Soul Matters Volume Six: Bondage Battleground
Chapter 4

They flew together, not as the masks of God traveled, but as angels did. It was less disorienting for Phil, but they were moving through veils that separated what Phil knew were different levels on the Spirit world.

Shortly, they arrived in a distorted landscape of twisted vegetation and knolls and gorges. Shadows moved in the subdued light. People were here, milling randomly around. Their movements were uncoordinated and jerky.

“Where are we?” Phil asked.

“It’s the land for those who aren’t quite human,” Manuel said tightly. “They either got so stuck in the Flesh and went back to being animals, or they’re animals on the way up the ladder.”

Asmodeus stopped and turned, “It’s where my mother is hiding.”

Then he set out with purpose, and the trio followed him.

Phil didn’t like the place. The ghoulish faces of the residents peered at them with blank yet greedy eyes and haltingly tried to follow. Once distracted elsewhere, though, they forgot about the intruders.

“Why would she hide here?” Phil asked.

Raphael answered, “No one comes here, and with Echidna’s earth-based power, she could rule this place.”

Manuel wondered out loud, “How long before the dark angels figure it out?”

“Not long,” Raphael opined. “The real question is what will they do when they figure it out?”

“But where are we?” Phil persisted. “I mean, we must be in the realm of Spirit, but where?”

Manuel answered, “The next level past the Akashic Record.”

“The Akashic Record is the foundation to the world of Spirit, and this is the first level of sentient beings. Is that it?”

“Yes.”

Asmodeus stopped before the black opening of a cave. It was set on a bumpy, moss-covered landscape. Scraggly trees were scattered about in random fashion. Behind low hills and craggy outcroppings, the beasts that lived here scurried about. Asmodeus called out, “Mother, we have guests.”

Raphael murmured, “Prepare to defend yourself.”

Phil focused inward and imagined himself on the step of his envisioned staircase where he could connect to the Living Force. He brought the energy into him. Then he imagined himself sitting next to the waterfall in his Sacred Area and drew spiritual energy in. Finally he connected to the place on the trail where the energy of the beast-within was found. Mixing the energies of Flesh, Force, and Spirit in his chest, he was ready to fight.

Echidna slithered out of the cave. She was beautiful as a nymph should be. Even her twin serpent tails added to her seductive allure. Her skin was translucent above the iridescent tails. Platinum blonde hair, pulled tightly back to a pony-tail, framed her long face. Thin lips spoke as her gray eyes bore into them.

“My son, what are these creatures doing here?”

“The human is why you’re free. The angels are his companions.”

“What do they want?" she demanded. "To force me back to Arima?”

“I don’t know.”

A long time passed. She moved not at all, simply staring at them. Phil felt her presence. It was like an undertow pulling his animal self toward her. His mental self was unaffected, other than noting her striking beauty.

Finally she commanded, “Speak!”

Raphael bowed slightly, “My lady, we are servants of En Sof. We wish to know your bidding.”

“Kill the human,” was her immediate response.

“Can’t do that,” Manuel smirked. “It’s one of the rules En Sof holds us to. Would you tell us why you want him dead?”

“If he has the key to unlock my prison, he has the key to lock me back up.”

“Good point. But what if he doesn't want to lock you back up?" Manuel countered. "What then?”

“I am the nightmare loosed from the unconscious. I would have all free men sent here to become slow-thinking animals worshipping me.”

Raphael commented, “Then your sister Lilith would be vindicated. She could rule Eden.”

“Exactly. She likes to govern men and kill babies. I like to be worshipped and flay the skin off those who would escape me.”

Phil wasn’t sure what this exchange was teaching him, but he noticed a macabre crowd forming around them.

Manuel began chuckling, “Things have changed in the last 2500 years. You might replace it hard to get what you want. By the way, why did Zeus let you live? I never understood it.”

“Who can kill his sister?" she said with a snicker. "Gaia gave birth to me as to him. She was the mother of the gods.”

Phil wasn’t conversant with Greek gods, but he wasn’t going to ask for explanations. Somehow Naamah and Echidna were the same, but they went through separate evolutions in their mythologies. Either way, Echidna or Naamah was at the source of the shadow feminine. Lilith was also there, and how many others? All of them banished by mankind, ostracized, and rejected.

“Not all of them,” Manuel said, once more reading Phil’s mind. “The Hindus kept her as Kali.”

Echidna’s patience waned about then. She asked the angels, “Would you two stand against me?”

“Not us,” Manuel said raising his hands in surrender. “Although your escape does threaten the balance. There are those who plan to return you to Arima. And there are those who would use Phil to lure you there.”

“This human?" she said with a disdainful toss of her head, and advanced. "Then I’ll kill him now.”

Phil reacted to her advance. Bolts of blue-white energy shot out of his hands and zapped Echidna to a standstill. Then he encased himself in a bubble of energy.

“Good shot,” Manuel congratulated.

Raphael stepped between them and spoke to the stunned Echidna, “We can negotiate this, my lady.”

“He struck me!" she exclaimed in shock. "He is not a god. He can’t do that.”

“I told you things have changed,” Manuel chided her. “Why don’t we negotiate with Asmodeus, and he’ll get back to you.”

“He struck me!” she reiterated. “I’ll feast on his flesh. How’s that for negotiating?”

“Let’s go,” Raphael said, and Phil noticed the natives of this place were getting restless.

Phil was plenty okay with leaving this dreary place with its ghoulish inhabitants and a raging earth goddess.

“Meet you in your conference room,” Manuel called to Asmodeus. Then they were traveling again.

They arrived at the conference room a moment before Asmodeus. Sammael was waiting for them.

The dark angel zapped Phil as soon as they materialized. Lucky for Phil, he was still shielded. Sammael’s blast dissipated in the energy field. Phil immediately counter-attacked, but his bolts dissipated against Sammael’s screen.

The auras of both Manuel and Raphael filled with brightness.

“Damn it!” Manuel shouted. “What do you think you’re doing, Sammael?”

“Eliminating a constant irritation to the balance,” was the reply.

Sammael stood tall, lean and straight. Dressed in black, his regal bearing signaled him as a prince of the realm.

Asmodeus hurried forward. Falling to his knees he said, “It wasn’t my fault. I lost a bet and had to take them to see my mother.”

“And where is she?”

“The half-human level.”

“Fitting place. What came of the visit?”

“We are to negotiate.”

“About what?” Sammael demanded and turned to the angels with an imperious look of question on his angular face.

Manuel didn’t let his aura drain of energy as he answered, “Not sure. We need to figure out what Echidna guards. Typhon guards man’s individuality. What does Echidna guard?”

Phil answered, “Community. She guards our ability to form inclusive communities.”

Sammael’s left eyebrow arched, “You have promise, human, but I doubt you’ll live to fulfill it.”

“You knew this, Sammael?” Manuel challenged. “Why didn’t you bring it up at the Council?”

“Why change the status quo? We know how to manipulate the variables today. If the rules of the game change, it will take time to learn new rules and decipher how we can manipulate them to our ends.”

Raphael spoke, “Now what? We are at an impasse. Do you have a proposal, Sammael?”

“No. I was hoping to end it right here, right now. I still hope to do so, but it will have to wait.” Then he disappeared.

Asmodeus climbed off his knees, his eyes darting about like a cornered rat. “I think I’m in big trouble. Forget about any negotiations.”

Manuel shrugged in acceptance of Asmodeus' cowardice, and both angels grabbed one of Phil’s hands. They fled the building back to Manuel’s patio.

“Well, that was less than productive. What now?” Phil grunted and sat on the marble bench.

“Metatron may have an idea,” Manuel offered.

Raphael grumbled, “Lilith was before his time. But there are the angels who let her live.”

Manuel frowned and asked, “Sanoy and his cousins. What are they doing these days?”

“I don’t know, but it was because of them El Shaddai became unsure about angels.”

Phil remembered a statement from the Book of Job: ‘he put no trust in his servants....his angels he charged with folly.’

Manuel was peering at Phil, reading his mind again, “The masks of God bounced around in confusion back then. The Elohim were the preliminary masks of God, sort of version 1.0. Things are better now.”

Phil smiled, “Good to hear it. What about these angels?”

“We don’t know where they are, but Camael does. He is chief of their order, the Powers.”

Raphael was standing rigid. Phil knew Raphael was telepathically communicating with someone, probably Camael.

“Sanoy is in Lebanon.”

Phil stood, preparing for the probable trip to Lebanon, but asked, “What have they got to do with this?”

Manuel answered, “Since Lilith refused to return to Adam as a dutiful wife, El Shaddai decided her punishment. He sent three angels to hunt her down and kill her. But they let her live -- with certain conditions. Sanoy was one of those angels.”

“Myth holds they made Lilith promise not to kill any baby protected by their names,” Raphael added. “There is probably more to the story than word magic.”

“Like what?”

“Let’s replace out,” Manuel said.

They flew out of the patio to a portal in space, which allowed them access to the created Universe. Through the portal, they streaked to Earth and the volatile Middle East.

As they flew, Phil realized there was no plan. They were reacting to the situation they found themselves in, or they were following hunches. In sum, it was another typical angel operation -- an ill-defined goal prompted unorganized strategies to first define the goal then fulfill it.

It was always like this. Reaction rather than proactive pursuit of well-defined goals. It was contrary to everything Phil learned in corporate management classes. Yet it was the norm in the seven heavens.

“The goal is God’s Will,” Manuel spoke to his thoughts again. “But he’s always changing his mind.”

“Why?”

Raphael, who in addition to being a healer also attended God’s Throne with six other angels, explained, “God holds matter and anti-matter apart. He separated all the opposites, and keeps them from just canceling each other. God is the balance. We help him with the details. Man tells God’s story within the structure He created. So you can see, maintaining balance means responding to whatever introduces imbalance. We’re always on the defensive.”

Phil considered this unique concept of God and Creation before he turned to Manuel, “And your track record, your responses are not well regarded.”

“They all worked out in the end," Manuel said, but added the caveat, "So far.”

They landed in Lebanon. It was full day and they were on a rooftop. A sniper team was in place, and the indistinct figure of an angel was behind the two-man team.

“Sanoy,” Raphael called. “We need to talk.”

“A moment. I need to steady this shot.”

The sniper with the rifle fired. Phil saw a man some 400 yards distant fall. Then Sanoy glided over.

“What is it?”

“Are you up on current affairs?” Manuel asked.

“Some. Is this the human?”

Manuel nodded, and Sanoy became more distinct. He was black-haired and wore a desert-brown robe.

“What do you need?”

Behind Sanoy the sniper team was hurrying off the roof. In the distance a group was huddling around the fallen man.

“What was your contract with Lilith?” Raphael asked.

“We put her in charge of Sudden Infant Deaths. No one else wanted the job. Mashhit approved the deal.”

“Anything else?”

“She can’t have children herself. Naamah could. Many of them became Lilith’s helpers, but Lilith is restricted to the Arabian Desert. Is this important?”

“Phil must defeat Lilith and Naamah to restore the balance.”

“Good luck,” was Sanoy’s sarcastic response. “Lilith might listen to reason, but Naamah won’t.”

“Would Lilith listen to you?” Raphael asked.

“Maybe. I’ll come with you. I’m between assignments, anyway.” He chuckled as he looked over his shoulder to the cluster of people around the dead man.

They left the rooftop and flew into the deep desert. The desert rippled with rock outcrops, ridges and low mountains. These framed shifting sand dunes. As Sanoy guided them further south, Phil questioned him on his job.

“How can you steady the hand of an assassin?” Phil asked with what he hoped didn't sound like condemnation.

Sanoy looked at Phil with some surprise and explained, “We insure justice. It’s what Powers do. Of the angels, we were created first.”

“Assassination is justice?” Phil wondered.

“In this case, yes. The man they shot was called the Butcher. We couldn’t get to him through ordinary means, so extraordinary means were in order.”

“You enforce the law of karma, then, and you use whatever means necessary. Am I reading this right?”

“Yes. This assassination was even a good example of a karmic debt paid with no residue. The snipers were acting without hatred, malice, or anything they would need to pay for later.”

Phil wasn’t satisfied with this glib answer, though. He pressed, “I see injustice all the time. Is there some logic to your work?”

Sanoy laughed, “We’re under staffed. There are only 12,000 of us. Sometimes we can’t bring someone to justice until many lifetimes after the fact. Mostly, though, their own patterns of behavior do our job for us.”

They stopped at a cave in a sturdy wall of rock. Sanoy led them forward without announcing their arrival.

Even though it was pitch black, Phil could ‘see’ well enough to notice the scurrying entities they passed. He filled himself with the energies of Flesh, Force, and Spirit just in case. After all, Lilith was supposed to be Sammael’s wife.

Lilith was in an oval chamber. A dozen or so female attendants surrounded her. She stood tall, dark-skinned, strong-looking, and her black hair fell to her waist. Dark eyes smoldered, but none of this distinguished her. Her sense of command did. Phil hadn’t seen, nor felt this energy before. It seemed condensed -- a focused and intense primal power.

“Sanoy,” she said in a husky voice. “Long time. Are you here to finish the job?”

“No. But it appears your situation has changed. Two archangels and a human would consult with you.”

“Raphael, Manuel, and it’s Phil, if I’m not mistaken,” she acknowledged. “Phil refused some of my nieces a while back. Made a mess of the Christian Devil’s plans as well. What do you want to talk about?”

“Thank you, my lady,” Raphael spoke. “The short of it is the balance is threatened. Phil’s actions set in motion something, and we need to understand what it is and correct it.”

“It’s been out of balance from the beginning!” she shouted. “Women were never supposed to be servants to Man.”

Manuel coughed, “Water under the bridge. Shall we focus on the present?”

“The answer is in the past,” she shot back, her voice rising with every statement. “The Elohim wanted to become human, and they wanted to keep their divine power. But once good and evil were separated, they couldn’t. I pointed it out. I was a voice of wisdom, and they silenced me.”

Phil couldn’t be sure if this was a con or not, but what she said rang true. Even so, he asked, “What do you mean?”

Coming out of her self-pity she focused on Phil, “The Universe the Elohim lived in has rules. They wanted immunity from the rules. Man must defeat God before God can become Man. Flesh must be accepted with its limitations, but the Elohim wanted to have their cake and eat it too. But God has to accept the rules. Man defeats God through acceptance. Adam was partially successful. His problem was, Adam thought he had dominion over me, but dominion over anything violates the rules, because dominion over anything is God’s domain.”

Phil pushed on, “So you’re saying the balance we now have is not true balance.”

“Yes. That's exactly what I'm saying," she said with confidence. "The current status quo was imposed by force. The Earth became Sammael’s domain and women are his agents. Evil is denied and pounded into submission, or warped into a counterfeit good. How can that be a balancing of the light and dark?”

Phil looked to the angels, “Well?”

Raphael turned from Phil’s challenge to Lilith, “You forget the yin is submissive by definition.”

“Only after the yang has received her mandate. The feminine is the creative impulse, the architect. It defines what is to be built. Without that mandate, the masculine is not supposed to act.”

Manuel broke in, “What’s your mandate?”

“Respect me and all my sisters. Respect the creative force.”

“How?” Phil asked, still unsure of Lilith’s true intention. He sensed something was off in her logic, but he couldn’t nail it down.

“Woman must defeat God so God can become Woman.”

Raphael stepped forward and put a hand on Phil’s shoulder, “You give us a riddle, my lady, one you have pondered for millennia. Have you worked out a plan?”

“No. That is the gift of the yang. I define the problem; a man will solve it. Perhaps this man; maybe some other. The Enlightened Ones solved it, but they could not save me. Nor could they instruct the Elohim, and En Sof cannot relate to us.”

Phil was thoroughly confused. How could he, a man, defeat God on behalf of women? Even if he could, how would that resolve the paradox of a Woman defeating God so God could become Woman? His task seemed impossible. And if the Twins were right, he needed to defeat Lilith and Naamah not God anyway.

Phil felt Manuel’s hand on his other shoulder. The angel murmured, “I think I see a way out.”

Given Manuel’s track record, Phil felt a momentary panic. But Manuel was glibly addressing Lilith, “Thanks you, my lady. We will return with a plan.”

She laughed. The sound of it chilled Phil to his soul.

Sanoy accompanied them back to Manuel’s patio. Apparently, en route, Camael assigned him to them.

“I don’t know what I can do,” the Power told them. “But I’m here.”

“It seems the archangels are in support of Phil’s task,” Raphael observed. “I was concerned about some of them. Camael in particular.”

“Why?” Phil wanted to know.

“We have all taken turns as ha-satan,” Raphael went on. “Camael opposed Moses when he was transcribing the Law. He did so, because he disagreed with the Law on principle.”

Phil realized in this moment angels were stuck with a similar interpretation problem men suffered with things Divine. Being closer to the source, though, angels dealt with the problem in more immediate terms, and obviously over longer periods of time.

Manuel nodded his agreement, but Raphael was continuing to outline their current situation.

“Sammael’s attempt on Phil can only mean he has gathered significant support. We are not allowed to just flash humans into a comatose state. Who are his allies? And why was this breach of protocol allowed?”

As the others pondered the question, Phil remembered a blast from an angel would serve to mostly erase his memory, place him in a physical coma he would probably stay in until he died, and he would reincarnate further down the ladder of development than what he’d achieved this lifetime. He would be starting over in effect. Although, it was better than getting zapped by a mask of God. That would cancel his existence altogether.

“It’s not clear,” Manuel said. “Sammael’s horde is obviously opposed to us, but who in the Ruling Council stands with him, I cannot say.”

“Nor I,” Raphael confirmed. “We’ll need to go forward anyway. What was your plan?”

Manuel squirmed under the direct question before he answered, “It’s a little bold. Not a little risky. And I don’t know if it will actually work.”

“What else is new?” Phil smiled at him.

Manuel smiled back, “In shamanic tradition, the final initiation of a shaman is get ripped to pieces and devoured by a spirit animal, usually a coyote. Then the coyote vomits him back. He returns a fully sanctioned shaman.”

Phil caught the implication and stammered, “You’re not suggesting --”

“I said it would be risky.”