THE NEVERENDING STORY

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HIS-STORY

Everybody loves a story, especially a good one. After all, every individual's life is telling a unique story. And, collectively, it is all our stories that make up what we call His-story. That's billions, if not trillions, of stories. But the word 'universe' literally means one turn, one song, one story. So please allow me to introduce to you the Greatest Story Ever Told. We are all part of the story. The neverending story. Some of us play bigger parts, but we are integral to the big picture. But we're all just characters playing roles in this divine drama or cosmic play called the Game of Life. Many mystics, seers and shamen who are able to go into altered, higher states of awareness have said that our lives are illusionary, dreamlike and just hallucination, projections of consciousness, and based in fantasy. Even one of the greatest scientists, Einstein, said, "Reality is merely an illusion albeit a persistent one." The Buddha called it a "fabrication".

THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT!

Bowker reports that over one million books are published in the United States alone every year. If a book is popular enough it will be made into a movie or TV series with 100+ episodes. Some of the more popular recent books that have made it to the screen are The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Game of Thrones, The Hunger Games and the Harry Potter series. All these contain either a ton of violence or sorcery. Or both.

THERE'S NO BUSINESS LIKE SHOW BUSINESS

MUSE-IC

GAME OVER? WANNA PLAY AGAIN?

People also love games. No suprise then that game shows are popular. Shows like Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune have run for decades. If one gets bored, one can play a board game like The Game of Life or Monopoly. And many love the big ball game. Nearly half of Americans watch a typical Super Bowl. Of course, duality is present in this as well since the goal of every game is to determine a winner and loser. Gambling goes hand in hand with sports as well as card or casino games like Poker rolling the dice or playing the roulette wheel or slot machines. Not to mention the lottery wheel. These are all symbolic for the game of life and the wheel of reincarnation.

And then there are board games such as The Game of Life, Snakes and Ladders and Monopoly where we spin the wheel or roll the die. Maybe we are like Sims characters or avatars in a virtual reality simulated computer game? A game typically consists of the player having many lives represented in the form of "men". He tries to ascend various levels or planes losing lives and energy along the way. When he reaches the end of a level the player often needs to defeat a "Boss" or villain. The games are very challenging. If one is lucky enough to win or reach "GAME OVER" status, he is then aked if he wants to play again.

THE SHOW MUST GO ON

Recently, one of the most common and popular forms of stories are reality shows. Perhaps the first reality show ever was aptly named The Real World. A precursor to these were daily soap operas like As the World Turns and Days of Our Lives. Shakespeare said all the world's a stage and we are merely players. And reality shows like Survival, Lost, America's Got Talent and American Idol need a good backstory. Most of the acts that advance anymore need to have a sympathetic backstory to pull on the heartstrings to make it more interesting because, after all, it is all about ratings and viewership of people living vicariously through the acts. It is estimated that the average person watches 5+ hours of television daily.

THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH

What if life here on earth were a "reality" show itself? A real life Truman Show, the true man show? Well, there is some evidence to suggest this just may be the case. In fact, I interviewed a friend of mine who had one of the most in-depth near death experiences I have ever heard. In that interview he said, "What I saw is that -- especially when I saw the pillars in heaven -- I saw that you just adjust your perception of it a little bit and you can just see the different stories popping out at you. And so I think we're creating stories. I think that's what we do and I think they're interesting stories and I think that we're better for it. I really do." He also stated, "We can participate in THIS world and others. And I'll tell you how that works out. I saw the VERY end. I'm talking about this Demiurge, or whatever you want to call it, the guy who does all the contracts. He records everything. He's like the Producer, okay, and he's producing this show. It's his show. And if you don't sign up for his contract, you don't enter." He also said our angels control like us like video game characters. Many near death experiencers come back saying life is about experiences and stories. I recall one NDEr who asked the beings in the light what the meaning of life is and they told him it is "for the entertainment of the spirit world".

THE NEVERENDING STORY

In that vein I believe a story about the story itself and all the subplots in the substories would contain the most important symbolism. It is for that reason I highly suggest The Neverending Story by Michael Ende is perhaps the most important fictional book of our time. Although the movie was good, the book is light years better. It more than holds its own against classics like Alice in Wonderland and The Wizard of Oz.

The Neverending Story contains the hero or savior archetype; the archetype of the Empress a.k.a. Moonchild; The Nothing or Emptiness; The Demiurge archetype; a character called The Chronicler who records everything that happens; the ouroboros of eternity and duality; shadow figures; the Acharis ( similar to the word 'archons' and also the 'acari' which is a parasitic tick or mite); a witch; giants; gnomes; fairies; the astral plane; and other symbols such as dreams, mirrors, a labyrinth, an ivory tower, and wishes. Sorry, there are no unicorns or rainbows that I recall. Actually, the movie begins with a song mentioning a rainbow.

There can be little doubt that Ende was heavily influenced by the writings of occultist and practitioner of magick, Aleister Crowley. When it is time for the main character to give a name to the Childlike Empress he names her Moonchild. Moonchild is the name of a novel by Crowley. Furthermore, the inscription on the back of the amulet that the main character's mirror half wears to do the Empress's Will says "Do What You Wish" which is really just a paraphrase of Crowley's axiom "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law". Wishing the world into existence and the need for the continual dreaming of the story to keep it in existence are the main points in the book. The protagonist of the story initially is carrying out the Will of the Childlike Empress, an archetype of the Gnostic Sophia. Eventually, the hero is able to create his own domain or world via his wishes. Thus, he becomes a sort of Demiurgic figure. In fact, in the book he rides around on a dragon which has a lion's head, the very symbol of the Demiurge. The film is a childrens' movie so the dragon is softened by giving it the head of a cute dog. There is also a shadow figure that is a shape shifter but takes the form of a werewolf. The enemy of the Story is none other than The Nothing or Emptiness. The Nothing can be avoided and both worlds saved by wishing. But whether these are true villains or not must be questioned because it is the werewolf shadow being who tells him what Fantasica a.k.a. Fantasia is and also what The Nothing is.

There is a parallel between the book and our reality here because it is the Intention of our wishes that keep us forever reincarnating into different forms and different stories. We are literally living the dream. We are living the Neverending Story. The story will continue as long as we continue to have unfulfilled dreams and wishes. If you are tired of the endless conflict and drama, then we can stop the ride by refusing to getting back in line to reincarnate. We can say "game over" and not play anymore.

Perhaps The Nothing isn't our enemy at all? Maybe it is a sanctuary or haven to get a reprieve from the endless cycle of drama and suffering. The Void or Clear Light as the Tibetans may have called it may be completely outside of time and space. It may be the womb of creation itself. Pre-creation. Before the Big Bang or explosion of movement that brought all of matter into existence. Scientists tell us that 99.9% of our physical reality is empty space, a vaccum or a void. They say both 99.9% of the atom and also outer space is empty. But perhaps our instruments are just not sensitive enough to read the energy that is there. And we are just now starting to learn about subspace, quantum mechanics and dark matter. It could just be extremely faint echos from other dimensions vibrating either too high or too low for us to see.

The Neverending Story trilogy is a series of movies based on the fantasy novel by the German author, Michael Ende. The movie is good, but the book is sooooo much better and contains much Gnostic symbolism. There was also a four part mini-series (13 episodes in the U.K.) Tales From The Neverending Story, but it also fell way short of the book. The book is as good or even better than classics like Alice in Wonderland and perhaps there is no better allegory for our plight in life. We continually wish to reincarnate over and over again for endless adventures, experiences and stories to participate in. The great enemy in The Neverending Story is The Nothing or Emptiness. In this respect, the plot seems diametrically opposed (or aligned with depending upon which way you interpret the intention of the author) to Buddhist doctrine. And it is yet another example of a princess tale of the moon goddess of love, beauty and especially desire.

My article on the Disney princesses highlighted that they are all basically based on the moon goddess, Venus, and encourage the viewer to make wishes to the planet or evening star, Venus. The Neverending Story is really no exception as the otherworld of Fantasia is centered around a princess known as the Chlidlike Empress who is given the name Moon Child by the universal dreamer in the story, Bastian. Inana (Isis/Aphrodite/Venus) was known as the Queen of Heaven in Sumerian texts. Known to the Romans as Venus she was also a moon goddess. If the Empress in the story was a moon child of the Queen of Heaven, then that makes her a princess as well. As I outline in my previous article, most of the Disney princesses were associated with Venus and the moon as well. The Empress is a sort of mother goddess in the story analogous to Sophia, the innocent and somewhat naive goddess of wisdom in Gnostic tradition. The Fantasian counterpart of Bastian, Atreyu, does her will by wearing her amulet, the AURYN. The word Auryn is very similar to Arwen of Lord of the Rings mythos.

ARCHETYPES / CHARACTERS ("care actors") IN THE NEVERENDING STORY

Fantasia/Fantastica -- Fantasia, or Fantastica as it is called in the book, is the fantasy world created and sustained by the hopes and dreams of humans. Many mystics, visionaries and shamen who are able to go into altered, higher states of awareness have said that our lives are illusionry, dreamlike and just hallucination, projections of consciousness, and based in fantasy.

Bastian, The Universal Dreamer -- Bastian Balthazar Bux. It is interesting that the author chose to call the boy Bastian instead of Sebastian. Bastian is a name which means "warrior" as he was the patron saint of warriors. Bastian is the human hero who acts in Fantasia through a warrior named Atreyu. He is also the universal dreamer. In the opening scene of the first movie he wakes in bed from a dream and tells his dad he had another dream about his mother. He also gives a name to the Childlike Empress. When one gives a name to something it leaves the realm of formlessness into the realm of form. Through the power of an amulet called the AURYN, he does the will of the Childlike Empress and in the book he often travels by riding a demurgic figure with a lion's head and serpentine body of a dragon. Bastian becomes a sort of Demiurge of his own created world.

Atreyu -- the hero on the hero's journey. Atreyu is the mirror self of Bastian. Stanislov Grof wrote about Joseph Campbell's research into the hero with a thousand faces in his book The Ultimate Journey. Grof wrote, "Analyzing a broad spectrum of myths from various parts of the world, Campbell realized that they all contained variations of one universal archetypal formula, which he called the monomyth. This was the story of the hero, either male or female, who leaves his or her home ground and, after fantastic adventures, returns as a deified being. Campbell found that the archetype of the hero's journey typically has three stages, similar to those described earlier as characteristic sequences in traditional rites of passage: separation, initiation, and return. The hero leaves the familiar ground or is forcefully separated from it by an external force, is transformed through a series of extraordinary ordeals and adventures, and finally is again incorporated into his or her original society in a new role. A typical myth of the heroic journey begins when the ordinary life of the protagonist is suddenly interrupted by the intrusion of elements that are magical in nature and belong to another order of reality. Campbell refers to this invitation to adventure as a "call." If the hero responds to the call and accepts the challenge, he or she embarks on an adventure that involves visits to strange territories, encounters with fantastic animals and superhuman beings, and numerous ordeals. This adventure often culminates in an experience of death and subsequent rebirth."

Childlike Empress, Moon Child -- a Princess.The Mother archetype. Symbolic of Sophia, innocent goddess of wisdom, mother and creator of Fantasia/Fantastica... vaginal imagery and the shell symbolism of Venus/Aphrodite. Moon Child is a book by the occultist Aleister Crowley. Crowley's axiom "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law" is later revealed as essentially the same message of the Auryn, "Do What You Wish".

Curiosity - The bookstore owner Carl Conrad Coreander called Coreander for short and later called the nickname, Curiosity. After all, it is curiosity that leads us on these neverending adventures. In Greek mythology it was the curiosity of Pandora that caused Pandora to open the box that allowed all the diseases of mankind to contaminate the Earth. It is the "magic" and mystery of the unknown that keeps the game of life interesting to us. Spoilers ruin the surprise. If you know the ending to the movie, it loses its mystery.

Ivory Tower, trefoil symbol, also the wiccan triquetra or triskele symbolizing the triple aspect of the moon. fleur-dis-lis, the flower of life or lily, sacred to Astarte /Isis/Venus.... 8-pointed star of light... beam of light moving up and down that creates countless forms.

The Nothing - the "no thing" or the Emptiness is considered to be the nemesis of Fantasia and The Neverending Story. After all, if there were nothing there couldn't be a story at all. There is a juxtraposition to the Buddhist doctrine of nirvana and enlightenment here as well. The goal of many meditators is the Void. The Void may also be the same thing as the Clear Light in the Tibetan Book of the Dead. The Tibetan Book of the Dead urges the newly diseased to merge with the Clear Light immediately at death for it is their true nature, the nature of their Awareness.

Shadow being, servant of the darkness -- Gmork/G'mork. G is freemasonic. Mork is Swedish for "dark". Gmork is a wolf who is a servant of the darkness and set out on destroying Atreyu. Gmork is considered to be a villain, but whether it is a true villain is subject to debate for it is Gmork that tells Atreyu/Bastian what Fantasia is and what the Nothing is.

Luckdragon - in the book, the luckdragon Falkor has a "lionlike head" with a "mane" and body of a serpent, the same symbolism of the Demiurge, the Gnostic false god. "His bristling fangs, his thick, luxuriant mane, and the fringes on his tail and limbs were all caught in the sticky ropes. He could hardly move. The eyeballs in his lionlike head glistened ruby-red." The word 'luck' is related to chaos and possibly the Norse trickster god Loki and the Celtic trickster god, Lugh. These are likely the Sumerian Enki.

The Acharis -- similar to the word 'archons' and also the 'acari' which is a parasitic tick or mite.

Sphnix Gateways -- Greek sphinxes in Delphi...... 1st gateway is the Southern Oracle. 2nd is the Magic Mirror Gate "know thyself".

AURYN -- Moon Child's Amulet... the symbol of the Ouroboros, the serpent or dragon eating its own tail. It is the symbol on the cover of The Neverending Story book and in the movie it's a symbol representing duality. Also, the title literally represents the Spirit's imprisonment to constantly wishing to go on adventurous stories.

Auryn means "golden" but sounds like a variation of the word Arwen. Arwen Evenstar is one of the main characters in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. She appears in white light and beckons characters to come back to the light. In the series she is associated with the Evening Star, Venus. 'Wen' is derived from Venus and connotes desire. Their common Proto-Indo-European root is assumed as *wen- "to strive for, wish for, desire, love". 'Wen' is sometimes suffixed to the names of female saints, e.g. Dwynwen. Ar possibly denotes an archon as 'ar' is associated with many archaic and archontic themes... archangels.

The wearer of the Auryn amulet speaks for the Empress.

[Note: Here are some excerpts from the book referencing the AURYN. "He who wears the AURYN speaks for the Empress. It will guide and protect you." The book says, "Everyone in Fantastica knew what the medallion meant. It was the badge of one acting on orders from the Childlike Empress, acting in her name as though she herself were present. It was said to give the bearer mysterious powers, though no one knew exactly what these powers were. Everyone knew its name: AURYN... AURYN will protect you and guide you, but whatever comes your way you must never interfere, because from this moment on your own opinion ceases to count. For that same reason you must go unarmed. You must let what happens happen. Everything must be equal in your eyes, good and evil, beautiful and ugly, foolish and wise, just as it is in the eyes of the Childlike Empress. You may only search and inquire, never judge." "An outside will far stronger than his own had taken possession of his body and was guiding it. That will came from AURYN, the amulet suspended from a chain around his neck." "AURYN has power over all the inhabitants of Fantastica, the creatures of both light and darkness.
It also has power over you and me. And yet the Childlike Empress never exerts power. It’s as if she weren’t there. And yet she is in everything. Is she like us?”
“No,” said Falkor, “she’s not like us. She’s not a creature of Fantastica. We all exist because she exists. But she’s of a different kind.” "It was AURYN, the Gem, the Childlike Empress’s amulet, which made its bearer her representative. Moon Child had given him power over every creature and thing in Fantastica. And as
long as he wore that emblem, it would be as though she were with him. For a long while Bastian looked at the two snakes, the one light, the other dark, which were biting each other’s tail, and formed an oval. Then he turned the amulet over and to his surprise found an inscription on the reverse side. It consisted of four words in strangely intricate letters: 'Do What You Wish' " "Then Bastian told him everything that had happened since he met Moon Child. “It’s all so strange,” he concluded. “A wish comes into my head, and then something always happens that makes the wish come true. I haven’t made this up, you know. I wouldn’t be able to. I could never have invented all the different night plants in Perilin. Or the colors of Goab—or you! It’s all much more wonderful and real than anything I could have made up. But all the same, nothing is there until I’ve wished it.” “That,” said the lion, “is because you’re carrying AURYN, the Gem.” “But does all this exist only after I’ve wished it? Or was it all there before?” “Both,” said Grograman."

“The amulet gives you great power, it makes all your wishes come true, but at the same time it takes something away: your memory of your world.” Bastian thought it over. He didn’t feel as if anything had been taken away from him. “Grograman told me to find out what I really wanted. And the inscription on AURYN says the same thing. But for that I have to go from one wish to the next without ever skipping any. That’s why I need the Gem.” “Yes,” said Atreyu. “It gives you the means, but it takes away your purpose.” “Oh well,” said Bastian, undismayed. “Moon Child must have known what she was doing when she gave me the amulet. You worry too much, Atreyu. I’m sure AURYN isn’t a trap.”

"The whole trouble is the way the Childlike Empress’s amulet affects you. Without AURYN’s power you can’t wish yourself ahead, but with AURYN’s power you’re losing yourself and forgetting where you want to go. Pretty soon, unless we do something about it, you won’t have any idea where you’re going.”

Atreyu put the tip of his sword on Bastian’s chest. “Give me the amulet,” he said. “For your own sake.” “Traitor!” cried Bastian. “You are my creature! I created the whole lot of you! Including you! So how can you rebel against me? Kneel down and beg forgiveness.” “You’re mad!” cried Atreyu. “You didn’t create anything! You owe everything to Moon Child! Give me AURYN!”

Bastian stopped running. He realized that he couldn’t escape. “You mean,” he asked, gasping for breath, “that all these people here were once Emperors of Fantastica, or wanted to be?” “That’s it,” said Argax. “All the ones who can’t find their way back try sooner or later to become Emperor. They didn’t all make it, but they all tried. That’s why there are two kinds of fools here. Though the result, in a manner of speaking, is the same.” “What two kinds? Tell me, Argax! I have to know!” “Easy does it,” said the monkey, giggling as he tightened his grip on Bastian’s neck. “The one kind gradually used up their memories. And when they had lost the last one, AURYN couldn’t fulfill their wishes anymore. After that, they came here, in a manner of speaking, automatically. The others, the ones who crowned themselves emperor, lost all their memories at one stroke. So the same thing happened: AURYN couldn’t fulfill their wishes anymore, because they had none left. As you see, it comes to the same thing. Here they are, and they can’t get away.” “Do you mean that they all had AURYN at one time?” “Naturally!” said Argax. “But they forgot it long ago. And it wouldn’t help them anymore, the poor fools!”

Slowly the boy without a name reached for the gold chain around his neck and divested himself of AURYN. He bent down and carefully laid the Gem in the snow before Atreyu. As he did so, he took another look at the two snakes, the one light, the other dark, which were biting each other’s tail and formed an oval. Then he let the amulet go. In that moment AURYN, the golden Gem, became so bright, so radiant that he had to close his eyes as though dazzled by the sun. When he opened them again, he saw that he was in a vaulted building, as large as the vault of the sky. It was built from blocks of golden light. And in the middle of this
immeasurable space lay, as big as the ramparts of a town, the two snakes. Atreyu, Falkor, and the boy without a name stood side by side, near the head of the black snake, which held the white snake’s tail in its jaws. The rigid eye with its vertical pupil was directed at the three of them. Compared to that eye, they were tiny; even the luckdragon seemed no larger than a white caterpillar. The motionless bodies of the snakes glistened like some unknown metal, the one black as night, the other silvery white. The havoc they could wreak was checked only because they held each other prisoner. If they let each other go, the world would end. That was certain. But while holding each other fast, they guarded the Water of Life. For in the center of the edifice they encircled there was a great fountain. Its beam danced up and down and in falling created and dispersed thousands of forms far more quickly than the eye could follow. The foaming water burst into a fine mist, in which the golden light was refracted with all the colors of the rainbow. The fountain roared and laughed and rejoiced with a thousand voices. "

“We were both right,” said Atreyu, “and we were both wrong. But now Bastian has given up AURYN of his own free will.” Falkor listened and nodded. “Yes,” he said. “It accepts that. This place is AURYN. We are welcome, it says.” Atreyu looked up at the enormous golden dome. “Each of us,” he whispered, “has worn it around his neck—you too, Falkor, for a while.” The luckdragon motioned him to be still and listened again to the sound of the Water. Then he translated: “AURYN is the door that Bastian has been looking for. He carried it with him from the start. But— it says—the snakes won’t let anything belonging to Fantastica cross the threshold. Bastian must therefore give up everything the Childlike Empress gave him. Otherwise he cannot drink of the Water of Life.” “But we are in her sign!” cried Atreyu. “Isn’t she herself here?” “It says that Moon Child’s power ends here. She is the only one who can never set foot in this place. She cannot penetrate to the center of AURYN, because she cannot cast off her own self.”

“The Water asks you,” Falkor translated, “whether you completed all the stories you began in Fantastica.” “No,” said Bastian. “None of them really.” Falkor listened awhile. His face took on a worried look. “In that case, it says, the white snake won’t let you through. You must go back to Fantastica and finish them all.”
“All the stories?” Bastian stammered. “Then I’ll never be able to go back. Then it’s all been for nothing.” After a while he sighed and said: “It says there’s no help for it unless someone promises to do it in your place. But no one can do that.” “I can! I will!” said Atreyu.]

THE NEVERENDING STORY (1984)

The movie begins with a song by Georgio Moroder named The Neverending Story. "Turn around, look at what you see in her face: The mirror of your dream. Make believe I'm everywhere hidden in the lines, Written on the pages is the answer to a neverending story. Reach the stars, fly a fantasy, dream a dream and what you see will be. Rhymes that keep their secrets will unfold behind the clouds. There upon the rainbow is the answer to a neverending story."

The main character, Bastian, escapes a bunch of school bullies, by running into a book store. The owner (who we later learn is a magician named Curiosity) is reading a book. Bastian is curious about the book. "What's that book about?" "Oh, this is something special. Your books are safe. By reading them you get to become Tarzan or Robinson Crusoe." "But that's what I like about them." "Ah, but afterwards you get to be a little boy again." "What do you mean?" "Listen, have you ever been Captain Nemo trapped inside your submarine while the giant squid is attacking you?" "Yes." "Weren't you afraid you couldn't escape?" "But it's only a story." "That's what I'm talking about. The ones you read are safe." "And that one isn't?" "Don't worry about it. Forget about it. This book is not for you." While the store owner answers a phone call Bastian runs off with the book, leaving a note saying he will return it later. The book is called The Neverending Story.

The owner of the bookstore is later called Curiosity.This is symbolic for it is Sebastian's curiosity which leads him on the endless adventures in Fantasia. Likewise, it is our curiosity which causes us to incarnate and reincarnate on this neverending cycle between Earth and the astral plane.

"A strange sort of nothing is destroying everything." "So it's not just in our part of Fantasia?" "Maybe. It's already everywhere. Maybe our whole land is in danger..." "The Nothing. Look! There it is. The heart of Fantasia. I NEVER knew it was that beautiful. Ohhh. Stay awake! I told you to stay awake. The home of the Empress. She's our only hope. The Nothing is destroying our world. I also know that you have come to beseech the Empress for help. But I have terrible news. The Empress herself has become deathly ill. Ooh. There seems to be a mysterious link between her illness and the Nothing. She's dying. So she cannot save us. But there just might be one chance. The plains people who hunt the purple buffalo have among them a great warrior, and he alone has a chance to fight the Nothing and save us. He is our only hope. His name... is Atreyu."

"If you really ARE the Atreyu we sent for, you would be willing to go on a quest." "Yes. Of course. What kind of a quest?" "To find a cure for the Empress. And to save our world. No-one can give you any advice except this. You must go alone, you must leave all your weapons behind. It will be very dangerous." "Is there any chance of success?" "I do not know. But if you fail, the Empress will surely die. And our whole world will be utterly destroyed." "When do I begin?" "Now. And you must hurry, Atreyu. The Nothing grows stronger every day. Take this. The AURYN. He who wears the AURYN speaks for the Empress. It will guide and protect you. Wake up!"

The Nothing is the enemy of the world of Fantasia. But perhaps we need to wake up and realize that the Nothing or Void may be our way out of this endless cycle of drama and adventurous experiences. For it may be the womb of creation. By staying in the Nothing or Void we can avoid the Duality and endless roller coaster ride of ups and downs and neverending conflict.

Atreyu seeks the wisdom of Morla, an ancient wise tortoise. The tortoise has lived long enough to realize that this endless rabbit trail of experiences has no real meaning and that nothing really matters. This is similar to passages in Ecclesiastes. Atreyu asks, "Did you know that the Empress is very ill?" Morla replies, "Not that it matters, but yes. Actually, we don't care." Atreyu urgently pleads, "If I don't save her, she'll die! There's a terrible Nothing sweeping over the Land! Don't you care about that?" Morla is unmoved and doesn't really care about anything anymore. "We don't even care whether or not we care..." Atreyu implores "You know how I can help the Empress, don't you?" Again Morla seems unperturbed. "Not that it matters, but yes." Atreyu reasons, "If you don't tell me, and the Nothing keeps coming, you'll die too! BOTH of you!" Morla is still apathetic. "Die? That, at least, would be something. Go away. Nothing matters." "That's not true! If it didn't really matter, you could tell me."

"It's the first of the two gates you must pass through before you reach the Southern Oracle. The sphinxes' eyes stay closed until someone who does not feel his own worth tries to pass by. The sphinxes can see straight into your heart... He made it through the Sphinx Gate! The worst one is coming up. Next is the Magic Mirror Gate. Atreyu has to face his true self! Kind people find that they are cruel. Brave men discover that they are really cowards! Confronted with their true selves, most men run away screaming!"

"Are you the Southern Oracle?" "Yes. We are." "Then you must know what can save Fantasia!" "Yes. We do." "Well, what is it? I have to know!" "The Empress needs a new name." "A new name? That's all? But that's easy! I can give her any name she wants!" "No-one from Fantasia can do it. Only a human child can give her this new name." "A human child? Where can I find one?" "You can only find one beyond the boundaries of Fantasia. If you want to save our world, you must hurry! We don't know how much longer we can withstand the Nothing. The Nothing's everywhere!" "Don't worry. We'll reach the boundaries of Fantasia. Do you know where they are?" "I have NO idea."

Atreyu encounters the Giant Rockeater. The Rockeater tells Atreyu, "I couldn't hold on to them. The Nothing pulled them right out of my hands. I failed." Atreyu consoles it, "No, you didn't fail. I'm the one who failed. I was the one chosen to stop the Nothing. But I lost the AURYN. I can't find my luck-dragon. So I won't be able to get beyond the boundaries of Fantasia! Listen. The Nothing will be here any minute. I will just sit here and let it take me away too..." Atreyu is resigned to his fate and is about to give up. The Rockeater tells him to fight. "Then fight the Nothing." Atreyu doesn't know how. "But I can't! I can't get beyond the boundaries of Fantasia... What's so funny about that?" The Rockeater is amused and informs Atreyu, "Fantasia has no boundaries."

Atreyu continues on his adventure and is confronted by the Gmork, a shadowy wolf creature. Although the Gmork is supposed to be a scary evil villain out to destroy Atreyu, it gives him invaluable information about Fantasia and the Nothing.

"Don't you know anything about Fantasia?" "It's the world of human fantasy! Every part, every creature of it, is a piece of the dreams and hopes of mankind. Therefore, it has no boundaries." "But why is Fantasia dying, then?" "Because people have begun to lose their hopes, and forget their dreams. So the Nothing grows stronger."

It is our hopes and dreams - our wishes and desires -- that keep us reincarnating and allows both this physical plane and the astral plane to continue to exist.

What IS the Nothing? It's the emptiness that's Left. It is like a despair destroying this world, and I have been trying to help it." "But why?!" "Because people who have no hopes are easy to control. And whoever has the control has the power." "Who are you really?" "I am the servant of the power behind the Nothing. I was sent to kill the only one who could have stopped the Nothing."

If we set our Intention on the Void after we die and resist our desires and wishes -- our attachments to the physical and astral forms -- then we could be free from the endless drama and conflict and resulting pain and suffering. But, like junkies, we are attached to the excitement of the drama and continue to manifest our wish to go on the ride again and again.

Atreyu is convinced to return home to the Empress, but feels like he failed because he was supposed to find an Earthling and bring him back.

Atreyu is sorry and informs the Empress, "I failed you, Empress." The Empress corrects him, "No, you haven't. You brought him with you." Atreyu is confused. "Who?" Empress: "The earthling child. The one who can save us all." Atreyu: "You knew about the earthling child?" Empress: "Of course. I knew everything." Atreyu is flabbergasted. "My horse died. I nearly drown. I just barely got away from the Nothing! For what? To find out what you already knew?!" The Empress tries to console him. "It was the only way to get in touch with an earthling." Atreyu: "But I DIDN'T get in touch with an earthling!" Empress: "Yes, you did. He has suffered with you. He went through everything you went through. And now he has come here with you. He is very close, listening to every word we say." Atreyu: "WHAT?! Where is he? If he's so close, why doesn't he arrive?"

We are living in a reality TV show, entertainment for the spirits. This is like a soap opera for the Spirit World. "As the World Turns" "these are the Days of Our Lives." Everything we do here is recorded and watched. And we are like Sims characters in a simulation, a video game, being controlled by so-called angels.

The astral realm needs Earthlings for its sustenance so they can continue to exist. They feed off the drama. They feed off the fear, anger, sadness and depression. They also feed off the praise, worship and sacrifice. If we refused to reincarnate, the astral entities would no longer have any sustenance or way to exist. Like egregores, they exist because of our thought forms. We will them into existence.

The Empress informs Atreyu, "He doesn't realize he's already a part of the Neverending Story." Atreyu: "The Neverending Story? What's that?" The Empress reveals the secret, "Just as he is sharing all your adventures, others are sharing his. They were with him when he hid from the boys in the bookstore." Sebastian, who is reading the book back on Earth is starting to become aware of what is happening and exclaims, "But that's impossible!" The Empress explains, "They were with him when he took the book with the AURYN symbol on the cover, in which he's reading his own story right now." Sebastian is shocked: "I can't believe it! They can't be taIking about me." Atreyu is concerned, "What will happen if he doesn't appear?" The Empress answers, "Then our world will disappear. And so will I." Atreyu is alarmed, "How can he let that happen?!" The Empress confides, "He doesn't understand that he's the one who has the power to stop it. He simply can't imagine that one little boy could be that important."

"Is it really me?", Sebastian asks increduously. Atreyu wonders, "Maybe he doesn't know what to do!" Sebastian's curiosity is piqued, "What do I have to do?" The Empress answers, "He has to give me a new name. He's already chosen it. He just has to call it out." Sebastian is almost aware but still fighting denial:"But it's only a story. It's not real! It's only a story!" He calls out to his mirror self, "Atreyu, no! Atreyu!" The Empress speaks directly to Sebastian now, "Bastian. Why don't you do what you dream, Bastian?" Sebastian is trying to overcome the programming and conditioning of his parents and the world. "But I can't! I have to keep my feet on the ground!" The Empress implores Bastian: "Call my name! Bastian! Please! Save us!" Bastian, fully awaren now becomes determined. "Alright! I'll do it! I'll save you! I will do what I dream! He cries out the new name he has given to the Empress. "Moon Child!"

Sebastian is now with the Empress surrounded by Darkness and asks, "Why is it so dark?" The Empress explains,"In the beginning, it is always dark." She is holding something in her hand. Sebastian wants to know what it is. "What is that?" The Empress tells him, "One grain of sand. That is all that remains of my vast empire." Sebastian: "Fantasia has totally disappeared?" Empress: "Yes." Sebastian: "Then... everything's been in vain." Empress: "No, it hasn't. Fantasia can arise in you. In YOUR dreams and wishes, Bastian." Sebastian: "How?" Empress: "Open your hand." he gives him the grain of sand and asks him, "What are you going to wish for?" Sebastian answers, "I don't know." Empress: "Then there will be no Fantasia anymore." Sebastian: "How many wishes do I get?" Empress: "As many as you want. And the more wishes you make, the more magnificent Fantasia will become."

Sebastian has the power to wish Fantasia into existence. He has become and is a sort of Demiurge. If he is not careful to make pure wishes, then things could go awfully awry. As the old saying goes, "Be careful what you wish for."

NARRATOR: "Bastian made many other wishes, and had many other amazing adventures, before he finally returned to the ordinary world. But that's another story."

THE NEVERENDING STORY II: THE NEXT CHAPTER (1990)

The second movie begins with a reference to a Richard Wagner opera. I talk about Wagner operas in my article on the Disney castle and the Swan Knight.

"Siegfried dealt the king a mortal blow. The sword drew blood from the wounds and King Lindegast was saddened. He begged Siegfried to let him live and offered him his lance."

Bastian goes back to the bookstore again. "The Neverending Story." The store owner pleads, "Put it back! That book asks too much of you. But have you ever read a book twice? Books change each time you read them." "Give it back. I really want to read it again. Let me borrow it, please!" "No, Bastian!" "Auryn. Bastian. We need your help. Come back to Fantasia. We are in great danger. Fantasia! An Earthling to save the Childlike Empress!"

They have a machine that wipes their memories, collects them and stores them.

"I could gain the boy's confidence." "I don't care about his confidence. I want his wishes. Tri Face! The Memory Machine. Explain it to him, Tri Face." "Yes, explain it!" "Every time the Earthling uses AURYN to make a wish, my new invention makes him lose a memory! With each wish the liquid in his head forms a memory ball, falls down and is collected in the beaker below." "What happens when he has lost all of his memories?" "Obviously, the beaker at the bottom is full. And the Earthling's head is empty. He won't remember where he came from. He won't remember his own world. Why he came to Fantasia. He will forget the Childlike Empress." "That's when l'll bring order to the chaos they call dreams and stories. Nimbly, go! Make the Earthling wish."

"Nimbly's the name, tour guide's the game! Let me show you the sights of Silver City! Watch out! Pure acid!" "Acid?" "Fantasians will be grateful if you wish for the lake to be filled with crystal spring water instead." "What do you mean, 'if I would wish'?" "You have Auryn. It fulfills all of your wishes. Too bad only one of these exists. You want something. You wish it. AURYN makes it happen."

"The Earthling has come to help us. We must talk to the Empress. Childlike Empress." "Bastian, you are the only Earthling moved by our plight. What's going on? Are you hurt? The same force that makes the books in your world become empty makes me a prisoner in my castle." "What is this force?" "Only you can name it, Bastian." "Name it?" "We are the creatures of human fantasies. We need your dreams and stories to exist.But the people in your world no longer believe in us. They have no time to give us names and stories."

"Is there no one with the courage to stand up with me against the Giants? Atreyu! Atreyu! Bastian! Welcome back. How did you...? In my dreams I saw a light over Silver City and I knew there was hope, but I did not expect to find you. Were you in danger? Did you see the Giants? Where do they come from? People talk about a castle shaped like a hand. Some say that's where the Giants come from. That's where we should go. There are burning arrows of light all around it."

"The Giants are empty. They're hollow and empty like the Rockbiter's stones and the pages of The Neverending Story. I know what threatens Fantasia." "You have found its name?" "It's the Emptiness." "The Earthling knows about the Emptiness. He's stronger than we thought. Perhaps threatening him with Giants isn't the way. Time for a change of tactics." "What does the Emptiness look like? How does it fight? I think we're about to find out."

"I wish for the doors to open!" "I am Xayide. This is my castle." "And the Giants?" "They were mine. But you have conquered them. I admit defeat." "I have defeated you?" "We." "That someone so young could be so clever." "You make everything empty." "I control all that is empty." "Just to control things, you destroy stories and books?" "I'm trying to bring order to the chaos of Fantasia. Am I wrong?" "You certainly are! I demand that you free the Childlike Empress!" "I can't." "Why not?" "I've isolated her forever." "You made the spell and you can undo it!"

"It's hard to remember things." "Why remember things when you can wish for them?" "What should I wish for?" "What about juggling? Wouldn't you enjoy that? If you wish for it, you can." "I wish it."

"Then the darkness lifted and she could see her way home. So the princess returned to her father's castle. And they all lived happily ever after." "Don't be afraid, Bastian. We're all part of a neverending story." "We are? Even if we die?" "Yes, Bastian, we are." "That's good to know."

"From what you tell me the Emptiness has found its way into Bastian's head." "It's AURYN, isn't it?" "It works differently with humans than with us. Because humans need memories."

"So what l saw was a memory. If Bastian's so clever, why can't he see what's happening? Bastian is losing himself with every wish. He must be stopped, or Fantasia's lost. I'll take AURYN away from him by force, if necessary. He can't be allowed to make one more wish."

"Why don't you go back and play hero in your own world, Earthling? Every time you use Auryn, you lose one of your memories. Xayide has a machine that collects them." "I would have seen it." "I have seen it. It's in the roof of the X obile. A few more wishes and the Emptiness will possess you."

"I saw one of your memories. It made me feel something. I learned that we're all part of a neverending story. Bastian, try to remember it. Unless we stop Xayide the story will end."

"And you have only one wish left. So use what's left of your brain and wish to go home. That's where you belong." "If I use my last wish, Fantasia will be forgotten. The Childlike Empress will be gone forever." "Go home and leave Fantasia to me." "I won't betray the Childlike Empress!" "Very well. But how will your father feel if he never sees you again?" "My father...." "Make your wish. Wish to go home." "Yes, Xayide. I will make my last wish. I wish......for you to have a heart."

"You have found the only wish powerful enough to save us, Bastian. The Emptiness cannot be destroyed. It had to be filled with love." "And AURYN?" "It's only a mirror of what's inside you. Courage comes from the heart not from symbols. If you've found courage, you can go home and heal both our worlds." "I can't go home." "That's the way home?" "Yes. The only way. You found courage. Bastian, you have. You've found courage."

"My father. That's his voice." "Now make a wish from your heart." "I wish to go home and tell my dad that l love him...."

"You're back. You helped me, didn't you? You heard me?" "Of course I heard you."
"I love you. I love you very, very much." "I love you too, Dad."

THE NEVERENDING STORY III (1994)

The third movie is rather uneventful and devolves too much into a silly childrens' fiasco. But I will try and watch again and look for clues. There must be something worthwhile. I may have just been tired from watching everything else. The villains are called The Nasty. Pretty lame name.

TALES FROM THE NEVERENDING STORY [TV SERIES] (2001)

The entire series begins with Bastian's mother dropping him off at school. Her license plate reads "MOON CHILD". Above it smaller text is "The Dream State". So you can see that the Childlike Empress in Fantasia is his mother or his mother's mirror self.

It may be a bit difficult to see, but the book store may actually contain a Demiurge, a serpent with what kind of looks a bit like a lion's head in that it is gold. In the television series the cover of the book The Neverending Story features an ouroboros. The ouroboros is the serpent biting its own tail. Sometimes it is two serpents intertwined as is the case here. In this case the serpent is in the figure of the eternal knot.

The Childlike Empress has grown some and is now a beautiful young woman. She still has the jewelry that graces her forehead where the third eye is located. She is portrayed in white or silver. The insignia behind her looks like an eight pointed star. In the image on the right notice the advert for the upcoming Saint Patrick's Day bash. It says "Driving the snakes out". St. Patrick was said to have driven the snakes out of Ireland. The bands slated to perform are Black 47 ( a reference to the plague) and Morningstar. Venus/Lucifer is considered to be the morning star (as is Jesus).

The ivory tower. In Bastian's bedroom is a poster of what might be Venus, but maybe not.

The back of the AURYN amulet says "DO WHAT YOU WISH" which is a paraphrase of Aleister Crowley's credo "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law." Crowley wrote a book called Moonchild. When Bastian has to come up with a name for the Childlike Empress he takes it from the notes of his father's diary, if I recall correctly.

DIE UNENDLICHE GESCHICHTE (THE NEVERENDING STORY) - MICHAEL ENDE (1979)

Die Unendliche Geschichte is a fantasy novel written by German author Michael Ende. It was first published in 1979. The book contains brilliant metaphors for our existence here on planet Earth. The book contains many scenes that never made onto the big screen or television. I will cover some of them here.

In the book, it is two snakes that are entertwined and they seem to represent ying and yang, or duality. "Examining the binding more closely, he discovered two snakes on it, one light and one dark. They were biting each other’s tail, so forming an oval. And inside the oval, in strangely intricate letters, he saw the title: The Neverending Story".

The book says it was the passion, that is desire, that compelled the boy to read the book. "Human passions have mysterious ways, in children as well as grown-ups. Those affected by them can’t explain them, and those who haven’t known them have no understanding of them at all. Some people risk their lives to conquer a mountain peak. No one, not even they themselves, can really explain why. Others ruin themselves trying to win the heart of a certain person who wants nothing to do with them. Still others are destroyed by their devotion to the pleasures of the table. Some are so bent on winning a game of chance that they lose everything they own, and some sacrifice every thing for a dream that can never come true. Some think their only hope of happiness lies in being somewhere else, and spend their whole lives traveling from place to place. And some find no rest until they have become powerful. In short, there are as many different passions as there are people. Bastian Balthazar Bux’s passion was books."

"Bastian liked books that were exciting or funny, or that made him dream. Books where made-up characters had marvelous adventures, books that made him imagine all sorts of things. Because one thing he was good at, possibly the only thing, was imagining things so clearly that he almost saw and heard them. When he told himself stories, he sometimes forgot everything around him and awoke—as though from a dream—only when the story was finished. And this book was just like his own stories!"

"The Childlike Empress—as her title indicates—was looked upon as the ruler over all the innumerable provinces of the Fantastican Empire, but in reality she was far more than a ruler; she was something entirely different." "And every creature, whether good or bad, beautiful or ugly, merry or solemn, foolish or wise—all owed their existence to her existence. Without her, nothing could have lived, any more than a human body can live if it has lost its heart."

A centaur named Cairon wore the AURYN amulet, but was tasked with finding someone wiser who might be able to save the Empress who was suffering an illness related to the spreading of the Nothing. "But it is possible—and I hope none of you will be offended at what I am going to say—it is possible that we, we who are gathered here, do not possess all knowledge, all wisdom. Indeed it is my last and only hope that somewhere in this unbounded realm there is a being wiser than we are, who can give us help and advice. Of course, this is no more than a possibility. But one thing is certain: The search for this savior calls for a pathfinder, someone who is capable of finding paths in the pathless wilderness and who will shrink from no danger or hardship. In other words: a hero. And the Childlike Empress has given me the name of this hero, to whom she entrusts her salvation and ours. His name is Atreyu, and he lives in the Grassy Ocean beyond the Silver Mountains. I shall transmit AURYN to him and send him on the Great Quest."

So as you can see the story is about the hero's journey and a quest for wisdom. The enemy in the story consisted of the Nothing and a shadow being, a servant of the darkness. "And farther still there was nothing, absolutely nothing. Not a bare stretch, not darkness, not some lighter color; no, it was something the eyes could not bear, something that made you feel you had gone blind. For no eye can bear the sight of utter nothingness. Atreyu held his hand before his face and nearly fell off his branch. He clung tight for a moment, then climbed down as fast as he could. He had seen enough. At last he really understood the horror that was spreading through Fantastica."

"On a remote night-black heath the darkness condensed into a great shadowy form. It became so dense that even in that moonless, starless night it came to look like a big black body."

"In the middle of those swamps there is a mountain, Tortoise Shell Mountain it’s called. There lives Morla the Aged One. Go and see Morla the Aged One." “The Childlike Empress is sick,” said Atreyu. “Did you know that?” “It’s all the same to us. Isn’t it, old woman?” Morla replied. She seemed to be talking to herself, perhaps because she had had no one else to talk to for heaven knows how long. “If we don’t save her, she’ll die,” Atreyu cried out. “The Nothing is spreading everywhere. I’ve seen it myself.” Morla stared at him out of her great empty eyes. “We don’t mind, do we, old woman?” “But then we shall all die!” Atreyu screamed. “Every last one of us!” “Sakes alive!” said Morla. “But what do we care? Nothing matters to us anymore. It’s all the same to us.” “But you’ll be destroyed too, Morla!” cried Atreyu angrily. “Or do you expect, because you’re so old, to outlive Fantastica?” “Sakes alive!” Morla gurgled. “We’re old, son, much too old. Lived long enough. Seen too much. When you know as much as we do, nothing matters. Things just repeat. Day and night, summer and winter. The world is empty and aimless. Everything circles around. Whatever starts up must pass away, whatever is born must die. It all cancels out, good and bad, beautiful and ugly. Everything’s empty. Nothing is real. Nothing matters.” Atreyu didn’t know what to answer. The Aged One’s dark, empty, pond-sized eyes paralyzed his thoughts. After a while, he heard her speak again: “You’re young, son. If you were as old as we are, you’d know there’s nothing but sadness. Why shouldn’t we die, you and I, the Childlike Empress, the whole lot of us? Anyway, it’s all flim-flam, meaningless games. Nothing matters. Leave us in peace, son. Go away.”

Atreyu encounters and befriends a luckdragon named Falkor. Notice the description of the dragon. It has the body of a dragon, but a "lionlike" head. This is exactly how the Demiurge is described in Gnostic literature. "Luckdragons are creatures of air, warmth, and pure joy. Despite their great size, they are as light as a summer cloud, and consequently need no wings for flying. They swim in the air of heaven as fish swim in water. Seen from the earth, they look like slow lightning flashes. The most amazing thing about them is their song. Their voice sounds like the golden note of a large bell, and when they speak softly the bell seems to be ringing in the distance. Anyone who has heard this sound will remember it as long as he lives and tell his grandchildren about it. But the luckdragon Atreyu saw could hardly have been in a mood for singing. His long, graceful body with its pearly, pink-and-white scales hung tangled and twisted in the great spider web. His bristling fangs, his thick, luxuriant mane, and the fringes on his tail and limbs were all caught in the sticky ropes. He could hardly move. The eyeballs in his lion-like head glistened ruby-red. The splendid beast bled from many wounds, for there was something else, something very big, that descended like a dark cloud on the dragon’s white body. It rose and fell, rose and fell, all the while changing its shape. Sometimes it resembled a gigantic long-legged spider with many fiery eyes and a fat body encased in shaggy black hair;" That the dragon is called a luck dragon may be significant. Luck is a function of chaos. The word itself may actually be related to the Norse trickster god, Loki and the Celtic trickster god, Lugh. Also, notice luck is also a variant of 'luc' which is the root for Lucifer. Atreyu saves the dragon from the spider's web, they become "partners", and he subsequently flies around on the back of the dragon from time to time on great adventures.

Atreyu encounters a monster with a collective hive mind. "Only then did Atreyu notice that the monster was not a single, solid body, but was made up of innumerable small steel-blue insects which buzzed like angry hornets. It was their compact swarm that kept taking different shapes. This was Ygramul, and now Atreyu knew why she was called “the Many”.... "The gaze of the eye with the vertical pupil was almost unbearable."

"Atreyu thought a while. Then he asked:. “That big stone gate with the sphinxes. Is that the entrance?” “That’s better,” said Engywook. “Now we’ll get somewhere. Yes, that gate is the entrance, but then come two more gates. And Uyulala’s home is behind the third—if one can speak of her having a
home.” “The first,” he lectured, “is known as the Great Riddle Gate; the second is the Magic Mirror Gate; and the third is the No-Key Gate . . .”

"Anyway, when you stand before it, you see yourself. But not as you would in an ordinary mirror. You don’t see your outward appearance; what you see is your real innermost nature. If you want to go through, you have to—in a manner of speaking—go into yourself.” “Well,” said Atreyu. “It seems to me that this Magic Mirror Gate is easier to get through than the first.” “Wrong!” cried Engywook. Once again he began to trot back and forth in agitation. “Dead wrong, my friend! I’ve known travelers who considered themselves absolutely blameless to yelp with horror and run away at the sight of the monster grinning out of the mirror at them. We had to care for some of them for weeks before they were even able to start home... “Others,” he went on lecturing, “appear to have seen something even more horrible, but had the courage to go through. What some saw was not so frightening, but it still cost every one of them an
inner struggle. Nothing I can say would apply to all. It’s a different experience each time.”

“But what about this third gate?” “That’s where things get really difficult! Because, you see, the No-Key Gate is closed. Simply closed. And that’s that! There’s no handle and no doorknob and no keyhole. Nothing. My theory is that this single, hermetically closed door is made of Fantastican selenium... Just listen. Fantastican selenium reacts to our will. It’s our will that makes it unyielding. But if someone succeeds in forgetting all purpose, in wanting nothing at all—to him the gate will open of its own accord.”

"Up ahead, no more than twenty paces away, where previously there had been nothing but the great empty plain, he saw the Magic Mirror Gate. This gate was large and round like a second moon (for the real moon was still shining high in the sky) and it glittered like polished silver. It was hard to imagine how anyone could pass through a metal surface, but Atreyu didn’t hesitate for a moment. After what Engywook had said, he expected a terrifying image of himself to come toward him out of the mirror, but now that he had left all fear behind him, he hardly gave the matter a thought. What he saw was something quite unexpected, which wasn’t the least bit terrifying, but which baffled him completely. He saw a fat little boy with a pale face—a boy his own age—and this little boy was sitting on a pile of mats, reading a book. The little boy had large, sad-looking eyes, and he was wrapped in frayed gray blankets. Behind him a few motionless animals could be distinguished in the half-light—an eagle, an owl, and a fox—and farther off there was something that looked like a white skeleton. He couldn’t make out exactly what it was. Bastian gave a start when he realized what he had just read. Why, that was him! The description was right in every detail. The book trembled in his hands. This was going too far. How could there be something in a book that applied only to this particular moment and, only to him? It could only be a crazy accident. But a very remarkable accident."

"For when he emerged on the far side of the Magic Mirror Gate, he had lost all memory of himself, of his past life, aims, and purposes. He had forgotten the Great Quest that had brought him there, and he didn’t even know his own name. He was like a newborn child. Up ahead of him, only a few steps away, he saw the No-Key Gate, but he had forgotten its name and forgotten that his purpose in passing through it was to reach the Southern Oracle. He had no idea why he was there or what he was supposed to do. He felt light and cheerful and he laughed for no reason, for the sheer pleasure of it." The losing of memory may be an allusion to ego death which is said to be necessary for enlightenment.

The Voice of Silence
Little by little, the circle became smaller, and after a while he was able to understand the words the voice was singing: “Oh, nothing can happen more than once, But all things must happen one day. Over hill and dale, over wood and stream, My dying voice will blow away . . .” Atreyu turned in the direction of the voice, which darted fitfully among the columns, but he could see no one. “Who are you? And then, coming from a different direction, it sang: “I thank you, friend, for your good will. I’m glad that you have come to me. I am Uyulala, the voice of silence. In the Palace of Deep Mystery... “Once my song is ended, What comes to others soon or late, When their bodies pass away, Will also be my fate. My life will last the time of my song, But that will not be long.”... And the voice sang: “The Childlike Empress is sick, And with her Fantastica will die. The Nothing will swallow this place, It will perish and so will I. We shall vanish into the Nowhere and Never, As though we had never been. The Empress needs a new name To make her well again."

"Who can give the Childlike Empress The new name that will make her well? Not you, not I, no elf, no djinn, Can save us from the evil spell. For we are figures in a book— We do what we were invented for, But we can fashion nothing new And cannot change from what we are. But there’s a realm outside Fantastica, The Outer World is its name, The people who live there are rich indeed And not at all the same. Born of the Word, the children of man, Or humans, as they’re sometimes called, Have had the gift of giving names Ever since our worlds began, In every age it’s they who gave The Childlike Empress life, For wondrous new names have the power to save. But now for many and many a day, No human has visited Fantastica, For they no longer know the way. They have forgotten how real we are, They don’t believe in us anymore. Oh, if only one child of man would come, Oh, then at last the thing would be done. If only one would hear our plea. For them it is near, but for us too far, Never can we go out to them, For theirs is the world of reality. But tell me, my hero, you so young, Will you remember what I have sung?” “Oh yes!” cried Atreyu in his bewilderment. He was determined to imprint every word on his memory, though he had forgotten what for. He merely had a feeling that it was very, very important..."

The luckdragon comes back and is high above a pyramid and looks like a white flame. "The sound of his voice had hardly died away when a pearly-white luckdragon rose from the hollow where the gnomes had their cave and flew through the air with lazy, sinuous movements. He must have been feeling playful, for now and then he turned over on his back and looped-the-loop so fast that he looked like a burst of white flame. And then he landed not far from the pyramid where Atreyu was standing. When he propped himself on his forepaws, he was so high above Atreyu that to bring his head close to him, he had to bend his long, supple neck sharply downward. Rolling his ruby-red eyeballs for joy, stretching his tongue far out of his wide-open gullet, he boomed in his bronze-bell voice: “Atreyu, my friend and master! So you’ve finally come back! I’m so glad! We had almost given up hope—the gnomes, that is, not I.”

The book also talks about shape shifting Wind Giants who fight and play games. At one point they create a huge funnel around Atreyu. "I think it’s the four Wind Giants, starting one of their battles. They’re almost always fighting to see which is the strongest and should rule over the others. To them it’s a sort of game, because they have nothing to fear. But God help anyone who gets caught in their little tiffs... Meanwhile the storm clouds from all four directions had converged. It seemed to Atreyu that he was at the center of a huge funnel, which was revolving faster and faster, mixing the sulfur-yellow, the leaden gray, the blood-red, and the deep black all together. He and his white dragon were spun about in a circle like a matchstick in a great whirlpool. And then he saw the Wind Giants. Actually all he saw was faces, because their limbs kept changing in every possible way—from long to short, from clear-cut to misty—and they were so knotted together in a monstrous free-for-all that it was impossible to make out their real shapes, or even how many of them there were. The faces too were constantly changing; now they were round and puffed, now stretched from top to bottom or from side to side. But at all times they could be told apart. They opened their mouths and bellowed and roared and howled and laughed at one another. They didn’t even seem to notice the dragon and his rider, who were gnats in comparison to the Wind Giants.”

The world of Fantastica (Fantasia) contains a lot of gnomes, fairies, goblins, etc. At one point Atreyu sees a procession of monstrous beings dancing and playing flutes and bells. He wonders if he should follow them or not. "Atreyu hadn’t been skirting the road for very long when he heard a strange thumping sound. It was far away but coming closer. It sounded like the muffled beat of a big drum. In between beats he heard a tinkling of bells and a shrill piping that could have been made by fifes. He hid behind a bush by the side of the road and waited to see what would happen. Slowly the strange music came closer, and then the first shapes emerged from the fog. They seemed to be dancing, but it was a dance without charm or gaiety. The dancers jumped grotesquely, rolled on the ground, crawled on all fours, leapt into the air, and carried on like crazy people. But all Atreyu could hear was the slow, muffled drumbeats, the shrill fifes, and a whimpering and panting from many throats. More and more figures appeared, the procession seemed endless. Atreyu looked at the dancers’ faces; they were ashen gray and bathed in sweat, and the eyes had a wild feverish glow. Some of the dancers lashed themselves with whips. They’re mad, Atreyu thought, and a cold shiver ran down his spine. The procession consisted mostly of night-hobs, kobolds, and ghosts. There were vampires as well, and quite a few witches, old ones with great humps and beards, but also young ones who looked beautiful and wicked. If he had had AURYN, he would have approached them and asked what was going on. As it was, he preferred to stay in his hiding place until the mad procession had passed and the last straggler vanished hopping and limping in the fog. Only then did he venture out on the road and look after the ghostly procession. Should he follow them? He couldn’t make up his mind. By that time, to tell the truth, he didn’t know if there was anything that he should or should not do."

See how the Nothing is portrayed as a villain in this book. We are always encouraged to go to the light and to avoid the void, or darkness. "By that time the procession had broken up and the spooks were scattered over a large muddy field interspersed with gray grass. Some swayed from side to side, others stood or sat motionless, but in all their eyes there was a feverish glow, and they were all looking in the same direction. Then Atreyu saw what they were staring at in fascinated horror. On the far side of the field lay the Nothing. It was the selfsame Nothing that he had seen from the bark trolls’ treetop, or on the plain where the Magic Gates of the South Oracle had stood, or looking down from Falkor’s back—but until then he had always seen it from a distance. This time it was close by. It cut across the entire landscape and was coming slowly but irresistibly closer. Atreyu saw that the spooks in the field ahead of him were twitching and quivering. Their limbs were convulsed and their mouths were wide open, as though they had wanted to scream or laugh, though not a sound came out of them. And then all at once—like leaves driven by a gust of wind— they rushed toward the Nothing. They leapt, they rolled, they flung themselves into it. The last of the ghostly crowd had just vanished when Atreyu felt to his horror that his own body was beginning to take short, convulsive steps in the direction of the Nothing. He felt drawn to it by an unreasoning desire, and braced his will against it. He commanded himself to stand still. Slowly, very slowly, he managed to turn around and step by step, as though bucking a powerful current, to struggle forward. The force of attraction weakened and he ran, ran with all his might over the bumpy paving stones.“

"It’s a magic chain. Only the person who put it on can take it off. But she will never come back.” “Who is that?” Gmork whimpered like a whipped dog. It was some time before he was calm enough to answer. “It was Gaya, the Dark Princess.” “Where has she gone?” “She has leapt into the Nothing—like everyone else around here.” Atreyu remembered the mad dancers he had seen outside the city in the foggy countryside. “Why didn’t they run away?” he murmured. “Because they had given up hope. That makes you beings weak. The Nothing pulls at you, and none of you has the strength to resist it for long.”

The werewolf shadow being Gmork has no world of its own, but can shape shift. “You know only Fantastica,” said Gmork. “There are other worlds. The world of humans, for instance. But there are creatures who have no world of their own, but are able to go in and out of many worlds. I am one of those. In the human world, I appear in human form, but I’m not human. And in Fantastica, I take on a Fantastican form—but I’m not one of you.”

“For you and your kind it’s easy to get there. There’s only one hitch: You can never come back. You’ll have to stay forever. Do you want to?” “What must I do?” Atreyu asked. His mind was made up. “What everyone else around here has done before you. You must leap into the Nothing. But there’s no hurry. Because you’ll do it sooner or later in any case, when the last parts of Fantastica go.” Atreyu stood up. Gmork saw that the boy was trembling all over. Not knowing why, he spoke reassuringly: “Don’t be afraid. It doesn’t hurt.” “I’m not afraid,” said Atreyu. “But I never expected to get my hope back in a place like this. And thanks to you!” Gmork’s eyes glowed like two thin green moons. “You have nothing to hope for, sonny—whatever your plans may be. When you turn up in the world of humans, you won’t be what you are here. That’s the secret that no one in Fantastica can know."

"But as I speak, the Nothing is creeping in from all sides and closing around Spook City. Soon there will be no way out. Then you will be lost. If you stay and listen, your decision is already made. But you can still escape if you choose.” The cruel line around Gmork’s mouth deepened. Atreyu hesitated for just a moment. Then he whispered: “Tell me the secret. What will I be in the world of humans?” Again Gmork sank into a long silence. His breath came in convulsive gasps. Then suddenly he raised himself on his forepaws. Atreyu had to look up at him. And then for the first time he saw how big and terrifying the werewolf was. When Gmork spoke, his voice was like the jangling of chains. “Have you seen the Nothing, sonny?” “Yes, many times.” “What does it look like?” “As if one were blind.” “That’s right—and when you get to the human world, the Nothing will cling to you. You’ll be like a contagious disease that makes humans blind, so they can no longer distinguish between reality and illusion. Do you know what you and your kind are called there?” “No,” Atreyu whispered. “Lies!” Gmork barked. Atreyu shook his head. All the blood had gone out of his lips. “How can that be?” Gmork was enjoying Atreyu’s consternation. This little talk was cheering him up. After a while, he went on: “You ask me what you will be there. But what are you here? What are you creatures of Fantastica? Dreams, poetic inventions, characters in a neverending story. Do you think you’re real? Well yes, here in your world you are. But when you’ve been through the Nothing, you won’t be real anymore. You’ll be unrecognizable. And you will be in another world. In that world, you Fantasticans won’t be anything like yourselves. You will bring delusion and madness into the human world. Tell me, sonny, what do you suppose will become of all the Spook City folk who have jumped into the Nothing?” “I don’t know,” Atreyu stammered. “They will become delusions in the minds of human beings, fears where there is nothing to fear, desires for vain, hurtful things, despairing thoughts where there is no reason to despair.” “All of us?” asked Atreyu in horror. “No,” said Gmork, “there are many kinds of delusion. According to what you are here, ugly or beautiful, stupid or clever, you will become ugly or beautiful, stupid or clever lies.” “What about me?” Atreyu asked. “What will I be?” Gmork grinned. “I won’t tell you that. You’ll see. Or rather, you won’t see, because you won’t be yourself anymore.” Atreyu stared at the werewolf with wide-open eyes. Gmork went on: “That’s why humans hate Fantastica and everything that comes from here. They want to destroy it. And they don’t realize that by trying to destroy it they multiply the lies that keep flooding the human world. For these lies are nothing other than creatures of Fantastica who have ceased to be themselves and survive only as living corpses, poisoning the souls of men with their fetid smell. But humans don’t know it. Isn’t that a good joke?” “And there’s no one left in the human world,” Atreyu asked in a whisper, “who doesn’t hate and fear us?” “I know of none,” said Gmork. “And it’s not surprising, because you yourselves, once you’re there, can’t help working to make humans believe that Fantastica doesn’t exist.” “Doesn’t exist?” the bewildered Atreyu repeated. “That’s right, sonny,” said Gmork. “In fact, that’s the heart of the matter. Don’t you see? If humans believe Fantastica doesn’t exist, they won’t get the idea of visiting your country. And as long as they don’t know you creatures of Fantastica as you really are, the Manipulators do what they like with them.” “What can they do?” “Whatever they please. When it comes to controlling human beings there is no better instrument than lies. Because, you see, humans live by beliefs. And beliefs can be manipulated. The power to manipulate beliefs is the only thing that counts. That’s why I sided with the powerful and served them —because I wanted to share their power.” “I want no part in it!” Atreyu cried out. “Take it easy, you little fool,” the werewolf growled. “When your turn comes to jump into the Nothing, you too will be a nameless servant of power, with no will of your own. Who knows what use they will make of you? Maybe you’ll help them persuade people to buy things they don’t need, or hate things they know nothing about, or hold beliefs that make them easy to handle, or doubt the truths that might save them. Yes, you little Fantastican, big things will be done in the human world with your help, wars started, empires founded . . .” For a time Gmork peered at the boy out of half-closed eyes. Then he added: “The human world is full of weak-minded people, who think they’re as clever as can be and are convinced that it’s terribly important to persuade even the children that Fantastica doesn’t exist. Maybe they will be able to make good use of you.” Atreyu stood there with bowed head. Now he knew why humans had stopped coming to Fantastica and why none would come to give the Childlike Empress new names. The more of Fantastica that was destroyed, the more lies flooded the human world, and the more unlikely it became that a child of man should come to Fantastica. It was a vicious circle from which there was no escape. Now Atreyu knew it."

"It was only when the Nothing came closer that more and more of them were unable to resist its attraction. If I’m not mistaken, the last of them have just gone. Yes, sonny, I fell into a trap, I listened too long to that woman. But you have fallen into the same trap, you’ve listened too long to me. For in these
moments the Nothing has closed around the city like a ring. You’re caught and there’s no escape.” “Then we’ll die together,” said Atreyu. “So we will,” said Gmork, “but in very different ways, you little fool. For I shall die before the Nothing gets here, but you will be swallowed up by it. There’s a big difference. Because I die first, my story is at an end. But yours will go on forever, in the form of a lie.”

"An outside will far stronger than his own had taken possession of his body and was guiding it. That will came from AURYN, the amulet suspended from a chain around his neck."

“The Childlike Empress. Or rather, the Golden-eyed Commander of Wishes. Because that’s how you must address her when you come into her presence. “No, I’ve never seen her.” “I have. That was long ago. Your great-grandfather must have been a little boy at the time. And I was a young cloud-snapper with a head full of foolishness. One night I saw the moon, shining so big and round, and I tried to grab it out of the sky. When I finally gave up, I dropped with exhaustion and landed near the Ivory Tower. That night the Magnolia Pavilion had opened its petals wide, and the Childlike Empress was sitting right in the middle of it. She cast a glance at me, just one short glance, but—I hardly know how to put it—that glance made a new dragon of me.”

"Since Fantastica has no boundaries, its center can be anywhere—or to put it another way, it is equally near to, or far from, anywhere. It all depends on who
is trying to reach the center. And the innermost center of Fantastica is the Ivory Tower.... But the Ivory Tower at the center still shimmered pure, immaculately white. "

“Who is she? “What do you mean?” “AURYN has power over all the inhabitants of Fantastica, the creatures of both light and darkness. It also has power over you and me. And yet the Childlike Empress never exerts power. It’s as if she weren’t there. And yet she is in everything. Is she like us?” “No,” said Falkor, “she’s not like us. She’s not a creature of Fantastica. We all exist because she exists. But she’s of a different kind.” “Then is she . . .” Atreyu hesitated. “Is she human?” “No,” said Falkor, “she’s not human.” “Well then . . .” And Atreyu repeated his question. “Who is she?” After a long silence Falkor answered: “No one in Fantastica knows, no one can know. That’s the deepest secret of our world. I once heard a wise man say that if anyone were to know the whole answer, he would cease to exist. I don’t know what he meant. That’s all I can tell you.”

Notice how the Childlike Empress is described almost like Snow White. "Suddenly Atreyu was in the doorway. He went in—and found himself face to face with the Goldeneyed Commander of Wishes. She was sitting, propped on many cushions, on a soft round couch at the center of the great round blossom. She was looking straight at him. She seemed infinitely frail and delicate. Atreyu could see how ill she was by the pallor of her face, which seemed almost transparent. Her almond-shaped eyes, the color of dark gold, were serene and untroubled. She smiled. Her small, slight body was wrapped in an ample silken gown which gleamed so white that the magnolia petals seemed dark beside it. She looked like an indescribably beautiful little girl of no more than ten, but her long, smoothly combed hair, which hung down over her shoulders, was as white as snow."

"Thus far he had been able to visualize every incident of the Neverending Story. Some of them, it couldn’t be denied, were very strange, but they could somehow be explained. He had formed a clear picture of Atreyu riding on the luckdragon, of the Labyrinth and the Ivory Tower. These pictures, however, existed only in his imagination. But when he came to the Magnolia Pavilion, he saw the face of the Childlike Empress—if only for a fraction of a second,
for the space of a lightning flash. And not only in his thoughts, but with his eyes! It wasn’t his imagination, of that Bastian was sure. He had even seen details that were not mentioned in the description, such as her eyebrows, two fine lines that might have been drawn with India ink, arching over her golden eyes, or her strangely elongated earlobes, or the way her head tilted on her slender neck. Bastion knew that he had never in all his life seen anything so beautiful as this face. And in that same moment he knew her name: Moon Child. Yes, beyond a doubt, that was her name. And Moon Child had looked at him—at him, Bastian Balthazar Bux. She had looked at him with an expression that he could not interpret. Had she too been taken by surprise? Had there been a plea in that look? Or longing? Or . . . what could it be? He tried to remember Moon Child’s eyes, but was no longer able to. He was sure of only one thing: that her glance had passed through his eyes and down into his heart. He could still feel the burning trail it had left behind. That glance, he felt, was embedded in his heart, and there it glittered like a mysterious jewel. And in a strange and wonderful way it hurt. Even if Bastian had wanted to, he couldn’t have defended himself against this thing that had happened to him. However, he didn’t want to. Oh no, not for anything in the world would he have parted with that jewel. All he wanted was to go on reading, to see Moon Child again, to be with her. It never occurred to him that he was getting into the most unusual and perhaps the most dangerous of adventures. But even if he had known this, he wouldn’t have dreamed of shutting the book. With a trembling forefinger he found his place and went on reading."

Empress to Atreyu: “Humans are our hope. One of them must come and give me a new name. And he will come.” Atreyu made no answer. “Do you understand now, Atreyu,” she asked, “why I had to ask so much of you? Only a long story full of adventures, marvels, and dangers could bring our savior to me. And that was your story.”

“Why do you need a new name to get well?” “Only the right name gives beings and things their reality,” she said. “A wrong name makes everything unreal. That’s what lies do.” “Maybe the savior doesn’t yet know the right name to give you.” “Oh yes he does,” she assured him. Again they sat silent. “I know it all right,” said Bastian. “I knew it the moment I laid eyes on her. But I don’t know what I have to do.” Atreyu looked up. “Maybe he wants to come and just doesn’t know how to go about it.” “All he has to do,” said the Childlike Empress, “is to call me by my new name, which he alone knows. Nothing more.”

MOONCHILD by ALEISTER CROWLEY (1917)

"But beyond such minuteness of detail is the grand character of the Moon, which is threefold. For she is Artemis or Diana, sister of the Sun, a shining Virgin Goddess; then Isis-initiatrix, who brings to man all light and purity, and is the link of his animal soul with his eternal self; and she is Persephone or Proserpine, a soul of double nature, living half upon earth and half in Hades, because, having eaten the pomegranate offered her by its lord, her mother could not bring her wholly back to earth; and thirdly, she is Hecate, a thing altogether of Hell, barren, hideous and malicious, the queen of death and evil witchcraft."
"All these natures are combined in woman. Artemis is unassailable, a being fine and radiant; Hecate is the crone, the woman past all hope of motherhood, her soul black with envy and hatred of happier mortals; the woman in the fullness of life is the sublime Persephone, for whose sake Demeter cursed the fields that they brought forth no more corn, until Hades consented to restore her to earth for half the year. So this "moon" of the ancients has a true psychological meaning, as sound to-day as when the priest of Mithras slew the bull; she is the soul, not the eternal and undying sun of the true soul, but the animal soul which is a projection of it, and is subject to change and sorrow, to the play of all the forces of the universe, and whose "redemption" is the solution of the cosmic problem. For it is the seed of the woman that shall bruise the serpent's head; and this is done symbolically by every woman who wins to motherhood. Others may indeed be chaste unto Artemis, priestesses of a holy and ineffable rite; but with this exception, failure to attain the appointed goal brings them into the dark side of the moon, the cold and barren house of Hecate the accursed."

"But now it was necessary also to dedicate the victim to Hecate, or rather, to her Hebrew equivalent, Nahema, the devourer of little children, because she also is one aspect of the moon, and Lisa having been adopted to that planet, her representative must needs undergo a similar ensorcelment. "

"Hecate, mother only of death, devourer of all life!" cried Douglas, in his final adjuration; "as I devote to thy chill tooth this secret spring of man, so be it with all that are like unto it! Even as it is with that which I shall cast upon thine altar, so be it with all the offspring of Lisa la Guiffria!" He ended with the thirteenth repetition of that appalling curse which begins Epikaloume se ten en to keneo pnevmati, deinan, aoratan, Pantokratora, theropoian kai eremopoian, e misonta, oikian efstathousan[1] calling upon "her that dwelleth in the void place, the inane, terrible, inexorable, maker of horror and desolation, hater of the house that prospereth," and devoting "the signified and sealed, named and unnamed" to destruction.
In this curious language the moon signifies primarily all receptive things, because moonlight is only reflected sunlight. Hence "lunar" is almost a synonym of "feminine."

"Ever since the beginning of the second stage of the Great Experiment, Iliel had become definitely a Spirit of the Moon While Cyril was with her, she reflected him, she clung to him, she was one with him, Isis to his Osiris, sister as well as spouse; and every thought of her mind being but the harmonic of his, there was no possibility of any internal disturbance."

She repeated aloud: "Siderum regina bicornis audi, Luna, puellas. "List, o moon, o queen of the stars, two-horned, List to the maidens!"

"Sun sired, Moon bore, this unique Universe; Air was its chariot, and Earth its nurse. Here is the root of every talisman Of the whole world, since the whole world began. Here is the fount and source of every soul."

"Her soul seemed utterly attracted to the moon. She held out her body to it like an offering. "

"From the new moon of February, the invocations of Artemis had become continuous. Brother Onofrio and his two henchmen devoted their time and energy to the rituals which banish all other ideas than the one desired; but the boys had joined Sister Clara and her maidens in an elaborate ceremony in which the four represented the four phases of the moon. This ceremony was performed thrice daily; but the intervals were fully occupied."

"She thought of the moon as a dead soul -- and wondered -- and wondered --- She would have striven to seek him out, to course the universe in his pursuit; but she was incapable of any effort."

"And it was then that her bodily eyes opened. The action drew her back into her body; but the material universe held her only for a second. She saw the moon, indeed, but in its centre was a shape of minute size, but infinite brightness. With the speed of a huntress the shape neared her, hid the moon from her, and she perceived the buskined Artemis, silversandalled, with her bright bow and her quiver of light. Leaping behind her came her hounds, and she thought that she could hear their eager baying.
Between heaven and earth stood the goddess, and looked about her, her eyes asparkle with keen joy. She unslung her baldric, and put her silver bugle to her lips.
Through all the vastness of heaven that call rang loud; and, in obedience, the stars rushed from their thrones, and made obeisance to their mistress. It was a gallant hunting-party. For she perceived that these were no longer stars, but souls. Had not Simon Iff once said to her: "Every man and every woman is a star"? And even as she understood that, she saw that Artemis regarded them with reverence, with awe even. This was no pleasure chase; he who won the victory was himself the quarry. Every soul was stamped with absolute heroism; it offered itself to itself, like Odin, when nine windy nights he hung in space, his own spear thrust into his side. What [223] gain might be she could not understand; but it was clear enough that every act of incarnation is a crucifixion. She saw that she had been mistaken in thinking of these souls as hunters at all; and at that instant it seemed to her as though she herself were the huntress. For a flash she saw the fabled loadstone rock which draws ships to it, and, flashing forth their bolts by the might of its magnetism, loosens their timbers so that they are but waifs of flotsam. It was only a glimpse; for now the souls drew near her. She could distinguish their differences by the colour of the predominating rays. And as they approached, she saw that only those whose nature was lunar might pass into the garden. The others started back, and it seemed to her that they trembled with surprise, as if it were a new thing to them to be repelled.
And now she was standing on the Terrace of the Moon with Artemis, watching the body of Lisa la Giuffria, that lay there in its cradle. And she saw that the body was a dead thing, as dead as the cradle itself; it was unreal; all "material" things were unreal, shells void of meaning, geometrical abstractions, as Simon Iff had explained to her on their first meeting. But this body was different to the other husks in one respect, that it was the focus of a most startling electrical phenomenon. (She could not think of it but as electrical.) An incandescent cone was scintillating before her. She could see but the tip of it, but she knew intuitively that the base of it was in the sun itself. About this cone played curious figures, dancers wreathed with vine leaves, having all sorts of images in their hands, like toys, houses, and dolls, and ships and fields, and woods, little soldiers in their uniforms, little lawyers in their wigs and gowns, an innumerable multitude of replicas of every-day things. And Iliel watched the souls as they came into the [224] glow of the cone. They took human shape, and she was amazed to see among them the faces of many of the great men of the race."

"Next, amid a cloud of angels bearing silver trumpets, came one[12] with great height of brow, and eyes of golden flashes. In him the whole heaven [228] rocked with harmonious music, and faint shapes formed up among the waves, like Venus born of ocean foam. They had not substance, like so many Iliel had seen; they were too great, too godlike, to be human. Not one was there of whom it could not be said "Half a woman made with half a god." And these, enormous and tragic, fiery, with wings and sandals of pure light, encompassed him and wooed him.
But every soul in all that glorious cohort of immortals, as it touched the cone, was whirled away like a pellet thrown upon a swiftly moving fly-wheel. And presently she perceived the cause of this. The tip of the cone was sheathed in silver. So white and glittering with fierce heat was that corselot, and so mighty its pulse of vibration that she had [229] thought it part of the cone. She understood this to be the formula of the circle, and realized with a great ache, and then a sudden anger, that it was by this that she was to be prevented from what might have been her fortune, the gaining of the wardenship of a Chopin or of a Paul Verlaine. But upon the face of Artemis was gaiety of triumph. The last of the souls whirled away into the darkness. Humanity had tried and failed; it was its right to try; it was its fate to fail; now came the turn of the chosen spirits, proved worthy of the fitted fastness."

"They came upon the Terrace in their legions, Valkyrie-brave in silver arms, or like priestesses in white vestments, their hair close bound upon their brows, or like queens of the woodland, swift for the chase, with loose locks and bright eyes, or like little children, timid and gracious. But amid their ranks were the black hideous forms of hags, bent and wrinkled; and these fled instantly in fear at the vision of the blazing cone. There were many other animal shapes; but these, seeing the cone, turned away indifferent, as not understanding. Only the highest humanseeming forms remained; and these appeared as if in some perplexity. Constantly they looked from Artemis to the cone, and back again to Artemis. Iliel could feel their thought; it was a child-like bewilderment, "But don't you understand? This is a most dangerous place. Why did you bring us here? Surely you know that to touch the cone is certain death to us?" Iliel understood. The human souls had long since made themselves perfect, true images of the cosmos, by accepting the formula of Love and Death; they had made the great sacrifice again and again; they were veterans of the spiritual world-war, and asked nothing better than to go back to the trenches. But these others were partial souls; they had not yet [230] attained humanity; they had not understood that in order to grow one must assimilate oneself with another being, the death of two to create the life of one, in whom the two live once more, transmuted and glorified, the corruptible having put on incorruption. To them incarnation was death; and they did not know that death was life. They were not ready for the Great Adventure. So they stood like tall lilies about the coruscating cone of Light, wondering, doubting, drooping. But at the last came one taller than all the rest, sadder of mien, and lovelier of features; her robes were stained and soiled, as if by contact with other colours. Artemis drew back with quick repulsion. For the first time the maiden goddess spoke.
"What is thy name?" she cried. "I am Malkah of the tribe of the Sickles." "And thy crime?" "I love a mortal." Artemis drew back once more. "Thou, too, hast loved," said Malkah. "I drew my mortal lovers unto me; I did not sully my life with theirs; I am virgin unto Pan!" "I also am virgin; for whom I loved is dead. He[14] was a poet, and he loved thee above women, `And haply the Queen-Moon is on her throne clustered around by all her starry fays` whereof I being one, loved him that he loved Thee! But he died in the city of Mars and the Wolf, before I could make him even aware of me. I am come hither to seek immolation; I am weary of the pale beauty of Levanah; I will seek him, at the price of death. I deny our life; I crucify myself unto the God we dare not name. I go. Hail and farewell!"
She flung up her arm in a wild gesture of renunciation, and came closer to the Cone. She would not [231] haste, lest her will prove but impulse; she poised her breast deliberately over the Cone. Then, with fierce zest, so that the one blow might end all, she thrust herself vehemently down upon the blazing spike. At that moment Iliel swooned. She felt that something had happened to her, something tremendous; and her brain turned crazily in her. But as she lost consciousness she was still aware of the last phase of the vision: that the sacrifice of Malkah had created a void in the ranks of the Amazon armies of the Moon; and she saw them and their mist of blue, licked up in the swirl of the vortex. The whole of the invoked forces were sucked up into her as Malkah in her death-agony took possession of that basis of materialization. Heroic -- and presumptuous; for of all the qualities that go to make humanity she had but one, and she would have to shift, for the rest, with orts of inheritance"

She understood. "Oh, you are human! you are human!" she cried. "I do not know what I am," he answered. "Yesterday I saw the end of the game -- for one!" He told her in a few words of the horror on the roadside. "Go!" he said, "take that girl, Douglas's last victim, for your maid. Go to America; find the Child of the Moon. There may, or there may not be, other tasks for us to do; I know not -- time will show."

STAR TREK GENERATIONS (1994)

The 1994 film Star Trek Generations explored the idea of existing in a sort of Nothing, a Void which they called "The Nexus". Perhaps the Star Trek idea is closer to the truth. Star Trek has seemingly conveyed some hidden truths in some of their shows before. In the Voyager episode Coda, an alien tried to convince Captain Janeway that she was dead so he could lure her into his matrix of light in order to nourish him. The Original Series had an episode entitled Return of the Archons where beings were getting their minds wiped by an artificial intelligence. Although the Voyager episode The Void presented the Void as scary, Generations presented the Nexus as being joyful and content. As my research into the near death experience phenomenon reveals, the Void can be either depending upon the state of mind of the experiencer. If they are fearful, they can manifest an unpleasant experience. If they are at peace, it can be quite pleasant."

In Star Trek Generations, both Captain Kirk and Captain Picard find themselves in the Nexus.

Captain Picard finds himself at "home" with his family on Christmas, a family he knows as his own, but one he never had. Captain Kirk's "home" is a beautiful log wood cabin surrounded by mountains.

Picard asks his friend, Guinan, who is still back on the ship, yet also with him, "What is the Nexus?" She informs him, "The energy ribbon that destroyed that ship was not just some random phenomena traveling through the universe. It's a doorway to another place that we call the Nexus, and it's a place I've tried very, very hard to forget." He asks, "What happened to you?"

She describes what the Nexus was like for her. "It was like being inside joy as if joy was something tangible and you could wrap yourself up in it like a blanket, and never in my entire life have I ever been as content. None of us wanted to go and I would have done anything -- anything - to get back there."

She says, "If you go, you're not gonna care about anything. Not this ship, not Soran, not me. Nothing. All you'll want is to stay in the Nexus. And you're not gonna want to come back."

Later, Picard finds Soran. "It's our mortality that defines us, Soran. It's part of the truth of our existence." Soran retorts, "What if I told you I found a new truth?" Picard suspects he is talking about the nexus. "The Nexus?" Soran affirms, "Time has no meaning there."

Picard is in disbelief. "This can't be real." Guinan tells him, "It's as real as you want it to be. You're in the Nexus." Picard asks, "This is the Nexus?" She asnwers, "For you. This is what you wanted." Picard is astonished. "But I never had a home like this. Nor a wife and children, but these are all mine." She informs him, "Time has no meaning here so you can go back and see them born or go forward and see your grandchildren."

Picard asks her, "Guinan, can I leave the Nexus?" She wonders, "Where would you go?" Picard is confused. "I don't understand." Guinan explains, "Well, as I said, time has no meaning here. So if you leave, you can go anywhere, any time."

Picard tries to explain to Kirk that the nexus isn't real. "I know how real this must seem to you, but it's not. This isn't really your house. We are both of us caught up in some kind of temporal nexus.... Look, history records that you died saving the Enterprise-B from an energy ribbon 80 years ago." Kirk tries to understand. "You say this is the 24th century? And I'm dead?" Picard answers, "Not exactly. As I said, this is some kind of temporal nexus."

Kirk is thrilled with another chance at his life. "This time it's gonna be different." Picard reveals, "This is not your bedroom." Kirk replies, "No, it's not. It's better. This Nexus of yours, very clever. I can start all over again and do things right from day one." Picard tries to reason with him, "Because it isn't real." Kirk starts to understand, "Antonia. She isn't real either, is she?" Picard answers, "Nothing here is. Nothing here matters."

Picard tries to talk Kirk into coming back to the ship with him to finish a mission. "Don't let them do anything that takes you off the Bridge of that ship because while you're there you can make a difference. Come back with me. Help me stop Soran. Make a difference again."

Kirk considers it. "I take it the odds are against us and the situation is grim." Picard admits, "You could say that." Kirk acquiesces, "You know, if Spock were here, he'd say that I was an irrational, illogical human being for taking on a mission like that. Sounds like fun."

THE VOID

Here are my thoughts currently. The Void: It is Emptiness yet perhaps everything. It is the silence. The Stillness. There is no movement and movement is what creates space and accordingly time as well. It seems to be the womb of creation. It is pre-creation. It is outside of time and space, thus outside of the Duality which needs positive-negative, good-bad, pleasure-pain, light-dark, etc. If you want to keep living the dream literally then don't go to the Void. Thoughts and emotions lead to judgment which in turn leads to Intention. Intention and wishes of dreams generate this reality and all its misery which is a necessary evil for pleasure to be experienced. Our wishes usually involve a need for external objects to fulfill the desire.

The Void is Nothing. It is "no thing". It is zero point, not even a point but what lies beyond the singularity, before the big bang. Think of our supposed so-called 3d reality. It is LxWxH...cubes , spheres etc with volume. 2d would be a plane....LxW... rectangles, circles, etc with area. 1d would be a line, a bunch of points. Length, no width or height at all. In math, 0d is a point. The Void or Emptiness would be beyond 0d since it is nothing, or no-thing.

In the Void there may still be pure Awareness, pure energy or potential energy (as opposed to kinetic energy) as well as something akin to "bliss", but I'm not sure. Energy at rest may be considered Potential energy. Once it is set into motion it causes Separation and eventually becomes kinetic energy which may involve light and heat as well and eventually cooling into solid matter. I'm not a scientist so an attempt at using scientific language is probably a massive fail, but hopefully you can get the gist of what I am trying to convey.

It's a question of deciding what reality you want to wish into existence with your Intent. or whether you wish to stay in the Void and not have any external experience. Will the Void be too boring and too empty? Who knows? We won't know until or unless we are "there". If we wish to have an existence, the Buddhic Fields would be a fairly pleasurable one without too much suffering. Maybe thoughts themselves are to be avoided. And maybe even emotions too. If one can just exist as Pure Awareness without any passing judgments, that might be ideal.

Hollywood almost always portrays the light as being good and Darkness or The Void as being bad or negative. For example, the movie The Void is a horror movie. Of course, the Bible says, "And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth". According to the near death experiences of those who were in a void, although there are some negative or hellish experiences -- for those who are in a state of fear or a negative mindset -- most experiences in the Void were pleasant and some were wonderful. So I think the Void is a place where our Intentions can instantly manifest our reality. But if the Void is so bad, then why is it when we want to go to sleep and get a good night's rest, we turn out the lights to be in darkness to recharge our batteries? And consider even in the Bible a Void is mentioned before light. Then movement of Spirit is mentioned. Then sound. Then finally light was created: "And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light." Also, consider that after six days of creation on the seventh day God rested.

Some near death experiencers sometimes talk about the Light as being God. And experiencers often express the desire to return to Source. But is the light really God and the Source? Light here on earth seems to come from the Sun, fire, heated filaments, etc. It has sources, but is not the source. Light can even come from sound. It is called sonoluminescence. I also recall in the book Catching the Light the author very carefully conducted an experiment to detect what light looks like when it is not reflected. His experiment concluded that pure light, unreflected, is darkness! Think of outer space. The light coming from the Sun travels through space and is reflected off planets and the moon so we can see them. But what does it look like as it travels between them? The darkness of outer space.

The following is from the beginning of the book Catching The Light by Arthur Zajonc and shows just how tenuous our understanding of light might be: "As part of what I call "Project Eureka", a friend and I have designed and constructed a science exhibit in which one views a region of space filled with light. It is a simple but startling demonstration that uses only a carefully fabricated box and a projector whose light shines directly into it. We have taken special care to ensure that light does not illuminate any interior objects or surfaces in the box. Within the box, there is only pure light and lots of it. The question is: What does one see? How does light look when left entirely to itself?

Approaching the exhibit, I turn on the projector, whose bulb and lenses can be seen through a Plexiglas panel. The projector sends a brilliant light through optical elements into the box beside it. Moving over to a view port, I look into the box and at the light within. What do I see? Absolute darkness! I see nothing but the blackness of empty space.

On the outside of the box is a handle connected to a wand that can move into and out of the box's interior. When I pull the handle, the wand flashes through the dark space before me, and I see it brilliantly lit on one side. The space clearly is not empty but filled with light. Without an object on which the light can fall, one sees only darkness. Light itself is always invisible. We see only things, only objects, not light." -- from Catching the Light

I am a bit skeptical as to the veracity of that emperiment. Even the act of observing something with consciousness affects the experiment. But, if true, it does make sense.

Scientists say that 99.9% of matter is empty space, a vacuum, as is outer space. But perhaps there is energy in the Void between everything and our instruments are just not sensitive enough to detect it? Maybe it is like echos or faint vibration. Perhaps bleeding over from another dimension even. We still don't understand what dark matter is though it makes up most our universe. If this zero point energy is vibrating so slowly that we can't detect it, as it approaches zero point or total rest, does it become Potential Energy, energy that hasn't been converted into the kinetic energy of movement yet?

Maybe we were unsatisfied in The Void and are looking for the perfect balance of good/bad, light-dark. Or just want an infinite variety of possible worlds to explore whenever we want. Who can say? Unfortunately, there is a lot of suffering in this world and it is not equally proportionate among all people. But maybe just feeling alive is preferable to sitting on the fence. Perhaps we get tired of both, and go back and forth often between the two.

CONCLUSIONS

The Neverending Story is the endless story of the universal dreamer who dreams this dream called life. In the dream his mother acts through him. His is blind and ignorant to the fact that the story is really about him. The Nothing is the enemy that threatens to destroy life. A shape shifting shadow being tells him the nature of his world and what the Nothing is. He has to look at his true self in the mirror and realize who he really is. Once he does this he finds himself in darkness with the Empress, his mother. She tells him the beginning always starts with darkness and gives him a grain of sand, all that is left of her kingdom. It is the seed of life. With the seed of life he can create a new kingdom with his dreams and wishes. He immediately wishes a fierce dragon into existence. He is a sort of demiurge in control of his domain.

The Neverending Story is a fantasy novel, a childrens' one at that. So for my conclusion I would like to share some thoughts from my Buddhist friend who emphasized to me that life is a fantasy, a fabrication.

He wrote, "Life is a fantasy itself. Hallucinations. Dreams. Our life on earth is a hallucination and there are an infinite amount of other hallucinations on all planes of existence going on in this unlimited Awareness. There are no truths in them, nothing really to discover. They are all faked fantasies. Universal consciousness split into multitude of centers trying to entertain themselves with dreamy trippy fantasies, that's all. If you somehow got into a bad trip you need to figure out how to get out. But the key point (any drug tripper knows that) -- do not get scared, always remember that it's all just a trip, a fantasy. Nothing is real here. But it's also true that in this trippy game some beings take advantage and exploit others as long as those exploited believe that it's all for real.

All material world as well as the astral world is 'manifested' by some 'light beings' (Source and his close co-workers). So what it means is that it's a collective intentional mental manifestation (intentional fantasy) that one group of beings manifest and other beings participate in and experience (with the majority of them taking it for real). In other words, something fantasized and faked by one group of beings is taken for granted as true and real by others. A virtual reality game. So who cares what those 'manifestors' are manifesting here? It's all just a fake fantasy. There not even a least bit of any truth in it. There is nothing really to learn here. Each of us has as much manifesting power as those guys do once we are released from the limits of this earthly reality game. We can manifest for ourselves whatever fake stuff we like (if we really want to entertain ourselves) instead of fooling ourselves into stupid and childish manifestations of those other beings.

The whole world is only Awareness dreaming fake dreams. There is no truth and nothing to know in those dreams whatsoever. The real mystery is the very nature of this Awareness, how it exists, what's its cause, but there is NO way to know this from inside of the fantasies and dreams. It's like you can not know who you are in 'reality' from inside your dream (plus the fact that our 'reality' is just another dream). There is NO way the Consciousness can get 'out' of itself, look at itself at a distance and see what it really is, how and where it exists, what is causing it. But it can certainly entertain itself for the eternity with these unlimited manifestations inside its own mind.

Because it's all FAKE, it's a childish fantasy only, there is nothing real and true in it. There is a good word for it, exactly as Buddha said: 'It is all FABRICATED'. But if you look at how Buddha taught -- he almost never engaged into discussing the content of those fantasy worlds and he himself had no interest in their content. Instead he always pointed to the core problems: how these fantasies occur; is there anything real in them?; what is their nature?; how they trap and deceive people, how to free ourselves from their 'magic' falsity. The material realm is a "collective manifestation of a group of Light Beings". The astral scenes that NDErs are experiencing is either manifestation of the NDErs themselves, or other 'Light Beings' who try to make the scene 'comfortable' for the NDErs, or both.

The bottom line is: it is ALL manifestation. And what manifestation is? A fake and fabricated virtual reality. That's what the majority of souls are doing here -- being 'mystified', or simply deceived or deceiving themselves to make it interesting, and creating so much confusion, ignorance and suffering in that process. I don't buy that. There are other, more healthy ways to entertain ourselves. Creating fake mysteries, exploiting and deceiving ourselves or other beings, or, as another extreme, going into a coma/vegetable state of formless nothingness are not the only alternatives. You can entertain yourself without mystification and lies. There is endless potential for creativity: art, music, math. It's also manifestation, but you know it is fake. So what? Music is all fabricated, fake, but it's so much fun to listen and play. You can spend lifetime just exploring only Bach music, but there is so much more in classical. And there is jazz, rock, ambient and so much more, music of all genres and never get bored listening. It's an endless and unlimited universe of sounds. Creativity is beautiful, unlimited, positive, and there is no suffering, no lying, no exploiting other beings, healthy, and never boring."

If you had the power to create a reality of your own -- and this book may be suggesting that you do -- what reality would you create? Yes, life may indeed be a fantasy story. But if you do decide to be a character in someone else's fantasy story. Make it a good one.

I'd like to end with a quote from the book Perfect Brilliant Stillness which I ran across several months after writing this article and seems quite pertinent. "There really are no stories, as there is nothing happening here. The stories are only what the dream characters tell to themselves and to each other over and over, and in so doing keep the dream going... The story-telling is the dreaming, and the dreaming is desire - the desire to be. And more than that: the desire to be some one, someone separate, someone special; someone with his or her own story. The dream character is completely caught in this spinning of a personal web, building and maintaining the personal story, driven by that unknown, unexamined wanting to assert and continually reconfirm the individual self.
Awakening does not occur while pursuing a story, desire fueling desire, need fueling want, all of it constantly strengthening the sense of a separate self that does not exist. Awakening occurs when this desiring is irrevocably seen to be misguided, seen to be futile. Then the story telling stops. Then the story stops. That is the going beyond."