Chapter 22: Solomon's Treasure

(Lovers, Tav)

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"'Hold your tongue!' said the Queen, turning purple.

'I won't!' said Alice.

'Off with her head!' the Queen shouted at the top of her voice. Nobody moved.

'Who cares for you?' said Alice, (she had grown to her full size by this time.)

'You're nothing but a pack of cards!'

At this the whole pack rose up into the air and came flying down upon her. She gave a little scream, half of fright and half of anger, and tried to beat them off, and found herself lying on the bank, with her head in the lap of her sister, who was gently brushing away some dead leaves that had fluttered down from the trees on to her face."

• Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, 'Alice's Evidence'

"In Xanadu did Kublai Khan

A stately pleasure dome decree,

Where Alph the sacred river ran,

Through caverns measureless to man,

Down to a sunless sea."

• Coleridge, "Xanadu"

"I will get me to the mountain of myrrh and to the hill of frankincense. . . .

"My beloved is gone down to his garden,

To the beds of spices,

To feed in the gardens,

And to gather lilies.

I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine,

That feedeth among the lilies.

"Set me as a seal upon thy heart,

As a seal upon thine arm;

For love is strong as death,

Jealousy is cruel as the grave;

The flashes thereof are flashes of fire,

A very flame of the Lord.

Many waters cannot quench love,

Neither can the floods drown it;

If a man would give all the substance of his house for love,

He would utterly be contemned.

"Make haste, my beloved,

And be thou like to a gazelle or to a young hart

Upon the mountains of spices."

• Song of Songs, 4:6; 6:3; 8:6-7; 8:14

"Here we go, and don't forget: This HaR Ha-MVoR, Mountain of Myrrh, Mountain of Bitterness and Terror, is also HaR #haMVoR, Ass Mountain and Mount Amor, the HaR-a-#heM V AVR, Mound of Hot Lava and Light, HaR . . . . a real Jack-in-a-Box," said Rivah with a mischievous smile. She lifted one side of the heavy cloth, stepped behind, and was gone.

I was alone, and hesitated, just a moment, to savor the mystery - for I knew I would follow her to the ends of the earth.

I moved forward, lifted the tapestry, and stepped through the doorway into a large chamber. What a contrast the warm humid air made with the cold dry pamir air we had been breathing during the last few days. And this air was redolent with fragrances. To the right was a huge stone pool almost twenty feet in diameter, filled with water and lined around its rim with a girdle of brass. Steaming hot water issued from the mouths of a pair of carved dragons that cavorted about the middle of the giant cauldron. The water spurted out of their mouths onto a large semitransparent crystal ball that was illuminated from below, and balanced on a pyramid-shaped pedestal in the center so that it spun as the water gushed up around it.

The huge outspread wings of the dragons arched out over the pool, forming the rock ceiling. Around the outer rim of the pool, spaced at even intervals like the numbers on a clock, were twelve brass bulls, facing outward, their bodies embedded in the rock as if they were supporting the pool. Ladles and basins lay at intervals around the pool. This was apparently a large communal hot tub bathing room. It reminded me in some ways of the Egyptian-style sarcophagus tub room in Pandora's Box.

The chamber was lit from sconces that were shaped like human skulls, and indeed, on closer inspection, turned out to be human skulls. The floor was covered with smoothly planed cedar palettes with gaps between the planks to drain water through, like a boardwalk at the beach.

On the left side, opposite the pool, was a square area with an array of massage tables. On smaller tables were various bowls and bottles containing precious oils and ointments. Further on past the pool and body tables, lined up along the right and left walls, were large wagons, five on each side. From a distance I could tell the wagons were decorated with various mythical beasts. Mounted on each wagon was a large golden egg-shaped object.

The sequence was obvious. Purification, anointing, and then something to do with the big egg-wagons. Rivah was already stripping down, so I joined in. We soaped with balsam salves that were in bowls placed around the rim in little depressions on the bulls' heads, and rinsed each other with the long dipper ladles that hung from the horns of the bulls. Then we climbed up one of the three knobby brass ladders that were welded to the pool at twenty minute intervals around the clock, and immersed ourselves in the warm, steamy water.

The pool was deep enough that we could not touch the bottom, but the water was especially buoying, no doubt due to minerals from its mountain source. We swam in to the center to feel the fresh hot spring water cascading down on us. The warmth relaxed all my muscles, and I found my body easily floating. My mind was no longer analyzing what was going on. I looked up at the dragons' outspread wings and suddenly noticed that they had constellations etched on them.

[For excellent star charts, see Chris Dolan's Home Page, "The Constellations and Their Stars," www.astro.wisc.edu/~dolan/constellations/ Especially see the nice Java Applet that shows all the constellations in their relative positions and allows you to pan through them.]

When I pointed them out to Rivah, she said, "Mmm-humm.. Those are two giant cherubim forming Draco playing with Pole Star. The head of one dragon is the Big Dipper drawing a bead on Polaris. The head of the other dragon is Cassiopeia. The left arm of her W throne passes through a different sighting star to Polaris. Cepheus, Draco, and Ursa Major form the dragon bodies. The Chinese dragon is the cherub, - actually a Seraph. It is the Dagon flying fish-man god of the Philistines. Everything here is integrated Kabbalah of the Temple. You'll probably find all of Chinese culture in here, too. Let's get out, and I'll show you."

We swam back to the rim and pulled ourselves out and down one of the ladders. Rivah wiped her hands dry on her shirt and pulled my notebook out of my pack. On a blank page she wrote out the temurah permutation of KRB, commenting aloud as she wrote.

"The name of these great angels, KRB, is a temurah code for a blessing, BRK," she said.

KRB = 'Like unto Greatness'. "Here we have a multitude of stars. Abraham's seed became as numerous as the heavenly hosts. This suggests that God's covenant with Abraham that his descendants on earth would not only be as numerous as the stars, but would bear the great wisdom of their cultures and would assist mankind to reach the stars."

KBR = sifting. "This is the scaling process, a Kabbalah principle for allowing the awareness to expand and contract."

KPR = atonement. Here we have the return to Unity after a period of separation, celebrated by Jews every year as Yom Kippur, a key part of the High Holy Days that start the New Year on the Jewish calendar."

GBR = a strong hero. "This recalls the great heroes of the Bible such as Moses, David, and Solomon."

RKB = the Chariot of the Gods. "This is the sacred MeRKBaH."

RBK = well mixed or integrated. "You can see the connection to atonement in this word."

BRK = kneeling, a blessing. "An important function of the angels is to bless."

BRQ = a lightning flash

BKR = first birth. "This refers to Abraham's fertility after his barren beginnings. Also it brings in the tradition of patriarchs.

BQR = The bull. "Here is the creative force. Remember the Judgment card with the angel of resurrection announcing the Mornings of Creation? You see now that the bull BQR is a hidden temurah code for KRB, the announcing angel."

She pointed out the huge dragon constellations on the pool's ceiling as she spoke. "The two big dragons are also called Seraphim, the fiery serpent angels that rotate around the tree of life in the Garden of ODN - spinning the earth on its polar axis. They also represent the pair of kundalini dragons that twine up the spinal pole to tend the throne of God in the head, represented by the Throne of Cepheus. This is the biblical version of the same physiology you noticed in the Egyptian mural back at Pandora's Box.

"The two great seraphim and the polar bear-ox or Aurochs, or Ur-ox Bull-bear, are the key to all navigation, calculation, and writing. SRP (seraphim, the flame-like serif decorations on the letters, and the root of the English word 'serpent') permutes as $PR, calculation and SPR, the beauty of the circumpolar canopy. Around these great angels is a retinue of seven great Mazelim, or circumpolar constellations:

Perseus, home of the Pleiadians;

Pegasus, home of the Andromedans;

Cygnus/Aquila, associated with Denebans and Altairians;

Hercules, associated with Vegans and Lyrans;

Bootes, home of the Arcturans;

Auriga, the Charioteer, home of the Capellans.

And finally, wandering below the ecliptic, is Orion, the hunter, associated with the Rigellians and the Aldebarans, who are also Taurian.

"Along the ecliptic are the twelve major constellations of the zodiac, represented by the twelve bulls around the rim of the pool. The choice of bulls as the symbol shows that this civilization came to our planet Earth (the letter Beth) during the Taurian age (the letter Aleph) and spawned the wisdom of alphabet writing - Aleph Beth, the gift of the Taurian Bull to the House of Earth. That's why we always start our alphabet with the letters A and B and associate the letter ALePh with the AeLoHYiM, for the letters came to us from the lips of the 'gods.'

"We are just moving into the Aquarian Age, a time of major planetary transition, when there is a great deal of galactic participation in the creation of a new Era. We are just emerging from the Piscean Age. You probably know that the fish was the symbol of Jesus and the Christian era. Before that was Aries, a very warlike period, and before that Taurus, the last major window of transition before our day. That was about 6,500 years ago.

"The last major transition before that was the Sphinxian civilization that came in at the transition from Virgo to Leo about 13,000 years ago. The galactic year is about 26,000 earth years and has four seasonal transitions that are roughly evenly spaced at about 6,500 years.

"Each of the ecliptic and circumpolar constellations represents one of the letters of the alphabet. Remember the petals on the mystical rose, the Shoshanah? We can arrange the whole alphabet as the mystical rose in three layers, remembering that the letters traditionally given are intentionally scrambled to confuse people.

"First we have the three mothers B#Q, representing the earth and the sky forming the limits with man hanging in the middle between them. B-#hiQ in Hebrew means 'inside the limit.' Earth is the House (B) that binds (#) the fools (Q), or that ties the world down with the tongue.

"In the traditional arrangement the three mothers are SMA, which means 'perhaps.' Actually this scrambled version of the rose was designed intentionally. It tells us that the dragon seed teeth (S) that were sown on Earth (B) to bind men (#) into "civilized" warrior fools (Q) came from (M) the constellation of Taurus (A). All the letters are the names (SheM) of the Sacred Cow (A), the Kamaduk of the Hindus that expresses all desires. This tells us where the letters came from and when. Careful study of the myths also tells us why they came to us.

"The three mothers of Earth (B), Man (#) and Heaven (Q) give rise to our solar system consisting of the sun, moon, and the five visible planets. Then came the twelve constellations of the zodiac, which of course depend on the relative position of the Earth in the solar system and galaxy."

On another sheet of paper she sketched a little chart.

[Zodiac Alphabet Chart]

"The pool is decorated along its rim with brass fixtures, because in Hebrew brass is N#S, the name of the serpent Nahash. The two serpent constellations, Serpens and Hydra, twine along above and below the rim of the ecliptic, together with Eridanus, the river, and form a garland. N#S also means sorcery, wizard magic. This is the ring that floats over the head of the Magician and in the Tarot deck and the ring around Saturn. Na#haSh is the serpent who communes with Eve in the Garden of Eden. It is also the name of the brass serpent wand that Moses used when he performed wizard feats to entertain Pharaoh and the Israelites in Egypt. And it is the wand held by the Magician on the trump card of that name. And here is its physical manifestation on you."

She reached out and gently tugged on my manhood. I drew her to me and gave her a tight hug, feeling her warm moist skin. Her alert nipples pressed into my chest.

"OK. Enough talk. Let's get anointed." She laughed and pulled me by the hand to one of the body tables. Dipping her hand into a bowl of olive oil that she had myrrhed and frankincensed, she began to smear it over my skin. Slowly she rubbed the fragrant essence from my neck and shoulders, down my back, turning on the spinal switches, molding my buttocks and thighs, and deep thumbing the ointment into my soles and toes. Turning me over, she loosened my arms and then came down my chest to tenderly anoint my genitals.

By now I was fully awake and aroused to my task. I chose cedar, and embalmed her in the same thorough manner she had done to me. When I reached her crotch, I found her scabbard already well oiled from within. So my slithering fingers dipped into her magic mortar and mixed well the cedar essence and her vital salve. This I lovingly laved over her belly and breasts.

"Time to cook," she said, and walked me toward the nearest egg-wagon. To my inquiring look she replied, "This is a KiYoR. KY means to burn. A kyor is a tiled cooking oven. This thing looks like an oven or a smelting furnace (KaVR,) or a bee hive (KaVeReT,) mounted on a wagon. I don't know how it works, but in an oven bread is baked, in a smelter ore is refined, and in a beehive honey is generated. So let's find out."

As we got close, I could see more clearly the decorations along the sides of the wagons. On the front edge was a pair of winged angel-dragons. On the right side were winged bulls. On the left side were winged lions. And on the back were eagles. From the clues Rivah had given me I recognized these as the four sacred angel animal totems of the seasons. Taurus is in the south of the evening sky through the winter solstice, Leo is there through spring equinox, Scorpio (the Eagle) is there through summer solstice, and Aquarius is there through autumn equinox. There were serpentine wreaths forming a border along above and below these figures, representing, as I now could easily guess, Serpens, Hydra, and Eridanus garlanding the ecliptic.

While I was examining the wagon decorations, Rivah had already climbed up and was investigating the egg-shaped oven-hive. There was a latch that allowed the top to swing open. Inside the hive there was room enough for one person, and the bottom half was nearly filled with a liquid. The top half was lined on the inside with a black spongy substance. My God, I thought, these must be ancient sensory deprivation chambers.

Rivah leaned over and kissed me. Then she climbed into the golden egg she had opened and pulled the hatch shut.

Again I was alone, and there was silence everywhere. . . .

Well, if she could do it, so could I. I had trained at Crestone in the deprivation chambers, and was well established in the state of A-mor, which I was coming to realize was also a state of A-Mort, or deathlessness. I felt I could handle anything.

I walked to the next wagon and climbed on board. I slipped the latch and opened the egg. The inside was identical to Rivah's. I climbed in and felt the warm viscous liquid swirl around my naked loins, clinging to my well-oiled skin. The egg was long enough to stretch out comfortably in, and, as I lay back, my body floated in the fluid. I reached up and pulled the hatch down. . . .

Pitch darkness. Utter silence. . . . No there was my mind talking to itself. But my body was relaxing in the warm liquid, and my breathing slowed, and my mind slowed.

Everywhere was a glowing light. It was made of countless tiny points. Geometric patterns flickered faintly through the field. I was relaxed. I was nowhere, in a vast sea of glowing plankton. Images came and went. Wait! . . . There was Rivah. . . . She smiled mischievously, and then was gone. I felt the eyes of the Arcturans, and the mind of the mantoid. In the distance floated a memory of Kara and Phyllo. All silently watching and waiting. Time passed into a timeless sea of light with only occasional vague sensation of presences drifting in and out of my unfocussed awareness.

A tingling sensation crept into the sea of awareness - memory of a body, of my legs somewhere off there. It was the heebie-jeebies. I began to itch. The itching spread all over. Soon it was full body acupuncture. Like Horus I was being attacked from all sides by scorpions. The liquid was hotter, and the air was close. It seared my lungs. The fluid was burning my skin. A chemical change was happening, and the liquid was eating away my skin like an acid. I was dissolving like Hercules trapped in the Centaur's shirt. An angry swarm of killer bees was stinging me from all sides. I had entered their hive and now they were exacting a terrible vengeance on me. And poor Rivah - she also must be trapped. I splashed about inside the capsule, and tried to bang on the shell, but the spongy surface transferred no sound. And sloshing the liquid just made it burn all the more intensely.

I remembered the training exercises and tried to breathe my way through the pain, but that only seared my lungs more. It felt like skin was gone and chunks of my flesh were falling away, exposing the raw nerve endings to the burning juices. I was nearing twenty-one on the scale, so I knew I would pass the limit and level off. But I could not turn down the dial this time. I had no control. I would reach the high plateau, and then my body would fall off, and I would die. . . . And I could no longer think or even feel. I lost consciousness. I floated in a void. . . .

After some time the thought arose that I was aware that I was floating in a void. So I must not be totally unconscious after all. Maybe I only thought I was dead. . . .

I became aware of a very faint light, very far off in the void. I decided to see what it was. I found that by mere intention I could shift my awareness toward the light. Soon the light was all around me as millions of tiny particles of light, and I was inside the faint part of the light.

But there was a brighter center, a cluster of tiny light particles that formed a bright sphere. I shifted my attention in closer to that sphere and found that it had other dimensions. There was sound also. A whistling sound, and a humming sound, and a throbbing sound. That was ME! I had a body again.

There was a click and the hatch swung open. Blinding bright light burst in on me. An echoing babble of sharp piercing whistles and a jabbering noise came from above.

Soon the brightness resolved into a tangle of shiny green leaves studded with bright red and yellow flowers. The sounds I heard were the chattering of macaws and monkeys clambering about the vine-draped trees. I grabbed the sides of the hatch and pulled myself up. I was in a body, and it worked. But the world around me was totally different.

I was still in the egg, with the hatch now open, and the egg was on its wagon. But the wagon was no longer in the purification chamber. It was outdoors in a jungle filled with exotic plants, with gaudy birds and butterflies flitting about. The wagon was on a pathway in a small clearing on a hill, and along the pathway strutted peacocks, just like the ones at Pandora's Box. How could this be? Where was I?

I surveyed the scene and discovered that the forest filled one side of an entire valley. The other side was cultivated. On part of that slope bananas, oranges, mangos, papayas, and other tropical fruits were growing in orderly groves. Further up were grape orchards, and then tea. On the level plain were vegetable gardens and meadows with flocks of wild and domestic animals moving about. In the center of the valley I could see a large pavilion by a lily-adorned lake with smaller thatched cabanas scattered around under groves of date palms. Even from the distance I could see white swans and several flocks of ducks gliding about on the water. A meandering stream flowed into and out of the lake.

I looked up at the sky and discovered with a shock that the whole valley was enclosed under a vast dome made of translucent material fitted together in a geodesic array. A source of water had been diverted into the area trapping moisture under the bubble. In the distance on all sides through the dome I could dimly see the snowy peaks of the Ice Father range. There was plenty of sunshine at this Mediterranean latitude, and the dome trapped the solar warmth better than the high-altitude mountains could unaided, but with a lambent glow.

Slowly and carefully I eased myself out onto the ledge of the wagon, and there was Rivah sitting on her wagon just a few yards away. She was talking to Noah and Ky! I started to climb down, and a green hand reached out to steady me. With my feet once more on the ground, small, cool, pale hands touched my left forearm and the small of my back, sending a pleasant shiver up my spine. There was large-eyed Kara at my side, with her sun-filter lids down to protect her eyes from the unaccustomed glare. All were naked as the day they were born.

I hugged each one to make sure they were really there, and they suggested we walk down to the pavilion to enjoy some fruit and see our new living quarters. Then we would meet with Sabutai and decide our fates. On the way down our companions told Rivah and I how Sabutai informed them when we reached the purification chamber, and they came and pulled our wagons out onto the hill while we were unconscious, and then waited for us to revive. They explained how the chemicals in the egg-hives produce a sensation of dissolving the body, but actually function as a powerful detoxifying catalyst. The result is a high-speed purification process that usually knocks a person out for a while, but leaves the body in an overall much improved state.

As we walked Noah told me how Sabutai set up headquarters here as a young teenager after the war. During the late 1950's, as his operation grew, and while the U.S., China and Russia were busy with the Cold War, and he was busy manipulating all sides, he designed and built the dome under a secret contract with Buckminster Fuller. They engineered it with an advanced silicon technology that allowed light in but also reflected enough light and infrared so that to reconnaissance planes and satellites the aerial signature of its roughly textured outer surface resembled just another undistinguished dry, stony, uninhabited hill among the endless pamirs.

In about twenty minutes we reached the pavilion, which was open on all sides and thatched on top around a thick central wooden pole. The floor was of smooth cedar planks raised about three feet off the ground. The soil all around the pavilion and the lake consisted mostly of soft white sand. In the vicinity of the pavilion and the cabanas there were many tall date palms and bushy shrubs, some of which were boasting ruddy pomegranates. On one side of the pavilion was a thatched shed with a tiled kitchen in which some lithe, olive-skinned, longhaired, and also naked, Afghan women were cutting fruit. Did the Taliban know what was going on here?

While they prepared our refreshments, we went down to the sandy-beached lake and waded in, rinsing off the dust from our walk. We dried ourselves in the sun and then sat on stools at small tables. The Afghan ladies, wearing only high-heeled sandals, brought in platters stacked with juicy yellow pineapple rings, gooey orange slabs of mango, brown dates pitted and stuffed with a kind of Turkish delight, fragrant white banana coins, and cool green honeydew melon moons. Split pomegranates garnished each platter, and some of their tart red seeds were scattered over the other fruits. We refreshed ourselves thoroughly and then sat about drinking goat's milk tea sweetened with fresh squeezed sugar cane juice.

We were lounging about in a very comfortable mode, when Sabutai appeared as if from nowhere and joined us on the pavilion. Accompanying him on each arm were two gorgeous women, one on his left a middle-aged Chinese woman with the body of a twenty-five year old, and the other on his right a fair-skinned younger woman with flaxen yellow hair and piercing bright blue eyes. To her right and slightly behind walked a man with a trimmed black beard. Sure enough he was Paramdat, and the woman with yellow hair was Dymphna. But who was this Chinese lady? There was something familiar, but something strange, about her. I stood up and walked forward to greet them and see better . . . and nearly fell over in shock. It was Ping.

"What in the world are YOU doing here, Duckie?" I blurted. "You're dead. I saw your body. Did I really die and end up in an alternate reality, or what?"

She smiled at me, and Sabutai winked at Noah.

I rushed forward and embraced her. Her body was indeed warm flesh and blood. But she had changed dramatically. Her hair was longer, and she carried herself with a regal poise and confidence that I had never seen before. When she looked at me, she laughed and smiled, but it was clear that she had shifted into a new life. She had changed, and I had changed. She was no longer my wife, but a new and more powerful being. And in my bones I felt that her new life had something intimately to do with Sabutai, this strange Mongol-Turk who came from a space somewhere beyond the fanatic mujaheddin and the secretive lamas. He seemed even from beyond the fierce vision of the Great Khan.

Sabutai now spoke in English, briefly introducing everyone who had not yet met, and then asked Noah to explain the situation to me.

"In a sense you are in an alternate reality. It just depends on how you look at it. You see, we wanted to establish communication with Sabutai, understand his interactions with the Chinese slave lords, the drug networks, the Central Asian Islamic fundamentalists, and the Russian military technocrats. And we wanted to defuse the violent and oppressive aspects of these operations by understanding their inner workings. We wanted you and Rivah involved because of your specialized knowledge of the cultures and languages involved. But we knew that you were so committed to your sedentary ways that you would not totally involve yourself unless we cut you loose from your family and professional ties. So we arranged for the temporary removal of Ping from your life."

"But I saw her there, all mangled and dead," I remonstrated.

"Actually you never did get a good close up view of the body. It was already covered and being loaded into an ambulance when you saw it. We used the body of a female Asian illegal alien who happened to die that day in a traffic accident as a substitute, and spirited Ping out of your life. 'Spirited' is a good word for it. She's some feisty lady. She insisted on knowing what was going on, and when we told her about Sabutai and his terrorist ring, she demanded to go meet him in person and give him a piece of her mind. We got her into China, and she traveled as a tourist out to Anxi and Dunhuang, and then struck out along the southern rim of the Tarim Basin to Hotan, finally reaching Yarkand, where she linked up with Sabutai's agents and caravanned into the mountains to his tunnel system. From that point we lost track of her until we arrived with you. While you and Rivah were out studying wildlife, we discovered her living here with him. She has taken over a lot of Sabutai's dealings with the Chinese communist leadership, and they really don't know what to make of her. We never expected that she would set up shop with Sabutai, or that you would form a relationship with Rivah, either. You never know."

"What are you doing?" I asked in amazement. "I guess I really don't know any more who are the good guys and who are the bad guys. Whose side are we on anyway? It feels like WE become the bad guys when we judge others as evil and resist their actions or lifestyles. If we don't like drugs, let's just don't use them, rather than create a war of cops and criminals. If we don't want people using drugs or violence, then we must offer them something better, not something worse."

"When color TV became available at competitive prices, everybody threw away their old black-and-white sets," broke in Noah with a laugh.

"What I have discovered," I continued, "is that although the wolf is a predator, it is an important part of life. Sabutai's life has its own validity, and the people he supports are not understood by most of the world. But that world of manipulated sheep also has its validity. Sabutai may sow seeds of violence, but I am convinced that he does so with open eyes, and no resistance to the possibility of experiencing oppression himself. Those who oppress choose to oppress, and those who are victims choose to be victims. Those who are alive choose to be alive, and those who are dead choose to be dead. The independence movements he supports face formidable resistance from deeply entrenched power structures that control the media and economic resources in their favor. So Sabutai and his companions face a real public relations challenge, and engage in actions that bring up fundamental issues of integrity. Are victims really innocent, or are they really people unwilling to take personal responsibility for the situations they have created for themselves?

"So where do I stand now? I think that what I choose to believe determines what I experience. If I accept my reality only on the basis of what I experience, then everything's out of my control. Then I am at the mercy of the gods, the forces of nature, and powerful conspiracies. Maybe God is good, but it is out of my hands.

"All that I have discovered about Chinese culture and the ancient Hebrews, Taoism and Kabbalah, I-jing and Shem, Chinese characters and Tarot cards, the secrets of the nomads, and even my explorations of tantric sex, meditation, and higher states of consciousness is my personal set of beliefs and experiences. All of that may just be nonsense, a pack of lies, or some ideas I choose to play with for entertainment purposes. Even the foundations of civilizations and economics and history and wars and great religions and empires - all our ideas of race and nationality - including universities and science and technology and the laws of nature and reality itself. And of course the existence of terrorism, religious fanatics, and secret governments. It's all just a bunch of beliefs, take them or leave them. What's really important in all of this?

"And here's the woman I call Ping. One moment I believe she's my wife. A moment later I believe she's dead. Now I believe that she's the lover of the man that I once believed was my terrifying enemy. I believe now that he is also my teacher and, in a way, my friend. But part of me suspects that there is a much greater enemy lurking somewhere. And that is deep inside the unknown aspect of myself. Ping and Sabutai and all of you are just the expressions of the beliefs that I currently hold.

"So how do I know what I really believe? I guess the only way to know is to take a close look at what is really happening in my life. And if I want to change something in my life or in the world, I simply have to change the way I look at my self or the world. I have to change my idea of who I am and what I am doing, and be responsible for whatever happens as being the exact expression of what I really believe I want at that moment."

"And what do you believe you want right now?" asked Sabutai.

"Good question. Well, this is my credo, and it matches my experience. So it must be true. I believe that I am immortal unbounded awareness. I believe that I have taken a viewpoint to structure that awareness as a conscious being living on a planet that is rapidly rising to a higher level of self-awareness. I have created myself as a participant in a major transition of the collective consciousness on this planet.

"I believe that I am part of that process, and that process is what I enjoy playing with, and that is why I created this reality. I believe that of all possible realities, ones built on euphoric foundations are by definition more fun. I believe that fun is a dynamic motivating factor. I prefer lively, fun, challenging realities over somnolent, dull or oppressive realities. But I guess I have had a hidden fetish that oppression is necessary in order to give people the opportunity to learn to appreciate fun through a struggle for self-liberation. Boy, what a crock that has been! I have come around now to the view that when belief systems clash, we can resolve them in the rough and tumble of the 'real' world of lions and lambs, wolves and rabbits, or we can manage them without struggle from the level of undefined awareness. It's simply a choice of style.

"I also believe that I have created a group of open-minded, fun-loving companions to share my experiences with. Together we are engaged in a vast experiment in interactive diversity on this planet. I have chosen to be with certain people with whom I feel a mutual attraction and admiration, and I enjoy their company. Although I can't say I fully appreciate them yet, I strongly trust that they are intelligent, creative, and bold, willing to risk new experiences to expand the planetary consciousness. Although there's still a lot of sneaky stuff going on, I sense that a fundamental integrity is behind it all.

" Sabutai Galdan has created this beautiful pleasure dome as his base of operations, and a beautiful new hybrid alliance is emerging. Here we are now together. I choose to live with Rivah, Noah, Ky, Phyllo, Kara, Paramdat, Dymphna and you and Ping and any others that care to join us, and participate in this project to defuse the core struggle on this planet that has been motivated by greed and ideology. Let's replace it with a more enlightened age of creative play.

"As a first step I wish to get to know your people better Mr. Galdan. I want to explore with you and these companions the kind of civilization that works best for fostering a diversity of life that can live together in harmony on this planet, recognizing that different places or ethnic groups may follow different paths of development.

"I believe I have no desire to lay my views on others unless they openly accept them, but I would like to see a world with more tolerance and peaceful coexistence. I particularly enjoy playing with deliberately self-aware free-will beings. I love you all, and I'm ready to fuck my brains out with you in whatever dimension you'd like to play in. That's where I am right now."

"Very good," said Sabutai. "My home is yours, and, as the Mayan Time Lords say, 'Yin lakech.' I am another yourself."

He continued. "Now you are ready to meet your larger star family, of whom we and the animals you have played with, are only a partial representation. For there is much yet to do and great events are stirring on the planet. Allow me to introduce you to some other friends in the neighborhood this evening.

"The veil of unknowing has lifted. Every mineral, plant, or animal on earth is a representative of your consciousness expressed in the universe. As you become attuned to a wider range of frequencies in various dimensions, you will discover more and more realms of existence in which to play. There is no limit beyond what you choose as your limits. We can work as a team and learn the true desires of the Chinese, Indians, Inner Asians and other peoples of the planet, and find ways to benefit them and also your people. We are committed to assisting the minority peoples to achieve whatever degree of self-determination they truly desire. It gets rough sometimes, and people die, but maybe along the way we can find a solution to your problem with terrorism. While you are here you will get a much clearer picture of what is really going on in what we call the Great War of Liberation. After all, you Americans once fought a great War of Independence. And to your people it was very important."

I couldn't help marveling as I watched Sabutai's opportunism, turning the evolution of greater international understanding into a path of increasing benefit to himself and his organization. But why not? If cops could play the Mutt and Jeff game, why not the robbers too play bad robber, good robber? And was this man the "Robin Hood" mastermind behind the likes of the elusive Osama bin Laden and the mysterious Khattab, those Lafayettes of Afghanistan who brought the Soviet war machine to its knees only to plunge that land into the Taliban's seemingly endless theocratic war? What was he planning?

The famous prophecy of Nostradamus flashed in my mind: "The year 1999, seventh month,/ From the sky will come a great King of Terror:/ To bring back to life the great King of the Mongols,/ Before and after Mars to reign by good luck." Was this really true? Was Sabutai going to use his control of the Russian satellite network to launch a war of terrorism across Central Asia in July of 1999 that might lead to a global scale conflict? Kurdistan, Chechnya, Dagestan, Ingushetia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgystan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kashmir, Xinjiang, and so on, even down into Malaysia and Indonesia? That date was fast approaching, and along with it the Millennium and the Y2K transition. Was the reference to Mars in the prophecy an indication that Sabutai's involvement with aliens was part of a plot to take over the world?

Sabutai continued, "So take some rest now and we will introduce you to our friends from beyond the veil at the evening meal. The rule here is that everyone comes, stays, or goes, on a voluntary basis. We each contribute our skills, and we align ourselves around the tasks. There is no limit to what we can accomplish, but once we have aligned around a project, there is obedience to the procedures, and an oath of secrecy. The penalty for violations to this agreement once you join may be the forfeit of what you value the most. We assume complete freedom and intimacy among all of us, but also complete responsibility for our actions. We prefer peace, but are ready to lay our lives on the line for what we want. See you shortly. Hui-tou jian."

Ping showed Rivah and me to a cabana by the lake, and joined us for an afternoon visit to relax-and-get-(re)acquainted. We sat together on two tatami mats mounted together in a low wooden frame to serve as both a bed and a sofa. One of the Kyrgyz men brought us our packs and some light robes for us to wear in the evening. Rivah, Ping, and I made leisurely three-way love for a while on the tatamis, then dozed and chatted. In the late afternoon we went down to the lake, took a refreshing swim, dried off in the diffuse sunlight, and put on our robes for dinner.

It was time to return to the pavilion for the evening banquet. When we arrived, more tables had been set and the food was much more varied than at lunch. Sabutai arrived followed by a retinue of truly strange guests that appeared as if from nowhere, and whom he introduced as they arrived. He began with the humanoids. Each guest solemnly bowed in our direction when introduced.

Peho, the Zeta, pale and bald, with his large dark lidless eyes, needed no introduction to us. Draped silently over his shoulder like a stole was a small green Octopoid. It looked like a pet, but might be something much more -- a Mollisian? Phyllo and Kara, of course, accompanied Peho on either side and represented the Zeta-human hybrids.

Ok Namech was a solemn-looking Mayan Time Lord, with a high-peaked head, long flowing black hair, regal eyes, protruding lower lip, and hooked nose. He represented the bio-engineers that traveled about the galaxy on hyper-light ranges managing the frequency shifts in planetary consciousness. He was here to oversee that aspect of the Earth's transition.

BOL-TeS-ChR, strong-jawed and bearded, resembled an ancient Assyrian king, and was a ranking officer in the Federation fleet. His title was CaDiQ, or MeLKiCaDoQ, chief navigator for the Time Lords

Tszmin was short, beady-eyed, and hairless, with an elongated head like a football on its side. He wore a dark cloak with a priest-like white ring collar inside, and represented the administration at Galactic Central. He was clearly a powerful bureaucrat.

Fenghir-nof, the Andromedan ambassador, had a dark complexion, anvil-shaped hairless head, with a flat brow and a large hooked nose. His eyes were set far back on the sides of his head, preventing stereoscopic vision, and he had round black rings around them oddly resembling a raccoon. He wore a simple white robe.

Gu"rbu"z, the Pleiadian, was tall and handsome, with a ruddy complexion and gorgeous long flowing blond hair. His face was tattooed with a dark blue line around his forehead and down past his ear and along the ridge of his jaw, with a Y-shaped branch of the tattoo extending from his ear to the corner of his eye and the lobe of his nostril.

Kranchik, the Rigellian, had an even redder face, and was very gruff looking. He had a Fu Manchu type mustache and goatee, and wore dark glasses. His hair was brown and slicked down with a pomade-like substance.

Odhyl was a beautiful, silent, soft-featured lady with a light yellow skin and long brown tresses. She was a Sirian humanoid.

Then came the non-humanoid guests.

There was a pert feathered being with a cockatoo-like headdress and a bird-like beak that kept making gentle twittering noises as if chattering to itself. It reminded me a bit of Big Bird on Sesame Street.

There was a very large sad-eyed hairy being with an elephant-like proboscis from Aldebaran that shifted slowly from side to side and occasionally rumbled like summer thunder on a distant plain. He reminded me a little of a giant Eeyore mammoth without tusks. The creature was apparently a boon companion of Gu"rbu"z, the Pleiadian.

Another figure on all fours looked like an oversized water rat with slick dark fur, bright beady black eyes, and a long black tail. He had light streaks in his fur going back from his snout and his jaw. I thought of Benjy the mouse that turns out to be the physical projection of a pan-dimensional being in the Hitchhiker's Guide.

And finally there was the inscrutable six-legged green Mantis from our ship with his triangular head, bulging eyes and prehensile clamping mandible.

My life was changing quickly, but I knew that I was with dear friends whom I could love and trust. But what should I make of these alien newcomers that had suddenly entered my life? And what was Sabutai's connection with them?

If I could commune in ecstasy with the wild pamir kiangs, what amazing adventures lay ahead with these galactic guests and their associates? My whole mind set about the universe had shifted during these past weeks, and apparitions beyond my wildest imagination were unfolding at a rapid pace. What was Sabutai really up to? And what were all these strange beings doing here?

Indeed, everything up to this point had been no more than a preamble to the amazing experiences that were about to unfold in my life. I shall record those adventures in the next volumes of my Memoirs for those who are ready to read and understand and accept what at first may seem unbelievable.

The secret solution of Solomon the Wise Judge had finally become clear to me, and I will share it with you, if you wish. At first it may seem shocking. But it is really quite effortless, safe, and reliable, with a perfect default backup under any conditions.

Although my adventure was only just beginning, at least I had succeeded in my quest for the key to IT. I realized that the continuation or ending of international terrorism did not depend on Sabutai, or our team, or our project, or our strange friends from beyond the firmament. It depended on ME ALONE. Astounded, I realized that I had to assume full responsibility for the problem and its resolution. Yes, here I was, and I had brought it into the world, and only I could change its course.

Solomon's Treasure and the bonus gifts of the Pleasure of Peace, the Space for Love, an endless abundance of Knowledge and an Eternity for experience, are not dependent on some other place, or person, or community, or culture, or practice. This Treasure is not cash, though it holds the key to all value. It has nothing to do with a principle, philosophy, religion, or even a particular belief, viewpoint, or a level of consciousness, or even, believe it or not, sex.

The Treasure of Solomon, looks scary and difficult at first, but is actually quite easy. And it is (optionally) free of charge to anyone willing to shoulder the creative responsibility that it bears. It simply is this:

I DECIDE IT ALL.

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