First

Adapted 1993 by Magus Thomas Potter; from the Sheik.

Before our time began, there was neither nonexistence nor existence.
There was neither sky nor Heaven beyond,
nor Earth or Abered within.
 
What was the covering of it?
Where was it? In whose keeping was it?
Was there water in the unfathomed abyss?
Fire in the great heights?
 
Then, there was neither death nor immortality,
nor a terminator into the night,
for the Door of Day was shut.
Maabben, who came, was bound neither by time nor by space,
born in the spark of fire.

Desire descended upon all.
That desire became the primal seed — the spark of life.
Sages have searched with their hearts’ thought to discover the kinship between the existent and the nonexistent.
So! the first line is drawn and traversed, extended and severed.
What was above it at first? What was below it?
At first there were mighty forces, acting freely and in such passionate ecstasy that life was created. Who can know where it first came from, the gods?
They are later even than this.
So! As to the beginning of this creation, whether God formed it or not
— does the eye control this creation world from the highest heaven?
Truly She knows! Or perhaps He does not.