Ages I like

I've decided I'm going to spend some time this period studying Ages: what's been written so far, and how the cosmology works. In the mean time, these are the four most powerful Ages I've visited so far:

1. The Age of Ardu - From Tolkien's works. Middle Earth is not an exclusive name, and not all of the story unfolds there. After all, Tolkien's works show the Age since before its inception. This was the first powerful Age I ever visited, the first to show me some of the powers of our own Age. The Age itself is rich, versatile, and Tolkien's Links show them extensively. Its Stories teach many things, hope being one of the greatest among them.


2. The Age of Revelstone - From The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant. Covenant's birthplace is a different Age from the Land to which he is taken. Since "The Land" is a bit undescriptive, I designate the Age by its only remaining constant after three visits: Revelstone. What I like most about this Age is the beautiful scenery and countryside, where health is so much present it can be scene with the naked eye. The Story of this Age tells much about defying despair.


3. The Age of Dune - From Dune. Since Dune is the native Fremen name for the planet where most of the Story of this Age unfolds, it seems an appropriate name, both for the Link and the Age. The Age itself is barren, and its people cold and calculating. Its Story, however, teaches much about fate and the future, religion and people.


4. The Age of Avalon - From the books of Avalon. This is the most beautiful Age I ever visited, not so much in landscape as in the pure and simple faith of its people. The Story has a nobility to it, and shows much about reincarnation among other things.

These works may not be very obscure, perhaps with the exception of Covenant, but it just goes to show that the most powerful Ages are the most frequently visited.

Flue spell

I thought of this spell to help me fight the flue. I'll update this post when I know whether it helped.

Power of Earth, rise up through my bones, grant me strength, dispel this disease.
Power of Fire, flare up from within, grant me power, fight this disease.
Power of Air, stream in through my mouth, grant me incisiveness, cut out this disease.
Power of Water, flow past from without, grant me purity, absorb this disease.

The idea is to first raise Earth power through the bones to make the disease let go from the body. Then Fire comes up from your own (heated) body to fight the disease, as is nature's way. Air lets you cut out the disease and pass it outside your body, then Water absorbs the disease into itself and takes it with it back to the earth. Particularly useful when in the tub or the shower.

Update: Well, it's had some effect. Nothing spectacular though. Important tip: when working with water, follow the doctor's orders. Drink plenty of it.

Cosmology of Ages

Lately I've been working on a new cosmology. Though I got the names and some of the concepts of this cosmology while I was playing Myst, the central concept -separate worlds that we can travel to by books- was something I've instinctively felt for a long time. I knew reading and writing were sacred acts, now I'm beginning to see why. The following story doesn't cover the cosmology completely, but it does bring it interestingly and it is an example in itself.

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"You've played Myst?", Jared asked. He answered he had.
"Good.", Jared said. "That will make it easier to explain."

"Listen: those guys knew the truth. Ages exist. We're in one!"
He looked at Jared sceptically.
"It shouldn't be to hard to grasp.", Jared continued. "Our entire universe is one Age. When we write a book, we create a link to a new Age. When we read those books, we're transported to those Ages. Not physically, like in Myst, although I wouldn't be surprised if a people actually exists who know how to travel physically to other Ages, but mentally. You've read books, you
must have experienced it. Tell me, have you ever been to Sherwood?"
At this, he nodded slowly, uncompromisingly.
"And Neverland, and Avalon. Have you seen Nemo, Ishmael, Huckleberry Fin? You have. You now what I mean. Well, just as you have visited those Ages, others will visit ours. Someone wrote this Age for others to visit."

He asked: "Are those visitors here, now? Are they listening to us talk?"
Jared replied: "They may well be. Who knows? Ages are vast, not only in space but in time. The writer of this Age may show his public something far from here, far from now. Ages continue once they have been created. A writer may revisit his Ages, and see what has become. And there also visitors with the power to visit Ages without a book to guide them. If I ask you to see the Age of Robin Hood, after King Richard has returned and Robin and Marion are married, could you? Not just imagine it, but see the Age before your eyes and let it unroll by itself, without your influence guiding it."
He thought about this.

"But the stories we read, the stories we write, they spring from our imagination.", he said. "They don't exist of themselves. If I took the story of The Three Musketeers, and changed it so that D'Artagnan never came to Paris, that doesn't mean I've altered an entire world."
Jared replied: "But you cannot alter Ages like that. If you do, the result is no more than a lie. And somewhere, the real Age of The Three Musketeers would live on. Imagination and Ages are different things, just as crafting an Age and making up a story are different. Imagination is unilateral: you write down what you will to be there. Crafting an Age is different. If you've ever created one, you would know. Sometimes, when writing Links -this is what we call books that
bring you to real Ages- you will find the evolution of events out of your control. Preconceived notions of how the story will go will be abruptly pushed aside as the Age you have created gains a life of it's own and it's own momentum. Had D'Artagnan not been so that he came to Paris of his own will, there would be no Age. It is part of him, just as he is part of it. And so it is for us."

"What happens to Ages then, when nobody visits them, if they are discarded after being written?"
Jared answered: "It matters not. To visit an Age is not to influence it. People can visit an Age en masse, or not at all. One Link provides a person with one glimpse at a part of an Age, in one place at once, for some determined timespan. You've reread books: you know we can visit Ages again and again if we wish. Were we to look outward from this Age at the people looking in, we might see no faces at all, or many. We might see one person once, or many times. The Age continues regardless."

"But we are stuck in one Age, aren't we? We can only look at other Ages through Links, never leaving our own Age."
Jared said: "Leaving your own Age is hard, but not impossible. We do it every night: we dream. In our sleep, we go to the place between the Ages and travel physically to other Ages, strange Ages that we had not hitherto imagined. And there are other ways: meditation, magic... Many people have learned how to travel the Ages: yogi's, shamans."

"Then what is the purpose of this? Why are the Ages here, and why are we in the Ages? If the two of us are part of a construction by someone in another Age, far from here, why do we exist?"
Jared responded: "To live, to learn. We see in other Ages what we see in our own. Just as we are created by someone in another Age, so have we created people in our own Ages. Perhaps there is One who was first, the author of the first Ages. It matters not. We are here, and as we learn from other Ages, we learn about ourselves."

UPDATE: I'm still working on this. Perhaps I'll write a book about it...

Also, see this.