(AUTHOR'S NOTE: This may be a piece of crud that makes no sense at all, but that's because it's a test run for my 'final project' in my online writing course. We're supposed to write a 500-word piece about something, and out of all the ideas in my head, I can't decide exactly what to write. Here goes Idea #1.)
THE LAW OF OUROBOROS
“The snake eats its tail because of its sin. Four eternal principles lie within.”
“And the first two are?”
“Desire and consumption.” The son stared blankly at his father, fear hidden behind his glassy eyes.
“Yes. These are the Principles of Damnation. This is why the world is in its present state, with violence and lust intertwined. Addicts consume drugs first, but then the drugs consume them. Men want to consume money and get rich, but bit by bit, greed eats their souls alive. We feed upon animals and plants to slake our hunger, but slake theirs in return when we are in our graves. We want and we eat; that is our basic nature as human beings. Fortunately, the cure for our sin lies in the cause.”
“What?”
Mr. O restrained an urge to slap Martyn so hard across the face that one or more teeth would break.
“Understand this: The Principles of Salvation are the direct opposite of those of Damnation. What is sin, in its most basic form? Why were Adam and Eve condemned? One word.”
“Disobedience.”
“Exactly. They disregarded the will of the Lord and exercised their own. Obedience was the only way that they could return to God, and they could not. Only Christ upon the cross, wholly subservient, could do so.”
Martyn raised a twitching eyebrow. His understanding increased, as did his terror.
“When we obey someone, we surrender our volition to theirs, and thus kill our own desire. At first, the only thing we want is whatever that person wants, but with continued obedience, we two will become one. Our selfishness disappears. Isn’t this what salvation is? To be one with God, never to be separated again?”
A dry mouth speaks few words, but a closed mouth speaks none. He continued to stare, and tremble.
“Now: What of Consumption? Is it truly a sin? Should we not want to preserve our own lives?” Mr. O’s grin became a rictus, spreading across his face from ear to ear like a slit throat. “Even deities must eat.”
“Like the ambrosia that the gods on Mount Olympus drank?”
“Aye, but what of that? This brings us to the second Principle of Salvation: Sacrifice. You’ve been taught, right from the cradle, that you must give to God. No matter what, you must give more, and still more…”
“Until I have no more to give.” Martyn’s words came out a rasp.
“And thus the Ouroboros is complete. We have to stop nourishing ourselves, and nourish our Creator.”
Mr. O seized his son by the collar, hard.
“The goal of Life is Death. We must die in order to live - beyond the grave. Otherwise it’s Hell for us. Do you understand? To be saved in God is to feed His everlasting Body - with our own bodies and souls! Only when we are One with Him are we saved. This means that we, as selfish individuals, do not exist.”
“Because…we no longer have Selves!”
Sorta reminds me of Jacques Roux, a la the angriest priest in history.
Shameless Assassin's Creed reference.
But yeah, good read. Gave me the chills reading it, which I suppose is a good thing. :)
I've never played Assassin's Creed, so I don't "get" that reference, but thank you so much for reading it! :)
An extremely interesting dissertation, kid. One thing that ticks me off about the more fundamentalist faiths, is their insistence the 'everything you need to know is in the bible'. I've always wanted to get a copy, and when they spout that, hand it to them and say, 'show me where it teaches me to build a house, or a road, or how to cook a meal'.
And one thing I learned when with my first Ex-wife, the Jehovah's witness; the word translated in the KJV bible for servant, is actually 'slave'. So they teach as much 'slave of god' as does Islam.