von Jacques Pinard Brown (Copyright)

I traveled through space, past the Milky Way and a hundred thousand other constellations, past suns, planets, meteors, asteroids and other space debris. I flew and floated, flew and floated, and nothing obscured the path of my soul. I traveled for eons, and yet that elongated period of time was but a fleeting glimpse of eternity.

And still I traveled traversing the breadth of the universe until I reached its center, until I reached AO.

AO is in the center of the universe, it has one massive sun and three hundred and sixty planets circle this red giant, star of stars. Of this great quantity of planets a number of one hundred and forty four planets are habitable, and as such, inhabited. It is the origin of life in the universe, and has stood since the beginning of time.

Great civilizations arose on these worlds, and along with that great intellect was born. The planets waged war for supremacy in the beginning, but as their civilizations evolved they opted for closer co-operation and alliance with each other.

A strict order of hierarchy was installed in the unified planetary system of AO. Beings of equal spiritual and physical make-up were the leaders, and those life forms based mainly on the lower physical constitution, with little spiritual development, such as mammals, made up the lower castes of this society.

These worlds lived in perfect unity with one another, and they also monitored the progress of all developing life throughout the universe. Thousands of planets throughout the known universe were developing life separately, but on a much later universal time scale than AO. And there where circumstances were favorable for life, but no life sprung up, it was artificially instilled by the beings from AO. And soon the whole universe was teeming with life, wherever nature would tolerate it. It was all monitored from afar by AO, but seldom were local provincial affairs interfered with directly, so as to stimulate free growth, and to assure the maintainance of the law of evolution. AO ruled, but throughout the universe the lower life forms were unaware of their existence. This is the way they wanted it, the way it was meant to be.

The universe was in balance, and the primitives believed in gods and heavens. Yet, if there was a heaven it was AO, for here you lived eternally if your spirit could grow strong enough in the glow of the giant red sun. Yes, it was heaven, and all who lived there, heavenly beings, from the greatest, to the least.

And the greatest race was truly great, consisting of spirit almost entirely, and in no way limited by the little physical traits they did possess. They ruled as true masters of AO. They were great orators, musician and wise men, all categorized according to race and planet of origin. They lived and ruled in peace and harmony, AO and the universe. And while life was heaven in AO, the patron of life smiled favorably on his children throughout existence.
But as the eternal flow of time progressed, dark days dawned again in the history AO.
Dissension arose among the higher castes concerning questions of rank and authority, which in turn led to disunion among the entire star system. Forty-eight planets broke away and there was prolonged war between them and the majority planets of AO. The war raged on for thousands of years, until the smaller contingent of planets were overpowered and their remnants had to flee AO.

They were banished to a desolate sector of the universe, in a constellation with dark and cold stars. They built a new empire here and vowed eternal enmity with the races of AO. They subverted worlds and people that where being cultivated by the spirit of AO, and to these primitive worlds they came to represent the evil element of existence. In their religions and folklore there was made distinction between good and evil, and AO represented good and its adversary; evil. Yet, to the primitives, who where unaware of their actual existence, they were only abstract entities, but in fact they were very, very real.

The sun of AO shines as brightly on its children as it ever did, but the balance of the universe is disrupted. The plants and flowers grow and bloom on the worlds of AO. The oceans roar and the grass gets blown about by the winds. Majestic mountain ranges soar upward, and creatures of flight dot the skies. AO is still paradise, and all its beings heavenly, and they bask in the glory of its face.

Eternal beings fly freely from world to world. These spirit creatures rule and think and sing. Life to them, and those that behold their presence, is truly beautiful beyond measure, rich beyond material gain. Here life is beautiful, here life is precious. Here they govern the universe, here they wage war against evil. The sun of AO shines on all its children, life is a precious gem, but the essence is no longer in balance. The war is being waged to restore it, always.

Then all grows dark around me, and I am sucked through eternity and entirety, back, back, back…

I awake in the silent darkness, I remember my dream vaguely, and it is as if I had glimpse of something that made understand everything just a little bit better.