in the beginning substance, s s from substance came form. before name was given before thought was found before the knowing and awareness of oneself, only matter_matter. ss s from the earth we were fashioned and unto the earth we remain bound. flesh was awarded to us... bone given to uphold us... and blood to carry the ancient rhythmic flow of life... o we were made to feel the pleasant warmth of the daystar, the nightly cold of cynthia... s the weight of time and the coming burden of mortality. yet somehow man often forgets the nature of his own_own making. he adorns the flesh... gives names to its desires and builds kingdoms upon ground... all the while remaining subject to the same laws as the dust beneath his very feet. o for all things possessing form are subject to change... remember that. ss o what is born shall wither... what is built shall crumble... what is held shall one day be returned... thus, matter is both our beginning and our inevitable return_return.

within every man dwelleth a force itself being older than language, older than law and older than the kingdoms he would come to build. s it speaks not in words... nor does it seek permission from reason... s it is simply the hunger that calls, the fear that warns, the hand that reaches and the heart that races before the mind can comprehend. it is the will to survive... the need to protect... the impulse to pursue and the instinct to flee_flee. s o s it is the remnant of something ancient, carried within the flesh of us all... all beings. man hath long sought to conquer this nature, to bind it beneath the order of civilisation and the judgement of reason. yet that which is buried is not necessarily extinguished. s for beneath every cultivated manner o lies the creature from which it arose. thus, instinct is the ancient nature we carry, whether it be acknowledged or denied.

within man there arose a longing, a restless flame that neither silence nor abundance could wholly extinguish. ss 'to chase the horizon on a ship of glass.' glass dreams he desired what lay beyond his reach... sought what his hands had not yet touched and yearned for that which his eyes could only behold from afar_afar. from desire came creation, for man imagined what did not yet exist and laboured to bring it into being... o and from desire_desire came conquest, devotion, passion and ruin. s o s 'for the same fire that illuminates the path may consume the one who follows it.' he who possesses shall desire anew, and he who attains shall soon discover another horizon beyond his grasp grasp. (glass) for desire knoweth no final resting place. ss it changes its form, abandons its object and awakens again within the heart. thus, desire is the eternal pursuit of that which we believe is to make us whole.

behold, beyond all, ss man came to know that he was. he looked upon the heavens and questioned their vastness. o he looked upon himself and questioned the nature of his own being. s s thus arose the oldest of all enquiries... not that of what the world contained... but why? why there was a world at all? he sought meaning in the stars_stars, in the earth, in the words of prophets and the calculations of scholars. s some turned to faith... others to reason... and many to the silence that dwelleth between them. ss yet no answer hath silenced the question for all men. for to exist is not merely to occupy a place among things... but to become aware of one's presence within them. to know that one lives, that time passes, that all things change, and that one day the eyes shall behold the world no more. no longer. and perhaps the greatest mystery is not that man shall die, but that he was ever here to wonder... wonder? thus, existence is the mystery we inhabit, and the question we carry until the end.