More Triads on the Evolution of the Soul

Today, a selection of triads from the Barddas preceding the previous one, which shed more light on it:
 

13. The three states of existence of living beings: the state of Abred in Annwn; the state of liberty in humanity; and the state of love, that is Gwynvyd in Heaven. 

14. The three necessities of all animated existences: a beginning in Annwn; progression in Abred; and plenitude in Heaven, that is, the circle of Gwynvydd; without these three things nothing can exist but God. 

15. Three things are necessary in Abred: the least of all animation, and thence a beginning; the material of all things, and thence increase, which cannot take place in any other state; and the formation of all things out of the Dead, hence diversity of existence.

16. Three things cannot but happen to all living beings by the justice of God: co-sufference in Abred, ecause without that none could obtain the perfect knowledge of any thing; co-participation of equal privilege in the love of God; and co-ultimity, through the power of God, in respect of such as are just and merciful. 
 

In Iolo's vision, as we have seen, every soul has its beginning in Annwn, its progression in Abred, and its culmination in Gwynvydd. Humanity is at an intermediate state; still incarnate in Abred, but able, to a greater or lesser degree, to peer into the higher Reality of Gwynvydd. 

Abred is incarnate existence. Its lowest depth is Annwn, which encompasses the Underworld and the mineral creation, the closest possible there is to death. The Chaos prior to the creation is called Cythraul or Devil. This is evil absolute, and it is total disorder, total powerlessness. Through an act of mercy, God organizes the Cythraul, brings it into life and order. 

Now, creative act of God can be viewed in two ways. From the perspective of God, which is Eternity, the Cythraul is immediately animated, organized, and perfected. Time is a moving image of eternity, and within Time that which is immediate in Eternity must unfold sequentially. And so from the perspective of the human soul, the process unfolds across vast ages, as incarnation follows up incarnation until the soul reaches its plentitude in Gwynvydd. And even arriving in Gwynvydd the journey is incomplete. As Ceugant is traversed by God alone, it remains ever out of reach. In the same way, in Utter Chaos, not one thing can be said to exist, because to be "one thing" is to have both unity and particularity, and unity requires order, particularity requires distinction, and "to exist" requires God. Therefore the Cythraul too remains forever out of our reach, but in the opposite direction. 

From the perspective of God, the act of Creation is an outpouring of infinite love and mercy. Hence Plato, "|Good was he, and in one who is good there never arises about anything whatsoever any grudge; and so, being free of this, he willed that all things should come to resemble himself as much as possible." From the perspective of Cythraul, the act of Creation was a slaying; hence the deaths of Ymir, Tiamat, and all other primordial giants and dragons. From the perspective of Mankind, the creation is a journey, in which we rise from the cauldron of Annwn, traverse the circles of Abred, and find our completion in Gwynvydd.

If you've ever tried to help a drug addict, you can see the same process at work. From your perspective, you performed a work of mercy; from the addict's perspective, you took away their joy; the addict who recovers receives the act of mercy and begins a journey toward becoming who they were intended to be. The memory of their addiction, kept before the mind's eye, becomes an incentive toward recovery. Hence another triad: 

 

There are three benefits to be had from Cythraul: the defection of evil; a view to goodness; and the triumph of victory over what is contrary to the beneficial.

 

The Elephants Out of Babel

Proposition

In the United States at the present time, there are approximately 2,000 chimpanzees, 400 elephants, 200 bonobos, 600 giraffes, 13,000 emus, and 4,700 ostriches. 

Many of these animals live in zoos, of course. Some others live on farms, or in managed wildlife refuges. Six years ago, an experimental population of 90 kangaroos was released into the wild in Wyoming. Of course, this is only continuing a process which began 500 years ago. In 1492 there were no horses in North America; today there are 70 million, including 300,000 wild horses. And there are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of zebras in zoos, and at least one wild heard of at least 150 in California. For a time there was a wild population of camels in the American Southwest, abandoned by the United States army during the Civil War; though that population did not survive, we still have at least 3,000 in captivity.

At some point-- maybe over the next century, as JMG thinks, maybe over a thousand or two thousand years, or more-- our civilization is going to collapse, and at some point after that, no memory of us will remain. The creatures that we have imported here from all over the world will remain here, and one day no one will remember that they came from somewhere else.

At some point in the future, North America is going to be a place where hunting peoples are as likely to follow elephants or kangaroos as bison and farming villages are as likely to be patrolled by emus as chickens. I like to think that a future civilization will produce detailed studies of the wild American sasquatch, and that its biologists will scoff at both our disbelief in this well-known animal and at our credulous belief in a creature called the "gorilla" in Africa. 

Digression



Some years ago I wrote a novella set in a future North America in which a remnant population of humans abandons their attempts to rebuild civilization and instead become elephant hunters. It was called "The Elephants Out of Babel". The people in the story had a few fragments of the Bible, and believed themselves to be the survivors of the fall of Babel, which they thought referred to a nearby mega-city whose ruins were now overrun by autonomous robots of various sorts. On a journey to the city, the pair are attacked by an enormous machine built originally as a construction vehicle, complete with a cutting laser, which they believe to be a dragon.

Much later, I discovered that an author named Michael Swanwick had written a novel entitled The Dragons of Babel which also featured a mechanical dragon. This was published in 2008, 3 years after my story was written. But there is no possible way for Mr. Swanwick to have known about me. Another plot point was that one of the characters remembered a variation on the Hail Mary that his mother had sung to him as a child, except that the words were addressed to "Holy Spirit, Mother of God." This would then-- it was implied at the end-- become the basis of a nature-oriented and more female-centric religion, once the survivors abandoned their attempt to rebuild civilization. Yes, I was very much a conventional Leftist at the time, and committed to ideas like radical ecology and eco-feminism. 

Years later I picked up a random book in the science fiction section of a Borders somewhere and found the characters saying a version of the Hail Mary addressed to "Holy Spirit, Mother of God." And again, there was no way at all for the author to have known about me, and I can't even remember what her name was, or what her book was about. But that was when I gave up on the idea that our thoughts are internal to ourselves, or that minds are part of individuals. No, Mind is clearly something in which we participate, and thoughts can be found wherever they like; I never completed my story to the point of publication, and so the thoughts found other vectors for expression in the physical world. 

In my mind still I see a future America in which hunters pursue elephants past the ruins of gargantuan cities. Where do these thoughts come from?