Just over a year ago I started posting my stories on Substack. Several of my first posts were written in the 3rd person: Dragons, Rest, Serpent & Serpents, and A Tale of Two Ferries. I am the recurring ‘she’ in these stories, and the unusual descriptions convey something of the strangeness of the realities I experienced.
“Life is short, the Art long, opportunity fleeting, experiment treacherous, judgement difficult.” - Hippocrates1
At its height, the ruling light of day baked the earth. Both creature and human retreated under shelter. From her chamber, she heard the distant rhythms of the village young learning in their places of study. Screams, high and wild, broke the resting stillness. She got up, gathered her instruments of healing, secured her shelter, and walked over the heated earth toward the place of healing. When she entered, her companions were instructing the villagers to lay their writhing burden down. It was another young female human, like the others had been.
The young female’s movements had none of the rhythmic regularity of those seized with organic illness. Rather it was the erratic thrashing of someone fighting, perhaps for life, against an unseen enemy. Her continual high screams sounded a fear gone beyond all reassurance, all comfort, piercing the ears of those trying to help.
She knew testing had been done on others brought here in the same condition. None of the organic tests had shown a microscopic enemy or parasitic growth that could cause the mind to simulate such terror. Only a powerful sleeping substance, inserted into the muscle by thin metal tube, stilled those in the grip of this unseen, undetectable enemy.
She watched as the young female grew quieter under the sleep substance, ensuring her rhythms of breathing and pulse were steady. For a time, her eyes still moved wildly beneath her eyelids, until at last deep sleep overcame the terror. Quietly, she discussed the evidence with her companions. Reports had come from surrounding villages, even from the metropolis across the river, of the same unseen attacks of terror. All the victims had been young females, all attending places of learning.
She remembered an incident that occurred two seasons ago. An elder male human had been brought to the place of healing in such bodily extremity that he died upon arrival. A sibling of the dead had suddenly collapsed on the ground, crying out in wild sobs. One of the village healers had quickly taken water and poured it out on the family member until the strange crying stopped. The village healer later explained his actions.
She had already known that all the villagers, from the newest infant to the eldest elder, wore beads, knotted cords, and pouches of animal skin that were said to be imbued with power. This power came from the unseen world of spirits that coexisted with the humans in the village. The beads, cords, or pouches were signs of agreement that the humans would use the spirit power to their benefit. In return, the spirits were shown courtesy. The last bit of water in the cup was poured out for them, certain of the great living plants were reserved for spirit use.
The village healer stated that if humans wearing signs of power were overcome by their own feelings, the balance of power between human and spirit would change. The spirit could take complete control of the human. This was the reason no villager, no matter the tragedy they experienced, shed tears. No female cried out while giving birth. The village healer had poured out water on the grief-stricken sibling to appease the spirit and regain balance.
She and her companions were healers trained in the west. There, it was thought the spirit world did not exist, or if it did, it had no effect on the human world. But her experienced companions affirmed there were happenings in this place unexplained by advanced western knowledge. Power signs worn by a villager to turn away deadly blades also turned away the thin metal tubes meant to insert life-sustaining substances. When wedged or serrated tools were used against the great spirit plants, the tools broke or became embedded until appeasement ceremonies were held.
There were certain villagers who sought out communion with the spirits. Some of them made, for a fee, the signs of power that all the villagers wore. Most of these sign makers could only offer limited spirit power. But there were others said to have such close contact with spirits that they audibly conversed with them. Still others could place themselves in spirit hypnosis and defy the law that tethered humans to the surface of the earth. Perhaps these young females, seeking success in their pursuit of knowledge, had taken signs that were too powerful for them. It was a valid theory in this place of enchantment.
Though she and her companions were from the west, they were outsiders to western unbelief. Instead, they held a two thousand year old belief that came, not from the west, but from earth’s centre, a belief in a Creator whom all humans had rebelled against. This Creator had come to earth, a son of humanity, to live and die for all humans. He returned to life after his death, and when he left the earth, promised those who trusted him that they would have his Spirit until he returned.
In the ancient stories of this Creator on earth, there were accounts of a similar terror inflicted upon humans by malicious spirits. The Creator had, by his own Spirit, stopped the attacks and freed the humans from their terror. But the stories also contained dark warnings against misusing the Creator’s Spirit. His power could only be safely worked by those who truly believed to help those who truly desired freedom. It was never to be used for a fee.
The villagers believed in the Creator, but did not agree that the Creator had become human. The companions only offered spiritual counsel when it was requested, for the physical healing they gave must never be thought conditional on having shared beliefs. Neither should the human name of the Creator be used as if it was a power sign. The companions were still practitioners of western healing methods, so they could not rule out organic causes. There might yet be a microscopic enemy undetected by their instruments.
She waited by the young female until the sleep substance metabolized enough for her to regain a calm consciousness. A companion gently requested more details about what happened before the terror. The young female described seeing a figure approach and hearing menacing speech, but could not tell what followed. There was nothing more to do. All organic testing had already been done. Her relatives took her back to their dwelling.
In the time that followed, she heard more reported of attacks of terror and what other places did to stop them. One place sacrificed a horned creature. Some religious elders declared the attacks occurred because young females were clothing themselves inadequately. Her own companions observed that the terror ceased when a female stopped attending a place of learning. In a place where females often suffered and learning helped them live, it was troubling.
She had now lived here for an entire revolution of the ruling light. An elder companion, who had spent many revolutions here before retiring west, returned to help. She assisted this elder. Among those who came to the elder was the mother of another terrorized young female. The elder inquired about the power signs the young female wore. Villagers usually openly explained their power signs, but this young female would not identify one sign. After the elder’s advice and the mother’s pleading, the young female removed the sign.
She examined the sign before it was taken to be burned in the refuse pit. It was a plain iron circle for a finger. The mother asked for the devotions of the companions. They quietly gathered around the pair and asked simply for the Creator’s help. Then they resumed their other tasks.
Epilogue
The lung illness she had lived with since infancy became worse and her companions removed her from the village. She was taken across the river to a larger healing place in the metropolis. She lay in a long chamber, with hanging fabric dividing her from other suffering humans. As she waited, a group came to visit the human behind the curtain to her right. She listened as they began to loudly speak the Creator’s human name, declaring power over a malicious spirit.
She heard the suffering human make confused sounds. She recognized the sounds as those made when loss of blood damages the speech control areas in a human’s brain. She remembered the villagers thought such a brain attack was done by a spirit, instead of by blood clotting or leaking in the brain as organic testing showed. The group caused so much disturbance that they were requested to leave. The human on her right still could not speak.
Hippocrates. Aphorisms. W.H.S. Jones. (2019). Athens: Aiora.
Fascinating! I love the narrator's perspective. It's from another culture that isn't familiar with ours -- and draws us in with the mystery. I look forward to reading more!