We Return, Changed.
is that spooky enough for you you literary spooks? OMNIA CANTO 2!!!
Hello my friends.
I've been busy lately, but we're not stopping this epic poem comic thing we've been doing.
Today we are sharing the current draft of the second canto of OMNIA. Here's a link to the first one if ya need one.
I am currently in the middle of drafting the third canto. I meant for there to be some new art to accompany this draft’s post today, but it hasn't come together yet. All of what we're sharing here is really just a loose preview. Soon we'll have something that's really out there.
Speaking of which, this chapter gets pretty out there. Our three chiefs can't agree, and Jezebel takes Mago, Lord of Humanity, into the City to meet the wizards. Then everyone starts arguing philosophy, and then…… well…
This is probably among the cheesiest texts I have produced in my life. Lean into it. Lemme know how it feels. This draft I feel a lot stronger about than the priors, but we're still figuring everything out.
Again, this is a story about angels that look like planets. A mythological episode set within Christian imagery. Paradise Falling… Again?
OMNIA CANTO 2
Passing by many mansions, the curious eyes of the Mago-lamp
Counted no structure the same
Bewildering was the sight of the city;
Its giving rivers
Its living wonders.
All of creation whirred in ordered grandeur
Revealed in stained glass portals descending beneath
Each step up the Spire of Vines
Mago could not know the words
Spoken by the tall elder leading
Beloved Jezebel and her pack
But she reveled in her laughter
And the girl's pure mien
Filled the angel with peace.
Thence amity gave way to mystery renewed
That august wizard brought all gathered
To dark door, gilt with dancing gears and living symbols
Who in their glamours Imparted unknown knowledge
To girl and glass-bound archon alike
The illumined patterns speaking sciences ancient and new
When then with one wizard word spoken
The door opened, swirling away
Revealing a room consumed in a maelstrom of hues.
Where the wizard met another two, tall as he
The three spoke to dear Jezebel
And her laughter became a dazzled gasp
Whence at once she wrote her letter to the lamp;
“Dearest Mago,
Today we are given a great and secret task.
The wizards mean to give the King something entirely new
Something that before would have been impossible
They have discovered a way to bring forth a new color
And wish to create it, giving it to the King, to add a new jewel
To his everlasting splendor.
But this new light is not solely fancy
Instead - Nimrod tells this unborn color is a light
to ever open all eyes and minds.
All who see it will be illuminated,
their souls always deepening
Forever expanding our perception and knowing
Such that all of us - even you, Mago!
Will with infinite velocity
Gaze upon our beloved King
That we would encounter his splendor in ever expanding depth
So we can know Him in boundless maturity.
Isn’t that amazing?
Yet the wizards portent
This gift will be costly, and not without risk...
Tubalcain told It will require the city's whole soul and will-
All within the city must join as one to complete this act.
Likewise, the feat will deal in many maths and modes
That require exploring unknown dimensions in ways
even the wizards have not yet wandered before…
What’s more, they say the work must be made
In one fell master stroke - quicker than lightning
With precision beyond perfect aim
We’ve only one chance to strike true…
We're trying trick HIM, after all.
Because it will require all of all of us
Once the experiment begins, we won’t be able to stop it-
We’ll have to see it through to the end, no matter what.
Bezalel even spoke;
There is a chance the experiment could reverse
Backfiring in the worst way.
Which is why we need you, Mago!
And the wisdom of your Archons.
The wizards require the dominions of your host-
Though, just between us, their intent
Does not seem it can be deterred-
Such is their passion to gaze so deeply
upon the king’s immaculate face.”
And so Mago recited the letter to Mezi and Myzo
The former impressed, the latter stoic.
Wisdom spoke back with a tongue like an arrow:
“Their plans are betrayed in their speaking
Little children, playing with lions and serpents
Thinking nothing of it - thinking nothing at all…
Mago, send them my reply, let not one word be lost.
Little Children
You who have been given all things
You who have seen the face of
The inescapable eternal
Whose train is the pinnacle band of living creatures
Whose seat is the throne of all mystery
Whose eyes contain uncreated fire…
How do you plan, O man, to deceive the Living God?
Even now in your speech, He sees your secret synapse
Even now in your vain dreaming, He has imagined all steps
How can you hide from He who contains us all?
Furthermore, pray tell, you wise three
How will you bring about your middling miracle?
Tricking the Divine, who knows all your thoughts?
By what secret paths will you produce this light of vanity?
What if your calculations stray?
Do you know what ill weal your hubris will yield your darling city?
Surely you have learned to hook the Leviathan
Surely you have dethroned once-great Demogorgon
Display your governance over the wiles of the Logos.”
Mezi, Lord of the Crown sighed, smiling even then
Myzo’s roiling turmoil thundered back through the lamp
In angel symbols only pure Jezebel could decode.
Yet the wizards stood tall before them still,
Their staves carved in even shapes
Their beards mighty as a deep river
Their eyes sober with focus.
Bezalel’s rod struck the ground, echoing his soft words:
“Jezebel, tell your angels we seek To bring
No harm to any parties, but instead
The enrichment of all.
We are still yet unlearned in eternal infancy
But in love we seek the depths of maturation.
We could never trick the King, but in our infantile desire
We will still yet play with our cosmic Father
Appealing with smiling humility
To the grandeur of his humanity-
And with swiftness of heart,
Perform the whole work in one perfect stroke
With trembling hope that we may perhaps
Bring at least a glimmer of surprise
And laughter to His bosom”
Tubalcain’s rod struck the floor then, echoing his argument:
“Your concerns are perfect, Myzo, Lord of Wisdom
As your deduction of our success -
We will reveal the inner working of the experiment
As we move forwards with each step.
For our variance of unknowing produces possibilities
That even the King may not deduce the exact tint
Or glimmer
Of the color we wish to bestow back to His beauty.
But we no longer live under the curse
Of the chaos waste
We need no fear of the sea
Or of Tohu’s calamity.
Indeed, to give such a seat of mind to that black ghost
Would squander the myriad infinity given
Is fear not folly in disguise?
Our trust in your acumen
and the limitless dominions you command
Is not misplaced, Lord Myzo.”
Nimrod’s rod struck the ground, echoing his command:
“Indeed.
We come to the Wheel today not to ask for permission
But instead take in our hands the dominion we were given of you
To enact this new work with your constellation powers
That you would take part in the profit of our King’s newfound joy.
SO STEEL YOURSELVES, STARS OF THE WHEEL!
Today we make war on impossible
In this hour we set our plan to motion
We will together trick the eyes of the King of Splendor
Bringing abounding laughter from the heart of God.
Let all that is within you join, O City of God
Let all who sit within you join, O Heavenly Wheel
Canto 2 7 Whir, Gears of the Spire!
Spin, Spheres of the Wheel!
Let Our Light Shine Upon All!
Let Our Mischievous Miracle Strike True
Bring all into knowing beyond infinite!”
And with the three rods echoing down the Spire of Vines
The work that could not be stopped was set into motion -
the city itself transfiguring
Into one grand machine. Each soul, each instrument,
And every object aligned in unified purpose.
While there in the midst of the wheel
Mago, Mezi, and Myzo looked toward each other
Mago brimming with excitement
Mezi brimming with wonder
Myzo brimming with concern
Whence all three at once did notice
Ever faintly, from the periphery of their eye
A scene unthinkable;
One star racing across the rim of the wheel
Bleeding Tohu, in terrible rebellion
The horizon burning with dark flame of sin unleashed
Breaking into paradise without restraint.
Alright, that's it. Get out of here.
May you rise and kiss the face of God, finding joy beneath joy.