Posted here are
parts I & II of the 4-part Technos
& Psyche, A Prelude. “Prelude” hints that a
much larger work by this title might one day still be written. That has been my
intention from the beginning. Technos
& Psyche would then be an epic-length poem, in the classic sense.
You may find
another version of this work elsewhere on the Web. Be aware that that is a much
older, outdated version that I had shared with others many years ago. What you
find below is the current, definitive version. I may add parts III & IV at
some point.
Technos
&
Psyche
*
A Prelude
1992 / 2008
Ron Lampi
Muse,
first to encourage my Song years ago
—and how many
songs of the great Song my Tongue
has sent
forth—,
help me now to articulate this critical &
urgent theme of our day,
our transition between World Ages & the
global contention
between two Powers: Modern Technos & its
grandiose Plan
of complete
control,
and the New Age Divinity Psyche offering a Vision
of Earth's healing & of the most needful Integration
between them.
Muse,
pour into me your poet the Golden Art of Mythos,
help me now in the launch of this unending epic of futurity,
a Story that promises the most wide-ranging of explorations,
the most unsuspected & bizarre of developments,
telling first of imposing Technos, who this
Power is,
beginning, as I see the giant android now...
I
Giant
Technos walked up and down upon Earth,
satisfied of its work & gratified for the
boundless favor
&
service the human creature had given it. All the Modern Age
was its
creation!
Tireless,
sleepless God! now suddenly come into its own,
high-tech perfected, its Vision of wiring up the
entire planet
into a Plan—
Ceaseless
its planning, calculating, analyzing, developing
& manipulating;
into the transcendental absence of Divine Power,
Technos
boomed with loud, boastful words, a voice
synthetic engineered:
I am now the one dominant Power on
Earth!
Humanity worships me like no other.
No other is the equal of me!
No other can claim what I claim!
The old Father of Ages—what has he done
to compare to my
work, my plans, my accomplishments?
To my will, I am bending the Earth!
I have granted its mortal inhabitants
thousands
upon thousands
of gifts, and they in turn subject themselves
to me.
The old God—a
puffed up fabrication of primitive rhetoric
&
superstition; blind spot of the mortal brain, projected onto
the void & reflected back;
an impossible Image pretending to autonomous power;
a vain & hopeless hunger deluding the centuries.
Technos
beamed with the hum of satisfaction before the oily filmy skies
over the cities of Earth, trillions of microcircuits surging
& crackling
with electric instantaneity throughout its cloud-towering frame,
its face of almost human likeness thrust toward endless
futurity;
with ease of giant android steps, Technos walked up & down,
unchallenged,
upon Earth.
Miles
it spanned with each step across the vast oceans
&
continents, Technos advancing its inspirations of Progress
&
proudfully marvelling at the metropolitan showcases
beneath it,
hundreds—thousands—spread across the outstretched
& moaning Earth.
Across
&
into the
of the Sierra Nevadas, Technos then south & westward aimed
&
in no time planted polished stainless steel feet firm
upon the summits of the
&
gazed wide-angled through lidless, photoelectric eyes
over the grandest Postmodern showcase of all, the monstrous
200-mile sprawl of
Technos
gazed & registered the great circuitboard spectacle
spread before it, a yawning basin of
uninterrupted humanity;
again the giant God spoke, a voice booming
like distant,
sound-breaking aircraft through the smog-choked &
bleary sky;
it began to recite its catalogue of human-fulfilled
achievement,
a constant reminder in the self-congratulatory thoughts
echoing
throughout the brains of billions of human
creatures:
To them, what all have I given!
Steel!
Plastics! Synthetic fibers!
Oil & gas!
The electric motor! Turbine!
Electric power
in every home! Printing press,
telephone, radio, television! Refrigeration! Appliances!
Instrumentation!
The assembly line! Railroad!
Cars, trucks,
highways, bridges, skyscrapers!
Ships,
submarines, aircraft! Radar & rockets!
Photography,
motion pictures & video!
Lasers! X-rays!
Ultrasound! Fiber optics!
Vaccines!
Prescription drugs! The miracles of surgery!
Vital organs
transplanted from body to body!
Synthetic
organs! Life extension! Cloning!
Genetic
engineering! Irradiated food!
Electronics,
computers, the microchip processor!
Particle
accelerators, satellites, automated robots,
nuclear energy!
Charged!
the supercomputer brain of Technos glowed
an eerie aura of phosphorescent green from billions of digital
flashes;
electro-intoxicated with a sudden realization of its
totalizing power
—human
programmed in its beginnings it had been—,
the towering God enthused proud more & more:
There is no end to the extent of my
power!
No end to this
hunger of Being to wire up all on Earth
into my Plan—
I scan the
Earth & behold my countless subjects at work:
For eons the
virgin lands awaited patiently the ambition
of machine; they welcome my bulldozers' rugged masculine
touch, the levelling caresses of my road graters, the
advancing
front lines of developers & construction crews
transforming
idle wastes into precious real estate. I watch my cities
expand across the centuries of long-monotonous Earth.
Through
birdless heights my jet aircraft cruise effortlessly.
Over the
thousands-of-mile oceans millions of gallons
of oil, tons of coal, steel, machinery, cars, medicine,
food for their biological need, my great tankers
&
freighters ferry day & night.
My submarines
have dived beneath the arctic cap.
No terrain can
stop me; the vast stretches of global ocean
do not intimidate me; & my dominion will extend, beyond
Earth,
throughout illimitable space!
My rockets have
thrust thousands of satellites
& space
probes & shuttles into Earth-shrinking orbit.
The human
creature has pranced proudly upon the Moon.
My space probes
have skirted the outermost planets.
My telescopes
bring the distant dim light year galaxies
into the eminent province of scientific investigation.
Soon, my space
stations will smile & laugh down
upon the tired old Mother.
And the
weakened creature body—I will replace it
with new wearless parts of plastic!
Into every tiny
nook, every chink, every private moment,
my dominion will extend; all life will bow in submission
before the sweeping hand of my designs & my control.
Do I not
already claim what the mind can perceive & know?
Hear me, all
who pretend to power, I will control the mind
itself!
Obedient are my
willing subjects: My worldwide undefeated
armies of scientists & engineers; technocrats &
technicians;
managers & analysts, developers & programmers.
Everyone now
worships me: doctor, farmer, general,
city planner,
president, housewife, the everyday man in the street,
the new cyber children; even the musicians & artists
worship me!
The
Sun-blocked, ochre sky over
with the friendly thunder of routine airliner traffic;
the interminable silence of the old God was gratifying
affirmation
of Technos's firm, unquestioned, global-expanding authority.
Technos
beamed with bursts of exaltation at the pretensions
of the nations, especially those that called themselves
the
Superpowers.
Giant
android Technos spread its multi-extendible arms
in a wide, fearful circle, as if able to embrace the entire
planet Earth
in one, enormous sweep, booming once again,
I am the new Superpower!
I proclaim a
new System, worldwide! unified!
A vast,
interlocking, networking, seamless, technological web!
No one will
escape my web! But I know this human creature.
Some dark,
sick, death-driven complex in its primitive brain
still wants to make war!
*
A mental Invisible, Technos began long centuries ago
to beguile the mind of genius, its inspirations inflating
the rational intellectual ego with grand exhilarating visions
of vast material wealth and unlimited power over Earth.
Cunning was Technos, to plant the seed called Modernity:
There was no invisible world, no supersensible, no realm
of transcendence; there was no God to answer prayer,
only matter measured & manipulated,
only clear & distinct ideas tested by experimental method,
producing hard fact & result. How sweet are
results!
Technos intoned cleverly & seductively in the human ear,
its Master Plan promoted continuously in hundreds of catchy,
media-conditioned slogans.
So the intellectual ego wove a silky-smooth Veil around
itself,
a wondrous, bewitching Illusion, and proudly called it
Progress,
the advancement of knowledge, the always clever spectacle
of new technology,
believing—so cunning is Technos—that the beguiled
ego
had accomplished it alone. It was Technos! a
Power invisible,
dwelling in the emasculated mind, stripped of its
wealth
of spiritual powers;
a mind now Postmodern, increasingly disoriented &
decadent,
without a Vision as to its own future.
But today! hear!
that another Power, a truly Divine Power,
a Golden Light, has come into the world, a Golden Power
announcing a new dispensation of the Ages, an
Advent time
drawing near in the perpetually turning wheel of
the great zodiac.
The Light of Vision now granted! To stand courageously
in the Opening of Vision granted! To stand where Technos
appears imposing before the Eye of creative
imagination:
Behold giant Technos! Behold the modern false divinity
unwittingly worshipped by millions! Behold its
towering figure
made manifest through mythos! Willful, sexless, android God
of our Age!
Behold
it,
constructing itself, however invisibly, through the
toil
day & night of unsuspecting humankind, its flexible,
stainless steel, segmented skin protecting it
against
the ravages of Sun & lashing storm; each cell of its over
mile-high & extendible-limbed &
precision-crafted frame
a microchip housed inside numberless integrated circuit
tissues;
its superclean, airtight internal cavities all dust-free,
huge air vents filtering continuously;
all vital organs plastic & shiny steel, silicon-based every
cell,
all composing, but for the hot nuclear reactor heart,
many thousands of centralized control systems within systems
&
subsystems,
myriads linked by thousands of spinal cord
conduits,
coils & coils of fiber optic wiring up
into the supercooled
& superconducting supercomputer of pure silicon crystal
suspended-in-liquid-nitrogen brain,
its millions of microprocessors crunching multi-giga bytes
of nanosecond-to-nanosecond input data collected from around
the planet!
Every day increasing in size, Technos towers into the sky!
its body of human-built likeness linking it with the template
of every human.
Technos spans the planet in one, vast, instantaneous
gestalt!
Technos is this
moment imagined!
*
Technos fell silent; hard brooding thoughts registered
in the android brain; it gazed with its infrared cameras
through the stinking, rust-tinged &
eye-watering sky
over the huge chessboard plane of
serpentine,
persistent, recursive thoughts that spoke loud
within
the cranial housing of the hard disc master program,
the great Master Plan:
I want total
control! Total control!
But
what if the human creature destroys itself first?
What
if my megapolitan jewels utterly decay
into rubble?
Already
the misguided creature turns my cities
into zones of war—and with my gifts! my
gifts!
Sick
creature!
What
if the perversity in the obscure old animal brain
unleashes madness in the masses?
Will
schizophrenia undermine them all?
But
I need time, time! and I will provide them
the biochemical cure! I will cure them!
I
will pull them through! For I must control them!
I
have given them the most dangerous secret of the atom.
I
have given them the tremendous thermonuclear power
of the Sun.
Yet,
they are still mere animal children!
Turning
gifts into treacherous weapons! Weapons
of annihilation!
Technos groaned; then in the perversity of its own
consolation
said,
At
least it would be my power, my knowledge,
that would destroy them, if they must be destroyed.
But Technos dissembled;
it held its Plan its most precious possession;
in its most secret sanctum its Plan coiled snakelike
in an iridescent holographic image above the slick
magnetic surface of its master disc.
The aspiration of Ages evolved & functioned in its
brain!
Its Plan was Truth! hidden in the
dark, protective,
liquid nitrogen cold; it coiled above a hard
disc inside
a pure silicon crystal!
Troubled by treachery, Technos had terrible visions:
Visions of weapons of mass destruction, of human
annihilation!
Technos itself would be annihilated! Along with its
subjects!
The android groaned; the constant build up of static
within its frame sparked & crackled in
downward
discharge, like branching lightning shocking
the sky.
A tremor then shook the golden-hilled
Seismic graphs registered in sensors in the android's
metal-booted feet; signals raced manic to the brain;
its troubled thoughts multiplied: a dark, heavy, sinking,
such a gloomy obsession was sounded:
What if
Earth revolted before I secure
my Master Plan of complete worldwide control?
Technos was envious still of Earth's primeval,
self-sustaining power,
and still feared the old Mother's uncontrollable temblors
& volcanoes spewing forth burning rock & lava, skies
blackened
by smoke & ash;
feared Her furious storms & tornadoes,
sweeping floods, droughts,
the ineradicable diseases that still plagued the human
creature.
Yes, Technos saw & despised the possible natural
disasters
caused by Earth:
Hurricanes thrashing prime coastline properties,
thousands drowned with each typhoon & raging
of flash flood,
great earthquakes rattling & crumbling its
magnificent cities,
volcanoes devastating all surrounding, & fires
ravaging;
harassing storms that could still knock out power
to hundreds
of thousands...
Technos's Plan still remained short of omnipotent power,
however ambitious its various attempts to
achieve it.
And ruthless its means: When other Earthly creatures
interfered with its Plan, Technos ordered them
poisoned, trapped & shot, their forest,
swamp, plain
& prairie homes cleared, drained, levelled, &
destroyed,
the jungle havens of creature millions slashed & burned.
If but a single tree dared to stand in defiance of its Plan,
Technos would not spare it, but ordered it cut down.
When mountain dared to rise an
obstacle to its Plan,
Technos would defy it & ordered it brought down.
Technos could always depend upon the fundamental greed
of human ego, whenever needed, to accomplish
any phase of its Plan.
Expendable
creatures!
Nothing
gets in the way of my Plan!
Technos's mottos were continuously coined & promoted
through global media conditioning & mass
indoctrination.
Technos taught humankind how to think, but one way,
the way of Technos.
II
Technos, still the young new God born of
the modern,
ceaseless Will, never did it rest, never did it
close its eyes,
never did it need the fleeting play realm of
dream;
constant was its managerial scheming of endless
growth
worldwide: The proud android groomed slyly the
high-tech leaders
among nations:
In
all of
Constant the planning it carried out, its fixed Vision
of endless milestones of Progress: Tidy, new, industrial parks
through mile after mile of suburban orbits of
sprawl; the many nations'
growing space programs; university &
government laboratories
& huge medical centers & military
stockpiles of state-of-the-art
weaponry;
in
and soon to invade every household of the nation;
the new video revolution & TV generating its media-defined
culture
for the mental numbing of the young.
So often Technos gazed approvingly &
sent its inspirations
out over
& burgeoning & those
long-established of companies called high tech
enriching the
And
over all nations & peoples, over every city & town;
every household to the furthest outskirts of
Earth
would someday be caught in the great
centralized Web
of data base information & control.
Technos stood tall,
monstrously tall, upon antenna-topped Loma Prieta,
gazing north into the vortex of this brittle,
new, silicon world;
and from there, peak of the
it was able to turn its freely-rotating head in every
direction.
Southward it now turned, and there beheld
the beautiful shining
maiden breast waters of the
For so many years past Technos had
largely ignored the well-known
of a sleepy resort & surfer's haven, the little city there
name of
but no longer could protective redwood-dense mountains
and mother ocean prevent the ever-searching eye of Technos
from uncovering its latent value, this enclave just miles
the far side of the mountains from the scheming minions
of Technos!
The giant android God of diabolic
ambition gazed upon
the smooth-polished waters that curved shapely upon
the horizon,
and said of its gorgeous rim,
This
real estate wants development.
I
will enrich it and increase its value
a hundredfold!
Technos towered in the milky blue sky
atop Loma Prieta
and steadily gazed upon the beauty of the broad bay its renown
both near & far, processing all the varied data of land
values,
economics & demographics & local resources
the multi-tasking,
powerful zoom-lens of its eyes gathered. What
potential this land!
To
develop & market! To exploit!
The super-calculating brain prioritized
the various items
of its appraisal, and relayed its report to its various
internal
programs;
Technos would then advance its
recommendations,
as it did everywhere, in the board rooms of its minions,
whispering in the ears of corporate managers,
executives,
CEOs & presidents; nothing would stop
its Plan—
With the speed of the electric instant,
all considerations
it processed.
All across the planet, Technos promoted
its subplans
within the great Plan.
Suddenly,
Technos must pause. The smooth
data processing within one of its subsystems had stopped:
Something
would not process.
This blip! blip!
appeared on its video scanning monitor,
a persistent blip! an
input-analyzing program was registering;
it was some annoying glitch of unknown origin &
specification
now fouling up its primary optical receiving system:
Another stubborn, annoying glitch among
multitudes of others
that periodically interjected in the endless battle to institute
well-functioning order:
Curse of the glitch!
A central identification system to
subsystem command
it now issued: Trace this blip, freeze it, magnify &
focus:
And within a second, completed, the blip
was centered
in its visual field: The very eyes of Technos now saw
& directed.
A faintly luminous, scarcely visible,
shifting form
hovered in place over
What
is this?
Technos commanded yet further analysis:
More
focus!
And the form appeared to grow somewhat
sharper,
as its outline still shifted; still it was undefined:
More
focus! I want a definitive picture!
I
want to see what this glitch pretends to be!
Sharper still drew the resolution in the
cross hairs
of its visual field.
And then, Technos saw!
Baffled, confused, to the extent that
Technos could be,
Technos
saw!
A vibrant, subtly changing figure was
hovering there,
human proportioned, but great in size, though
not as great
as Technos itself; and now brighter, coming into greater
clarity,
it was a glimmering apparition of the human female form,
yet still shifting in its form, still not come into its sharp
definition.
Red alert panels suddenly in silence
flashed across
the broad forehead of Technos: Quickly it would analyze
&
correct this aberration!
Silently tiny red panels inlaid up &
down its giant frame
pulsed in sequential pattern; its cranial
thermostat cooled
its master logic circuits; shrewdly then it analyzed this
glitch
of an apparition & almost instantly the appropriate
conclusion was formulated & presented in a
digital display;
it read:
Merely
an optical illusion.
Then recalibrate & reprogram!
was the next logical command—
Eradicate
it!
Yet, the hovering,
holographic figure over
no matter how the subsystem recalibrated;
and it was striking in its light-radiant beauty
clothed in auroral shimmering &
scintillating veils
of multiple, subtle, translucent color,
and a mercurial shifting from moment to moment.
Baffled, affronted by a mere glitch it
had no time
to waste on, Technos glared & glared—such resistance!
Such defiant tenacity, to persist like
this! A mere illusion!
Nothing
but a glitch!
But there it persisted, its size large
enough for Technos
not to ignore, as if its very presence challenged Technos
to a confrontation.
This
illusion is alive!
Technos thundered with objection &
cursed the Sun.
Sun!
you failed to blot out these lingering
shadows of the
past!
Technos within seconds reevaluated; with
cunning plan,
it reasoned: I will address this Illusion. I will make
this Illusion useful to me!
Aloud then it spoke, booming its
synthetic voice,
Who
is this beautiful one who will serve me?
Illusion
in vain human female guise—
even you will submit to my power!
Illusion,
I say announce yourself,
if you have a voice!
I
demand, tell me who you are!
Hovering, shimmering, scintillating,
holographically
appearing, this beautifully entrancing figure
now broke its veil of silence, and a voice melodious
said,
I
am Psyche,
Song
of the glory
of this Earth!
Technos's superbrain madly calculated;
hundreds of theorems
it put through their permutations & its data banks
recalled
tomes of information from all the libraries of
the world;
within seconds, upon its centralized internal
monitor,
a new conclusion flashed in red, and the automated voice
of Technos exclaimed,
Therefore,
you are madness!
You
are that madness lingering in the mortal creature!
Finally,
you have shown yourself to me!
A siren alert now rang throughout the
multi-security
systems of the giant body of Technos, but the
hovering,
persistent apparition melodious replied,
I
am the answer to the question mark
of this Age.
I
am the answer to the madness.
Technos, affronted, roared back in its
monotone-measured
voice,
No!
I am the answer!
You
are the madness!
You
are the suffering perpetrated by Earth
within the human creature!
You
must be stopped!
You
must be controlled!
Imagine
how Technos
was gratified for all the weapon systems
its human subjects built: No idle threat, giant Technos!
It marshalled immense forces assembled
over years
within its mighty frame: Whole armories
& satellite-linked weapon systems
strategically
located throughout its mighty android frame:
Anti-aircraft guns perched like metal
vultures
upon its broad steel shoulders; along the length
of its torso dozens of silos opened, exposing
the bright phallic tips of ground-to-ground
&
ground-to-air missiles;
jet fighters roared instantly into the shocked sky
with the mere opening of its tarmac palms;
it held within its cavernous belly hundreds
of multiple nuclear warheads, ready for delivery;
tanks were stationed in the huge bunkers of
its feet;
multiple, high-powered radar antennas sprouted
from its flat-top head;
its eyes focused into the finest cutting of laser beams;
and it stored within its huge lungs chemical weapons
it could exhale into the atmosphere, a poisonous vapor
to choke the land; nothing could equal its killing power,
its overkill capability.
What other Power to meet the challenge of
Technos,
dare compete with the giant, global-encompassing
techno Superpower of the Age?
To the hovering apparition
that identified itself as Psyche before it,
it proposed,
Surrender
to me and obey me
and I will make this Earth a paradise.
You
are the remnant madness, the last glitch
of recalcitrance in my worldwide Master Plan!
But the phantom
yet persisted in defiance, and showed no fear
for all the menacing threats displayed by the imposing android,
for Psyche, in point of fact, is divine inspiration of the
conquering
of all fear—
She boldly proclaimed before the ominous
aggression
of Technos still towering from the sky,
atop the mountain,
But
that is not the way of soul.
Flagrant
dictates will never command soul.
Technos's eye lenses widened to their
fullest extent:
Negate
this nonsense! Soul?
That meaningless anachronism?
If
you will not obey me, then prepare
to be destroyed, you old Illusion!
Psyche,
who is Water Bearer of the divine wisdom
of the Ages, come to us in a new dispensation,
knew well the wiles & power plays of critical cognition;
She sang out,
I
am hidden within the breast of every human.
I
say: You could destroy all humankind,
but still you would not have destroyed me.
An echoing groan thundered throughout the
hollow
internal chambers of the android's towering
frame;
a frown creased its semi-plastic morphable face;
but then triggered the prompt of logic assertion;
it boomed:
Illusions
lie!
Such destruction—no! Technos wanted
control;
Technos wanted to control & be served
by the Universe.
But Psyche not destroyed by the
destruction of humankind?
What illogic this Illusion spoke! Technos
despised riddles.
But consider still, what Technos did not
know—
That Psyche held the very secret of the
origin
of Technos; the android knew little
of its own beginnings.
Said Psyche again,
Beware
your delusion, Technos!
The terrible weapons of Technos bristled
& almost leaped of
their own from its mighty frame.
The Illusion called Technos by its name!
No one knew the name of Technos! Its name
was a powerful secret. How could this Illusion
know it?
And it didn't stop, for Psyche went on:
Destroy
humankind, Technos,
and you will only destroy yourself.
But
realize I would still endure & manifest—
in every remaining living creature.
And
if every living creature you eradicated,
I
would still not be destroyed. I would still
endure & manifest—
in every rock, every crystal, in every metal.
Out
of the living molten heart of Earth
I
would still endure & manifest.
Multiple, highest-order
alerts flashed & rang throughout the giant
body
of Technos; yet, a highest order logical algorithm
put all execution programs on hold, Technos stalled
in uncertainty & disturbed over the apparent implications
of what the phantom dared to claim.
How could it destroy this phantom? If
what it
said were true? If Illusion would survive
Technos?
Logic circuits heated & tripped
processing the conundrum
Psyche
presented.
All the weapons of Technos could surely
unleash holocaust
upon Earth!
But Earth itself would still be!
And
Psyche would still be?
A diabolical thought
now cozily curled itself among a billion printed circuits
within its supercomputer brain: A serpent's
cunning thought!
I
will yet entrap this Illusion of beauty.
So Technos was quick to scheme: I will
insert a sly chip
of debilitating doubt into the gullible mind of this phantom.
Then will it submit, and I will then,
yes! command
even the Earth itself!
Asked Technos of the hovering, radiant
figure
before it,
What
have you given the human creature?
Can
you equal the multitudes of gifts I give?
Can
you equal the gift of even a simple
harmonic oscillator? the microchip?
the laser? the cardiograph? the everyday
camera?
And
that is only a sampling!
Hundreds
I could name!
Consider
the complex interlocking systems
of the most advanced technology comprising
the still primitive space shuttle—
Could
you presume to equal that?
Psyche, however, could not be impressed
in the way
Technos wanted—or demanded; Psyche
certainly
knew too much about the true origins of Technos;
Her own part in these origins Technos
could not
even surmise.
Psyche replied,
All
that you name, Technos, I can equal—
My
inspirations have given birth
to all the world's artistic works—
and before Psyche could speak another melodious word,
Technos interrupted:
The
human creature no longer needs your inspiration!
My
computers will generate of their own,
music & painting & poetry.
No
longer will the artist type be needed.
My
technicians will be more than sufficient
to produce the art necessary for my consumers.
No
longer will suffering & sacrifice be called for.
That's
what you have given the human creature—
confusion, anguish, turmoil & regret; sorrow
&
depression; morbidity, fanaticism & insanity!
Sage Psyche
was no fool; the logic of Technos
left uncomprehended a subtle, deeper, spiritual dialectic;
for Psyche is not the individual soul in its possible pitiful
state,
but is Spirit, Divinity of soul. She is manifestation of
Spirit
into time; it was for this present, as Living Image,
that She appeared & opened her arms with lovingness,
Her hands reaching out to comfort all
that suffered;
She repeated in bright, song-like voice,
I
am the answer, the counselor come,
guide of soul!
Technos
cannot understand my Advent,
the Vision of New Life I offer.
I
come as the new Word.
Psyche,
bearing within Herself the divine wisdom of the
Ages,
knew well every Piscean Age assumption made by Technos,
that oppositions unresolved could only undermine
& destroy without recourse, without
offering
any future glimmer that hope could see
as a conjunct unity of them working together.
But Technos echoed & replied:
I
am the answer! I am the new Word
of this Age!
And
I will undermine and destroy your beauty—
No
human creature will listen to you!
They
will know you bring them only suffering.
Your
beauty is false! You are the ugliness
of their puny existence!
But Psyche,
Divine Shapeshifter was She, made
another, unexpected,
disturbing revelation to Technos; Psyche now
underwent
a radical transmutation before the instant-analyzing eyes
of Technos:
Suddenly,
the indignant android beheld, in defiance of all sanity,
a huge, phantom bull sporting about upon
the
no, but it was a fierce, enormous lion it beheld there;
no, but a great, spread-winged, golden eagle,
hovering there, above the
Yet, the next moment, it was like one—a
human figure—
standing in mid-air out over the bay, pouring
forth
scintillating water from an urn,
water that in turn seemingly flowed out to all
the waters
of the world.
What
madness of Illusion was this?
As if the figure itself, who was none
other than Psyche,
were composed of scintillating water, for the waters of the bay
geysered upward as a Fountain & flowed through
Her
& poured forth from the urn, & in
that pouring & flowing forth,
suddenly then—as water changed form in that flow—
there appeared now the phantom of a contorting
snake
where Psyche’s figure had just been. And the
snake
opened ever so slightly its smooth-rounded
mouth
& uttered mysterious words in some
mysterious tongue,
a tongue Technos could not immediately comprehend!
Technos relegated to a subsystem a
language analysis:
seconds & seconds passed & more seconds
& still
the subsystem could not decipher the apparent alien
tongue.
But
that was not all—
suddenly, most wondrous of all, a great,
light-dazzling Tree now appeared, rising miraculously
out upon the bay waters.
Technos, self-affirming its own analysis,
monotone roared,
Here
is the madness!
You
are changeable! changeable!
You
are mere Illusion!
The
mind must be unified & one!
It
must have centralized command!
A
centralized program!
All
must serve its alloted function according
to the Master Plan!
Technos stopped:
Its head turned, alarmed; it listened,
it amplified its numerous audio receivers:
What was it recording? From the Tree came
—this was not rational!—this was not
allowable!—,
from the Tree came—singing! The Tree was singing!
This was incredible! No—it was
impossible!
No!
Technos thundered, but instantly the most
cunning
of its programs bypassed the central brain;
they recorded into auxiliary data files a digital transform,
to be preserved; singing such as this a cataloguing program
had already concluded had never before been heard.
Throughout all the Tree's innumerable
branches
a myriad of songs harmonized into an ever-changing,
complex Melody enchanting to hear; but Technos
was not to be enchanted, no, Technos was greatly disturbed—
Such song was not possible! Should not be
possible!
It
must be silenced! It must be stopped!
Technos clenched its fist: This is
insanity, this singing
from a Tree! Drown it out, this impossible singing!
Technos sent a command out to its
hundreds of thousands
of minions, and so worldwide hundreds of thousands
of mass media radio & TV stations all played
simultaneously.
Drown it out, do
not let the human creature hear such song!
Siren
song of madness!
Siren song of some other impossible,
nonsensical,
alternate state of—! There was no other, alternate
state of—
No
other—
Then, slowly,
before the still furious eyes of Technos,
the myriad glinting, crystal-like-leafed Tree of Song
rising upon the
back into a Fountain—
A light-dazzling Fountain rose out of the
bay;
the Tree, which was Divine Psyche Herself, dissolved into
& as the Fountain, & the uprushing,
arching sprays of it
now appeared to collapse & withdraw into a swirling vortex
back into the waters of the bay, these waters that deep within
—how far down they must go—held the
secret of Memory.
And the swirling motion of the vortex
slowed to a stop;
as if nothing had ever occurred out there in the bay,
beautifully calm were the steel-blue waters
of the
There
was no Illusion there.
The madness! the
madness!
Technos long pondered it in baffled
disturbance;
it would not forget this encounter; it would remain
suspicious of this place along the golden
name of
remain suspicious of some latent power dwelling
deep
within the waters of
should manifest here, and that some human
creature
had to have collaborated to have allowed it to come forth,
to appear as it did before the Eye of human imagination.
Technos registered it must soon return to
this place;
the android God of the Age must anticipate
that another future encounter with Psyche
would take place.