The Two Great Curses. We know them simply as "In the Beginning", and "The End". In fairy tales and folk lore, they are often styled as, "Once upon a time ...", and "... happily ever after". Don't let the flowery language confound you. Being is finite. So incredibly, incomprehensibly, inconceivably, FINITE. Finite means "It Finishes". And thus, hand in hand, The Beginning inevitably leads to The End. We come from nothing. We return to nothing.
Memento Mori.
Ex Nihilo Venimus.
Ad Nihilum Redimus.
Cum Humilitate
Et Gratiarum,
Carpe Diem.
Tempus Fugit.
Nehil Vereri.
Remember Death.
From nothing (we came).
To nothing (we return).
With Humility and Gratitude,
Sieze the day. Time flies.
Fear Nothing.
There are as many curses in literature as there have been, or will be, thoughts in the universe. Every idea carries with it a function of conflict. Our time is short, so I will only dwell on the few which make themselves immediately available to memory, but I warn you, my dear reader, that this short letter is little more than a warning of a near infinite heap of ruinous misfortune.
Additionally, as I have your immediate attention, I ought to further draw your attention to the fact that all words have power, in and of themselves, whether spoken, written, or given shape. One might even say that, "Words are Power". Words are thoughts given expression, and precedes thoughts given form, which is the act of creation. The ancient magical genius' were instructed that, "In the beginning was the WORD", and by that thought given expression, and that expression vibrated across the emptiness of the cosmos, from beginning to end, it was invested with life, existence, momentum, and by it endless reality was formed, shaped by vibration, given force.
Words spoken are vibrations which travel through the air as sound. Words written are vibrations which travel though the air as light. Words are truly magical, as they represent the ideas and experiences of one being, which may be transmitted and communicated to another being, immortalizing thoughts, shared from author to audience - educating, encouraging, entertaining, influencing, enlightening -- and equally -- obscuring, misleading, manipulating, and corrupting.
The universe was created with the utterance of that single word, and by it described all things which would follow then, now, and ever onward. The very name of existence, "Universe", means, "Combined into one", from UNUS meaning "One", and VERSUS meaning "turn, bend, fold, furrow, plow", all of which reveal and obfuscate the word's ancient origin WER, meaning "Against".
"Against", meaning to impose a force, to push, to move, or to apply pressure, and thereby, to change an existent state into that of a different state. This also suggests a conflict, a transitive state from "IS NOT" to "IS". "From Nothing" to "Something". (Whether this new state is an improvement or not upon the original is another matter altogether).
If we might imagine for a moment, that before existence itself was given form (the word GIVEN here is inaccurate, as it may only be GIVEN form by the act of perception. To be perceived is to exist. That which is not known is thereby unknown, or not known, formless and without shape, activity, or being.) it was itself formless, without meaning, context, shape, or form. Thus, before existence, there is non-existence, and in its greatest sense, nothingness. That which is without form. Without meaning. Words shape meaning. Words themselves are conception.
Perception feeds what is known, from what was thereto unknown. But what perceives? What experiences? What gives meaning? There must be an observer for nothingness or somethingness to be observed. That observer, the perceiver, senses that what "IT IS", differs from what "IT IS NOT". This division of known and unknown, is and is not, "I" and "Not I".
The first inclination of consciousness of one's own existence as separate from that which exists apart from oneself may be described as, "I AM". I am this. I am not that. They are apart. They are separate. They are not the same. In sensing otherness from selfness, "I" senses that "Not I" is often uncomfortable, generally disagreeable, and (rudely) beyond its control. This budding consciousness, aware only of itself and that which is apart from it, DESIRES something other than "What is". It wishes for control over the "Is-ness" which is outside of itself. It chooses to create change, in conformity with its own Will.
I may, in time, complete my thought.
For now, attempt to understand it.
As always, I am yours, In Light,
RLA