The Pageless Book

Above Photo by Di’ goy! Zabala. Book Photo by Lin Pernille. Church Photo by Lyn Gateley.

The text of The Gated Emptiness can never, and will never, be used as the basis for a religion. It is written to discredit itself, encourage dissidence, and give the power of religion back to each individual. Realistically, I doubt that these words that I wrote in a trance will ever gain popularity, but should The Gated Emptiness manage to, the very mechanism of its language prevents the formation of a singular religious institution. This is because it reads:

“Unto earth, God saw fit to give man and woman and child alike prophecy. In the ages that passed, many books were pieced from the words grasped through the smoke and scent of the mind. Some were warped by the poisons mankind had consumed, others were broken and still others were misunderstood.”

As I have pointed out in the article I wrote before this, the trinity of man-woman-child is representative of all humanity. Whether male or female, young or old, beggar or billionaire, The Gated Emptiness claims that we are each endowed with the privilege of communicating with our creator. Not all people will take advantage of this privilege, nor can anyone claim that their communication with the Divine is any closer to truth than any other.

The passage above implies that all holy texts are flawed, including itself. This text, like all texts, was pieced together - its words grasped at due to our inability to understand. In the same way that we can not describe a scent in concrete terms, we can not put words to the absolute Truth. To make matters worse, the very methods in which we receive these holy texts, the transfer and translation of these holy texts, and our understanding of these holy texts are called into question. There is no perfection in this communication between us and the Divine; it is as organic and messy as the rest of reality.

What is worse is that the passage that follows suggests that no one religion is permanent. It reads:

“There are three books of which the first given to Metatron, the second to Sandalphon, and the last to Apollion. All these books where once in time one page and again shall return to one page. Those of the future shall forget the past. Those of the past shall forget the present. Those of the present shall forget the future. So it is with all temples; God’s hand knows no religion.”

We are confronted with the question of which three books The Gated Emptiness refers. Ironically enough, the trinity which receives each book also serves as the namesakes of each chapter of this text. Each of the three chapters of The Gated Emptiness could be written on one page and still remain legible. However, I don’t believe this is the meaning behind this passage.

It makes more sense that the three books that are referred to are the Jewish Bible, the Christian New Testament, and the Qu’ran. The believers of these three are, as the Muslims put it, people of the book. If you put this in the context in which I was raised, it only makes sense that the Jewish Bible, the Christian New Testament, and the Qu’ran are the three books referred to in The Gated Emptiness. I was raised a Christian, in a Christian society. Judaism and Islam are the only two religions that are considered as possibly being equals to Christianity in this society.

However, this passage suggests that in the same way these religions have come into being, they can and will depart. No one religion can serve as the eternal religion; there simply is no such thing. As much as anyone would like to believe that their faith is the one faith that finally gets it right, it simply is not so. All religions will falter and fail, and the only thing left will be humanity’s relationship with the Divine. That is the way God has meant it to be.