Binah

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BINAH

It is written in the scriptures how the elohim called El discovered humans on a world that circled around her, and set apart from the humans a priestly people, the children of Abraham, to receive the oracles of El and worship only her, a female sun, even though El had been represented to them as a transcendent male warrior-king to avoid scandalizing them.

For the Hebrews (so named from the Semitic word for Immigrants) were immersed in a culture barely out of the hunter-gatherer stage, heavily dominated by the male, and extolling the virtue of masculinity above all else.

And it is also written how the elohim named Belial, with the assistance of El, had transplanted some of the humans to Gorpai, a mostly icy world that circled around Belial, and how Belial caused them to change by degrees into the nephilim.

And later Belial engineered the rise of family Gerash to rule all of Gorpai according to laws he established through prophets, until Belial seized control of power directly through the agency of possessing the line of the ruling Gerashites, each patriarch in his turn.

But the elohim Binah noted how the gods of myth, which is what humans and nephilim believed the elohim to be, were always portrayed as having the power to create worlds and life. Yet Binah knew El merely discovered the humans, and even Belial's nephilim were mutations of preexisting human stock. Also the projects of the elohim were subject to the limitations of the physical laws that covered everyone.

Then Binah, who had no world of his own, proposed to create a world according to his own specifications, a world operating according to regularities of succession ordained by the elohim.

From that world, shortcut tunnels through space maintained by the elohim would link to the Earth and Gorpai, and human and mephilim would mingle together openly.

But Belial refused, and said no tunnel would link to Gorpai, and no nephilim would be permitted to enter Binah's proposed world.

Then El, an ally of Binah, said she would yield to Belial's long courtship with her, and permit him to sire a child on her, if he agreed to permit a permanent open link between Gorpai and Binah's proposed new world.

And Belial jumped at the chance, but he was required to make a solemn oath, which Binah knew would hold him firm, never to block access to Gorpai from Binah's new world, nor block the passage of nephilim between them.

Now when Belial and El came together in the act of love, El diminished herself, and withdrew the living portion of herself from half of her sun-body's own inner core, letting that half return to the state it was in before it woke up and became El.

Then when El and Belial attained their nearly infinite pinnacle of physical joy, El's reproductive ripple found an empty sun immediately, and Bat-El was conceived within the same sun that was the sun of mankind and also the body of El.

And Belial knew what had happened, because he found he had a spiritual link to his newborn daughter Bat-El which lay outside of creation, and it had formed in one instant, and not after the months and years it normally took for the ripple to find a fresh sun.

Then El spoke directly to Bat-El without using the spiritual link that bound together the suns, and at the bidding of her mother Bat-El severed her link to Belial as her first act as a conscious being.

And Belial was angered, because El had contrived a final end to his scheme of setting aside a private harem of elohim females, but it really was Binah who developed the strategy.

Belial could do nothing in retaliation, because he had sworn a solemn oath to permit passage between Gorpai and Binah's new world. But Binah had yet to create that world, and Belial doubted it would ever come to be.

El and Bat-El were in close physical proximity, and they had no need of the spiritual link of the elohim to communicate, yet at the bidding of Binah, they flooded their link with dark light, and on account of their unique closeness, the link inflated to a far greater diameter than the tunnels Belial and El had used to move people and goods between worlds.

Their link, in fact, became a great bubble, somewhat greater than the size of the sun itself, which was their shared body, but this bubble lay outside of creation, much as the tunnels and spiritual links between elohim also do. And for as long as El and Bat-El both shall live, this new pocket heaven shall continue to exist.

Then Binah and Chokhmah tapped into the bubble with their own tunnels, and even Belial did so as well, not only because of his oath to Binah, but simply because the bubble had now become the common arena between the five elohim.

Then Binah said, Behold, the laws in this place remain as yet indeterminate, and it remains for us to establish them as we will, for we are not constrained as we are by the laws that govern the heavens where we live.

And Binah brought into existence a giant stair with two steps, and set it to float in the center of the bubble suspended by winds, but it could not be seen, for light had not yet come to the bubble.

Then Chokhmah contrived a changing white light to illuminate the bubble, but this light was not confined to a small spot in the sky as are the stars and suns which shine upon worlds. Rather, the whole sky changed from the dark of night to glowing white every day, and this light also brought warmth.

And Chokhmah created seasons by causing the light to shine for timespan of two parts in three during summer days, but only one part in three during winter days, and equal parts on spring and autumn days. But there were no stars.

Then Belial set water flowing down the two steps in a roaring cataract many miles high, and on the far western edge of the bottom step the water fell off the stair and drifted through the bubble, where it was broken up into a fine mist. This mist was carried by the winds that suspended the stair until it reached the top of the stairs again far above and in the east, where the vapor fell as rain and kept the cycle going without end.

El built a dam of cliffs and mountains on the eastern wall of the Land We Know, and he called this dam the Glob Nab, and it was a sheer wall of rock thirty thousand feet high. Then the cataract pouring onto the lowest step was stopped, yet in four places water from behind the Glob Nab emerged near the base, and became three rivers which wound their way to the west over lands newly exposed by the building of El's dam.

And the first of those rivers was Armak, which flowed southwest through the land of Nath. In aftertimes men would build another dam in pale imitation of El, and form lake Enkaa upon this same river.

The second river was Arhena, which flowed due west and divided Nath from the land of Hamar.

The third and largest river was Sabik, which flowed northwest until it was joined by the river Arhena then flowed west to divide Hamar from the land of Alodra.

A fourth river named Nanki flowed north through Hamar to join the river Sabik, but it did not have its source on the Glob Nab, but arose instead from rainfall on the northern slopes of the mountains that divided Hamar from the lands of the Saiph League.

And the Sabik, swollen from the water of its three tributaries, twisted its way to empty into the western sea in a wide delta, and this vast swamp was called Murzi Bog.

Bat-El called the sea Thalury, and carved many coves and headlands into it, and set two large islands off the coast, and many lesser islands also. And the large islands were called Elendal and Avior.

The coasts extended north and south from the mouth of Sabik, far beyond the knowledge of the humans and nephilim who would come later, and they would settle many of Bat-El's far-flung coves and bays and capes and beaches, but there were ever more.

Then Binah brought forth on the Land We Know many growing things, and trees with leaves of many colors, red and green, yellow and gold, such that the land looked to be perpetually in the full glory of autumn as it was known on Earth. Yet Binah's trees were never bereft of leaves, even in winter. They fell from their trees individually after a span, and were replaced by another.

Some beasts were brought from Earth, and other beasts were introduced by the elohim after they had changed them from original Earth stock. And for the most part these creatures were benign, and fitted in well with the ecology of the Land We Know, and the sea Thalury, or they were herd animals which men and nephilim would tame later when they came. But no plant life was introduced from Gorpai, for it was too aggressive, and would soon displace all the tamer samples from Earth.

Belial saw that the animals would soon breed far beyond the ability of the Land We Know to support them, and chief among these animals, he knew, would be the human beings and nephilim themselves. So Belial introduced to the Land We Know monstrous predators from their darkest dreams to keep them in check.

Then was seen in the Land We Know many trolls, and goblins, and Leviathan, the dragon under the sea who devoured those who foundered therein. But the most fierce predator of all was the winged dragons, who nested in aeries high above the Land We Know on the unassailable cliffs of the Glob Nab. Then all who went on two legs had to keep one eye on the sky, for they were the dragon's prey, as surely as the small creatures who went on four legs were ever the prey of eagles.

Then Belial thought himself revenged on Binah and the others by irreparably marring the world they were creating. But the predators created by Belial were taken to be strong threads woven into the growing tapestry that was the Land We Know, and the other elohim honored the wisdom of Belial, yet Binah sought a way to put a leash on the dragons.

Then time was come for the Land We Know to be peopled by humans from Earth and nephilim from Gorpai. And Belial was first, for he sought to have his people settle the land early and order it more to his liking than if they were latecomers.

Belial established a temple atop a mighty cape south of Murzi Bog, ringed on three sides with steep cliffs. And this temple was the permanent home of the end of the tunnel that linked to his temple on Mount Belial on Gorpai.

Through that tunnel came many nephilim, but first were the White Beards of family Gerash, from the Middle Lands of Gorpai, and they settled both fertile banks of the mighty river Sabik as far as the foothills of the Glob Nab, and built the cities of Sadl, Atria, and Kochad.

Then came the Brown Beards of family Bellon, one of the two original sea-faring peoples of Gorpai who dwelt now in the West Lands, and they came together with the Red Beards of Family Antero. Family Bellon built the city of Mintara on the Isle of Avio, but Family Antero settled the coast lands which stretched south from the river Sabik farther than men knew, and they were the first to build ships in the new world, but more often than not, these ships carried soldiers and weapons of war rather than goods.

The Gold Beards of family Sala came next, they of the East Lands of Gorpai, and they established their farms in the north ringing the Eliath Wood, which also they traversed by many paths. And the names of their cities were Glenah and Shedal and Linan.

But when revolution was come to Nath and the men abjured their god El, the nephilim of Linan would be driven west to join their brothers in Menkal, and the men of Nath would seize their farms.

Last to come from Gorpai were the Black Beards of family Larund, who also made the East Lands their home. In the Land We Know, family Larund built the city of Difda on the isle of Elendal, and also settled the coastlands that stretched to the north farther than the ships of men would ever go. And they too built ships, and carried the grain and livestock of the Gold Beards to many ports, but their chief occupation was the capture of fish.

Next was come El, who established his temple in the land of Nath on the grassy plains east of the farms of family Sala, where he fixed the exit to the tunnel leading from Earth. The entrance side of the tunnel was in no fixed position, but moved ever and anon about the Earth according to the purposes of El.

Now in this time on Earth the federation of twelve tribes comprising the children of Israel had formed a kingdom, which after a time was divided in two. One of these kingdoms, called Judah, was comprised of the tribes of Benjamin and Judah, and it remained strong and secure, and loyal to El. The priestly tribe of Levi, which had no fixed holdings of land, were also supported there.

But the other kingdom, called Israel, which was comprised of the tribes of Dan, Asher, Naphtali, Manasseh, Zebulun, Issachar, Gad, Ephraim, Reuben, and Simeon, had largely accepted the polytheism of its pagan neighbors and grown weaker until it was conquered by the king of Assyria, Sargon II.

Sargon deported all of the people of those tribes he had captured, and settled them far to the east in Medea, where they slowly lost their tribal identity through interbreeding with the people of that land, for that was the deliberate policy of the Assyrian Empire as a solution to the ancient problem of tribalism.

But many of the people of the ten tribes of Israel escaped to Judah and united themselves to the people there. Only the remnant which El brought to the Land We Know retained their original identity and forms of worship, but this he did to fulfill his promise to Abraham to raise up from his loins a great nation, and he would not be held faithless in his covenant.

But he selected only those families who rejected the worship of Baal, and who rejected the golden calves which were set up in Bethel and Dan, and who disdained the cult prostitutes and all other forms of idolatry. Only a small remnant with zeal for El alone was permitted to colonize the new world, and this remnant numbered about seven thousand.

The tribe of Ephraim built the city of Hadal far in the north and east of the Land We Know, in a cool vale between Shaula Wood and the Glob Nab front, and Hadal became the leading city in Nath.

The tribe of Simeon built the city of Adjara on the western edge of the Shaula Wood, nigh to the temple of El, and it was a great crossroads in that land, and the center of the weapons trade that came to be in later years.

The tribe of Reuben built the city of Mizal at the foot of Mount Narutha, but the land about was dry and impoverished, for the mountain cast a rain shadow. And ever the tribe of Reuben made war upon the nephilim of Linan to the north for the rich fruit of the orchards round about that city, until after the revolution when the humans prevailed and drove all of their rivals out of Linan, and extended the borders of Nath thither.

The tribe of Gad built the city of Kabark on a rich plain south of the river Armak, but the land lacked for water. So they built a mighty work, a dam of cunning stonework upon the river, and backed up the river into a man-made lake called Enkaa. Then the tribe of Gad dug many canals and ditches from the lake toward Kabark, and using this water they planted farms that became the envy of the Land We Know.

The tribe of Dan built the city of Fatho at the foot of the Glob Nab wall, where there were many natural caves and mines dug by men, and there they reaped the underground treasures buried there by the elohim with the founding of the Land We Know.

And those were the five tribes which founded the nation of Nath in the northeast of the Land We Know. The tribe of Issachar founded the city of Nyduly in the forest of that name, which stretched along the southern bank of the river Sabik, and they were skilled in felling timber and all manner of woodcraft. But their women were the first to fall away from the exclusive worship of El, for they embraced Bat-El, and they enticed their men to worship Bat-El also. And the sacred pool of Bat-El in the heart of the Nyduly Wood was a second way to travel to and from Earth.

The tribe of Asher built the city of Alnitar on the river Nanki, and they too fell away from El to follow after Bat-El. But Bat-El herself was troubled by this, and she greatly honored her father El herself, obeying him in every thing he asked, and she never asked her Immigrant followers to abandon him or his law, although her Gentile followers were released from observing the purely ceremonial aspects of the Mosaic Code.

Fish migrated from Thalury to the source of the river Nanki, and many men in Alnitar made a living catching them. The tribe of Zebulun built the city of Eltan far up the valley of the river Nanki, and it was a crossroads in the trade between the Saiph League and Hamar, and caravans would unload their goods in Eltan and be set on rafts made from logs felled from the endless forests covering the mountains to the south. The rafts then were allowed to drift down down the river to Alnitar or Sadl, and after they were unloaded the rafts themselves would be sold as raw timber. Eltan, too, had converted to the worship of Bat-El.

The tribe of Naphtali built the city of Wazol at the very headwaters of the river Sabik, and the Glob Nab loomed over it. Wazol was a rival city to Fatho, for it was engaged in mining as well, and if ever one city tried to corner the market in one metal or another, the other city would undercut their prices. Yet the city of Wazol retained El as their only God, and looked with disdain on the heretics who followed after Bat-El.

The tribe of Manessah built the city of Menkant in the valley of the upper Sabik between Mount Rasal and Mount Menkant, and it was the leading city among the five tribes in the south, which formed the kingdom of Hamar, and Menkant remained loyal to El alone

So it was that the two tribes which sprang from the loins of Joseph were in the leading role in the lands of humans in the east of the Land We Know, Ephraim in the north and Manessah in the south.