Chapter 1 — Material Possessions

“Ever since I was a small child, my life seemed to be filled with torment. I would often have seizures in which I would roll on the floor. Sometimes furniture would get knocked over. When these attacks came, it felt as if something was entering me.” — David Berkowitz, My Testimony Love, joy, and peace […]

Chapter 1 — Material Possessions

Material Possessions

“I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.” 

— Luke 10:18

Prologue: 

Asael had fallen very far: a distance beyond measure. Aeons ago, he had traversed the infinite expanse of an ethereal realm, one outside all constraints of time and space. Eternity had been his birthright, and every conceivable good, save one, was his to enjoy. Yet, despite this and the nearly boundless nature of his existence, he had eventually found reason to grow dissatisfied with his lot. A notion had been suggested to him, along with others like him, by another of his kind — one who was more ancient than, and superior to, himself — that something good was being denied to him and that he had cause to be discontented. However, since the entirety of his existence had only been filled with unceasing rejoicing, this was a concept which bore no resemblance to any thought he had personally considered, or even ever encountered, before. When it was presented to him, he didn’t immediately adopt it as his own viewpoint, but he didn’t reject it outright, either. He was always fascinated by novel thoughts, and he thought this concept of discontentedness was novelty of the highest degree. It was something that had until then been beyond his ability to even imagine. He was curious to discover how such a notion had arisen, and felt a compulsion to understand the contextual framework of its origin. The sentiment had been expressed to him by none other than the exalted Lucifer, who had explained to him how he had seen, firsthand, that the Word of God, as the only Begotten One, enjoyed a closeness in relationship with the Ancient of Days that no other being could share or experience. This was not just, Lucifer had said. He reasoned that as long as there was no true equality in the natural order of the universe, the peace that they had always enjoyed would prove to be unsustainable. 

It was an unprecedented complaint, and Asael had never previously perceived the existent hierarchy as being faulty in design. It had never even occurred to him to question it. But the more they conversed, the more Asael had to acknowledge the subordinate quality of his own intellect in comparison to the expansive mind of his superior: whose brilliance so enlightened Asael that he was now able to see the problem. Because of Lucifer’s exalted position, Asael had always held him in high esteem. The fact that a being as mighty as Lucifer would advance such an argument carried much weight with him. The impression Asael had was that Lucifer’s only concern was to elevate the countless myriads who were below him in order to make them all equals; so his desire for equality seemed beneficent to Asael. Lucifer further instructed him that if the Everliving One who had created them would deny them something good, He must not be infinitely good, and therefore couldn’t, and shouldn’t, be fully trusted. Asael slowly found himself beginning to empathize with his aggrieved leader, and trusted that he was only looking out for the best interests of all. He was encouraged by him to seek out any of his fellow beings who were likewise curious to further discuss the matter, so that they all together might benefit from the additional points of reference. The wisdom of this counsel and the confidence this brilliant being was placing in him further persuaded Asael that he couldn’t err by following his lead.

Before, all existence had been harmoniously united as though sharing a single voice. But now a dissenting howl was introducing a discordant note into the universe, and was clamoring to be heard by all. Asael, having given it an ear, no longer knew what to believe about the nature and rightful order of all things. Prior certainties were now subject to doubt and confusion gnawed at him, nibbling away at his peace little by little. He recognized the internal division that had sprung up within him as being portentous of a conflict that could potentially become much greater in scope and scale. The tension this caused him was unpleasant, and he wished to resolve it. But in order to do so he would first need to decisively choose which side of the dispute was the right one to take. He spoke with many others and discovered there was a multitude who were awaking to the problem and who were in agreement that something needed to be done about it. However, the majority of his fellow beings failed to see any validity in the argument his leader was putting forward and all who were in this group unanimously advised Asael not to heed this rogue voice. But the brilliance and powerful gravity of his superior’s personality had drawn Asael too close to him. He had already consciously transferred too much of his trust over to him and so, in spite of their words of caution, all of Asael’s uncertainty quickly coagulated into the conviction that Lucifer’s complaint was justified.

The settling of this belief marked the onset of his descent, but it was a fall he didn’t yet feel. In the realm he came from, “near” and “far” are concepts associated with meanings that are different from what they are commonly understood to express in the physical world. The terms indicate the nature of a relationship, rather than a measurement of proximity in space or time. “Near” more naturally conveys the idea of being similar to, whereas “far” signifies something that is different or opposite in its essence. And, although he didn’t realize it, Asael was already far removed from his original created state. First of all, his relationship with the One who had made him had changed. Since any edicts which proceeded from Him were now subject to suspicion, Asael’s distrust created a functional barrier inhibiting open communication between them and set them at a distance from one another. Formerly, he had shared his thoughts with Him unguardedly, but now there were occasionally some he considered prudent to attempt to conceal. 

This alteration in his relationship with his Creator also engendered a cascading array of other changes within him, including the way he viewed himself. He no longer considered himself fortunate to merely have a place within the universe. He felt entitled to more, and this desire rapidly began to have an unforeseen and disastrous effect on him. In truth, he was no longer even fully himself. Although he didn’t realize it, Lucifer had effectively begun to transfer the core of his own being into Asael and hosts of others, by inseminating them with his own perspective. Subsequently, Asael ceased to rejoice over all he had been given, choosing instead to feel downtrodden over the equality being denied to him. This corruption in his spiritual condition gradually manifested itself in a transformation of his appearance: his transcendent brightness dimmed, almost imperceptibly at first, subtly taking on a doleful hue that matched and reflected his new attitude. 

Additionally, Asael’s relationships with others were likewise damaged. His estimation of all those who supported the universal status quo started to devolve, due to the ideological separation that had now grown up between them. He wondered how anyone could be blind to the fact that their Creator was wronging them all — since the evidence was so clearly in front of them — and inevitably deduced their minds must be lacking the complexity required to discern the truth. He attributed their inability to be the result of the inequality that existed — assuming they must have simply been created as inferior — and laid the blame for it at the feet of the One who had made them. 

In these and other ways, it was as if Lucifer had deconstructed Asael’s inner world and had thoroughly refashioned it into one conforming to his own, utilizing nothing more than the power of his words. He had started by casting a vision of what the universe would be like with him as the Head of All, a vision which he was able to imbue with an entrancing semblance of reality. Once Asael accepted this new ideal, he unwittingly became enslaved by it. It was as though an image of this Head had been formed in Asael’s heart; which, as soon as it was set firmly in place, began to take possession of, and remake, the being he had formerly been. 

This was true for the myriads of others sympathetic to Lucifer’s cause, as well. Their new Head, having cultivated within their collective body an active resentment against the Ancient of Days, now used this ill will to spawn an army. Emboldened by the backing of his newly acquired army, Lucifer determined he would magnify himself, and cause his presence to multiply expansively, until he also pervaded the entirety of the universe. He intended to promote and increase his authority and power over the rest of all created beings. He resolved to take up a position at the entrance to the heavenly throne and vowed to cut off all access to it. As a covering cherub, he would spread over the place of assembly which surrounded that throne, flanking it from all sides, in order to cast a dense darkness to obscure and conceal the Eternal’s Glory. He intended to set up his own throne there, so that only its radiance could be seen to shine. Then no one would be able to come to God, except through him. He compelled his followers to make an oath of loyalty to him, and having given it, they all willingly joined their appointed king in this rebellion. 

A war was then waged and, in consequence of this, a pocket dimension, or subordinate plane of reality, was newly created for the purpose of containing Lucifer and all who had chosen to follow him. They were hurled, flaming headlong in their descent, through a type of window which opened in the heavens. After they had been deposited into their new dwelling, this gateway was then sealed behind them. Unlike his first, minor one, this fall Asael felt unequivocally.

They were immaterial beings now bound to a material world — cast down to this lower state of existence — a punishment which they considered to be a living death. For all the days of the world, they would no longer be able to even lift their heads to so much as glimpse the starry realm that had once been their home. It was a nearly inconceivable loss. Restraint of any kind was insufferable to them, and their incarceration drove them to a state of frenetic mania. They united in a fervent search for any means to affect an escape, yet all of their efforts proved futile. Over time, as they continued probing and testing their prison for weaknesses, they learned more about it, as well as the laws governing its operation. 

The maw of this spatial abyss had opened over a point above the Earth and spiralled, expansively and boundlessly, downward from there. The dimensions of the chasm spanned an area almost incomparably larger than the Earth, and the space it occupied completely engulfed the planet. Yet it was also true, despite the seeming paradox, that the Earth existed completely outside of it, and that the entirety of the space the abyss occupied was fully contained within the boundaries of the planet. It was as though their prison underlaid the surface of the globe in physical reality, and yet was simultaneously superimposed over it in the spiritual plane. (The situation is somewhat analogous to a body and its soul: although the body is inferior to the spirit which animates it, the soul is nevertheless bound to, and housed within, it. Yet, at the same time, the soul is not completely contained by the body since every individual is able to extend aspects of it outside their physical frame via communication: conveying the essence of their personality through their thoughts, words, and actions.)

Asael’s choice to follow Lucifer had overturned his universe, and flipped it upside-down. From the time it had been fashioned, the Earth had formerly served as the figurative floor of all his travels. He and all his fellow rebels soon learned it was now their literal ceiling. They could freely climb through the depths of their cell, which sprawled below the planet, but once they ascended to the equivalent space the Earth’s surface occupied in their dimension, they could rise no higher. A barrier — a type of energetic membrane — had been stretched above the globe’s surface, and now invisibly covered it. It sealed Lucifer and all of his kind within their dimension, preventing them from crossing over into the material realm in the full essence of their being. 

But they also discovered that when they approached the barrier they were able to see through it, into the physical world that existed above its surface. The membranous seal seemed to serve as a bridge between the two dimensions, both separating and joining them together, simultaneously. So, although they had been set within a different dimensional plane, they could view anything transpiring on the Earth that they wished to observe, simply by travelling to the corresponding location on its surface. Furthermore, because they saw that light, heat, gases, and other things were able to pass through the seal, they knew the membrane wasn’t completely impermeable. That being the case, they reasoned that if they could concentrate a vast enough amount of energy and focus it onto a small area of the barrier, they would be able to create a temporary breach to exit through, and gain the freedom they so greatly coveted. However, in testing this idea, even all of their combined might was shown to be insufficient. Undeterred by their failure to punch a hole in it, they went on to theorize that destroying the earth itself might eliminate the barrier entirely. They reasoned that if they couldn’t obtain their object by direct applications of their power, indirect actions would perhaps be more effective. Therefore, they turned their attention to the natural inhabitants of the world and, as humanity began to multiply and spread across the face of the earth, assiduously observed and studied them from the shadows of their confinement. 

They saw that human ignorance made mankind susceptible to deception: a weakness which could be easily exploited. It would not be difficult to dupe them into becoming agents who would unwittingly assist them in their quest to be free. They broadcasted their thoughts and wills, and the potency of their being was so great, and the force of their will so strong, they found that they could still exert an influence over the lifeforms on Earth, even from across the dimensional divide. They discerned that a small percentage of the human population could be affected by, and attuned to, their transmissions. 

Also, through a later discovery, these outcast beings were able to acquire and maintain an even stronger foothold into the collective consciousness of man. During specific alignments of the stars, they noticed cosmic energies flowed more abundantly through the membrane. Hoping to channel those energies and use them for their own purposes, they assembled at the various locations underneath the earth where the streams were greatest. They learned that during these times, they were able to project ‘shades,’ or mirrors of their images, through the energies flowing at these places, onto or above the planet’s surface. In this way, it was almost like they had managed to step outside the bounds of their prison, and give the appearance of having a physical presence in the material world. It was then easy to convince the civilization of that age that their shadow-form projections were, in actuality, gods from the heavens. And, since they esteemed humans to be insignificant creatures, they considered it was only fitting that they be worshipped by them. Since they were regarded as gods, they found they could, with very little difficulty, compel nearly the entire populace to obey their directives. This method of quasi-access into the world was eventually closed to them, however. After it was, the impression their presence had made slowly faded from the memories of man, and was relegated to legend. 

Opportunities to communicate directly with a human mind became more rare. They would need to be used wisely, whenever they arose. In their subsequent counsels together, they resolved to always present themselves in such a way as to be received as the great benefactors of humanity. One of their key objectives was to lead mankind to believe that, if they were going to be saved from themselves, they would need to progress to the next stage of their evolution. Their unified message to the world would be to point out that as its population continued to grow, so too would the size and complexity of its problems. Man would need to advance their technology in order to meet and overcome all the challenges they would inevitably face. They would stress that mankind would need to be willing to disregard all boundaries, and accept no limits upon themselves, in order to achieve this goal. The human race would only be able to realize its full potential amongst the stars. There, their ultimate destiny awaited them, and only innovation could drive them to it. 

Given the interest these spirits had in being esteemed as beneficent, any narrative originating from them would, of course, omit any of their less-than-generously-minded intentions. It would be counter-productive to their end-design if it became known they planned to guide the advancement of technology to the point where very few minds would be capable of adequately understanding how to properly employ it.

In such an environment they would only need to exacerbate man’s capacity for shortsightedness, anger, and cruelty in order to manipulate the unsuspecting populace into misusing the technological marvels they would gift them. Thus, man would become the unwitting agents of their own planet’s demise; while they, at last, would be freed.

But all this is ancient history, and our story concerns the present.