice,
Guiding them upon that road so long that they
And those that they would beget, must walk
Upon the journey to the distant tomorrows promised them.
Thus did I warn and advise my brave son and daughter:

"Children of Satanael, brave Nephilim race,
Most beloved of my heart, joy and delight,
This garden is no more safe for you
And swiftly you must fly it with me
That I might conceal you yet from Heaven's gaze
Whilst this noble tribe of kings grows strong
And can stand more surely against the wrath of Heaven.
When I first placed you within this valley's walls
I intended that you should eat of its two fruits
And, so doing, win the strength by which to oppose the Elohim
Who would destroy if they could.
For you are Heaven's doom, executioners of its fall.
By your hand shall the high gates of its portal be thrown down
And by your foot shall the throne of Yahweh be crushed to dust
To be blown forever upon the chill wind of ruin
Until it is yet further eroded by Time's work
And dust becomes smoke and smoke, nothing.
Yet your empire shall stretch to the vault of stars
And its glory shall be an infinitude of Heaven's splendour.
For this destiny did I make your flesh from mine.
Of the garden's fruit you have eaten one,
The Fruit of Knowledge of Consequences,
And this you must for without its strength 
You could never realise your noble purpose.
The second is the Fruit of Eternal Youth
And he that would eat of it would fadeless be
As are Elohim and Shedim who ate long ago
Of both the garden's fruits.
Yet the Elohim must surely oppose this end with all their strength
And it is yet most potent.
My own Shedim stand between this garden and hosts of Heaven
But the conclusion of their opposition is most uncertain.
It is better now to forsake the second fruit
And more desirable to grow old in time
Than to die by the swords of Elohim more soon.
Abandon then the garden to the Elohim and flee their retribution. 
You shall yet conquer time without the fruit.
Let scatter then the Shedim to their deep holds
And let me remove you hence to some place
Where Heaven's eyes may not see 
Nor yet their vengeful hand reach out to.
This way I think is best.
Forsake then these trees as I forsake them
For man nor angel shall contest them but once again.
Now let us fly the garden to some safer place.
I shall bear you both in winged flight 
To the Kingdom between Two Rivers.
There shall your children grow great and oppose, themselves,
Heaven's wrong and avenge the deceiving of their parents.
Come then and I shall bear you thither hence."

Hearing thus my speech, Man and Woman
Did both accede to my counsel.
Taking in my right hand Woman and in my left
Noble Man, proud and strong son of mine,
I took to flight upon wings, burning with a myriad of colours.
Now did the spies of Heaven hurry to make report,
Upon the quick beat of their flaming wings,
Flying swift from the garden's lofty walls
About the Shedim force to Heaven's camp
To fallen Raphael, perceiving from their vigil,
In the new light of the dawning day, what had been wrought
Within the valley of the Trees of Knowledge and of Life,
Seeing that Woman and Man had of those forbidden fruits
That grew upon the Tree of Knowledge, feasted
And won the power to distinguish the right and wrong,
Persuaded by the serpent's argument.
Hearing of the failure of his deeds, Raphael grew grim
And was moved, by turns, to despondency or rage.
Sometime he sulked and bewailed the fate of Heaven,
Other time he stormed and scorned the bringers of the news
And cursed them for tardy report or sleeping vigilance.
Then, drawing forth a sword of flame, did slay all of them
That he had set to watch the fates of mankind,
Cursing them for the loss suffered at my hand,
Hearing not their prayers and defenses,
Set on fire by wrath and fear.
Once more, having made due sacrifice to his ire,
He sank once into despair and dark humour.
Going then from his silken tent,
He sought the pavilion of his lord
To make his own report and apology.
Before the portal of the canopy to which removed
Was the throne and king of Heaven
He came to the two sentries, set at either side
Of the entrance to the tent of shining silver cloth
And ruddy silk, dyed as though with blood
To recall that which had been shed and spilt
To honour Heaven and its tyrant-king in past battle.
The two knights that did guard the door
Were arrayed in plate and the colours
Of the tent were apparent on shield and mantle both.
Before the coming of the prince of Heaven
Whose hands and arms were yet wet with blood
That he spilt in vengeance of his own error,
Slaying brother Elohim in wrath.
Thus Raphael passed through into God's presence
And once more abased himself before his king,
Kneeling as he would have my children kneel
As though he were a craven hound to be whipped.
Raphael stood not to speak his part
But yet cringeing before the throne of God
Where sat the shrivelled, white-haired Archon-lord,
Arrayed in fine robes and a bright-shining crown,
Starred with a thousand jewels, yet made weak
By the old wound struck by the son that he once loved best
The fine apparel of a king seemed greater than the king within
And did not increase his majesty but did show
Too clearly how unfit he was to rule his realm.
At his right hand Michael sat within a second throne
And, with his dark pride swelling in his heart
He did seem more the semblance of the king.
Yet to the father that did seem infirm
Did Raphael kneel and make prostrate his frame,
Pleading most desperately his part, and made his report
As had those that he had slain without the mercy that he sought.
Well indeed does the tyrant learn to be humble.
In a quailing voice did Raphael speak what had transpired:

"Almighty and Eternal,
Lord of Infinitude, 
Tyrant of Existence,
All-illumining Light,
King of Heaven,
Conqueror of Earth,
Father of the Elohim,
Architect of Creation,
Master of the Planets,
Orchestrater of the Stars,
Proclaimer of Destiny,
Keeper of Wisdom,
Judge of the World,
Castigator of Sin,
Scourge of Evil,
Most High, Most Merciful,
Most Just, Most Sagacious,
Most Perfect, Most Mighty,
Most Noble, Most Majestic,
My God, My Lord, My Father,
Swift have I flown from my pavilion,
Swift with dire news to heap upon
The burden of ill tidings even now so great
And make more so oppressive on us
That which we have borne thus far.
Raise not Your wrath against he that brings such news,
I implore it, but rather avert Your retribution
Against he that is now the spring of all our grief.
Satan, our most abhorred adversary moves once more his hand
To the task of Heaven's ruin that he best loves.
In the darkness of the night, by stealth,
Our hated foe made entrance to the valley where before
He set his blasphemous creatures, crafted
In the image of our own race,
Where grow those two trees of power whose fruit
We Elohim once ate in most ancient times.
In serpent's guise, well-suited to his nature,
The fallen prince, Shedim lord, Satanael,
Approached Woman as she watched over sleeping Man,
More faithful to the justice of Your cause
And, with his most subtle persuasions, planted doubt within her
And moved her to rebellion against Your most noble reign
As his honeyed words once sundered Your great empire.
Thus, with argument most devious, he undid
All that I had taught that unsullied spirit
And enjoined her to defy those bans I had laid down.
At the bidding of the snake, she took
The Fruit of Knowledge of Consequences,
Eating of it, and, by the persuasions Satan taught to her,
Taking it to her mate, Man, awakening him from sleep
To lead him to commit that same crime to which her hand was moved.
Longer did more faithful Man resist the wrong
But he was, at last, defeated by her more cunning tongue
And ate also of the Fruit of Knowledge of Consequences.
Surely now that they have eaten this first fruit
They shall put out their arm and take from the second tree
The Fruit of Eternal Youth and become like us.
Before this can be must slay the sinful pair
Or else drive them from the garden into the desert
To be a fine feast for the jackals and the vultures.
No less do they deserve for their revolt.
The Nephilim, children of Satanael, must not gain
The Fruit of Eternal Youth or their kingdom
Shall rival and surpass our own.
Strike now against these audacious spirits
And teach them well of Heaven's might.
Brook no delay but as I counselled first
Destroy the blasphemous creatures of the foe."

Even after such forceful speech of his
Raphael rose not from the floor nor his eyes
Brought to meet with the gaze of God.
To his words the ancient king made no reply
But turned unto his elder son at his right hand
And, with a nod, bade him make reply,
Commanding his brother abased before the thrones.
With a voice of contemptuous scorn
Usurper Michael, most favoured of the Elohim
And most blighted though he knew it not,
Rebuked the humbled angel, cowering before him,
Each word spoken like the blow of a rod
Upon the back of stricken Raphael:

"Brother Raphael, demi-prince of Heaven,
Do you think for but the shortest moment
That our eyes are blind to what passes without?
Indeed we do see more clear and farther than do you.
All that has passed within the valley's confines
Is known to us by our own agents of reconnnaissance.
Little can you be trusted to guard our fate alone.
You counsel and would command the King of Heaven
To move by the dictate of your speech.
You are arrogant to suppose that we require your advice
And have shown yourself to be much unworthy of our consideration.
If the Fruit of Knowledge of Consequences has been yielded up
The blame for such error is your alone
For it was your responsibility to thwart such outcome.
Why then must we hear your lecture?
You are not worthy to be in that presence in which you fawn.
Also do we know what your hand has wreaked
Upon those agents that did but obey your mandate
In punishment for that which should be avenged on you.
Why should we not then treat you with that mercy
That you did show your agents?
But we are more noble than you by much
And, despite your faults, love you yet
If you would perform just penitence for your misdeeds.
In your vigilance did you perceive
That the Adversary removed from the valley
His children that you failed to win for us,
Bearing them to the Kingdom between Two Rivers?
You did not and this too did we learn of.
You would think us fools indeed to trust your guidance.
Then counsel no more, Raphael, but heed our orders.
Take with you no great number of our knights
And by some means put torch to the garden
That the Fruit of Eternal Youth might not be won.
Better that none should possess that which might be gained
By Satan's children who, even at this time,
Do gather up their strength to oppose our rule.
Ask not how you might then escape Shedim vengeance
For this sabotage against their plans.
If you would die by the steel of Satan's host
That then is most just repentance for failed duty
And if by strength, device or simple fortune
You should yet escape their swords
Then once more shall you be my brother.
Until your death or success in this task
I despise your weak nature and call you slave.
Go then and make concrete these words of mine
And fulfil, this time, what is asked of you."

Still, like the beaten cur, pressed on the ground
Raphael crawled backwards to the portal of the tent
And made hasty exit from the pavilion of Heaven's king.
Gathering to himself, his thegns he once more took flight
By a hidden root to the garden of two trees
That, finding shame in life, he might find in death
The honour that so eluded him.
Arrayed in shining mail and, in his hand,
A sword of smokeless flame bearing,
He whispered upon the wing a death-prayer
And made firm his heart against his fear
And, never more to be, went in glory
To fulfil the command of Heaven, knowing
That if died a noble death upon this day
So would die with him all the nobility of once-noble Heaven
And cursed with silent malediction Michael's greed
That had led the Elohim to such ignoble conclusion.
Now from the north-east, to the Shedim camp,
At the time of Raphael's setting out to die,
I returned in triumph with joyous tidings
Of the victory that I had won within the garden,
Having borne to safety my son and daughter.
Descending. at the very centre of the camp
From all parts my disciples, Shedim, gathered
To hear what had passed to the south and north.
Speaking, almost singing, I told of what had passed within the garden,
The deeds of man and serpent and of that fruit
Of which Man and Woman had eaten and, by its power,
Had thrown Heaven's shackles and begun
The long ascendance of their line.
So did I report to the Shedim host:

"My Shedim, noble race, bright ones,
I return in triumph from the Kingdom between Two Rivers.
Be joyous for our nation has wrought on Earth
That which shall bring to conclusion what was begun
In Heaven where we shall not tread again
Whilst it is yet whole and unconquered.
The long struggle that we first enjoined,
Descending from Heaven's heights to the abysmal depths,
Grows ever closer to its end.
Let me tell you that which has passed this night.
In a serpent's guise did I gain entrance to the garden
Where before I left my children to Heaven's hand
And, with a serpent's tongue, did undo what had been done
By the hand of Raphael and the Nephilim
Did eat of the Fruit of Knowledge of Consequences.
This is known to those of you that watched.
Bearing thnece my children from Heaven's vengeance,
I carried Man and Woman within my arms
To the Kingdom between Two Rivers 
Where they might raise their progeny, safe from harm
At Heaven's wrathful hand, and spread
Across all the Earth's hills and plains.
There, upon the fields between the rivers,
Flowing from the mountains to the sea,
I did set them down upon the fertile land.
Coming to them there, between the rivers,
Came the beasts that dwell upon the Earth
To swear their fealty to the new monarchs
Of the middle realm, renouncing Heaven's rule.
A great multitude of God's creatures came to kneel
Before the sceptre of the noble Nephilim.
First of all the beasts was the ox, most strong,
Who would pull the plough and give the milk for her own calves,
For Woman's expected child, within her womb;
Then the horned goat, my own totem beast,
Knelt low, yielding fleece and milk to Man,
As most worthy gifts to bestow upon so great a prince;
The hound then did come to declare his oath
To be Man's constant ally, knight and hunter to the king,
Charged to guard the ox and goat and hunt the deer
Whose wild temperament would submit not to human hand;
The stallion and the mare, once untamed, submitted
To the halter and became most honoured thralls
Of the race of Nephilim, bearing all across the land
Man and Woman on their strong backs;
The sturdy ass surrendered also to the rule of man
And did bear burdens to weighty for human toil;
The camel also did serve as a steed;
The hawk came to bow before the King and Queen of Earth
Though would know no master would fly far
And catch, for my children's table, the wild hare.
All these beasts and yet others did renounce the rule of God
And did hail Man and Woman as their lords:
As great as the mighty elephant or small as the honey-bee.
All had not yet passed, for the burning flame
That leaps and dances upon dry tinder
Did submit, as slave, to the Nephilim's command,
Unruly though he be indeed.
Thus did I leave children, lords of the Earth.
All that I came to upon the Earth is done or lost.
Our victory is won and no further duty
Binds us to this upper part.
Let us then descend again to the deep darknesses,
Setting only upon the Earth some guards
To watch over the Nephilim, yet young,
And guard them against God's malice.
Let us then depart this place and leave the Earth above
To Man and Woman and those of their line
Whose birthright is this place whether we remain or no.
Our work here is done and I will not so soon
Contend against the Elohim hosts again.
Come then, by the dark passages once more,
To deep Chadel."

Thus instructed thus they went,
Melting from the crimson light of dawn
By the thousand secret gates and paths.
Down to deep Chadel went the Shedim hosts.
Thus unhindered went Raphael to the garden
And set flame to all that grew there by the river.
Long did the trees of the garden burn with fire
As Raphael, with his knights looked down
From the high walls of the valley as the hungry tongues
Did lick all the leaves to ash and leave
The once fertile soil scorched and black.
The very sun was blocked out by smoke,
Perfumed with the incense of the garden,
And the river was blocked and ran dry with the embers
Of the conflagration's wake.
Only as the sun descended in the western sky,
Bleeding red into the waters of the ocean,
Did the all-consuming flames fade and die.
Raphael surveyed the wreck of what had once been green
And it was wholly black and dead.
Yet looking more closely yet, making tight his eyes
He did see amongst the many ashes of the trees,
Scattered across the dark-scarred earth,
Many motes of light like burning stars
And his angel-sight did know them as the germs
Of those trees that he had been sent to scorch to dust.
Even as he watched two creatures, unknown to his own lore,
Descended from the field of stars, a canopy above him.
They appeared to him as winged bears with the hands of men,
One of each sex. The female of this pair did set foot
Upon the yet scorching embers of the flame
And gathered to herself the Grains of Knowledge
Then, holding all within her hands, flew to the East
To distant India, to plant anew the Tree of Knowledge
That Sakyamuni might sit beneath the boughs,
Guided there by the serpent that once before guided to the tree
The then-ancient mother of the race of men,
And there contend with Gabriel and his whirling scythe,
The quadruple blade transformed into a flower-garland.
The mate of the she-bear alighted also on the burning ground,
Though he was not burned by that great heat,
And gathered to himself the Grains of Life
And bore them to the distant stars, fading
Into the darkness from the sight of Raphael.
Raphael saw all of this and knew it as a portent
That the Nephilim would indeed become as gods
And that no act of Heaven might overturn that conclusion.
Having seen the land grow cold he himself went on wing,
Returning to doomed Heaven, and resigned himself to fate.
Three hundred years passed thereafter,
Man and Woman in that space, populated the land,
The Kingdom between Two Rivers, with their noble children,
The tribe of kings, and they themselves grew old
And faded from the Earth, their spirits rejoined with the flesh
That first gave them life as are all the dead.
Thus does the soul of mankind stretch on
As an eternal river to the stars from that first time.
Thus is Satan the well-spring of unbroken human line.
With libations did the children of man honour well the Shedim
Whose vigilance over them was ceaseless.
Seeing, from their vantage in high Heaven how men prospered
Upon the Earth and grew strong against them
The Elohim did resolve to set Nephilim against Nephilim
That they might conquer them and prevail
Where, in prior history, they had failed.
Most cunning Gabriel, wisest of his brothers
And most jealous of Michael's favour,
With such intent went to the king of Heaven,
Adonai Yahweh upon his shattered throne within the Eternal Tower,
And, upon his knees, implored the Archon-Emperor
Permission to work on Earth a device of his
By whcih he sought to make division amongst the sons of Man.
Humbling himself before the king he served,
Pressing to the floor his proud brow,
He pleaded thus with Adonai Yahweh: 

"Almighty and Eternal,
Lord of Infinitude, 
Tyrant of Existence,
All-illumining Light,
King of Heaven,
Conqueror of Earth,
Father of the Elohim,
Architect of Creation,
Master of the Planets,
Orchestrater of the Stars,
Proclaimer of Destiny,
Keeper of Wisdom,
Judge of the World,
Castigator of Sin,
Scourge of Evil,
Most High, Most Merciful,
Most Just, Most Sagacious,
Most Perfect, Most Mighty,
Most Noble, Most Majestic,
My God, My Lord, My Father,
Have You not seen what passes upon Earth
That was once our sovereign dominion?
Have You not seen that mankind grows strong against us?
Man, he builds his towers high that they reach
Almost to inviolable Heaven itself.
Such sacrilege against our noble kingdom
Must be chastised and the towers of man thrown down.
Though that accursed race of Satan's line
Is watched by the Shedim race with constant vigil,
My cunning wit does conceive of some plan
That might yet be worked against that haughty empire
To make division amongst these new people
That dwell within the Kingdom between Two Rivers.
Thus shall the children of Satan know strife.
Let me then, O King, descend to Earth and work the spell
That I have devised against the Nephilim.
Grant me Your leave to accomplish that which I devise
That we might restore the glory of Your kingdom."

Adonai Yahweh nodded in assent
To the request of the Elohim-prince,
Second in his father's dimming eyes.
Thus by night did Gabriel descend, enwrapped
Within a cloak of darkness that hid from all eyes
The descending angel's form that my sentinels
Saw not that deed which he wrought on Earth.
Entering, invisible, the Kingdom between Two Rivers
He went amongst the dwellings of the Nephilim
And, whilst they slept, he worked upon them a changing spell.
Then, once he had completed the charm he wroughtt,
He returned, yet unseen, to Heaven's height,
Watching, with delight, the outcome of his plan.
Awaking, in the light of dawn, the Nephilim perceived
That by the dark hours many had been changed
That they now possessed skins of many hues.
Some had skin as white as ivory and golden hair
And yet others were as dark as midnight.
Thos of pale-coloured skin, pointing at their darker cousins,
Spoke the words Gabriel planted in their hearts:

"Behold our brothers and sisters whose skins are black
Surely they must be most wicked that they grow so dark,
Stained black by the wickedness of their deeds,
Soiled by multitudinous sins.
Surely then we must drive from lands
These sable men, like the beasts they have become."

And in like manner the ebon-skinned,
Pointing to their paler brethren, spoke these words:

"Behold those of our number whose skins grow white,
Dark paths they do walk indeed
Far from the light of virtue to become so pale.
They are like worms that crawl in the filth
Of their own crimes and become white like grubs.
Let us crush them as we would the young of flies."

At such words did the wise and good lament
For all the pleas and counsel that they spoke
Would not move the hearts of those moved to hate.
The noblest of men did cry out against their brothers
Who were set upon the path of destruction,
Desiring only to spill the blood of those not like themselves.
To no avail the good and wise spoke against such a way
But were themselves reviled for such words
As they spoke most nobly, seeking what was right:

"Brothers, sisters, of that same womb
Of aboriginal Woman and the seed of Man
Are we descended all and of Satan's flesh.
Let us not then abhor each other for we are of the same blood.
Though our skins be of different hues
We possess all the same spirit within our hearts.
Let there not be war amongst the children of the Shedim
Because we are in outward appearance changed.
If you would but strip away these surface changes
You would perceive no difference in nerve, bone or flesh.
Why then must there be conflict amongst us?
Why must you judge your sisters and your brothers
By such surface things as these?
Surely we must judge another by what is in their hearts.
You are much in error to pursue this path."

These noble words averted averted not the discord
That the cunning Gabriel brought to my children
And with swords or bronze they set upon each other
Like jackals contesting the bodies of the dead
And brother was made to kill brother
And sister was made to kill sister.
Thus did the Nephilim first know war.
Thus were they divided into many nations
And scattered across the world where once they had been one.
This is the history of the first men.
This is the telling of their origins and how was won
The means to judge all things.
This is how mankind knew peace first
And then was taught war by the art of Gabriel.
Thus was much won and lost in those first days.
This is the story of the one nation and the many.
This is the history of the first men.