ENDLESS LIGHT: Dr. Thomas Henry Moray
“Lost elements” grant their bearers strange abilities and miraculous powers. The abilities they give often require a small exertion of mind, with a resultant magnification of intent. Wearing the radiant gems, one can become invincible or invisible. One can pass through walls. One can fly, lift great weights, bring lightning or storms, and perform unheard superhuman works. These mysterious materials link dreams directly with the world. They are windows through which archetypes flow directly into our world. Wish amplifiers. The very artifacts of Prester John. Magickal technology requires the radiant stones. They are the lost talismans, the lost instrumentalities that guide and extend human consciousness. Radiant stones are the reagents of every lost technology. Those who find them become heroes or villains. The legends tell both of the location and loss of mystery elements. They may be found, granted, or stolen. Each means of obtaining them has its consequences. Magick rings are given to humble recipients by angelic visitors. Mystical necklaces are given in return for humanly kind gestures to children. They are fabulous rewards from gnomes, faeries, and sprites. Little children and humble old folk often accidentally find magickal materials by the deliberate design of “hidden ones”. Radiant crystalline jewels are often found by humans who enter unfamiliar glowing caverns and grottoes through accidental circumstance. Wanderers, lost in a storm, find caverns of wonderful radiant treasuries in places they can never relocate.
There are those whose lust for power drives them to acquire the lost elements through evil sorceries. There are mysterious alchemists who stumble on the strange minerals, taking them by night from their “sacred resting place”. Working their excessive “treatments and chemical labors” until the magick is released, they often become the terrors of the countryside.
Evil alchemists, betraying the sacred calling, challenge rule and dominion. Working feats of mind magick and enslaving the populace, they portray the dangers associated with the misuse of magickal technology. A hero is usually summoned by a rival good wizard to destroy such evil alchemists. The fabled confrontations always pits magick against magick, the hero having been given an equally great talisman by which to succeed. Love is the key to winning the battle. Love stimulates the radiant gems. Greedy and ruthless hunters steal them from forgotten temples, plucking red glowing gems from the eyes of idols with rude steel knives.
When the “wonder elements” are lost, they are lost through misuse and pride. They are often taken from the wicked by mysterious and protective guardians of humanity. Jealous and hapless fools accidentally drop their radiant stolen prize into wells, seas, burning pools, and crevasses of ice. The magickal elements and radiant stones are often lost just after certain worthy persons have been blessed by their magick. These materials seem impossible for most humans to keep. The loss of the wonder elements is always attended by great sadness and regret. Those who lose them are shunned, their villages fading into a disappointing and lackluster future. In the closing verses of these stories, one is always taught to expect their re-emergence. Hopeful that the rediscovery of lost elements will raise society into a clarified future, there are always promised signs by which we know of their appearance on earth. World conscious revolution always requires the radiant rocks.
These mysterious “lost elements” and “radiant stones” continually emerge from the deepest memories of humanity. Their re-emergence in the social symbolic lexicon is irrepressible. The greatest themes of modern science fiction are all archaic in origin. Their symbols, however updated and modified, have arcane roots. The archetypal image of both the eternal lantern and the magickal elements reappeared with the “Green Lantern” comic book series of the 1930’s, where the eternal emerald lantern from another world conferred its power to one who would justly bear the magick ring. Charging the ring by the eternal radiance of the emerald lantern, the ring-bearing knight swears to protect the world from evil. He then learns the secret psychotronic power of the ring.
While the images of Prester John’s fabulous courtroom illuminated the minds of those who thrilled to their hearing, a new and unexpected materialization was historically chronicled.
So dramatic an episode in human history, it yet demands a complete bibliomantic examination. There was an instance in time, a true psychosocial event, in which archetype met human desire in material form.
RADIANT ROCK
During the late Middle Ages, a great variety of remarkable “radiant rocks” were suddenly and unexpectedly discovered. These discoveries emerged from the mountainous regions of Central Europe in continual waves. It was the country folk who found them. Approaching in a timid, childlike wonder they saw the impossible. A powerful and unusual radiance was found emerging through the very rocks of the mountainsides. Light seemed to be streaming out of the hillsides! The brilliant green and blue mineral light was seen among familiar mountain rocks after sundown. As reported, the light was brilliant, far above the brightest light of the full moon.
Most of the first fortunate individuals who made these discoveries were not scholars or craftsmen. Typically, they were shepherds, mountain villagers, pilgrims, and wanderers; the innocents whom angelic hosts historically visit with messages of love. The glowing rocks seemed to be windows on some underground domain. Possibly from unknown cavern worlds beneath! Nights were spent watching the rock radiance in absolute wonderment. The radiance was considered an apparition, a divine event. The light was beautiful, glorious, and unfamiliar. It brought with it the atmosphere of another world.
Here was a new revelation, a new kind of light, which did not come from fire. The rocks gave forth a bright light, bright enough to illuminate the faces of those who stared into them in disbelief. Though shining for hours with no other energy source, this cold rock-light would not die! Those who discovered these strange glowing rocks believed themselves to have been favored by miraculous visitation, answers to fervent requests.
Stories began emerging from different parts of the world concerning these very same radiant rocks. Some of these were given names. Some were associated with the saints. Others were simply named for those who found them, or the place from which they were dug. A few brave souls were not afraid to attempt sampling the find. Unearthed, pieces were brought indoors. Though separated from their parent rock mass, they continued illuminating cabin interiors with their rare and cold radiance. Undying fire. Cold, pure endless light!