The Natural Sun
Announcements about our sun and its natural conditions
- Chapter 11 -
Pendulum-clock and the timekeeper and other occupations upon the central belt
Since we are still with our company, we shall tarry with them a little and therewith hear out and watch diverse things to see what they shall do and say.
2
They are still assembled upon the third height near the small Temple with just seventy-seven pillars; and look how B again joins A, asking: "Brother, how long by your wisdom do you say the great God will be pleased to leave the great swelling, relieved of its trouble, open?" Says A: "Brother, you know how nothing is harder for me than to determine time. Why do you ask me? But give me a timepiece and I shall tell you." Says B: "Brother, the water is now standing where we had created our time counter; wherefore I can't obtain a timepiece for you right now. But this much you could tell me: how far would I get on average speed before the mighty outflow sinks back to its former position?" Says A: "You may indeed walk fifty seven million paces before the mighty outflow sinks back to its depth and the scar heals to a smooth sea bed for the great lake."
3
Here you could ask: why don't the sun-dwellers determine time by years, days and hours? The answer is obvious: there is no night upon the sun, ever, but constant day. Nor is there a moon for determining time.
4
Besides that, the stellar sky suffers poor visibility upon this belt because in this region the solar atmosphere is the most unstable, due to maximum disruption from its mighty rotation, on account of which it is set alight here to the highest degree and generates the most intense light, especially in the higher altitudes, due to which it is more difficult to look into the creational spaces from this part of the sun compared to those points of far lesser atmospheric turbulence, especially the polar regions.
5
Behold, this is also why it is more difficult for sun-dwellers of this belt to determine time, since they have no morning, mid-day, evening or night. How do they cope without time measurement?
6
They make trees of enormous height to grow out of the ground, which does not cost them much time, effort or work: some teacher mentally sketches a tree himself; having thus imagined it he bows to the solar earth, carving into it with some sharp instrument, afterwards thrusting the latter deep into the ground before pulling it out again, then stroking the carved area and the middle of the hole with his fingers, saying after the effort: "The great God's will be done!" Whereupon the sketched tree at once begins to sprout forth from the solar ground. . Once the tree is fully where the will of the artist has placed it, it is used for the purpose for which it was called forth from the solar ground.
7
Since we spoke of a tree for time measurement, we shall look at how they use it there.
8
You will have watched a garden game on Earth called "pigeon shooting" that is the look of this tree, except that it is not hewn nor drilled but it is a round tree of about ten meters girth and six hundred meters high, with ox-horn shaped extensions in place of other branches on both sides on a huge scale. The top of the tree bends some ten meters over the ground from the vertical with a crown for ornamentation. To this area that bends forward a long rope is tied, with a spherical pendulum of the right weight hung at the bottom. A person swings the sphere to the limit of their capacity. This pendulum then swings for quite some time and time determined therewith.
9
The duration of a swing is about half a minute and a determinate number of these then counts as what you regard as about one hour. The total time of swings to full rest the sun dwellers call about what you call a day.
10
But what happens when this timepiece has ceased its oscillations? Then the keeper of time is on hand and swings the pendulum anew; with the solar inhabitants this occupation is held in high esteem. This person is of the highest social standing for they say: if he were not a constant pendulum sentinel then none should know their time of birth or age.
11
Wherefore occasional bribery of the keepers of time occurs, because to sun-dwellers of this belt nothing is more irksome than approaching age, whilst it is an easy matter to be young again; one comes to an agreement with the time sentinel to . let the pendulum rest for a while. This rest then throws all previous calculations overboard, making them void and counting is done anew.
12
Here you will say: well, what becomes of the time-swinging period before the standstill? It is taken off the account because the rest-period cannot be calculated. For which reason the new swing period brings about age equality for all people. This is easy and quite possible over there because ageing is not determined by nature: a person several hundred years old has the same fresh and cheerful appearance as any twenty year old, by your calculation. For which there is substance in making oneself younger in respect to life's time-duration and old and young are distinguished only by wisdom.
13
For this reason the desire for perpetual youth predominates mostly with the female sex and with the male only when intent on nuptials with some female. But when competing for some important post then even the pendulum standstills are counted, so that some arrive at such old age that he is thoroughly ridiculed even by the truly wise teachers and employers. On such occasions however age assessment is not relegated to the stipulated pendulum swings, but the applicant for a position is given difficult questions to answer by teachers in a special temple. If his answers fully satisfy the teachers then he is declared fit for the position and given a cipher testifying his age. Even if this candidate is no more than thirty years by nature, he is declared sixty by wisdom.
14
You will ask what type of positions do they have? I say unto you: no planet offers so many and diverse occupations. Although there are no town clerks or offices as on Earth, there nevertheless is a fist of others, which you could not at present conceptualise, whence we shall run through some of the more important ones.
15
The foremost and most highly esteemed are the teaching professions for which there are in almost countless number of school-temples upon the heights in which the sun-people are instructed about all and sundry.
16
A second main profession is that of the priesthood, consisting in the priests having to familiarize themselves with God's nature and order. Notwithstanding this, the teachers of the first variety are more eminent for these are the actual High Priests and hence regents over the nation.
17
Another office is that of guiding, ordering and developing the people's will in accordance with the will of God: to show people theoretically and practically as you would say, that man can only act fully with his will if it is attuned to the will of God. Wherefore it is every person's primary responsibility to probe this almighty and most holy will before everything else; for without this no man can call forth a plant from the soil.
18
This too is shown them in a practical way, a teacher calling on a student to carve the earth in accordance with his own will, then run his finger over same and then call forth his idea, resulting in neither fruit nor plant. The teacher then shows his student the great God's will letting them take same straight from Him, followed by carving the ground and running the fingers over it to then draw the idea out of the ground through the recognized will of the great God. And the students at once behold the power of will when attuned to the most High!
19
They are also shown that man can coax almost anything from the ground that he desires; but he must not do so as if from his own power but through prayer and the might of the great God's will, which also is shown in a practical way.
20
Behold, this is a most important profession, because instruction is given in solar agriculture therewith in the truest sense.
21
Another office is to counsel men in the order of undertaking every venture. And this profession too is of grave importance, teaching sun-dwellers My order. Alternatively they are shown in practice how contrary-wise, disorder has a destructive effect on everything brought forth through divine order and how disorder endangers all life upon the far-flung grounds.
22
Another office is that of allocating solar land. Notwithstanding the absence upon the sun of land-rights as such, the allocation nevertheless takes place for the sake of order. People are shown where they are allotted to call something out of the ground and in what order so that trees, grass and plants do not grow together haphazardly, a certain good order being maintained everywhere. Behold, that too is a vital office due to which this entire, immensely great solar belt has the appearance of one huge, continuous garden, adorned with the most glorious, countless growth of various trees, shrubs, plants and grasses which as said, are unique with every individual sun-dweller, the very thing that heightens the appeal and beauty of these huge lands to an indescribable degree.
23
Another office more variegated consists in teaching men how to make good use of the products called out of the soil, teaching them also moderation in all things.
24
Another office is responsible for the animal kingdom and classification, teaching their useful employment and giving the reason they are not also able to bring forth animals through their will. Another job consists in showing how to deal with the sundry atmospheric and fire drafts from the mountains, whilst another teaches sign language somewhat like your numerology, for recording the correspondence between things and to recognize them and pass them on to others. Another profession is entrusted with building, giving instruction in erection of dwellings, office buildings, school-temples and finally houses of God - a class devoted exclusively to the building trade. As said, there are a great many other professions of which we shall make mention at the appropriate time.
25
But now we shall have another look at our company and watch how they start their way down from the third hill to the second one with the big Temple. For the swelling has retreated to where the water has receded from the first hill with the timepiece. And thus, one of their company hastens ahead to swing the pendulum, to enable them to more closely determine the course of the eruption.
26
But for today we shall cease observing our blindingly shining company and then catch up with the ran of things with our next revelation!