How does one supersede the failings of the flesh and the death of the body?
One must pass beyond the skull nebula in the farthest reaches of creation. One must behold what is reflected in the stars thereof and shy not away from the dread they show to the soul.
What is seen reflected in the stars of the skull nebula?
One sees all that shall ever befall the countles species of mortal kind.
What are the fates of mortals?
Death in all of its varieties. Death in the low places and in the heights. Death in the dark tangles of untamed wilds and in the brightest towers of mankind’s glory. Death from violence, death from disease, death from every misstep in dangerous circumstance. Death is the fate of all mortal kind.
Why does the nebula resemble the skull?
The nebula is not after the shape of the skull. The skull is after the shape of the nebula, for the nebula came with the first inception of creation’s dawn. It is the decree of creation that all things must end save that which glitters eternal.
What glitters eternal?
The everlasting souls that move with limbs of flesh and blood, of bone and carapace, of feathered flying things and scaled creeping things. These must endure beyond the dust so that they may possess the dust again.
How does one reach the nebula?
One must step beyond the weighty grasp of the worlds and the swirling strains of the galaxies into the limitless heights, then continue onward toward the northmost star. There reaching, one must turn about and face the origin of all things. In this place may one see the skull grinning in the deepest depths of the limitless heights, and thus may one orient oneself to continue onward thereto.
But remember that the journey is beyond the years of all mortals, so one must learn to step across distances in an instant.
How does one step across distances in an instant?
One must see the world slant as a portrait in perspective. In a portrait, what is near is large, and what is distant is small, but turn this portrait slant, and all illusions of distance vanish. If this you can see, then there you can step, for all distance is illusion, and every eon is but a moment.
How does one see the world slant?
One must dream of the fire in the dark. Behold the flickering flame reddened as it shines through its own smoke, and hear the whispers thereof. This flame is a star and an ever watching eye, and it knows all things that can be known.
How does one dream of the fire in the dark?
Touch the black pillar, and hear the whispers until your mind beholds the secret perspectives beyond the portrait.
But be warned—give the whispers no more heed than this, for madness is the fruit of the red fire in the void. If any fear you know, then you are ill prepared for this voyage of the mind and this trek through the stars, for their vastness and their emptiness and their fullness shall consume you whole.
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Image is a composite of photos by Frank Cone on Pexels and Michael Förtsch on Unsplash.