The Verse:
Said Leda as she looked across the waters
Does God always come with beating wings?
The Vision:
I see him. He’s alone, on the strand, waiting for me.
I’ve never met him before and yet I know the blue fire of his eyes.
The wind blows a wisp of his hair across his forehead.
“I’ve been waiting all my life for you,” I say.
Commentary by Archbishop Co’oal Venesti:
The story of the first meeting of Her Eminence the 6th Matriarch with the emanation Ailann Tiarnan, the Living God of Skarsia, has been told before, most notably in the book from God’s own hand. However, His interpretation is both sacred and personal. It is perhaps instructive to take a wider view.
This prophecy took place when Her Eminence was on Volparnu and bore the title of Tenzina. She was twenty-one years of age. The prophecy was fulfilled upon her assumption of the Staff of the Matriarch, at age thirty-nine.
However, this meeting was prophesied long before, during the reign of Her Eminence the 5th Matriarch, by Elma, High Prophetess of the realm. The 5th Matriarch was well-aware of the special status of the girl known as the Marquesa of Dolparessa, and had taken great interest in her from childhood onwards. The story that the 5th Matriarch was hostile to her future successor is exaggerated. She was a canny woman, who approached all things with caution and foresight, and it was my pleasure to serve her and the first Archon for many years. Surely, she could not allow the child to go untried or untested. The truth is seen in the evidence – Tara del D’myn was battle-trained from a young age and the unprecedented step of sending her to Earth for education was taken. The 5th Matriarch knew that an understanding of the nau’gsh was to be essential in the coming of the new Aion.
It is said that so strong was the child’s Tara’s gift of sight that when Elma touched her brow, the vision was transmitted. At that moment, Tara saw the face of the being who would shape her destiny. That face would appear intermittently in dreams throughout her young life.
The full-blown vision prophesied the first meeting between Her Eminence the 6th Matriarch and His Holiness Ailann Tiarnan. However, Tara del D’myn had many prior meetings with the emanations of the Atlas Tree without realizing the truth behind their existence. The event of this vision is of supreme significance as it is the moment in which the Cu’enashti Ashtara achieved apotheosis, assuming the role of the Living God of Skarsia.
An important theological point must be stressed here: although only the 10th emanation of Atlas and the 3rd emanation of Goliath possess the ability to control the power grid, making life possible for vast sections of the Domha’vei, the Archonist Church considers the true form of God, very God of very God, to be Ashtara in His mothman form. The theological proof is to be found in the body of the second Archon, Aran. If Ashtara is capable of generating a second Archon from a second tree, then is He not capable of generating a third Archon from a third tree? Then is not the source and root of His Holiness to be found in the entity which lies beyond all emanations, beyond all trees?
It is well to consider the symbolism. In the ancient tradition known as Qabalah, the number five is a number of strife, six one of balance. Thus the 5th Matriarch’s reign was one of severity, the 6th’s of harmonizing all beings in the Domha’vei. In addition, that the 10th emanation of Atlas became Archon implies completion, the descent of the divine into a fully manifest form.
The symbol of the tree is also paramount. The allegorical importance of the Goliath Tree is called to our attention by its situation in Eden – a name bestowed by its creator, the 11th emanation of Ashtara, Davy. I shall not belabor the allusion to the story of David and Goliath, which has been expounded at length in many church publications. I would rather point out the less obvious allusion made to the World Tree Yggdrasil, a type of tree whose ancient name is still preserved in Galactic Standard, an ash tree. What a fortuitous coincidence that this is the very word meaning “love” in the old Skarsian tongue, a word incorporated into the name of every Cu’enashti nau’gsh! The message is clear: love and creation are one, and the entirety is represented by that most ancient of symbols, the tree.
But let it not be thought that the tree is a mere symbol. We of the Domha’vei know better than that. Or perhaps it could be said that the tree is a symbol, but the nau’gsh, the particular tree native to the Domha’vei is the root and branch of living truth. And also, as our God has promised, the destiny of our people as forerunners for a new and superior breed of humanity.
And so, it is fitting that this first prophecy is of that Holy Moment of Beginnings, the start of a new age extending beyond the stars.
Commentary by Elma, High Prophetess of Skarsia:
Venesti is such a pompous old turd!
The thing is, I can’t see the end of Ashtara. And that’s something. So I’m going to let the bet ride. You should too, if you’re smart.
Or maybe it’s like this: Tara is the wheel. Is Ashtara the ball, or is he the hand? Who knows?
Commentary by Archbishop Seth:
My esteemed colleagues have entirely missed the point. Neither Tara nor Ailann gave a loose leaf about the fate of the Matriarchy, the evolution of species, numerology, symbolism or theological proofs.
From the moment He broke through the seed coat, Ashtara’s only concern was Tara’s Destiny. All other seeming concerns are secondary, even illusory. If He has become God, it is because Tara required it. It is his ultimate and continuous act of n’aashet n’aaverti.
If I may be so bold: Tara and Ailann are in love. Was this love so strong to reach back thirty-three years from the moment of its inception, causing a child to fall in love with a dream of the future? Or was this childhood love a dream strong enough to impose its form upon the perfect n’aashet n’aaverti of Ashtara? Truly, it will never be known – and matters not one jot.