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Mitevma of Sojlis

A good thing has come true! Oh, it is the true good, visible and understandable, and accessible to all. The Great Cup was hitherto hidden in the sanctuary; and the way to it was so arduous that none of those who were not called to it could reach it. Many have climbed the steep slope, hurting themselves on the sharp stones; but so high up was its storehouse that it did not take a lifetime to ascend. The weight of his own body drew the climber down, and the cold surrounding him was stronger than his inner heat. And no one could overcome this path. But some had the strength to guide themselves along the path leading to the cup, not through their greedy and arrogant striving upwards, but through the embracing of the whole world with the cup contained within. To them, the Keeper of the Cup came down, took them up to the cup, let them draw from it, and then brought them back again. They stored the moisture of knowledge, sprinkling it on the world available to them. Many of them fell fighting; others were tortured and died in suffering; others fell prey to obscurity; but no one regretted or forsook their work. I know this, for I am one of them. Our work was never accepted by the world as a good one because it was opposed to evil, which the world considered to be good. Although we did not reveal our deeds openly, they were often discovered by those who went where the clean wind came from. They guarded the stench of purity; and they found us, for we were pure and could not lie for our salvation. And then we perished, blessing the world. None of us feared, nor doubted the good of our destruction. Is the life of a warrior who stands up to defend the world more precious than what he defends? Every one of us has rejoiced in his hour of death. And we rejoice now; and our rejoicing does not die, for it is generated by the immortal Good. And we rejoice more, seeing life and the greatest accomplishment of our work. You, the last of us, are the first and only one to break the circle of silence. By you, the work of Truth has begun to blossom. You are the bottom and the top; and the Great Cup through you pours its contents into the world. You are the bridge between the existing and the better, the latter bridge, which is indestructible because life is strong in those who walk upon it. Verily, it is hard for you, – for you have undertaken the work of us all; but you have also the strength of us all, and knowledge greater than that possessed by us. And all that you possess will increase still more. Remember that you are the last, and the ruin of your work will be followed by the ruin of the world. Tell all who know the righteousness of your work that the life of the world depends on them. The world of men must live on; and it must always be kept in Truth. All who have lived – lived for it; all who are living –  live for it; all who are to come – will live for it. Through you, a pledge of his life has come into the world: good for it! That which we have borne is forgotten, and that which we have kept is distorted. You will restore the Truth we served to its countenance. Our work and our travails were not in vain for the world, and by our deeds, we paved the way for you. Remember us; we will assist you in your work as much as we can. Look around you and you will see the traces of our deeds everywhere. In the cities and in the lands which are now, and in the lands which are now gone, in the fruits of hands, of minds and souls, in the past and the present and in the future, everywhere you will see our footprints and you will hear our echoes. The pillars which we have erected for the support of the world are innumerable so that the world will not collapse. They are too old to be able to hold it up. Therefore, establish one pillar that is equal to the world and is the strongest among all the pillars. You will do it, for you desire it. And this pillar shall be the pivot upon which the world shall rest. It will be the great mountain that at many times those who have sought to find the center and the pillar of the world; will be the mountain on which they will hope to find the abode of good, Love, Beauty, Wisdom, and Power. On this mountain, foreseen by many long before its appearance, will be the Great Cup. It will be its repository in the world of men. You have heard of this mountain, – but it is also for you to erect it. Until now it did not exist: there was only its image, generated by the mind of people who do not know what they dream about. They surrounded this mountain with their dragons and chimeras and gave them great power. Many sought this mountain, longing to drink from the cup, but only a vague image of it could always be seen in the distance. Dragons blocked their way, chimeras pursued them; and most of them fell. Now you will erect this great mountain; and no evil and predatory creature, born of the sin of reason, shall block the way to it. It is already visible and its summit is shining. Truly, ahead is the summit of the Good. You are now at the summit of your work and of ours: build bridges over the chasms, and pave the way over the rocks that block the way to the summit of the good. Exterminate the creatures that devour the wretched that gave birth to them. Show people what they crave and what they wait for; but give them the real quenching of their thirst, not what they think it is. Many lives have been cut short before so that you may now accomplish your work, and many minds have suffered and been extinguished for it: remember them. This will not be easy for all to await the fulfillment of your work, but no one knows exactly what they are craving. All see the reflection of the Truth in the flowing water of the mind, and all hear its echo, – but no one truly knows it. What is going on at present is expected; but the expectation itself is not obvious, because the great covenant and the great prophecy have been distorted by the minds of men in time. What was once said and prepared for future generations has not been saved. Know how it was. Before this time, for thousands of centuries, the human race was strong and prosperous. There were great states with great knowledge. But even then, no one truly knew the Truth. And at one time in the greatest of those states, the most mired in vice, a certain man became one of us. Much was given him; and he kept what he received, teaching the faithful and invisibly enlightening others. A succession of his successors and faithful ones lasted; and one day the son of the ruler of the state came into their circle. When he became the ruler, he brought his son into the circle of the knowledgeable, and the latter, later, into his own. And that man became the greatest among the knowledgeable, being at the same time the ruler of his land. And it started in his family: everyone was the greatest in the kingdom and the circle of the knowledgeable. In the days of that family Wisdom poured out from the house of the rulers and people had overcome much evil in themselves; and the power prospered. When the eighth of them was ruler, his son was born in such a way that even in his mother’s womb he knew what was about to happen. He proclaimed it to his father from the time he could speak the right words. He said that terrible things were coming: a great upheaval of the world, the destruction, and ruin of all that man had created and of much else in the world. And he indicated a timeframe: two hundred and sixty-three years. When he became the ruler, he ordered the knowledgeable ones to prepare themselves for the coming disaster so as to preserve their knowledge and to guide those who would remain in the world to the proper path. By his time, the people of the circle had acquired great knowledge and great power: they could teach, heal, build huge buildings, extract power from everything, and visit faraway places of the world. He ordered to collect all that had been written down by the knowledgeable people in the years of the circle and to compile a book from this knowledge, writing down everything again and better, and destroying the previous records so that nothing remained; and this was done. And he himself wrote of the things to come. He said that what was known would be preserved and planted after the calamity among the survivors, who would be fewer than one in thirty, and among their descendants. And if they observed their lives properly, nurturing knowledge and good, the world would no longer be divided by enmity, and the best for the people would soon be accomplished. But if they rejected what had been preserved, the world would return to its former state, and the bad would fight with the good for strength and power. There would be many changes; and there would be long periods in which men would not know peace and the triumph of the good. There would be many calamities, and there would be many triumphs and falls of the human race. In times of downfall, a part of knowledge would be given to people, again and again, to make them see the way to the top. If they did not see it, the time would come when their minds could create a disaster greater than the coming one, and they could extinguish themselves with their own fire. Then would come one who would give them what they had never had before and would show them the way – manifestly and for the last time. He would build a mountain, which would become the pillar of the world and the center of goodness; and at the top of it would be the repository of the Great Cup. Then the people would drink of its moisture, and accomplish the best of their potential. There would be a hard struggle, and the good would prevail, and the bad would be enclosed and ejected from the people. And then the people would be raised high and the right would be fulfilled. That is what he said in his writings. And he commanded his descendants to prepare for what was to come. And they increased the circle of the knowledgeable ones and took care of that arriving knowledge to be set forth in books. They chose a number of thirty-seven places in the world, in which they built strongholds and populated them with knowledgeable people. By the power of these strongholds, no one could oppose them; so, they built the strongholds, equipping their inhabitants with what was to be preserved. The last of the line of rulers had assumed power sixteen years before the calamity, knowing that. In the latter terms, he emptied all the storehouses of supplies, which were always full, so that there would be no famine among the people, and divided the supplies among the strongholds. He also divided the army among them; and then the people of his power knew fear and woe, and the power fell and he perished. Not two years after those days a disaster struck. The earth quaked and chasms opened and pillars of fire and deadly wind came out of them. And the rocks were moving and shouting and the waters were running over the dry land. The things created by men were crumbling and they were perishing. Flames blazed in the heavens, falling and devouring the earth and the water. The ocean opened and closed again, swallowing up the land and spewing it out. The great land broke up; smoke and fog swirled in storms of wind, fire, water, and stones. But the calamity came to an end in its time; and from it much and much in the world perished, and the people who survived it had only what was contained in their minds. Of the strongholds sixteen were not destroyed; and they began to do their work in the world. Their sign was seen in all lands: it was a serpent in the sun. The Knowledgeable one gave back to mankind much of what had been lost. They brought back writing, farming, metalwork, knowledge of the invisible, and much more. And they taught them and taught them about the coming and the right way, as it was said in the writings of the one who was born foreseeing. After some time, the creation of the greatest of the states, which possession would be the whole world, was close. The knowledgeable ones, however, did not want to mingle with the rest, but sought to distinguish themselves among them and thus preserve the purity of their knowledge. They decreased in number as there were few women among them and among those born there were few who were able to be inducted into the circle. Then some of the knowledgeable ones wished to establish a law whereby anyone born in the stronghold would receive knowledge equally with the worthy. Others opposed the law and there grew up arguments among the knowledgeable ones. They divided into two nations: some gave knowledge to their children without distinguishing the best from the worst and others taught only the best and then they took the best of the rest and brought them into their strongholds to teach them. But many of those introduced wished to take knowledge beyond the strongholds: and they rebelled. This enmity interrupted many lives, and much of the knowledge was scattered among the unworthy; but the rebels were exterminated, and only a few escaped by fleeing. Among the other part of the knowledgeable ones many of the worst, having gained knowledge, coveted exorbitant power and authority. They rebelled against the best and destroyed them; few of them were saved and fled. Those who were victorious chose the dragon as their emblem. Thus, there were two knowledgeable nations: the people of the serpent and the people of the dragon. The serpent nation was strong and merciful, but he was very harsh with the rest: it defended them, but cruelly slaughtered all who showed bits of his knowledge, or wished to acquire them. Dragon nation ruled with brutal force, putting people in fear and destroying unwanted ones within its reach. And in the course of time, the two nations blocked the way to each other, and their powers were opposed. Then war broke out; and it was on earth, in the water, above the earth, and beyond the world of matter. It was fierce and terrible; and in it, many fell who did not fight, but dwelt in lands subject to the fighting. And all the strongholds were destroyed, and the knowledgeable ones fell almost all; those few who remained lost almost all their knowledge, power, and authority. Those who remained scattered among the people, some became rulers, and some became mentors of the secret circles of knowledge. And nations and states changed; there were times of calamity and times of prosperity; and there remained no true memory of the great calamity and of the knowledgeable ones. Their knowledge perished and was distorted by error. Not once have those who touched the Great Cup appeared; and they brought with them the knowledge that was soon lost again, distorted, and forgotten. But the great prophecy lived on in different lands and peoples, transmitted and distorted in different ways. And it has come true, for the people have chosen it. Now there is you; and you are the summit of what is right. You see what is left of the old days. Remember what was done for the sake of the knowledge that is now available to you, and remember what is yet to be done. Lead men after you, so that there shall be no more ruin in enmity. Now the Great Cup is being poured out for all, and the world will drink of the moisture of life. Oh, how beautiful it is! It is what we have been told. May the world be a celebration of the Good.

Translated by Amradkhari