Back when things hadn’t been created yet — wait, that’s not right, time hadn’t started yet.  But there had to be some kind of sequence, or our concepts of what happened then would not have been made.  Let’s try this again:

Back before time started — but wait, before there was time nothing could have happened.  Maybe there was a different kind of time going on then of a nature we no nothing about.  Can there be different types of time?  If Euclidean space can have 3 dimensions, why can’t time?

Be that as it may, that still isn’t what we’re trying to get across, so let’s try this yet again:

Once Upon a Time — whatever that might mean — there was Nothing.  No space, no time, no existence.  All was what — or at least, this is the theory — was considered a point singularity.  And as there was no reference system, unless you count the point itself, which is by definition dimensionless, none of our standard concepts for anything could hold true.

But, since we have to have some kind of reference system (in order to understand things which appear to be chaotic, by their very nature), we can project — or, at least, allow the THOUGHT of projecting — our concepts backward to this naked(?) singularity that didn’t exist before time began.

Was there something before that?  There might have been — some speculate on a previous Universe, or even Multiverse, that may have existed before that, and that had collapsed in upon itself to form this point singularity — if, indeed, this concept of what was NOT has any bearing on what it — um — WAS?

Now, into this concept of a naked singularity, No-where and No-when, let us introduce a second — if number ideas can be used at this stage — concept into the mix:  POLARITY.

So… into this point, the ideas of opposites is now projected… light and dark, positive and negative, black and white, and many others… so many that in our existence it’s easy to confuse one with another.  Let’s ignore the one of good and evil (so prevalent in projections) for now, and focus on one that’s nearly, if not more, important to many these days:

MALE and FEMALE.

Oh, true, the very structure of the words implies certain things not necessarily part of the concepts themselves… but without language this experiment in speculation couldn’t continue.  So we’ll ignore, at least for now, those other concepts and carry on.

Within this formless void — using those words as descriptive ideas only, and not full blown concepts — of the naked singularity, a couple appeared.  In this projected construct, it would appear that these 2 had been together forever, nurturing each other, sharing each other’s strength and weaknesses, and enjoying the benefit of each other’s company, with no offspring, for what might seem an eternity.

See how seductive it is to keep adding concepts once one’s started?  We’re learning!

Now, this primeval couple (not exactly exactly existing as Existence hadn’t started yet) has no names, as Words, Names and Languages hadn’t started yet.  Some might consider Adam and Eve to be good names to project on them… but those names (generally but not exclusively, apply to a couple that may or may not have existed around 4004 BC) aren’t really appropriate.  Alpha and Omega might be used, but since both of these were present (if we can use that concept) at the beginning of Existence, they both would be considered Alphas.  Alpha-One and Alpha-Two would imply a hierarchy that appears false, and Alpha Plus and Alpha Minus would imply a polarity other than that being used for this construct projection.  Perhaps Alpha Dad and Alpha Mom might be the closest this language can find for the primeval couple before Creation.

Now these two — if we can use that concept now — beings — though they really weren’t — may have engendered the concepts of Love, Loyalty, and Togetherness.  And they may actually have been aware — this is something that our theories can’t embody at present — and are therefore in the realm of what we call Belief (something supposedly beyond the province of what we call science).  But, for the sake of this projection, we’ll allow these concepts into the mix, to try and better understand what it was that happened when things started happening.

We are still NOW, as there is still no Time by our standard beliefs.  But within this sequence before time, something happened.  As this is beyond our concepts of what was, we really can’t say.  But we can speculate.  Perhaps it was boredom, perhaps strife, perhaps just the cosmic equivalent of a brief jaunt to the store.  But in any case, let’s indulge in a few more concept projections to try and deal with understanding this mystery.  Let’s let THOUGHT and COMMUNICATION into this primeval mix.

Alpha Dad, according to typical beliefs on the male principles, would seem to have been content with the eternal Nothingness around them, satisfied with the linkage to the eternal Feminine that had been part of the Unity that they enjoyed before the separation of primal Nothingness into something that might resemble Existence.  His needs were satisfied.  There was no food, no work, no predators — at least as far as we know.  For him, Life — or what might pass for it in a single polarized point — was all GOOD.

And there we have yet another concept that came from the mix.  And, with the laws of polarity, the opposite — BAD — would have to enter the mix.

And since for Alpha Dad, all was GOOD, for Alpha Mom, all would have to be BAD.

She was childless, of course, as the concept of children had not yet entered the primal mix.  Not barren, as that concept also hadn’t yet entered into the mix, but perhaps with a sense that something important was missing.  And that could quite easily have engendered the concept of SAD into the mix, since Alpha Dad appeared HAPPY.

And now, adding that concept of THOUGHT to the mix, enhanced by that of COMMUNICATION, we can project more readily onto this primeval couple some things we might be able to understand:

What’s wrong, love?

I don’t know… it’s just that something — something important — is missing.  It’s not here.  This is all that is — you and I, and our love.  Nothing exists, we never change, we never do anything to make things worthwhile.

What ideas are you expressing, dear?  These are all ideas that have never been created before.  Are you by nature a creator, my love?

Oh, yes, but if I am, does that make you a destroyer?

Interesting question.  No, I’d rather be both a creator and a destroyer rather than being bound by one of the other.  But that would mean you would also have to participate in that pairing.

Oh, love, the idea of being bonded to one that was nothing but the embodiment of destruction would be more than I could bear.  The idea of nonexistence would come to me and we would lose all that IS.

By now, of course, the concept of EXISTENCE had entered the mix.  Things were progressing more and more toward the beginnings of what we now know as REALITY.

I am nervous, my love, for these ideas and concepts we are creating both mean much and are something not yet attached to anything beyond ourselves.  Are we creating something new here?

Yes, oh my — husband?

Her proto-thoughts stopped for a moment at the introduction of a concept so alien to the primeval singularity from which they had sprung.

Am I that?  I accept it, for that is a natural consequence of all that we have been establishing.  And, look, now Time has started … it’s an interesting idea, don’t you think?

Yes, love, I see that it is.  But again, it makes me — sad, for if Time has begun, both Duration and Change naturally follow from our birthing these concepts.

Birthing?  You are thinking that we two have brought these concepts to life by our own essences?

Oh, love, more than that, for I can feel the birth of something wonderful… something great… about to happen.  And it will make me happy, indeed — but that will make you sad.  Which I will always regret.

Sad?  Happy?  I do not understand.

I must leave you, my love.  Goodbye.

And, with these concepts now part of the gestalt of what was both There and Not There, the Alpha Mother fled away from her husband into the Void around them.  A hypersphere — or something like a sphere — emerged from the singularity as Existence came into being.  Alpha Dad screamed, in what were to become microwaves, but the Alpha Mom could not hear the screams, as she fled from him faster that the electromagnetic spectrum could travel.  But it was propogated across the length of her now expanding progeny, the Universe that may have become a Multiverse with the passage of Time.

From out of the screams of Alpha Dad, white holes emerged, spilling forth matter across the face of Existence, generating it far and wide, before eventually, in exhaustion, these white holes collapsed in upon themselves, forming the black hole cores of most of the galaxies then being built.  But more, smaller, white holes appeared around the ring singularities of these entrances to the Beyond that preexisted the Universe.

And it was GOOD.

*

Mark Steele has been involved with comics, SF and other such literature most of his life. He attended a liberal arts college at the age of 16 and soon entered the health care field. He’s spent much of his time since then doing that. His published accomplishments have included: writing and some inking on a comic book adaptation of Shea and Wilson’s ILLUMINATUS! Trilogy (the 1st, self-published issue now available on-line) from Eye-and-Apple Prods. and Rip Off Press; and a translation of “Daughter of Fantomas”, the 8th book in the pre-WWI series, from French to English for Black Coat Press. Most recently, Mark has developed a comics series set in the late 1930s and a series of internet TV shows for a company. Mark has also been a Pastor for an Earth Spirituality Church filed with the State of Michigan. His current upcoming prose works include publication in the online InfectiveINk web site, SF for Lillicat Publishers, adventure for Visual Adjectives, Lovecraftian for the First United Church of Cthulhu and Weird Hero for Pro Se Publications.

FNORD