The Demi-Monde: Summer (63 page)

As is my wont, I went further, speculating that this extra Qi is inclined to destabilise the Demi-Monde and leads – inevitably – to the violence that is endemic in this world, violence being a symptom of an excess of Qi. An over-abundance of Qi hyperexcites the Living which make up Demi-Mondians’ SAE, males being especially prone to having a rampant and uncontrollable excess of Qi, or, as it is known in Femme circles, MALEvolence.

The WunZians challenged me to show how Qi entered the Demi-Monde from the Spirit World, but this objection was easy to rebut. I merely alluded to the various places around this world – I like to call them Qi-Holes but they are more usually referred to as Portals – where Daemons effect entry into the Demi-Monde. It is through these, I countered, that Qi leaks into the Demi-Monde.

But having proposed this Concept of Qi DisEquilibrium, I got to thinking about its consequences. Inspired by Su Xiaoxiao, I plotted my findings on the graph shown overleaf.

The unsettling conclusion I came to was that once the amount of Qi within the Demi-Monde rises to a Critical Level (nineteen years from now in the year 1005 AC) then the world will self-destruct in an orgy of violence, an event which I named the Big Bang … or, as those of a religious bent prefer to call it, Ragnarok. A study of the religious tracts indicates that Ragnarok will signal a shift from Yin/Yang dualism to a merging of Yin and Yang, creating a harmonised Demi-Monde
suffused with Ying. It will be at this moment when the Messiah – whose manifestation is foretold in all Demi-Mondian religions – will arrive to lead the faithful to ABBAsoluteness.

Ah, religion …

It is a somewhat unsettling realisation for a TooZian such as me to appreciate that the predictions made by exacting empirical enquiry have been foreshadowed by a bunch of bozos living a thousand years ago who had a predilection for self-denial, self-flagellation and, I suspect (the holy books are strangely silent on this subject), self-abuse. And this discomfort was further compounded by the understanding that when examining the beliefs of all the religions and cults of the Demi-Monde there emerges a disturbing commonality regarding Ragnarok, the Final Days and the other eschatological aspects of their religious mumbojumbo.

But ever the diligent scholar, I set to examining this commonality – these synoMyths, as I prefer to call them – in the hope that they might indicate, albeit obliquely, the reason why ABBA would wish – ultimately
– to destroy the Demi-Monde. Of course, I fully appreciated that myths are a product of an oral storytelling tradition and as time passes, as such stories move from generation to generation, from teacher to pupil, from language to language, from bar to bar, they undergo many mutations. However, the fact remains that when these religions are synthesised down, it is obvious they have a monogenesis, a shared origin.

And what did I find when I completed this backward synthesis? The chill realisation that ABBA will terminate the Demi-Monde when HeShe had perfected HisHer ultimate creation, HumanKind.

Perfection betokens the End of Days.

All Demi-Mondian religions have at their heart the recognition that the ultimate aim of ABBA is to make HumanKind pure and perfect, free of sin and capable of being brought into the final and total communion with HimHer known as ABBAsoluteness. But they go further, stating that this achievement of Perfection will only be available to
some
of us (the Pure in Heart, the Believers, Those with Faith, yadda, yadda, yadda). That’s why all religions are so reward-driven: they say to their followers ‘do this’ (or, more often, ‘don’t do this’, especially when you’re naked or have the aforesaid cucumber handy) and ‘this will be your reward’. Follow the UnFunDaMentalist doctrine of Living&More and your body and mind will be purified and you will become one with ABBA; practise the unrestrained sexual hedonism preached by ImPuritanism and you will achieve JuiceSense and oneness with ABBA; follow the Way advised by WunZian Confusionists, have
wu wei
suffuse your soul and you will achieve ABBAsoluteness, etc. etc.

But no matter what these religions say, they cannot disguise that there is an appalling lack of certainty about their predictions.

My guess (and guessing is not something a TooZian readily admits to) is that whilst ABBA is driven to achieve Perfection in HumanKind, HeShe does not know the
form
this Perfection will take. To my mind, it is obvious that ABBA is seeking to achieve this – as in all things in Nature – by competition and by struggle … by the Survival of the Fittest. The Demi-Monde is merely a testing ground! That is why there
are no synoMyths which state definitively
who
will emerge victorious from the contest that is the Final Days. By presenting HumanKind with so many alternative ways of governing their lives, by allowing so many conflicting religions and philosophies to flourish in the Demi-Monde, ABBA challenges HumanKind to compete and by competing to permit the best to emerge victorious.

My studies revealed that there are just three apocalyptic synoMyths. The first of these is that the Demi-Monde has been (still is, in fact) a place of trial where all the philosophies have been pitted against one another and where HumanKind in all its many guises will be tested. The second synoMyth is that ABBA will send a Messiah from the Spirit World to lead HumanKind on the path (the Way) to Harmony/Ying/ABBAsoluteness/OneNess/Grace with HimHer.

It is the struggle between the Messiah and the Beast that forms the basis for the Final Conflict. But the Messiah will not fight alone, having the help of PaPa Legba (sometimes called the Trickster, or the Wily Fox), the Warrior (sometimes called the Battle-Maiden or grim Surt) and, finally, the Fresh Bloom, destined by Fate and her Ancestors to come to the Messiah’s aid when all have deserted her.

It is the third of these synoMyths that I found most intriguing – especially in the light of my own research regarding Qi. This is the rather enigmatic prediction that at the outset of Ragnarok a Column – the Column of Loci – lost since the Confinement will be recovered. It is this Column that holds the key to how the Demi-Monde might be made as one with the Spirit World … how Demi-Mondians might find Oneness with ABBA. Unfortunately, it appears that the details of this event are only contained in the
Flagellum Hominum,
an esoteric work which, because it is rendered in Pre-Folk, has never been read.

Fortunately, this synoMyth is also described – albeit in a typically obtuse manner – in the fifty-second Epigram of the iChing:

I believe the Column is the means by which Qi within the Demi-Monde will be brought into Equilibrium with the Spirit World.