Lower than the Angels

Chapter 2, What Lies Beyond

Kore and Tengri were together in their little office. It had a window on the east side looking out over the waters of the San Juan Islands. The rest of the walls were lined with books. They sat in the easy chairs by the window where the light was good and they could pause to look out at the islands now and then.

Tengri had asked Kore to help him understand the tendency of people with a dominant Raven nature to avoid the secure life in dome communities which many people seemed to be happy with.

He said, "I share enough of the Raven nature to understand the personal need for time alone, the need to withdraw from community life on occasion. But I'm afraid I've never fully understood why some Ravens feel driven to avoid, and even denounce, dome life."

Kore said, "And I share enough of your Eagle nature to understand the attraction of dome communities for the natural city dwellers. But Ravens by nature tend to be private people, more inclined to go it alone than to join a group. If it weren't for you, I might have reverted to my rebellious Raven nature when we moved to this island."

"Tell me more about that 'rebellious Raven nature' you claim to have. Since I've known you, you've always been honestly sweet and considerate with others, endlessly helpful."

"You are right, and that is truly part of who I am. But you know there is another part of me, the part I shed when I shed my snakeskin. I can't forget that part, and I don't want to. I just can't let it define me the way it once did."

"Yes, I do know that about you. And it's that part I'm thinking we may both need to consult, if we want to understand what drives the Ravens."

"Tengri, it's always been your nature to want to understand everything. And you always strive for balance. You accept the ideal that all beings have value and purpose. For you, that is basic to your Eagle nature."

"Yes. And as the stories say, Eagle was created by Raven, to help Raven understand and deal with the chaos of nature. I understand Eagle well enough, but something about the Raven nature exceeds my grasp. I understand it when it comes, but I often fail to anticipate its coming."

"You're talking about emergence, aren't you. The way new possibilities arise in nature. And you think I can help you with that?"

"I know you can. Because your understanding of these things is deeper than mine. You are spontaneous in ways that I fear I could never be."

"Okay. Then where do you want me to start?"

"Aside from what the stories say, do you know why Raven created Eagle?"

"Sedna used to say it was because Raven himself is a creature of time. He does not always know what the outcome of events will be. His purpose was to watch time unravel. He was also a creature of chaos, the state of the world when time began."

Tengri looked like he was expecting more, so she continued.

"As Raven watched time unravel, he saw that there were many paths through the world. As a creature of chaos, his inclination was to explore as many of these paths as he could. But part of the nature of chaos is confusion, and Raven became a victim of it. Time and again."

"Yes," said Tengri. "That's familiar from many of the Raven stories. But how did that lead to Eagle?"

Kore was drawing on Sedna's lore. "To reduce this confusion Raven created many versions of himself, children of Raven, and set each one on a different path through chaos. He was able to visit any of these children at any time, and learn of their paths. This helped him control his confusion.

"He noticed that some children took very similar paths, and often he would invoke chaos to make their paths diverge, to reveal more differences. He soon discovered that many of the children whose paths had been made to diverge would find ways to again merge their paths with those of the children they had been separated from.

"It became a game for Raven to ensure his children all took different paths, by invoking chaos. At times he would even use chaos to make one child become two, with identical past paths but differing future ones."

"Ah, that already adds to what I had learned. But what about Eagle?"

"Raven knew that all things begin with spirit, but he didn't know what made his spirit children want to stay together. He created Eagle to help him understand this."

"So it was Eagle who saw that having a similar past gave the children tight links to each other," Tengri observed. "Raven had given his children memory. And these links, these shared memories, this sense of history, became the material universe."

Kore nodded at that. "It may be that Raven didn't even know there was a material universe. His children had acquired their material nature as they acquired links to others. To Raven, it was all a manifestation of spirit, nothing more."

Tengri said, "This is a thing that shamans have long understood. With the rise of civilization people learned to live together in larger and larger groups, sharing links to more and more others with similar memories. This was Eagle's doing. Gradually Eagle brought order to chaos by encouraging links to similar spirits, not discouraging it as Raven had. This had the stabilizing effect of creating shared histories."

Kore said, "Even shamans were affected. A shaman can share his spirit dream with a small community, and help them see their common dream reality. But shamans could not compete with the shared realities we call the physical universe."

Tengri said. "It's easy to be overwhelmed by the physical universe, because it became the essential nature for the spirits of every material particle from atoms on up to share the fact of their existence with their neighbors. This was Eagle's answer to Raven, his advice to Raven that the sharing was bringing order to the primitive chaos. Now we are taught to understand this sharing as governed by laws of the physical universe. But the sharing is really a spiritual act, a linking of inner, personal realities, personal histories, at every level of existence."

Kore nodded and said, "Because similar things are linked, adjacent in the Q. It's automatic."

Tengri nodded and said, "And now, with QAR, and from the new awareness of the Q that comes with it, many people are becoming more aware of the very personal spiritual nature of their own reality."

Kore said, "Ravens are those who have remained natively aware of their own personal spiritual nature, and suspicious of believing in realities learned about from others. Eagles are those who have learned to believe and accept realities shared by others, even realities never personally witnessed."

Tengri said, "And from my Eagle viewpoint, this is how nature evolved all living beings, and how humans evolved civilization. It's the ultimate triumph of Order over Chaos."

Kore said, "And to a Raven, that's not a triumph but a tragedy, a travesty of spiritual nature, because it has led to a belief among some Eagles that spirit is an illusion. While Raven remains certain that the material universe is the illusion."

"So once again," said Tengri, "it comes down to a matter of balance. Raven does not want utter Chaos. But does not want utter Order either. Because utter order would be the end of the universe. Game over. No more creating anything. What some scientists predict as the heat death of the universe, based on their belief in the Laws of Thermodynamics."

"Right," said Kore. "And that brings us back to Emergence, doesn't it. Emergence derives from spirit, and defies Thermodynamics."

"Of course! My Eagle nature favors the stability of Thermodynamics, and is always surprised by Emergence, which is driven by Ravens."