12 December 2025
Forty years ago, today, I finally had the courage to ask my then girlfriend to become my wife; it seems like it was only yesterday, as also feeling like forever. . . . Below is the first part of my world’s creation myth, which did become the prologue to the final book of The Redemption series, The Final Sacrifice. I started drafting it one night as I waited for an interview with my ecclesiastical leader, whom we call Bishop, as the person before me took longer than expected, leaving me a space to write. This myth also set up the second series, The Restoration, although I had no idea at the time.
29 April 2013
This week I would like to begin a retelling of my world’s creation myth, which will probably become the Prologue to the seventh book of The Redemption series; what follows is the first installment.
Of the Time Before Creation, Part 1
The following excerpt is from Lectures of the Headmasters, Shigmar Volume, and deals with the time before our world was formed, although its style suggests someone after Shigmar wrote it and added it to the work stated above. Others feel that it could have been written by Shigmar at a very early date, which would lend authenticity to this myth of creation. Regarding the source of this myth, we have no information; if it was written by Shigmar early in his tenure as Headmaster, he never shared the source with anyone, and no mention of it is found in any other writing of the Founders. However, Sedra Thalamar has claimed that he read something by Melbarth that included a reference to this work, but he was unable to find his source–another of the many records lost in the cataclysms of the Great Year.
We lived before creation in Great God’s presence, on the world called “The Great Globe,” a clear white sphere filled with light. We were the children of His thought and the light filling our first home. We gave utterance to the thoughts that were in us by singing without language, for there was no other language but music in the beginning. Each voice of our infinite number expressed the thoughts of Great God, given to each by our formation in His thoughts and the light of our Mother. Some voices soared high, flying in the expanse of the Void surrounding our first home, carrying light to sparkle in the empty heavens. Others were soft, soothing voices, flowing around our first home, weaving light with the smooth flows of their voices. These offspring of Great God’s thought became by choice female, voices of air and water. Still other voices sank deep into the globe of our first home, rumbling through the depths, shaking the surface beneath our feet. These offspring of Great God’s thought became by choice male, voices of earth. The rumbling of our first home altered the flows of air in the heavens, causing winds to blow, and where the voices of air and water combined, water was lifted by air and fell back upon the shuddering globe as rain that formed streams and rivers flowing across the face of our first home, gathering and returning to the seas from which it has been lifted. And Great God smiled.
Our voices increased in volume, sending the light higher, water rising and falling more quickly, the ground beneath our feet shaking more vigorously, surface of the sea troubled, waves rising higher, winds more furious, whipping more water higher in the air, creating music all its own. The vigorous rumblings of the earth voices raised mountains and sank valleys in the surface of our globe, both formed of clear, light-filled crystal, mountains that interrupted the flows of air and water, valleys collected more of the flowing water, creating great lakes and wide rivers, and in the heavens, more stars and planets shone bright against the Void. Great God smiled again and raised his hands for silence. Our voices ceased but the music and motion we had caused upon our globe continued for a time, and for a time we watched, filled with awe at what our voices had created. An age passed while we sang; an age passed while we watched the awful consequences of our singing, but our mother globe and father light were perfect, returning to their prior perfection: stars fell, water flowed back into light, the surface of the globe smoothed and returned to her perfect shape, the Void again empty, and silence returned. For another age we pondered in silence what our voices had wrought, and Great God smiled, knowing all our thoughts and our awestruck wonder at what we had witnessed.
When the age of silent meditation passed, Great God spoke in the silence. “A good start, my children; you have learned the power of your voices: what might you achieve if you combined your voices?”
New thought and new wonder filled our minds, and we mingled with each other, finding those whose new thoughts were similar. But there were some who were not filled with wonder at our creations; instead, they were filled with pride at what they had accomplished, each believing theat he, himself, or she, herself, had wrought the beauty alone. These refused to collaborate with us, thinking to find the secret power that must lie behind the beauty. The males of this group, led by one called Elker, dove into our globe, seeking the source of its power. The females, led by one called Guengle, were fascinated by the Void, soaring into its emptiness to discover its secrets. And Great God saw them both, all their thoughts, all the pride that filled them, laid bare to His keen sight, and Great God frowned. We did not see them leave, nor did we see Great God frowned, only the foremost among us, one called Elos, saw them leave and saw Great God frown.
Elker and his followers descended into the heart of our globe, and the light grew brighter and hotter. They were all singed by the heat, a thing none of us had known until they dared to descend. The heat grew, burning them black, changing their appearance forever. The weakest fell away first, unable to endure the heat, and the deeper the strongest went, the darker they became, their forms melting, becoming part of the fires that burned at the heart of our globe. Only Elker reached the center, and the agony of his burning never left him, but the ecstasy of his discovery–the living fire–filled him with pride and desire. He returned and gathered his followers, berating them for their weakness, showing them his secret, instructing them to dissemble themselves before us and Great God, waiting for the right moment to act. Some were shamed by his words, shamed by their rebellion against our Father and Mother. They left Elker’s company, some of them repenting and begging forgiveness of Great God, which He freely granted, while a few of them ascended into the Void, allowing themselves to be frozen, shattering and becoming part of the Void, the first of Great God’s children to cease to exist. And a red tear fell from Great God’s left eye, boiling away before rolling down His cheek.
Elker and his followers re-clothed themselves in light and returned to our company. But they looked, to our eyes, not as bright as before, the light subdued by the blackness of their hearts and minds.
At the same time, Guengle and her followers ascended into the Void, also seeking secret power and knowledge. They were assailed by emptiness and cold, a cold fire that burned, an emptiness that consumed. Color drained from them, and they turned empty white, and the further they traveled into the Void, the emptier and whiter they became, and like the males who rebelled, the weakest stopped first, the strongest continued, and only Guengle reached the heart of the Void and returned, heart and mind forever frozen, empty of all warmth and feeling, but filled with pride and desire. They too, disembled themselves before us and Great God, hiding their secret and saving it for a better moment. Some were shamed by her words and their rebellion against our Father and Mother, and they, too, left Guengle’s company, some of them repenting and begging forgiveness of Great God, which He freely granted, while a few of them ascended into the Void, allowing themselves to be unmade. And a blue tear fell from Great God’s right eye, freezing and shattering before it rolled down his cheek.
Guengle and her followers re-clothed themselves in light and returned to our company. But they looked not as bright to our eyes as before, the light paled by the white emptiness of their hearts and minds.
Tune in next time for part 2. . . .
Clyde B. Northrup 
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