The Chronicles of Heaven's War: Blood Moon Rising

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  A hand gently shook Ishtar’s shoulder, stirring her to wakefulness. Her sleeping mind heard a cooing voice as if far away, it softly calling to her, “Ishtar, my child, it is time to rise…Ishtar…”

  Tingling warmth flowed from the hand into the girl’s arm - a soothing, comforting warmth. It reached out to every fiber in her body, drawing away all remorse and regret and putting her at ease. Although she well remembered all her anguish, it became more like some dream than reality. Gradually Ishtar stirred. One eye and then the other slowly opened. The wall on the far side of the room filled her vision. “Mother?” Ishtar whispered. “I miss my mother...”

  Fingers lovingly stroked the girl’s arm, Lowenah’s voice softly echoing in her ear. “One day, my child - one day your mother will again hold you. It is not that far away.” Then came other reassuring and comforting words. “There are many here who love you and they will care for your needs until that hour arrives.”

  Cautiously, Ishtar rolled over, Lowenah extending a hand, assisting her up in the bed. For what seemed ages, the two sat almost nose to nose, staring into each other’s eyes. Two women, appearing to be but the same age, two pair of emerald green eyes reflecting secret feelings and emotions that no language had yet created words to describe, two children filled with wonder at the discoveries being made. A silent bond was being welded between these two, as solid as Ishtar had bonded with Darla. All fear of God evaporated from the girl’s heart, never to return. She was beginning to understand who the real Maker of all things was. She was beginning to fall in love.

  Lowenah pressed a finger to Ishtar’s lips, while with her other hand she gently pulled the child from the bed, taking the girl from the room. After wandering along several passageways and descending a golden, spiral staircase, Ishtar found herself standing on a flagstone path in the same garden courtyard that she had seen from her window far above – a mesmerizing world filled with intoxicating delights that excited the senses.

  Eyes as big as saucers, Ishtar stared into a magical wonderland only to be found in this tiny universe secreted behind these high garden walls. She squealed with delight at the strange and beautiful creatures. One particularly drew her attention, an animal looking much like a manta ray wafting along on the breeze. As it gracefully glided by, its wide, translucent blue body rippling, propelling it along, she reached out to touch it.

  “Please! My dear, do be careful!” Lowenah cautioned the girl.

  Ishtar quickly withdrew her hand. “I’m sorry.” She quietly replied. “I meant no harm.”

  “Harm…? Oh, yes.” Lowenah smiled. “My dear, that is a most fragile creature. Why even a strong wind may tear it apart. But it is for your protection that I called out.” The little animal floated on past and vanished through some cave-like opening in a wall. “You see, I have covered its body with countless little stingers. It discourages other animals - or curious fingers - from disturbing it. You might well suffer ill effects of such an encounter for many days.”

  She apologized to Lowenah, but the experience did not dampen her curiosity. As she hurriedly scampered about the garden, snooping under this leaf and poking about that plant, she would squeal in delight with each new discovery, pummeling Lowenah with one question after another about this wonderful place. Like her uncle, Symeon, Lowenah knew the impetuous child would soon tire of this adventure.

  While the excitement still lingered, Lowenah took the girl’s hand, leading Ishtar along a path to a stone table in the middle of the garden. It took little prompting to get Ishtar to open up. The girl did have many, many questions.

  For hour upon endless hour, the two huddled in deep conversation. It was a most notable day. And should I comment on all that was discussed and revealed, I doubt there would be pages enough in this book to detail it. There were also many questions of a personal nature that I feel are not mine to reveal. But some things warrant mention.

  Ishtar had been intrigued with Lowenah’s explanation of the mind and how it survives beyond the physical body. Learning the makeup of the Universal Web - the invisible netlike structure into which all other things of the universe were placed - fascinated the girl. But when it was described how the Web of the Mind was another netlike structure that interlaced the Universal Web, and how it collected to the growing cells of living things, Ishtar was overcome with amazement. Yet it was this knowledge of the danger facing all living things that helped the child to grow in accepting her responsibility regarding bringing the Rebellion to a finish.

  After watching Lowenah as she chatted with her, Ishtar couldn’t help but ask, “Who are you, really? You came to me in the village, acting like some domestic servant. You told me your name was ‘Lowenah’. Then I come to stand before God and you are there. I see powerful things and am warned to be so careful or else I should die. Which part of all this is really you? Which part is real?”

  Lowenah laughed. “They both are. I am all of those things.”

  “I don’t understand.” Ishtar stated, in a disquieted frown. “In fact, I don’t understand why they call you ‘Lowenah’. Isn’t your name ‘Yehowah’?”

  “Yehowah?” Ma-we smiled. “Lowenah?” She became silent, as if buried in thought. After some time, she addressed Ishtar’s question. “Both of those names belong to me…and yet I have many, many, more than just those two.”

  Lowenah now delved into the value of names and what they truly mean. “A person’s name is really a title that identifies some special quality the individual has or the reputation acquired. The longer one lives, the more titles he or she might receive. You see, the title ‘Yehowah’ was given to me many years before your birth. In fact, it was to your ancestor, Moses, that I first identified myself using that name. Before then, to people of your world, I was known as ‘Iam’, the greatest of all gods. I explained that ‘Yehowah’, when translated, means, ‘I shall prove to be whatever I want to be’. The king of Egypt soon found out how real that meaning was.”

  She took Ishtar’s hand in hers and began to play with the girl’s fingers. “All my children have private names for me - special names. To that child, the name he or she gave me has a treasured meaning behind it. I dare not tell you what those names are, or what they represent, for each one is secret to the heart of each one giving it. Also, my children bestow titles on each other, friend and foe. I’m sure you have heard the name ‘Asotos’.”

  Ishtar eyes twinkled with acknowledgement. “Oh, yes! They say he is the wicked chieftain of all the demons.”

  Lowenah’s smile faded. “Your people call them ‘demons’ in your old realm. To us they are only the rebels, or we may call them ‘Pseudes’, which is a title that means ‘false witness’ or ‘liar’. When we speak of demons, we are referring to the machines and diseases that have been invented by the Pseudes in their mad desire to control others.” She released the girl’s one hand and picked up the other and started fondling it. "‘Asotos’ is also a title given to the Wicked Chieftain by my loyal children."

  Lowenah sat there, gently stroking Ishtar’s palm. “‘Lowenah’ is the name I gave to myself after creating this universe.” She broke out with a big toothy grin. “It literally means ‘whispering waters’ in the most ancient of all languages - one that was invented long before speech existed. You will find the runes inscribed throughout the old palace and outer walls. Few except me understand the written words and fewer still are able to pronounce them in the common vernacular unless I have given them power to do so.”

  Ishtar interrupted, curious, “What’s a ‘vernacular’?”

  “It’s the sound of words rolling off our tongues that we call ‘speech’.” Lowenah then returned to her topic. “You have seen Zadar’s and Darla’s rings, haven’t you?”

  Ishtar thought a moment. “Oh, yes! The onyx rings, with their different colors.”

  Lowenah agreed it was so, explaining, “The power within each rin
g permits its owner the ability to master the speech of some of those words. I will tell you more of that later. Let me return to names and titles. The original language I gave to the most ancient of your people was taken from my own children’s common tongue of the day. My daughter, Terey, spent thousands of years compiling lists of dialects all my children had developed over time. She gathered a pool of the most widely understood terms and created a catalog of sorts. It came to be known as ‘the common tongue’.”

  In the common tongue, ‘Lowenah’ is translated into ‘I am MAN’. The word ‘MAN’ simply means ‘Maker of all Nations’. So, before I was known to your people as ‘Lowenah’, I was simply known as ‘MAN’, or ‘MAN, the Creator’. Later, after the Rebellion had corrupted all things, people started calling on my name in a way I had never intended. My son expended all his efforts to make me appear cruel and demanding, turning me into an unapproachable, temperamental deity. Soon they were building great edifices to me, and they changed the meaning of my name to match their newfound superstitions and fears of me. In time, that name came to be known only as ‘God’. And eventually that name was stolen by my wicked son and given to his servants, who made themselves into gods before the people of your old realm.”

  “When I put my name, Lowenah, on a chosen people, the nations round about associated that name with those people and came to hate it so much, none of my rebellious children ever tried to steal it.” Lowenah released Ishtar’s hand and turned away as if suddenly taking note of some disturbance in the garden, wiping a tear from her eye as the gentle breeze carried the sadness of her next words. “It is the only thing they’ve not attempted to steal from me.”

  She let out a long sigh, turning back to Ishtar, concluding, “I have continued to use that name, or derivatives of it, down to this day because it appeals only to those who care for me. My enemies still hate the mention of it; the wise ridicule it; and the foolish speak of it in jest.”

  More time passed. Questions came and answers went. Finally Lowenah addressed Ishtar’s other question, ‘Who really are you?’

  “My little child, you have seen who I really am.” Lowenah grinned, watching Ishtar’s face screw up in puzzlement. “I do love how full of expression you can be. Some of my children find you difficult to deal with. I think there is truth to what they say. Still, I do like the way I made you. And when you learn how to be a woman, those traits will serve you well.”

  Then Lowenah went on to answer the girl’s question. “My dear, I have shown to you my personality and my legal and real power. First, Lowenah - the woman who spent so much time with you - that’s me. Long before I created anything outside of my body, I had built countless universes in my mind. Those universes are as real as the one you reside in. The fiery Cherubs and flying creatures you saw earlier are all part of those worlds. I have great power in my mind and can bring anything it has imagined into this, or any other reality.”

  “As Lowenah, I played in the worlds I had earlier invented. There were countless playmates there for me to enjoy. The playmates could – can - think and reason, some having very intelligent minds… somewhat like the Cherubs. Oh, but the Cherubs are wonderful people, much like my children in so many ways. They are from an age beyond time, born from my immortal self long before I built this body of flesh.” She mused in pleasant thought. “A very wonderful people...”

  She added, concerning her other playmates, “They are much like animals in the sense they were made to be more predictable, like a dog or cat.”

  She patted Ishtar on the arm. “I also have invented many, uh, machines, you might say, that can also think and reason. Some of these machines have much greater thinking and reasoning abilities than my children. They are kept here.” She pointed toward her head. “I conjure them up in my mind when I have need of their services. They are the tools I have used in making so many of my creations.”

  “Those tools are what your people have called ‘spirit’, ‘Holy Spirit’.” She groaned. “And then you went off and made another god out of them.”

  “My children born to me were given some of these tools - spirit - as a gift, some more, some less. It has been with these tools that many of the ‘miracles’, as you call them, have been accomplished for your people. Remember your vision the night my daughter visited you in prison?”

  Ishtar said she did.

  “Some of that was done with the power of the mind, the ‘Holy Spirit’ that I’d given my daughter, Darla.” She explained, “That Spirit has no heart. It is absolute. It doesn’t play off emotions. That’s why it was made the Judge of the minds of all my children. In turn, I handed over to the Cherubs the keys to that portion of the ‘Spirit’, for they are not influenced by whimsical hearts.”

  She put her hand in Ishtar’s. “Lowenah is very emotional. She might not be a fair judge, considering what mood she would be in at the time. I couldn’t take the chance of being unfair to any of my children in that respect, so I left all eternal judging to the Spirit. It decides if a mind should be collected to the Web of the Minds, or if it should dissolve like an animal’s, back into the Web of the Universe.”

  Ishtar piped up. “You mean that you have never destroyed anyone at all?”

  Lowenah quickly responded. “Destroyed as in killing off? No. I have killed the bodies of my enemies, some here, some in your old realm. But I never killed the mind of anyone. Actually, the owner of that mind brings it to nothing. It is only when he or she reaches the point where the Spirit can no longer compensate for a person’s motives and actions that the Spirit releases the bond holding the mind together. Then, at the death of the body, the mind dissipates into nothingness. It’s gone.”

  “So, my mother?” The girl wondered aloud.

  Lowenah squeezed Ishtar’s hand, grinning, “Your mother was a foolish woman, but she was acting like a mother when she called down evil upon your uncle that day long ago. Yes, I have checked to see, and the mind of your mother rests a peaceful rest. One day you will see to it that she returns in the flesh to the Realms Below.”

  Tears filled the girl’s eyes. For some time she sat in silence. “Thank you...thank you...” She softly replied, as tears ran down her face. “I have worried so. I miss her.”

  Lowenah reached forward, placing her fingers against the girl’s temple. A moment later she sat back. “There. Tonight, when you dream, a visit you will make upon her, much as I did several times with you when you floated alongside her in the Realm of the Minds. Be at peace, my child.”

  The thought of such a thing and also the realization that she had been near her mother as they both drifted in a land of sleep overwhelmed the child. She cried and cried with a joy few of us can understand. It was some time before the two renewed their conversation.

  At length, Lowenah returned to the earlier subject. “As I have told you, my might and authority are based on my mental powers and abilities. From them I have the right to be whatever I choose to be. But I don’t choose to have to live that way. That’s why Lowenah is much happier in the reality of this realm. She didn’t want to surround herself with only creatures of predetermined thoughts and abilities.”

  “When I was ready to produce children with minds and hearts capable of change - exact replications of my own mind and heart - I chose to make sure they were truly independent from me, like the immortal Cherubs are. I wanted them to be truly free. Their home needed to be separate from me, able to function without my personal interference. So the universe I created for them was made from a piece of my body. It is a universe fully independent from me and everlasting, but not indestructible.”

  Ishtar’s eyes grew big in wonder. Lowenah laughed. “No! No! Not this body you see. Do you recall your vision with my daughter, Rachel...Darla... and the sphere disappearing into the woman’s body?”

  Ishtar thought a moment. Her eyes brightened as she excitedly asked, “Was that you?!”

  Lowe
nah laughed. “Yes, or at least it represented me. I was showing you how my real body is buried deep within this one. My real body works for me in similar fashion to the way your mind works for you. It is the place where all real thought and feeling originates. You see, the brain is only a very complex connector from the body, which is the sensor to the world around you, to the mind, which is the real person. The big difference between your mind and mine is that I don’t need any body to continue thinking and feeling, or to manifest my power. Your brain is a machine to connect you to the mind, mine is not. Another thing my body does is to cloak my true form. Without that protection, none of my children could survive my glory.”

  “My body is made up of living energy. I can take from it and make or create things apart from me. The physical universes are among my greatest achievements. The amount of my essence or self that is contained within it is only a very small fraction of my total mass. It is also true, because all things came from me, all things reflect who I am. No easier can a zebra change its stripes than can I change my personality.”

  Ishtar started with another question, but Lowenah stopped her. “Let me finish. I built all my external universes… and I have many… into another web, a base or foundation, you might say - the one previously mentioned. It is called the ‘Web of the Universe’. Let me explain what that web is.”

  “One day you will learn about what men call ‘physics’ and such things as mass and energy, all sorts of good things. For now, let me put it this way: The Web of the Universe is like one giant mind, in that it has a form of intelligence and the ability to think and reason… to a degree. That mind is thick, like pea soup, made up of numberless little hair-like spheres with tentacles that may stretch for countless leagues. All this is invisible to your eyes and senses. They’re excitable little things always wanting everything just so. Life is an intrusion for them because it doesn’t do things just so. Also, some of the spheres…I will call them ‘midges’ so you can picture something in your mind…these midges want to move anything they touch in a circular motion, some to the right, others to the left, one resisting the other. This constant state of resistance places the universe in motion, never letting it rest.”

  “As the strength of any certain group of midges grows or wanes against the other, strange things begin to happen in those various places. A planet or star system may be formed, or it may go away. Because the midges are always growing or losing in strength, the universe is always in a fuss and tumult. It’s always changing. If a planet is to exist forever, some outside force must be applied to make it so.”

  “Now, with some star systems, this one and your old one, for example, I built into them a form of thinking ability that does two things. One, it keeps the star system intact, not allowing the midges opportunity to destroy it. Two, it encourages and nurtures life. That’s why, no matter what the midges or any other force tries to do, your old planet would infuse power of life back into the area. And that’s why such places are everlasting. Not all star systems are built in such a way and, although they might contain life, or one day have it, that will not prevent the midges from bringing the system to ruin.”

  Lowenah became silent for some time. When she spoke again it was with a sad, solemn voice. “As I said, this universe is not indestructible. The discord of the Rebellion threatens the existence of the midges. I did not design them with the ability to withstand such an imbalance in the harmonics. I am trapped by law from altering their design until after this Rebellion is brought to a finish. If it is not ended soon, all may be lost. It has been forced on the shoulders of my children to crush it. That is why I created you.”

  “Created me?” Ishtar exclaimed with question. “How so, other than all men are created? Was I not sired by my father and born from my mother?”

  “Yes, my child.” Lowenah cheerfully answered. “But I created you none-the-less. You see, I spent thousands of years manipulating the very fabric that makes you who you are. From days long before I washed your old world away in my anger, I have been busy building the leaders of my future universe - the gods who are to rule over all things. The qualities needed to carry such responsibilities and remain humble are not found in many people. They either are humble with no ability to rule, or have strong leadership abilities but are full of pride and haughtiness.”

  Lowenah saddened. “Even my own children seem to lack the needed qualities of good, balanced leadership. Few have shown the endurance to stay the course to its finish. They tire out, you know, start wishing for the good things… the way it used to be. I needed a new creation of sorts, one that could be molded into the kind of leaders I need. I could not birth that creation for several reasons.”

  “So, in order to find the people with the proper balance, long ago I began to weave the desired qualities into selected candidates. From one generation after another, I would patiently mix those desired qualities. After my son bought all men for me at the loss of his own life, I could freely choose anyone with those traits. That’s why I chose your father to bring you into existence. From his life force I took what I wanted, and mixed it with a selected seed from your mother. From them came you, a chosen vessel, created for one very special and important purpose - to one day become a ruler over nations.”

  Ishtar was confused and bewildered. While shaking her head, she cried out, “No! You must be mistaken. It cannot be me! I am only a little child, a very spoiled and unruly little brat. I am fully unfit to do a thing!”

  Lowenah chuckled. “Do not be too hasty with self-deprecation, my dear. What I have told you is for a future day. You must grow up first. When your hour comes, you will be ready. For now, it is a time to learn. You must also prepare for your other assignments that will come soon. I did not have your father name you ‘Ishtar’ for no reason. That name will become a most feared and dreaded one among my wicked and rebellious children. You will also deliver to me the Thunder, and he will be escorted by Kali, the one who will bring the blood and fire.”

  Ishtar was caught up speechless and fully confused. Lowenah reassured her, “I have only informed you of things yet to come to help you see the need to take your training seriously. You must learn to become a woman in your majesty and strength. My children are in need of what you have to offer. Allow my instructors opportunity to draw it out from you. Your training will soon start in earnest. Stay humble and learn from what you are taught. For whether you should do well, or poorly, the same task will be placed before you. The lives of many of my children will rest upon decisions you will make.”

  Lowenah stood and stretched. She walked around the table and took Ishtar by the hand, drawing her up. “Enough of all of this. There exists a time for all things. Let me show you the home you will reside in for awhile. Come and let me give you a tour of what I have built with my own hands.”

  With that, the two darted down the path, disappearing from the garden through a darkened passageway.