The Chinese legend speaks of the eternal battle between the Dragon and the Phoenix; Earth and Sky, Yin and Yang. But the story begins, as always, on Atlan.
From "The Children of Atlan", the sequel to "Man From Atlan".
The great war between the planets Aergon and Atlan has just ended. A boy is born into the Ameides family of Atlan. He is the reincarnation of the great teacher Gabriel Hatonn, who mysteriously disappeared just before the war he prophesied. However, this isn’t his story alone, but about his family, and the Children of Atlan who came to Earth many years ago.
Gabriel Hatonn, many years before:
It is an Atlanian morning. By the public fountain in the main square of the city of Atlan, a man is sitting deep in meditation. He is very old, even by Atlanian standards where the life span runs to 900 years or so. But he looks a youthful 40. A traveler’s rucksack lies on the ground besides him. It isn’t the power residing within him that attracts attention though. There are many powerful healers and magicians in Atlan, the joke being that they could knock out an ox at 30 paces with just a glance. No, it is the peace that resides within him, the nothingness void one sees behind his eyes, that draws you.
First there is a child, a little girl that sits besides him. Then her mother, then as the energy spreads, there are thousands in the square, all at peace, all one. He is there every morning, sitting silently until the day he starts to speak.
“How are you?” he asks the child. Eflan has told me this a thousand times, a common place question that sounds like a bell within her forever.
“I am fine, Master”.
“I’m not your master, Eflan”. (How did he know her name?) “I’m a teacher. Would you like to be my student?”
Silently, she nods.
There is a tale every child of Atlan knows, but somehow when he tells the story, it is heard again, as if for the first time. He speaks softly, for the child’s ears only, yet every one in the square hears it, then all Atlan.
The Dragon and the Phoenix
“The Dragon is the symbol of Aergon, the green planet. It resides within Nature. Its essence is Male, even though the Aergonians worship the Female principle through the colour Black.
The Phoenix is the symbol of Atlan, the blue planet. It resides within the Spirit, its essence is Female, even though the Atlanians worship through the Male principle and the colour White.
The Dragon seeks to conquer the Phoenix, the Phoenix resists. The war between the female and male energies of God has continued for millennia, a reflection of the imbalance within our selves”.
“I am from Aergon”.
This statement is as if Gabriel has sprouted horns, tail and hooves. Every Atlanian knows that Aergonians are warlike, aggressive and drink the blood of babies. Yet since all sense the peace and good within him, they listen intently.
“For too long you have warred with each other. I was exiled from Aergon for saying this, that the Dragon and the Phoenix must reconcile, but it is the nature of the human to resist change”.
“This is the Way I bring to you: We can only evolve through change, and change is inevitable, whether you like it or not”.
“The Way is not The Way of Spirit or of Nature, but of Balance. That there is the male and female energy of God and within you is known, but there is a third energy, which is found through Balance, and is the Energy of the Child, and its colour is Green. It is in the nature of the child to seek balance, which is why the third energy of God is Balance, or the Child”.
“So, just as the child seeks to bring balance between the male and female, so too does the male and female seek balance. You are the Children of God”.
“When you become one, you know peace”.
Peace. That was it, they knew. Till he sat there amongst them they had never known peace. It was in that moment of realization that the Way of Atlan was born.
He would appear somewhere and teach; one person at first, then many. He made it clear that he wasn’t there to create a religion like the ones of the past, which were coercive and fearful, born of the imbalance between female and male energy, sky god and mother earth. No, this was a way of life which every person was free to choose in whatever way they wished.
Soon the Way of Atlan spread all over, and many of his followers, fleeing from Aergon, came to join him as well. There is a chapter in The Way of Atlan in which he warns “War will come to sweep you away” and this is when he taught his students to become spiritual warriors, wielders of magic.
One of his earliest students, Eflan, soon came to be his favourite. For her, he made an extraordinary prophecy: She would be the one to instigate the war, but it was necessary for the spiritual evolution of the planet. There were other students, two brothers, Andron and Septros of Atlan, their sister Aphrodite, Rahwin, a warrior who followed him from Aergon, and many more.
And there was another prophecy: “You will carry the Way of Atlan past the farthest stars”. And: “I am he the world has waited for. Whenever the Universe is in imbalance, I incarnate to restore order”.
War in Heaven: Gabriel Hatonn Ameides
You choose the parents to be born to. You choose your path. The teacher had to leave; the child had to be born.
It was a time of war. Even in the womb, I knew this. My mother Eflan was a driven woman, quiet on the surface, yet I can attest to the torrents of rage, sadness, guilt and fierce protective love that washed over me.
The warriors sat in council at the round kitchen table at the Ameides family compound. Andron the war leader, Rahwin, Septros, Aphrodite, and Eflan.
Septros: “The Aergonians will outnumber us in ships, soldiers and weapons”.
Andron: “Our weapons are magic and spirit, but that might not be enough”.
Eflan: “Gabriel taught us how to meld forces of earth, air, fire, water and spirit to create new forces which will be our last line of defense”.
Aphrodite: “But they are too horrible to contemplate”.
Rahwin: “This is the Aergonian way. We become the weapon, one with it, and do not stop or hesitate until we win”.
Aphrodite: “This would be barbaric. You’re talking about raising demons to cause ultimate destruction!”
Rahwin: “Would you prefer that Atlan be destroyed? This will be our last choice”.
The Atlanians offered peace, but the Aergonians rejected that and attacked with overwhelming force. Slowly they drove our people back planet by planet till finally they arrived in their ships over Atlan, and rained so much destruction that the sky turned red from all the dust blown up into the atmosphere.
The warriors gathered around the table again. Once the shield around our city was breached, the Aergonians would begin the final assault, and not stop until every last Atlanian was killed.
The five joined hands. I, in spirit, was the sixth. Energy swirling around, a kaleidoscope of colours, the room filled with the light of a thousand suns. Then, with one thought, the energy focused into a torrent of fire that shot into space, destroying the Aergonian fleet then continuing in a brilliant beam all the way to Aergon, the beautiful green planet vanishing in a flash that turned into a million glowing motes set against the blackness of space. Weep for Aergon, for Aergon is no more.
We recovered. The remaining few hundred thousand survivors gathered in our shining city and started over. And now that the war was over, it was safe for children to be born.
Eflan said she couldn’t have made it without me. I reminded her it was the way of the warrior to fight for a cause, for one’s homes and families. How could she blame herself when it was I that told her the Dragon and the Phoenix must be joined so humanity could evolve? That it was foretold that the people of the Phoenix would be reborn from the flames? In the end, she drew upon the strength of impending motherhood to come back into her own strength, and welcomed me one fine morning.
This war has continued here on Earth, between the civilisations of Atlantis and Lemuria. It is a war between competing ideas on spirituality, religions of shamanic vs etheric energies, male vs female, a war that has released demons into this world. And until the Dragon and the Phoenix join, there will not be Peace. That force will be the child, the incarnation of God.
