1. CPENTA-ARMIJ said: I looked afar, and saw the earth and her heavens traveling on. I listened to the voice of mortals! A merchant counted over his gains; he said: This is heaven! A drunkard quaffed a cup of poison; he said: This is heaven! A wanton said: This is heaven! A general, red with blood, counted the badges on his breast; he said: This is heaven! A tyrant, rich in toiling slaves, said: This is heaven! Then a vast multitude, all smeared with the blood of war, pointed to a field of mortals slain, and said: This is heaven! A farmer stretched wide his arms, toward his great possessions, uncultivated; he said: This is heaven! A little child with a toy said: This is heaven!
2. Then spake Jehovih, saying: None of these canst thou convince to the contrary. They are not ready for deliverance.
3. I listened to the voice of spirits, the angels traveling with the earth. A wanderer, going about, with nothing to do, said: This is heaven! An obsessor of mortals and of other angels said: This is heaven! The fairies, the butterfly angels, the triflers, that forever look in crystal waters to behold their own forms, said: This is heaven! The rollicking, deceiving angels, went and inspired mortals to falsehood; these angels said: This is heaven! Vampire angels, that nestle in the atmosphere of mortals, largely living on their substance, said: This is heaven! Evil angels, obsessing mortals for murder's sake, to make mortals burn houses and torture helpless creatures, said: This is heaven!
4. Then spake Jehovih, saying: None of these canst thou convince to the contrary. They are not ready for deliverance.
5. Again I listened to the sounds coming from the far-off earth. And I heard the prayers of mortals. The king prayed for his kingdom and for p. 315a himself. The general prayed for success in war. The merchant for great gains; the tyrant for great authority.
6. Jehovih said: Only the earth can answer such prayers.
7. I listened again for the prayers of mortals; they had great afflictions, dire diseases, and famines, and wars; the merchants were bankrupt, and there was great suffering, and they prayed for deliverance.
8. Jehovih said: Shouldst thou deliver them they would return to their old, evil habits. I say unto thee, the merchant shall be bankrupt; the king shall fail; the general be overthrown; the healthy shall be sick for a season. Save they know My power, they cannot learn; save they feel affliction, they will not help one another. Shall a man say: O Jehovih, come Thou and heal the sick? Shall he not first of all recognize My will and know My power?
9. To give money to the drunkard, what good is that? To give wealth and earthly prosperity to them that acknowledge not Me, is to set them against Me. To give healing to the fevered, is to teach them that I have no power in the unseen air. Answer not thou the prayers of these.
10. I listened once more to the prayers of mortals. And they were such as lived according to their highest light; they purified the flesh by pure food, and by bathing every day; and they went about doing good constantly, hoarding up neither clothes, nor silver, nor gold, nor anything earthly. And they purified their thoughts by putting away the evil tongue, and the evil eye, and evil ear; and many of them were bound by the kings, and the tyrants, and the laws of mortals; and some of them were sick. And they prayed, saying: Great is my affliction, O Jehovih. I know that in Thy sight I am justly punished.
11. But hear Thou my prayer, O Father! Make me strong, that I may carry heavy burdens for the weary; give me liberty, that I may go about helping the poor forever. Give me wisdom, that I may uncover Thy glories before men.
12. Jehovih said: Go thou, My Daughter, and deliver them. They are ready for deliverance! Answer thou the prayers of such.
13. Then I called my hosts together, five hundred millions, in the Nirvanian heavens in Haot-saiti, in etherea, the highest heaven. And we entered into the airavagna, as, swelling high on every side, the music of millions cheered us on. Upward, high up, shone the glimmering red star, whereon now our steersman pointed the fire-arrow, p. 316a to shoot meteor-like across Jehovih's pathway, and thitherward turned our buoyant souls, saluting our starters with a happy good-by!
14. Arise! Arise! By my vested power in thee, O Jehovih, shall the elements fall before my will! Arise; onward! To the red star, speed on! Airavagna, upward, on!
15. Thus spake Cpenta-armij, her voice mellow and sweet, but so tuned to the spheres it could be heard the breadth of a world. And Jehovih, with whose power and will she had learned to be as one, by long experience and studying submission to His will, lent a willing ear and strong hand. Out shot the flames, the buoyant force manufactured by less skilled workmen learning the trade of Gods, where whirled the million screws of fire, propelling, till the mighty ship reeled, and turned, and rose from its foundation, with all its joyous hosts aboard, shouting loud, and singing praise to Him who ruleth over all. Then turning round and round, slowly, spiral like, the great secret form and force of vortices now first revealed to man, to show the plan of worlds, and how holden in their places and moved in universal harmony and endless creation, the great airavagna began her course in the roadway of Salkwatka, in etherea, shooting toward the red star, the young earth.
16. Nearing first the Oixanian Spars of Ochesu, where were gathered near the road ten million spectators to see the Goddess pass in her ship; and their banners waved, and their music burst forth most exhilarating; the which were answered by the airavagna's cheering hosts and sailing streamers. She halted, to salute in honor, the Goddess Yuetisiv, and then upward shot a thousand miles suddenly.
17. Again onward, turning the breadth of the road, a million miles, to the right, to salute Vultanya, Goddess of the swamps of Ailassasak, where stood by the portico of her heavenly palace seventy million pupils, in their thousandth year of tuition, to receive the passing blessing of the Orian Chieftainess, Cpenta-armij. And thither, but a halt, as it were a nod, and downward on their heads Cpenta-armij sent a shower of newly-created flowers from the sphere above, and in turn heard their chorus rise joyfully, in as many million words of love and admiration.
18. Still onward, upward sped the airavagna, her hosts viewing the scenes on every side, here most, the richest part and most glorious places of p. 317a Salkwatka. Where the etherean worlds, rich in the glitter of swamps shining on the countless rainbow arches and crystal pyramids, afford an extensive view of the new Orian boundaries of Oteson's broad kingdoms. Here course the thousands of excursionists from the measureless regions of the Huan lights, where are to be seen a million varieties of fire-ships, of sizes from ten miles across to the breadth of a world, in unceasing travel, in tens of thousands of directions, onward in their ways, every several one a history of millions of years, and of thousands of millions of souls, and every soul rich in the knowledge of thousands of worlds.
19. By music alone, some their ships propelled, the vibratory chords affording power sufficient in such high-skilled hands, and the tunes changing according to the regions traversed. Others, even by colors made in the waves of sound, went forward, carrying millions of angels, every one attuned so perfectly that his very presence lent power and beauty to the monarch vessel. And downward and upward, and east and west, and north and south, and of every angle and course; such were the traveling regions of Wellagowthiij, in the etherean fields of Oteson.
20. And of the million ships, with their tens of thousands of millions of spirits, who so great a Goddess, like Cpenta-armij, could turn her well-learned eyes on any one, and know its home regions, and from what Orian pastures sailed; or perhaps Nirvanian rivers! Or, like her visiting friends now with her, great Owks, and See-wah-Gon, and Ha-o-ha, that with her stood side by side, reading the coursing fleets, and relating to one another who they were, and the great Chiefs aboard, with whom thousands of years ago they had been together taming some rambling star and quieting its disturbed vortex, or perhaps surveying a roadway many millions of miles through an a'ji'an forest.
21. And the while the airavagna was shooting on in the hands of her proper officers, every one to his part and all the hosts in varied amusement; for such is the labor of the high raised in heaven, labor itself becometh an amusement of great relish. Coming then to the Crossings, near Bilothowitchieun, where was a small colony, ninety million etherean weavers, superintended by Cpenta-armij's ward, Hoewuel, God of two thousand years, who knew she was coming his way, and had lighted the roadway a hundred thousand miles in honor thereof, p. 318a she turned the airavagna and cast the streamers and banners, saluting. Here again Cpenta-armij sent down to her beloved sons and daughters, for every one, flowers and keepsakes; and on every flower was written the history and mission to the earth and her heavens. And then again the airavagna upward rose and sped on.
22. Thus in Jehovih's wide universe went forth the Goddess, the Chieftainess, Cpenta-armij, went toward the red star; passing through ten thousand varieties of etherean worlds and roadways in the ji'ay'an fields and forests of high heaven, seeing millions of etherean ships going hither and thither, every one knowing its own mission and field of labor, whilst the highest raised Gods and Goddesses could exchange courtesies with the fiery vehicles, and speak them, to know whither bent, and for what purpose.
23. Then rising high; here on a level lieth the earth, here the boundary of her vortex, Chinvat; just beyond the sweep of the moon; halteth here to view the rolling earth, her land and water; and her atmospherean heavens, the sojourning place of the newly dead, and of such as have not aspired to rise to holier heavens.
24. Quickly, now, Cpenta-armij taketh in the situation, and ordereth on the airavagna, which now taketh a downward course, steering straight toward the habitable earth. Slowly now, turning slowly, and descending; viewing all the regions on every side in the great vortex, she spies the plateau Craoshivi, the place of God, new founded.
25. And to her companions and to her hosts quickly Cpenta-armij, of the Nirvanian Chengotha, explaineth the place; and, stretching forth her slender hand, itself most like a stream of fire, she crieth out: Behold my anchorage! Here bring my ship and make fast, where riseth now the voices of my weary God and his Lords, of me so long expectant. In Thy wisdom and power, O Jehovih, I will raise them up!