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Chapter 1

Chapter I

        There was darkness upon the deep, or so the story begins. But how did Jehovah act in darkness? How did he mold each creature to set upon the chessboard that was the newly born world below Him? It could explain a few things, like the platypus or the wildebeest, if he had stumbled about blindly, but to my way of thinking, I doubt he was in the dark for all that long. God is a storyteller, but much like your doddering old toothless auntie, he also rambles and repeats himself; take it from someone who has sat at his feet. Some of what you read in the good book is truth, some of it mere metaphor and some of it, well, total fallacy. I wont make any friends suggesting this, but given my position in the divine hierarchy, most, if they listen at all, will think me lying...again. The darkness upon the deep was before my time by some millennium, yet I feel I was there, formed of the very same ether that made up the antediluvian shadow that floated on the deep. I do know, that God was lonely. Sure there were other Gods and Goddesses out there, other divine beings he might have sought for companionship, but Father, being how he was and is, wanted no truck with beings that could be mightier than him; hell he didn’t even really want an equal, just someone to be there, in the darkness, with him.

        Did you know God had a wife? It was written early on it a book of the Bible that has since been destroyed, sadly. Her name was Asherah, and God pulled her from his own body, thus assuring two things; that he would always be a part of her, and that her very life was reliant upon his own. I never met the creature, yet I have heard she was lovely, and that her voice lit the void in a way that His never had. Rumor has it that it was her idea to create life upon the dark globe beneath them (which makes sense as everything that gives birth on the Earth is female). For a time, apparently, they were happy as only two Gods can be, creating life in their love to burst forth upon the Earth. But, as ages passed, Asherah saw that Yahweh became more and more obsessed with their little project, and as his fixation grew, her interest lessened. Eventually God created humanity; Adam and Lilith. Yes, you read that right, Lilith. It seemed that Asherah had a hand in their creation, for Lilith was created separate but equal from Adam. This became a problem rather quickly, because Adam, being forged in Gods image and ego, demanded that Lilith become a virtual slave to his sexual avarice. For a time Lilith bowed to Adams hand, but harbored inside, a great and growing hatred. Eventually the coals of this hatred were fanned to a conflagration when Lilith gave birth to her first child; a girl. Adam was incensed, demanding that she produce a son, like him, not a mewling, disobedient girl like this wife. So angry was Adam that he grabbed the girl and ran to the river with her, attempting to forcibly drown her. Lilith, as any mother would, ran to the aid of her child. Grabbing a rock from the river bank, she brought it crashing down on the back of Adams head (here, by the way, came the creation of rubies, the stone dyed with Adams blood). Adam was immortal then, as was Lilith, so the blow didn’t kill him, but such was the force that it knocked him into the raging river, where he was swept downstream. God, seeing this, ordered Lilith and her daughter out of Eden, into the wilds beyond. So that Lilith might not sneak back into paradise, he cast over Lilith and all her descendants, a Word of forgetfulness, so that never again would she or any of her ilk find their way back to Eden.

        Asherah grew very angry at Yahweh’s treatment of Lilith and her newborn child, so angry in fact did the Goddess become that She turned her face from Him, gathered the two outcasts beneath her cloak, and sped off into the larger world outside Eden. This would be a great place to say that they were never heard from again, yet though this was true of Asherah, it was far from true of Lilith or her child; but we’ll get to that later. For ages, the Father sat in petulant loss, rumbling thunder across His world, weeping in frustration. How dare that woman disobey him? How dare she protect that bitch Lilith and her get and the real splinter that sank beneath the skin of his inflated sense of self; how could She even THINK of leaving Him? For long and long, as they say, he sat and did nothing, in fact, it was only Adam’s caterwauling that stirred him from his stagnation. Adam cried out to his Father that he was lonely, that he had no helpmate, no companion and lacked the wherewithal to complete Yahweh’s first command that Adam; “Go forth and multiply.” Eventually, whether it was to simply silence Adams whine or because he too saw that the glories of the Garden were not being enjoyed to their fullest, He came up with the plan to create a new companion for Adam. Coming upon Adam when he was sleeping, he purportedly stole a rib from Adam’s own chest and from that and a bit of mud, he crafted Eve. Eve was much like Asherah had been meant to be; a creature of lesser station than Adam; OF Adam. When Adam awoke with the beautiful and pliant maid beside him, he was overtaken with lust and for days did little but slake that lust upon her ample form. What did God do while Adam diddled Eve, you may ask? Well the sense I get is that he watched, so yeah, God was a bit of a voyeur right from the beginning.  

        God eventually grew tired of watching Adam and the eventual children that he and Eve produced, and grew lonely again Himself. His creation of a wife had been less than successful, and so He decided, in all His wisdom, to create the Angelic Choirs; the cherubim, the seraph and the archangels, to surround himself with willing supplicants singing songs of love and joy. This is where myself and my brothers come into the story. Michael claims to have been created first, to stand by God’s right hand as the foremost of the angels and yet, Michael was meant to be Gods power; his fist. They say I was created second, I being Lucifer, the Light Bringer, but I ask you, would God need power first or light to create his other angels by? Perhaps we were twins, we certainly fought like it, since nearly our first breaths. Michael was always jealous of my place at God’s left hand and the fact that I was more than obviously His favorite. We were so nearly equal in might and station that it was hard to tell, through our Grace and radiance, who was whom. There were others of course; Uriel, Gabriel, Barachiel and Izrafel and MANY others, but most paled in stature to the archangels. In other eras and times we would have been Gods in our own right and, in fact, many of us were confused with and labeled as Gods in many nations later, when the world was slightly more populated. Metatron was created then as well, the very scribe of God, who would take dictation whenever Yahweh beckoned him to his side. It is to him that the flowery words that are attributed to God, are truly owed, for God could not be bothered to be descriptive or lovely, instead he commanded and to Him, that was enough.

        It was about this time when God came up with the idea of testing His creations and in the Garden grew two trees, The Tree of Knowledge, which He commanded Adam and his growing family must never partake of; this one thing (among so many others) was truly forbidden. The other Tree, the Tree of Life, stood grand and glorious in the very center of Eden, it’s golden boughs heavy with fruit. It was made known to Adam and Eve that if they were to obey God in all things, especially regarding the Tree of Knowledge, they would be seen as fit to eat the fruit of the Tree of Life, adding invulnerability to their already immortal lives. For a very long time, perhaps many hundreds of years, Adam refused to even acknowledge the Tree of Knowledge and it’s gleaming ruby fruit. He and his family slept beneath the tree of life, and though they didn’t eat the fruit of this tree either, Adam was sorely temped, as God began to see in Adam’s dreams. If he would become invulnerable and immortal, then he would be AS God and no longer have to bow down to Him. Eve and Adam argued nearly constantly about the Tree of Life. Eve couldn’t see the need for invulnerability as nothing in the Garden could or would hurt them. Adam argued that perhaps, one day, God might command the lion to tear our his throat or the great birds to peck out his eyes. God might even command the wild dogs to steal one of Eves babes, and consume it. Eve refused to believe that God could be so cruel and so, there was a sundering of the first family; a chasm grew and grew between Adam and his always obedient mate. Eventually, Eve took her daughters and moved to beneath the bows of the Tree of Knowledge, for unlike her husband, she realized that true power came from enlightenment, not invulnerability. Now, this is where I come into the story and take a staring role, so to speak. On strict orders from God, I became a beautiful emerald serpent that took up a home in the Tree of Knowledge. I began to whisper traitorous thoughts into Eves mind, beckoning her with the ripe fruit, telling her how unfair it was that God would sit above her and deny her the very same gifts that made Him what He was. What kind of a God tests his people by offering a gift in one hand while denying something to them on the other? But this sort of thing was exactly how Father behaved. His gifts were never freely given.

        One morning as I slithered down to Eves shoulders, thereupon to sun myself, I began darting my tongue into the shell of her ear, whispering, in near silence, that the apples gift to her would be self knowledge, self awareness and like Lilith before her; freedom. With Gods ascent, I told her that our Father above had granted me permission to give the most faithful and pious of his creations an apple from this very tree, that only she would be granted the mantle of Godhood through one single bite. I cajoled Eve to pick an apple, assuring her that this much was no sin, for God has simply originally forbade them to eat of the Tree, not pick the fruit from it. I steered her hand toward the largest and juiciest of fruits, my spade shape head guiding her slender hand toward the ultimate plucking. Such were my powers of persuasion that Eve picked the apple without ever noticing she had done so, in fact she lost all awareness of anything but that the preternaturally ruddy fruit. Coiling about the apple in her hand, my used my scales to buff the skin to a high sheen so that Eve could see her own reflection therein.

“Come on.”

I begged, using my sweetest of voices,

“God has given me the choice of who should receive this, His most awesome gift, and I have chosen you, Eve. Mother to the world.”

Flicking my tail lightly against the bottom of the fruit, where it would go unnoticed, I cut the flesh there, lightly, allowing all the fragrances held within to come spilling forth like a delicious tide. I watched Eve’s face as she took in the smell of Apple, the first and best, then of other things that she plucked from the air like the musical notes of the first symphony. You could smell the dust of angel wings, the leather and paper of old books (though books would be a great long time in coming). There was the scent of lavender, the odor of fried fish, the oil smell of well cared for tools. Every smell brought with it a feel of some piece of knowledge that was, heretofore, unknown to all but Him. Closing her eyes, Eve brought the jewel like fruit to her lips and took a large, ravenous bite, so hungry was she for knowledge. A look of pure bliss broke over her face, a look she got to savor for perhaps a millisecond, before the heavens, literally came crashing down upon her.

        God came roaring down on a golden chariot drawn my horses of pure flame. His angry roar like that of a hurricane. His long hair, of no exact color, streaming out behind him in the fierce wind, his beard wrapping around his torso like a belt. His dark eyes flashed lightening as he whipped His steeds into fiery foam. Behind him came a multitude of angels, beautiful and terrible, bright as the dawn of a summer day, wings dipped in red like the blood of martyrs. The samite fabric of Gods robes snapped in the wind, an echo of the whips he used to drive the coursers forth. I remained on Eves shoulder, for I felt some kinship with this human woman who I had been forced to wheedle into the worst sort of betrayal. Pulling up short in the air, waves of heat splashing forth from the horses to ignite the very air, with his army behind Him, God spoke in his own voice for the final time, for no mortal ears could withstand the sheer might of his Word and these, Adam and Eve, were the first and last of His immortals.

“Eve, that came from the very rib of man, you have betrayed non only your mate, Adam, but your God as well. I forbade you that you ever eat from the Tree of Knowledge, and had you obeyed me, you and your children would not only live forever, but would also never have suffered pain.”

Looking about, He made a grand gesture and Adam and all his children and grandchildren appeared before him. To a person, they all went to prostrate themselves, lying face down before their God.

 “Adam, it was on your head to keep Eve and your children from ever tasting the Fruit of Knowledge, and yet you shirked your duty, for here stands Eve now with the stolen fruit newly bitten in her palm.”

Adam lay trembling in silence, deciding to let his terror speak for itself. Eve, however, seeing that all was already lost, stepped forward, neither kneeling or throwing herself on the mercy of Yahweh.

“How is this the fault of Adam? I made my own choices, for did you not give us that greatest of gifts, free will? If you wanted those that would obey you without question, you should have populated the Garden with angels.”

God was taken aback, never had any of his creations spoke to him thus.

“Woman, you tread on dangerous ground here, chose your next words wisely, for they may doom not only you and yours, but every member of your sex that comes to live upon this world,!”

 Eve thought for only a moment, deciding that whatever she said would have effect on the outcome of this little farce of tribunal, and so she looked God straight in the eye.

“What kind of God denies his children knowledge and wisdom yet offers him the worthless gift of invulnerability? There is nothing here in this Garden that we need fear, for even the Lion lays down with my youngest babe, yet he has no reason to fear.”

At this God grew in size, becoming in his wrath, so big that those below Him could not fit the whole of Him in their eye at once, In a voice like dying mountains he spoke;

 “For what you have done, for your very clear breach of my Law and the betrayal of your God and kin, I expel you know from Paradise, and toss you out in to a world where Lions are Lions and nothing at all like lambs.!”

With a gesture to his angels, he bade them drag Adam, Eve and their family out the gates of Eden, into the darkness just beyond. The last words any of them heard from God that day or any after, were these “Without the Gardens to keep you fed, to keep your protected, to keep you sheltered, I have a feeling you will wish for my worthless gift of invulnerability rather soon. Also, a step beyond those gates and you and yours will age and die, you too shall have a season as do all things.”

These last words seemed sad, as if He, the great and powerful Yahweh, was sorry that He had had to do such a thing. As Adam and Eve clutched their children and each other into a protective huddle, Father ordered Michael to stand before the Gates of Eden with his flaming sword, and kill any who might try to enter. For my part, I left Eve then to join my brothers, having to wish to see what lay beyond the small pocket of bliss.

        Now, you would think that God MIGHT have thanked me for a job well done, for I had indeed seduced Eve into eating of the apple and causing original sin to crawl into the world, but no, instead, he was even angrier at me that he had been at Eve. Calling me before the Heavenly Host, all the assembled angels from my brothers the mighty and sovereign archangels down to the lowliest Cupid, God told all of my crime, told them I was a seducer of humans, that I brought sin into the world  and that I needed to be punished. I railed that it was Jehovah himself who had ordered me to seduce Eve and that I was being a good son and officer by obeying  my Father in this as I had in all things. He then told the glittering assemblage that I hated humans, that I was jealous of their standing in His eyes and that I feared them usurping my position beside His throne. Once He had said His piece and I the tiny bit I had been allowed to say in my own behalf, God called for a fitting punishment. Together the angels gathered, and for the first time, I was cut out of the mental link we all shared. For long and long they debated, when finally Metatron stepped forward.

“It is our belief, Lord, that Lucifer should be tossed from heaven, to fall like a burning star into the darkness that dwells forever at the core of Earth, to there by live forever as Lord of the Underworld, his job, to punish the souls of sinners, to make them repent and to rehabilitate them. For as the number of humans grow on the Earth so will the numbers of sinners and their souls must go somewhere; certainly not Heaven.”  

Looking down his pert nose at me, one of the cherubs stepped forward and  smiled.

 “A fitting punishment indeed. A caveat though, if I may, Father. There in the flames of shadow he will indeed dwell, but, should he one day find someone who can love him, truly, no matter that he is the Father of Lies, his sentence will be considered well and truly served.”

The assembled angels looked to the cherub and then their father who was at that moment, smiling and nodding his head.

 “Yes my child, an escape clause of sorts, for love should always  be a balm to the stings of any punishment.”

Turning to Metatron He spoke again,

“So let it be written, so let it be done!”

And so was I savagely ousted from the court of God, through the Gates and out into the ether where I was hurled down by the strength of seven archangels, So mighty where they, that I fell for days, months, perhaps years. I burned brighter than the sun above and upon reaching the Earth, I simply crashed through the crust and down into the mantle, then into the darkness of the spinning core, where the flames of my heartbreak caught the center of the world on fire. The destruction I dealt to the Earth upon impact sundered the great continent of Pangaea into many smaller land masses, and the dust falling filled the skies with blackness that lasted eons, it seemed, killing off what life remained on Earth; or did it?

Next Chapter: Chapter 2