Let me tell you a little story. God is the Universe, and according to eastern lore "Ohm" is the sound of the Universe becoming aware of its own existence. So one day the Universe becomes aware of itself and realizes that it is all alone. Imagine that, being all by yourself. It would drive you mad. So the Universe has unending time to get to know itself, and eventually it is able to concentrate all of its willpower onto one tiny speck of dirt floating around a star. It has an enormous amount of time on its hands, and after zillions and zillions of years it perfects the art of "free will" and is able to create all the life on the Earth. Amazing. So now a God has friends, and is not all alone anymore. Maybe it was an asshole towards its creations, and treated them however it wanted. Maybe it raped, killed, beat up, and was filled with so much pride because it was the Creator of all things and it saw fit that it should run the world however it wanted. Or maybe it was a gentile God that loved its creations and wanted them love him back. These are the things that have been lost in time. Still, this Universe's consciousness exists in a body on this Earth. It is the "Neo" of our world that can control the "Matrix" that is our Universe. Ever seen Dark City? Same thing. It was always able to give the world light, the proper balance of energy, keep the seasons perfect, keep the rains coming, fill the night with stars, and keep us floating in a perfect circle around the Sun because it was all that is. This Universe's consciousness that existed on our planet gave itself a name, Atlas the Titan, and thus it carried the world on its shoulders at all times. Since it created all that is, it expected loyalty and companionship and unending love at all times. It never expected to be decieved, and yet one day it was. The Greek gods conspired to rule the world for themselves, and so they built an array of antennaes around the world that would suck all the electric, etheral energy out of Atlas at just the precise moment. Atlas haplessly wandered into the Great Pyramid with it's conductive gold capstone, expected to draw energy from the Heavens, when all of a sudden the flow of energy reversed and it began sucking energy out of him. They were able to trap him in a stasis field, a dreamless sleep, and so they kept him wrapped in chains until the day would come when they would need him to save the world again. This unconscious state of Atlas did not go without consequence, however. A massive comet of energy known as Venus came flying out of the Heavens and systematically destroyed what is now the asteroid belt or Krypton as I call it, Mars too, and really messed up our planet by giving it the ice caps and its wobble. It was the Universe attempting to reestablish contact with the mind. Still, the new rulers of the world wish to keep it for themselves, so they kept Atlas chained until the day when they would need him. Right before "the end of the world." They would cause him to be reborn in the body of a child so that he could learn everything all over again, and would give him two very loving parents that would eventually teach him important lessons. The father would teach him fun and the mother would teach him discipline. Eventually they, and other certain characters this person would meet on the street, would even hint to him that he would be The One. Imagine the child's delite, and fears. He would begin to envision a whole world of fantasy before him. His mind would begin racing and he would wonder about all things, history, science, psychology. He would begin mentally preparing himself for what's to come. Sometimes he would think that he had found the answer to it all, and he would be fearful. Another time he would have a revelation and would instantly overcome that fear. Finally, though, he would come to realize that all his hopes and dreams for the future of mankind were in vain. He would realize that he was Atlas, and that if he did not come through and repair the order of things in our solar system then his new masters would destroy the world and everyone in it. They already have all the nukes lying around, and have convinced regular men that this is an ultra top secret mission. Heaven and Hell are states of the mind. They convinced these men that if Atlas became "drunk with power" while repairing the Universe, and attempted to take over, that they would have to carpet nuke the place to prevent him from keeping all the people of the world in perpetual state of fear, forcing them to live, toying with them as "he sees fit," and dragging them with him into his own Hell. Imagine Bart in that one Tree House of Horrors twilight zone episode where he was omnipotent and turned Homer into a Jack in the Box. These men are not scared to cease to exist, but they know that Atlas will live on long after they have, all alone once again. Thus, that is the ransom. If life is to go on, Atlas must always carry the weight of the world on his shoulders. He will never know what it is to have children. He will never know what it is to grow old and have a large family underneath him. On the other hand, he will not ever have to suffer like the children on the other side of the world. He will always be able to grow up with a loving family around him. The new gods will provide all this for him, if only so he can know what he has to protect. Right before he does what he has to do, they will show him all the errors of his ways. Thoroughly convinced that he has doomed himself to hell, they will give him a glimmer of hope, and he will instantly become the person he has always wanted to be. Love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance; all these things will come pouring into him. The best way to learn about life is through experience, and one of the best lessons he learned through his uncle, and for a brief moment his dad, was that "those who do not provide for their families end up all alone." Atlas does not know if these new gods are truly evil. Atlas not know if Atlas was ever truly evil. There are too many things he does not know, but what he does know is that the world sure does seem like it's been set up be destroyed if he does not do what he is told. That there may always have to be apocalypses like this one we are about to enter. This would not have to be necessary if Atlas weren't put back into chains right after he "restored the circulation" to this area of the Universe, but then that would mean he would be back in charge, and there may be those who do not wish to see this happen. All Atlas knows is that his parents really seem freaked out when he talks about this, like they're hiding something and desperately want him to shut up, and that there are those he sees around him either trying to help him to wake up or are keeping a close eye on him, perhaps probing his mind to see what he is thinking. Remember how awesome the first Matrix was, and how badly the last two sucked? The first one ended with hope for Neo to end the Matrix once and for all. He was saying over the phone "I don't know who you are, but what I do know is that your time is up. I'm going to tell them, I'm going to show them the way." And then he flew off. Pipe dreams to Atlas. False hope. It seems to Atlas that the first movie was meant to help wake him up, but that somebody didn't like the message and made them make the last two which showed Neo dying to save the people of Zion. To save those who had already awaken. The new Superman movie? Superman dies, and then is reborn. Deception, Atlas knows. He is all too aware that in "dying" he will be getting placed back into his stases. He wishes that he knew for sure he was doing the right thing, and could forget that he knows what's really going on around him. There will be no rebirth until the next time the new gods have use of him, the next time he must repair the solar system, in which time he will have to live the same life he has already lived before. Compared to so many other lives in the world it's pretty good, but still Atlas worries that the immense suffering of the world will always have to take place, probably because one time long ago he let his guard down and lost the reigns of the world. The new masters of the world are very intelligent, manipulative, and know just how much selfishness they can get away with without exposing themselves. How long has this been going on? How many Zions have there been that have needed to be saved? Is this the first time, as Greek mythology would have it, or is this a cycle that will never be broken? Sometimes around him he sees pleading eyes. Sometimes he sees people who fear him. They come to talk, to sway his mind in the "right" direction because it's been like a rollercoaster ever since that first bit of contact. Always trying to figure out what's going on, always trying to do the right thing because nobody is stepping forward to give any answers. Sometimes he felt all alone in his struggle, other times he felt immense support all around him, but here, finally, he feels that all his efforts have been in vain. Like Don Quixote, right now at this very moment Atlas is titling at windmills. Who can he tell, and have them believe him? If he gains support, will the Earth be nuked to oblivion and Atlas forced to live all alone? And even now, he feels the "holy spirit" rising inside him, which basically means that this massive heatwave our planet is experiencing is the energy through which he will work his wonders. Wonders like a tree of life the fruit of which he will never get to see. Through use of the massive cell phone antennae tower grids they manage to keep a little bubble around Atlas in his hometown and prevent this energy from pouring into him before it has built up sufficiently elsewhere around the world. This he has seen, with the massive lightning storms above his city. Like a massive hammer, a thick trunk of lightning comes out of the clouds (thick overcast with no rain) and hits a wall of air and spreads out in ever direction like the roots on a tree. These new masters will use all these towers to control him when the time comes and sap his strength after he has finished performing his task. So what's the moral of the story? Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Oh, and the end of the age is extremely nigh. Pretty soon the Titan will be unchained and he will do his thing, then he will be moved with compassion for his people and willingly have himself chained up again. Those who do not provide for their families end up all alone. Twilight zone...
Maybe Atlas two parents. One is the ruler and the other the not-ruler ? You are seriously going ClarkAshtonSmith with a twist of Lovecraft there. Or are the parents just dummies. Cant see nothing seeping into the grid. Very literate, just a shame that the new planetary zodiac ended up with a third of the celestials fallen, as false planet. It is telling that the one known by our recent ancients is Pluto of the underworld. Go Xena though, and the force be with us all. Free will is not an exercise of doing what one wants though. It is the exercise of dicipline. Doing what one wants reduces one to a robotic state of being. No ?
