Light had been happy illuminating many worlds, but it became dissatisfied with its lot. The seven separate colours of light that, when shining in balance together, created the brightest, whitest light most often admired and sought after, each wanted more of a chance to be seen and appreciated separately, for each was beautiful in its own right.
So it was that Light approached the ‘Source of Everything that Is and is Not’ and asked for a world of its own where each part of it could have an equal opportunity to be seen and appreciated separately. The Source was familiar with such requests as all things it made were created from parts of itself that had temporarily separated out in this way, so it agreed.
In the same way as it had brought all things everywhere into being, the Source allowed parts of its energy to become all that was needed to create a new world. In this new world, so that there were beings able to see, appreciate and respond to the diverse beauty of each colour of light, the Source created conditions able to sustain Life in all its fullness.
As was usual, whilst the Source agreed not to interfere in the world once it was created, its care for each separated part of it was not diminished. So, in the very fabric of all that was in it were placed messages about the truth that everything was all part of One; all part of Everything that Is and Is Not. Nowhere was this truer than at the core of every sentient being. Whilst remaining a tiny part of the Source itself, each was given the freedom to experience being separate. Each had a mind and body that enabled them to live life fully, and enjoy developing their own existence and experiences, through their own choices and responses to the world they lived in. Yet deep in the spirit of each was placed the gentle knowledge that they were part of a greater One, so that, should they choose to remember, they should know the truth and that they were never alone.
Spread around the new world, so that it was available to share, was placed a bountiful supply of different resources, distributed widely so that there was plenty of everything needed to sustain life. This distribution gave the fullest opportunity for the nature of each colour of light to provoke different characteristics.This also meant there would not only be plenty overall, but also the chance for exchange, and the possibility of different contributions to be made, in both skill and material resource.
The seven colours of Light were incredibly pleased with their new world which they called Kauri. They divided the world into seven areas and each of the seven colours in the spectrum of light chose an area where it alone would shine – the Source had asked only that they would come together high up above the world so that, as well as the beauty each individual colour of light provided, there was somewhere where the beauty of them together could be seen, even if not always by the Beings on the land.
As usual the Lights were very keen for ‘Is Not Light’ (which the Beings came to call Darkness) to join them on their world because it had two important functions. It gave them, and their Beings, time to rest; but more importantly it provided contrast, an absence of light, which meant that each new morning the Beings would eagerly anticipate the Light in their land returning. Thus, the existence of Darkness, and its passing, made each morning a glorious celebration of the particular Light that shone in that area.
In each Light Land the Beings, who became known as people, started to take on the character of the Light that ruled them. In other worlds Light had paid little attention to the Beings, but here each they felt they owned their land, and therefore also the people in it, and they encouraged this development.
Thus, the people of each Land took on ways that most reflected the nature of their light colour; they had their own languages, beliefs, and ways of doing things. They each developed particular strengths and found different materials they relied upon and wove their lives around.
The Lights came together regularly to proudly tell each other how well their land was doing and to hear how different each land was becoming. It was beautiful to them to see and hear how wonderfully their diverse beauty was expressed in each of their lands. Each Light felt their Land was the most beautiful reflection of their own colour.
In every land the memory of the Source from which they came started to express itself, but differently. The people valued different aspects of that Source, which they saw reflected in the beauty of their land, and it’s Light. It brought them joy and made them care for the land and the other people they shared it with, and the joy made them shine all the more.
In each land there were different shades and tones of their light colour, but it was always obvious which Light Land they belonged to. Whilst the people of each did not move out of their land much to start off with, when they did, they were interested to see how different things were in other lands. They saw the different strengths and materials each had and started to share and trade. The only areas where things were less clear, was where the border between two Light Lands was on land. Where these areas became populated there was a lot more movement between lands and exchange between the neighbouring peoples. These border people were influenced by the Light from more than one land; they started to form their own ways of doing things that took bits from each of the lands, and Lights, they encountered.
Some of the peoples were more interested in science and, over time, they started to develop technologies which enabled them to travel around more easily and communicate across the different lands. This spread quickly and, as it progressed, many became aware of things they liked in other places and started to change some of the ways they thought and did things. Trade increased, and across the world some similarities started to develop, where ideas, thoughts and materials came together and were enjoyed by people in many lands.
When the Lights noticed these similarities, they were not pleased. They had enjoyed seeing their Lands reflect only their nature and did not want this to be changed – they feared losing their opportunity to be appreciated separately.
Sharing this concern, the Lights started to worry that the Source might also be displeased at their inability to maintain their separate spaces. As they thought on this they started to fear that the Source may be angry and take away their world. They forgot that the Source was ‘Everything that Is and Is Not’ and had only created this separation at their request, so that they could experience joy in who they were separately, as well as together. They overlooked the fact that the Source had no desire to prefer any part of itself to another, and no need of anything, as it was All.
Unfortunately, with this misremembering in mind, they all agreed it was a problem, and decided to intervene. They came up with three areas of action:
1. Each Light Land would appoint a ruling group whose job it was to protect the way of living that land had developed; its culture and practices. These people would make rules to manage movements between the lands and keep the relationships positive but controlled.
2. They added strength to these new rules by sharing with their people their idea that their Source required these things of them; only being happy and willing to accept them if they chose to comply. They introduced the idea that non-compliance would lead to rejection by their Source.
3. They put in place rules to prevent merging across the borders, announcing that no-one could live near enough to a border to see the neighbouring light every day. They decided that each Light would pull back slightly from such borders so that their light would not shine in the other Light’s territory.
This last action was the simplest for them to implement and so, once they had made their decrees, each Light pulled back from the border areas. This reduction in Light meant that Darkness took a daytime role as well as a night-time one, to reinforce their separateness.
They sought out their strongest devotees and gave them the job of ruling their lands – each Light chose to do this in their own way of course, some letting the people choose the rulers and others choosing for them – but in all cases it was done speedily. These rulers were tasked with making the necessary changes as quickly as they could, because the sooner this was done the better it would be.
Unfortunately, neither the Lights nor the new rulers, were used to governing in this way. In their haste they did not anticipate some of the consequences of these actions, nor were they experienced enough to know how to deal with them when they happened.
The consequences started very quickly. Merely communicating these rules introduced some feelings that had never been there before – fear and loss. For the first time they feared the wrath of their Source and the possibility of separation, and they feared the influence of each other and the loss of their identity.
The change escalated as soon as the Lights withdrew from the borders. The people there had not experienced darkness in the daytime before. They had never feared it at night as it was just the sign that it was time to rest, but suddenly it was there all the time, and there was no light. Plants died, and life became unsustainable. For the first time they were afraid in the dark and they did not really understand why the Light had been withdrawn for some.
For the people who had lived at the Borders, fear and loss begat a new emotion, anger. All that they had loved and built up was taken from them; they were forced to leave their homes and move to somewhere else. They lost contact with their friends and neighbours in the other Light Land and were moved to areas where their new neighbours were suspicious of them, because their ways of doing things often did not fit with the new ‘pure light’ version of their land.
The rulers told the people that they should not listen to ideas from other lands and that this rule was to protect them. The people had not considered they needed protection before and had not had ‘rulers’ to enforce this. Fear and anger continued to grow. For the first time they became mistrustful of each other and protective of their resources.
Many became confused as they had never previously considered it might be wrong to change the way they did things or share what they had. The new Rulers had to sell this idea to the people, as that was their job. Some did it with such enthusiasm that they convinced many and their people immediately became suspicious and fearful of the other Light Lands. Others, particularly those who had enjoyed contact with the other lands, were less sure, and started to feel angry that their way of life was being controlled where it had not been before.
When the Lights saw what was happening, they were aghast; they had expected things to go back to how they were before, so that they could again proudly talk about how wonderfully different each of their lands were, but suddenly they were more like each other than they had been before. Yes, their customs were once again different from each other, like they had been previously, but now the experience was similar in each world – anger, disagreement, dissent, selfishness, violence, inequality, and unhappiness. They knew this was not what they wanted, but they did not realise that fear was behind most of what was happening as they had not even noticed it in themselves.
Each Light called their Rulers in and told them to sort it out and make the people happy and co-operative again. They told them to get their people to focus back on the wonderful elements of their culture that had made them special before, as this is what they had been hoping to achieve.
The Rulers went away. In each land they tried their own approach to making this happen, but when they came back to the Lights again things had not changed. The story was always the same; in no land could they get everyone to agree to one approach, and they could not change things back to how they were before, because the feelings were different, and they were too strong.
The Lights were in despair. This had been their big chance to shine separately but no-one was focusing on the beauty of their lights anymore, or even really looking up at them – they were all too busy fighting with each other and their Rulers.
Eventually they decided to ask the Source for advice, even though they were a bit afraid it would be angry that they had messed up their world.
As soon as they requested it the Source was there with them, feeling their sadness and disappointment about how their world was going, and keen to hear the cause of their despair.
They explained that when they had started to see their colours coming together, and their separate colours merging, they had seen it as a failure and feared the Source’s wrath. They said how sorry they were that they had not achieved what they had set out to do and asked the Source to forgive them and help them, rather than be angry.
“Why would I be angry?” asked the Source “when I am Everything and Everything is Me? I do not need you to be separate to know you are beautiful, I need nothing.”
It was then that they started to realise that the fear was in them. They were afraid of losing their unique beauty and the chance for it to be celebrated separately…. and they had passed this fear on to their people, and that had caused them to be angry. They were ashamed and thought their desire to be celebrated separately was wrong.
The Source said gently. “The desire to shine separately is not wrong, you are beautiful separately AND together; this is balance and beauty. Like you, your people want to shine separately but they need to be allowed to shine together as well. The presence of one is not the loss of the other… and they do not thrive when they are afraid, or controlled with tyranny, like you, they are made to be free to choose.”
The Lights were sorry, they said they thought that order was what the Source required.
“I require nothing” smiled the Source, “as I am Everything that Is and Is Not, in balance, and I am free, as you are all made to be. I joy in experiencing different parts of myself, but I need nothing as I am All. Look up.”
They looked up and saw the beautiful bright light they made together. They remembered how wonderful it was when they were all together, as well as how beautiful they felt separately, and suddenly things started to become clearer.
They asked The Source what they should do.
“Tell them the truth about who I Am, and that I need nothing,” the Source said smiling. “Tell them the truth about who you are and let them see your light – separate and together. Tell them the truth about who they are – all part of Us, each beautiful and not one better or more loved than the other.
Then let them be free, as they are made to be. Give them your light so they can see that darkness and light are the ‘Is’ and ‘Is not’ of each other. Use your light to help them see that the ‘Is Not’ of Fear, is Love, so that they know how to change the balance. Shine on them so that they have courage to be who they want to be, knowing that all is safe in the end … we are One.”
It took time … but as the truth was told, and the lights shone – separately and together, love spread instead of fear, and gradually the ‘Is Not’ was put back into balance. They learned to shine together, as well as separately, and gradually their world became beautiful once more.
© Share D’All (2020). All rights reserved.
Tales of the Universe 