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Posted:Fri Jan 23, 2009 5:26 AM CST
9-Fold Path or the Path of 7 Tiers
Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here
The sign that should be hung upon both the wounded mind and soul.
Avernus is the first circle to which I have personal residence and I often drift endlessly through this plane with fine company of those lost. I have walked in and out of this circle for years at will and am comfortable enough to recognize the faces of others that have likewise managed its key. Here there be monsters. And they are real and very protective of their realm seeking news of the world outside. Every scum-covered river, from trickle to torrent is naught but the blood of my life. This is the common hell that permeates all mankind and coexists simultaneously in each of us.
Dis is the second circle and is both a plane of infinite expanse and a city that equals its growth. Here lie the infinitely compounded fractions of being. Often mirrored, inverted, duplicated, excised, prosected and vivisected. Some have life of their own and all have the essence of ghosts. Travelling, as they will with direction having no reality. Small parts of this part of hell manage to creep to the surface and attach themselves to life. Many unnoticed and others truly disturbing.
Minauros and its leaden skies covering the endless mire with the stench of a cesspool. Rain and tears pour down eternally with the sound of a thousand drums accompanied by icy sleet that leaves behind an oily residue. Here lie shames and the victories of personal devils. The atrocities endured haunt here with every footstep and threaten to draw the incarcerated into the sucking pits that are nurtured in the broken self. This circle is less travelled and for good reasons, yet upon occasion a ray of light disseminatingly descends through the bleakness from some voice of wisdom and illuminates a portion, revealing its essence as a shell.
Phlegethos is the realm of personal fire and the source of all fury and ire that exists in one’s world. It is the heart of vulcanism and the flow of every spot of heat that propels the failings in life. The hatred and malice that exists from years of indoctrination burns deep here and is reserved for those to whom folly is a game. Rare are those who witness this circle within and always as a bystander when it is unleashed upon fools and miscreants. And of course the occasional bystander too close to the fury when it erupts, and then they become one more of the endless monuments of Maladomni.
Stygia is the frozen abyss of the heart. Ever static and cold enough to burn. This is an empty circle at the best of times as there is no life here. A solitary berg of isolation to steal the heat of any heart that approaches. The only movement here is the winding serpent of black writhing water, the River Styx. The essence of the tortured soul as it cascades through the hoary landscape. The waters of which always drown in despair any that touch them.
Malbolge is more a blockade than a circle but it has the grandeur of a world of its own. Jagged slices of razored rock and angles jutting everywhere. A virtual deadfall of tortures that prevents furtherance of travel to all but the most foolhardy. It is fuelled by doubts which constantly overturn the surface and from a distance make it appear as made of liquid for its frothing flow. Despair is in the winds here and never ceases to whisper death and forlorn hope.
Maladomni and its key watchword decay, are the realm and circle of all that has been lost. The abandoned efforts and failings carved monumentally in crumbling stones. The ground itself lies strip-mined in all directions to suffice the materials for the cairns and obelisks, which stand tribute to each and every failure and subjugation of the spirit. A veritable museum of horror and despair.
(con't)
BarrenPneuma
Golden Staircase, Ontario Canada
Fri Jan 23, 2009 5:27 AM CST
Caina is a frozen wasteland to make Stygia seem tropical. Here there lies no remnant of anything living. Winds that shear the flesh from the living scour the land in all directions at once. Seeming borne exponentially across this endless frigid promise of cessation. The only purpose to this realm of absolute gelid indifference is the guardianship of the final gate to the heart of my hell.
Nessus is the utter depth of personal hell. Herein lies the endpoint of the fall. This circle houses the lies, and secrets, which have existed throughout time. A blasted land criss-crossed with trenches and rifts. Within each lies the possibility of falling endlessly. A rift at the heart of the plane, spirals in upon itself like a tesseract and at the bottom lies the broken soul. The wounds from this fall have yet to heal, the seeping vitae pooling amidst the broken ground. It is here that the demons of life come to feed and maintain their vigilance over life. Gaining the strength necessary to rout and destroy all that comes into the field of existence. None have ever escaped and the bodies of the fallen are but ash on the tongue and bitterest memories of loss.
The journey through this Hell is a solitary one unsuitable for companionship. A choice of endings, desolate, bitter, and terminal.
(con't)
BarrenPneuma
Golden Staircase, Ontario Canada
Fri Jan 23, 2009 5:27 AM CST
Hope, Faith and Love the Tri-fold Union
Luna is the closest heaven to the mortal coil. A near dark sky of a full moon perpetually illuminates this plane. The sky pierced with countless silvery stars that streak and lance to bathe the land in a mystical glow. Luna is the realm of portals, which grant access to all other heavens. The entrance to Luna is always accompanied by the rising from a warm ocean, a birthing and cleansing of sorts that washes away the old and prepares for the new. Innocence is the prime directive here.
Mercurius the second tier, is a realm of thin air and high hopes. The landscape is juvenile and brightly coloured like a children’s book. It is here that dreams and memories live. The mountains reach heavenward, the valleys are deep and shaped by fast flowing rivers and streams. The plateaus at the summits of each peak are fertile fields that overlook a world of perfection. Golden light permeates everything and this is where all the kindness of life maintains some semblance. It is here that the I becomes a we, and eyes look not at each other but in the same direction.
Venus the third layer is lit by a soft, nacreous, white glow from the airy vault above. The mountains are old and rounded with no angularity to distort perspectives. Brooks run warm and clear. The land is rarely clear and typically adorned with cloaks of trees, shrubs and grasses. The wilderness is often green and soft, consisting of verdant moors, scrublands and alpine meadows. A land of peace made real. Acceptance of the entirety of your companion as an equal has cemented at this stage of the climb.
Solaris the fourth layer has the warm comforting embrace of a hearth or warm fireside. A sky that shines with the glow of burnished silver. The valleys are shrouded in luminescent fog and mists. A place of ice-bound and glacial peaks. Endurance forbearance, and the ability to confront fear and uncertainty resides alongside the living here in plenitude.
Mars The fifth heaven has a sky similar to Solaris’ though its silver burns far brighter. Great sweeping plains dominate the landscape between mountains that reach higher and seem to hold the sky like a disc above the land. Healing of the body, mind and spirit radiates throughout. Faith is the virtue of the tier. The seeking of trust is complete and doubt has been banished.
Jovis is the heaven of gems. A celestial vault whose floor and ceiling are lined with stones of every colour and hue. The gate to completion lies within this tier. Hope endures throughout the land.
Saturnus is the illuminated heaven. A place of purest joy. A place where sorrow cannot enter which leaves poets and wise men speechless and blinded. The residence of Unconditional Love.
The truly altruistic can enter alone but it is best attained through couples who become as one. The world of the heavens is the birthing of Hope, Faith and Love that cover the world and persist in encouraging life below.
The choice remains to each of us which path we will take the easier plummet downwards to death or the exhilarating climb to the summit of life.