It was late at night when Mwana returned to the inn. He had spent a full day in the library going through countless books. Even at the end, he was still not satisfied and borrowed some books to take back with him.
Entering the inn, the first thing that entered Mwana’s eyes was a portrait.
“No matter how many times I see it, I am always amazed.”
This portrait was shocking in every way. Just looking at it, one would feel as if their mind was sucked into it – the mark of an expert painter.
As for the person who occupied this painting, he was even more shocking. The man had the visage of a legendary hero; an ancient great hero from the Jemedari tribe.
His eyes seemed to encompass the world gazing into the future from eons in the past. Not only was his face striking, his black dragon armor enhanced the ethereal violence evident in the man’s aura – the aura of a conqueror and a liberator folded into one.
By the time Mwana returned to his room, the moon was already high in the sky. However, Mwana did not intend to sleep. Instead, he took out a lamp and started to read. The book that Mwana chose to read was one that was heavy on religion. It explained many religious things involving the relationship between man and the gods.
The reason Mwana chose this book was to expand his knowledge on the topic of god invocation. After all, while this method resulted in great ability it was not an easy power to use. If you made a mistake you would be damned for eternity and no one would be able to save you. The power of the gods was not something to be trifled with.
The book Mwana chose was titled: The Rift Between Man and God.
What were gods? There were as many gods as there were religions and ethnicities. Within a single tribe, there might even be over 10 gods worshipped. However, many of the established gods were nothing more than false gods. In fact, some of them did not even exist and were just a figment of people’s imaginations while others were slightly stronger spirits worshipped by ignorant mortals.
When it came to actual true gods, very few existed.
Gods were Supreme Beings with the strongest of them all credited for the creation of what comprised the universe.
After creation, the universe God lived in the world they created and sustained its inhabitants.
“This speaks of God’s imminence.”
This all powerful creator deity in the Zika world was called the “Sunken” God – the creator of this universe.
It was said that in the early days after creation, God dwelt in the sky (heaven) which was quite low. For this reason, humanity could freely go to him and tender any complaints. God would also respond to the worries of humans spontaneously. However, at some point in time, a rift formed between man and God, one that had been expanding to this day.
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There were many reasons given for this across different religions – some cited man’s disobedience as the reason while others highlighted God’s disinterest in humanity.
To bridge this gap, God appointed his ministers, the divinities endowing them with various responsibilities.
“A transcendent withdrawn God...” This was the true nature of the creator deity.
The book Mwana was reading also outlined the creation myths of many ethnicities across the world. For instance the Kongo People believed in the God Bumba who according to them had vomited up the universe when he was lonely and unwell. The image of God according to them was a being that had an intense need for company.
The Ituri also had a myth of creation where God was symbolized by All. It was from them that all life forms radiated. The first human being received the name ‘Junior Light’ symbolizing that he was very close to God – ‘the Great Light’. Therefore, in the Ituri’s creation account, man was next to God in the order of all things that comprised existence.
From this book, Mwana came to understand many things about the origin of mankind, the gods, and the present state of the world where the mortal and the divine were cleanly separated.
What was clear was that after the separation, both the mortal and the divine had taken steps to try and heal the rift that existed between them. The book highlighted 5 paths of mortal-divine reintegration across the ages which included: Craft Inheritance, Divine Incarnation, Divine Invocation, Soul Traversal, and Divine and Devil Bridges.
1. Craft Inheritance
In this path, individuals inherit the craft or skills of a particular god or deity. For example in blacksmithing clans such as the Jua clan, there were many blacksmiths who had inherited the skills of Gu, a god of blacksmithing. In the myths of old, Gu was the son of Mawu-Lisa, a creator god who possessed both a female side, Mawu – creator of the moon, and a male side, Lisa – creator of the su. Gu was known for his knowledge in fixing things and he came down to the earth to do exactly that. After the he impressed the early humans with his skills, his status as a god was upgraded obtaining the official title of the blacksmith god.
To this day, Gu still had a very active shrine in Mwana’s village where he was revered and worshipped.
The path of craft inheritance was usually followed for technical skills, abilities, and vocations. After all, it involved inheriting a craft.
2. Divine Incarnation
The path of divine incarnation involved the belief in the independent existence of the divine and human natures of a figure. However, this belief had been condemned by many branches of religion, which affirmed that the deity in human flesh was a single person who was fully human and fully divine.
Originally, cults like the religion of Nero envisaged the divine nature of god as having associated with itself at the Incarnation a complete, independently existing man. In the Zika world, the belief of God-made-man came from myths and stories about the fall of the creator deity. The story of the Fallen God also in turn explained the sinking of the Zika world among the myriad dimensions. In this way, god came closer to man but at the same time the path between man and god was cut off.
However, according to prophecy, during the next calamity of the world, the creator deity was bound to rise again thus ushering prosperity into the Zika world once again...
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