Once upon a time, in the beginning…

Once Upon a Time: The Eternal Beginning

Once Upon A Time In a land far far away… in the Beginning…

Shall we begin at the beginning? But is that really the beginning? Where does the story start?

The Beginningless Beginning

All stories begin “once upon a time”…. but when is that time? An infinite circle has no beginning, no ending

The scriptures say “In the Beginning”, but they cannot say what came before. They cannot say who created The Creator The Story goes on and on, but no-one remembers its origin… For there was only ONE who was there in the beginning When there was only ONE, there was no-one to tell the story and no-one to hear it….

Who can say when you set forth on your journey?

You do not remember your own beginning, you do not know the nature of your Creation. When did our lessons truly began?

The curriculum of life is ever ongoing in this soul’s university …

We do not know our beginning, and so neither do we know our end, or if there is an end.

To find the beginning is to find the end - unless there is no beginning and no end…

The Fool steps smiling off the ledge into the great unknown… But this is not the first step…. Yet every step is the first….

they’re not just the opening lines of a fairy tale. They’re the incantation of creation itself, the cosmic abracadabra that sets the whole damn thing spinning

The Silence Before the Word

There is an infinity and an eternity before a creation, before the story takes place - and there is an infinity and an eternity after. All that you know is what takes place in that blink of an eye in-between….

In the silence before the story, there is an intake of breath. Before creation… there is intention.

Kabbalah’s Ein Sof, Vedic Shunya), the void precedes creation. a moment of pregnant potential,

Tzimtzum: The Kabbalistic concept of divine contraction, where God withdraws to create space for the universe. This act of withdrawal is the prelude to creation’s beginning.

The Intake of Breath before the Song

Tzimtzum Tzimtzum is the withdrawal that creates a vacuum and “nature abhors a vacuum”. Divine intelligence will rush into to fill that space

the first deliberate boundary set by the infinite to allow for finitude, for "space" for a story to unfold.

It's like the artist clearing a canvas, or the bard taking that first breath before the epic.

This "emptying" is the precondition for "fullness."

It is limitations that allow creation to unfold. “Necessity is the mother of invention” The limitations of time, space, this body… require you to use your genius and creativity….

If you fully knew the Truth, there would be no world, no body, no character, no journey,…..

The Divine Breath of Life

A spark, a breath, a syllable.

The Breath: In many traditions, breath (prana, ruach, pneuma) is the first act of life, the divine spirit animating matter, akin to the storyteller’s intake of breath before speaking.

The Fool Stepping off the ledge into the Unknown

"Begin, be bold, and venture to be wise." — Horace, Odes

The Fool stepping into the unknown.

The Fool’s journey is the beginning of every soul’s journey through the arcana of life.

I am the Fool….

The fools steps forward without thinking about the past or the future. It doesn’t matter, he is totally in the Now….

the soul’s initiation into the journey of life or the Major Arcana.

"In the beginning, the universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move." — Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Alpha & Omega: Beginning & End

"I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end." — Revelation 22:13

'the world shall be as it was at the first beginnings' - 2 Esdras 7.30

time is non-linear.

We impose arbitrary points into an infinite and eternal flow

Once upon a time, in long, long time ago, in a land far away… there lived a boy….

the inner and outer journey begin simultaneously

All stories begin “once upon a time”

The story never really begins, but there is always A beginning…

Did the characters and the world exist before the story began? Or do they arise as the tale is spoken?

Each of us tells our own story, and we become the story that we choose to write….

eternal return, eternal recurrence

Friedrich Nietzsche -  all events in life will repeat infinitely, with every detail occurring in the same sequence, for eternity. Nietzsche presents this as a thought experiment rather than a literal claim about the nature of reality. a test of one's relationship with life. The question posed is whether an individual would be willing to live their life exactly as it is, with all its joys and sufferings, over and over again for eternity. This thought experiment challenges individuals to reflect on their choices and to live in a way that they would be willing to repeat infinitely. Act now as you would in eternity - for every act is etched in eternity

The Will to Create as an Act of Love: Being a Creator of your own World

creation is an act of love and self-revelation—that we were spoken into being because the One desired to be seen, known, experienced.

The Spark of Divinity: The initial impulse of divine will or love that births creation, often seen as an act of self-revelation

“In the beginning Elohim created the heavens and the earth” - Genesis 1:1

Nous (Divine Mind): The first emanation of divine thought, the initial impulse of creation that sets the cosmic story in motion.

The Story begins with the urge to express, to tell a story, to spin a yarn, to undergo an adventure, to set forth on the journey, to undertake the quest of the Holy Grail, to communicate one’s soul to another, to communicate and share. To participate in the sacred act of creation - just as your Creator does

creation itself is an act of self-revelation for the Divine. The "One" expresses itself not out of need, but out of an inherent Will to Create, a desire to experience itself in myriad forms. This is the Divine Nous stirring.

The Creative Word

sound as the first act of creation the Word in Genesis, Om in Hinduism The act of speaking the story aloud mirrors the divine act of creation.

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was the fire that kindled the world." — Paracelsus

The Logos

The End Is Where The Beginning Is

“The disciples said to Jesus, "Tell us about our end. How will it come?" Jesus said, "Have you discovered the beginning so that you can look for the end? Because the end will be where the beginning is. Blessed is the one who will stand up in the beginning. They'll know the end, and won't taste death." - The Gospel of Thomas, Saying 18

Why are we always trying to go back to the beginning? What does it mean to find one’s true origin? Religion is the tracing back to one’s source “The Kingdom is within you. And when you know yourselves, you will be known.” – Gospel of Thomas ”find your beginning, and there your end will be also”

You do not remember your own beginning

the Platonic anamnesis - all learning is really remembering, all beginning is really returning. The Fool's journey is simultaneously forward into the unknown and backward into the forgotten self. You learn of your source, your beginning by unspooling the thread of your life. You go backwards by going forwards You discover your self through creation. You read and live the story to discover in it it’s origin and meaning….

The Story Structure

Life, and our lives, and everything that is, has been, or ever will be is simply a Story. Our reality itself is structured through the story structure.

You are a Character in a Tale, you are the Hero of your own Myth…

Mythic Beginnings

These archetypal invocations and beginnings transport us into the mythic mode of consciousness. That is what this story is inviting people into: a return to the sacred story.

The Wheel of TIme

The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again. In one Age, called the Third Age by some, an Age yet to come, an Age long past, a wind rose in the Mountains of Mist. The wind was not the beginning. There are neither beginnings nor endings to the turning of the Wheel of Time. But it was a beginning. - Robert Jordan, Intro to each of The Wheel of Time books.

In the Hindu myths, there’s Om, the primal sound, the vibration that kicks off the whole cosmic jam session. The universe is a song, and the first note is the beginning. In the Egyptian tales, Atum pops out of the primordial waters of Nun, looks around, and says, “Well, I guess I’ll create myself!”

From the void, Atum arose, creating himself from the waters of Nun, the first act of being." — Egyptian Mythology, The Creation by Atum

One sentance can begin an entire epic Story

“In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.” So begins Tolkien’s “The Hobbit” and it was this sentence, that Tolkien had pop into his head one day while grading papers, which he wrote down one of his student’s papers without even really knowing what it meant or why he wrote it. So began the unspooling of a story that would come to dominate Tolkien’s life and become a modern eternal mythos….

“In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.”

When the Story Truly Begins - the awakening of the Heroic Journey

from unconscious participation to conscious co-creation

We begin the story, but we don’t begin the story in the middle of it’s story we begin when the ultimate story begins to be told, when the hero is born and when he begins to come of age and be initiated into the Quest

You do not remember your own beginning... You are the hero who has just opened their eyes.

It is a never-ending story, an eternal story The song remains the same

The story is truer than history, a fantasy non-fiction tale….

To be Birthed in one way is to Die in another way…

To begin to one thing, one must die to another

Every birth comes at the end of the tunnel of death

As it was prophesied, “the serpent shall eat its tale” The Ouroboros: The serpent eating its tail

The endless beginning and beginningless end

To begin is to be initiated into a new reality

It is to take a birth

It is to speak the creative Word into being

1,2,3 and the 10,000 things

"Before the beginning was the Non-Being; from Non-Being came Being, and from Being came the One, and from the One came the Two, and from the Two came the Three, and from the Three came the Ten Thousand Things."

— Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching (the unfolding of creation from the void)

A New Birth, a departure from the Known and into the Unknown

departure from the known, which can be daunting. Introducing the tension of leaving comfort zones or facing the unknown

the Orphic Egg or Cosmic Egg- every beginning emerges from a perfect wholeness that must be "cracked open" to birth multiplicity. The hero's journey begins when the shell of the known world breaks.

Ritualistic Initiation & Naming

Beginnings often involve rituals such as naming ceremonies, initiations

You give it a name

You initiate it into being

No beginnings to an eternal story But there is a beginning A waking up from sleep A birth into a new world

The true journey has no beginning Just as it had no end….

The Child

the Child represents pure potential, a young being in the spring of life

The Genius of Beginning

“To begin has some genius in it”

Correspondences:

Aries - Mars Spring

• Aries, ruled by Mars, is the first sign of the zodiac, embodying initiative, courage, and the spark of new beginnings. Mars is the warrior’s energy, breaking ground like the plow in your analogy.
• Spring Equinox: The astrological new year begins with Aries in spring, symbolizing renewal, rebirth, and the planting of seeds.
• The Ascendant: The rising sign in a birth chart marks the moment of incarnation, the soul’s entry into the physical world, and the starting point of the individual’s story.

Planting seeds - putting the seed in the earth, the plow breaks the soil The Seed: Across traditions, the seed represents latent potential, planted in the "earth" (material reality) to grow into a new story or life. Fiat Lux - “let there be light” The Dawn: The first light of day symbolizes new beginnings, hope, and the emergence from darkness, the imagery of light piercing the void, paralleling the divine act of creation with the listener’s act of starting their story. The birth of the christ child - the incarnation of the individual soul The Fool & The Aces The Aces of the Minor Arcana (Ace of Wands, Cups, Swords, Pentacles) embody the pure, unformed potential of their suits—fire (inspiration), water (emotion), air (intellect), and earth (materiality). Each is a seed of a new story.

The Aces—Wands, Cups, Swords, Pentacles—they’re the seeds of the suits, the pure potential before the story unfolds… The Magician (I): Following the Fool, the Magician channels divine will into action, representing the conscious act of creation and the tools to begin the journey. The Birth - The Birth Chart, the moment of creation which is the product of all its past karmas and the entire situation of the universe that it came into being within… each “beginning” is written in the stars, a unique cosmic story unfolding.

Alef, Alpha

Alef (א): the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet symbolizes the infinite, the breath of creation, and the unity of all things. It’s linked to Keter and the divine act of beginning.

• Ein Sof: The infinite, unknowable source before creation, representing the "beginningless beginning" you mentioned.

This day, every day, this moment - could be IN THE BEGINNING It could be the first moment of the rest of your life - a brand new beginning to a new story, new identity, new life….

Your Story

Now, let’s talk about you. Yeah, you, sitting there, sipping your coffee, wondering what the hell I’m on about. You’re a story, my friend. A myth in the making. You’re the Fool in the Tarot, standing on the cliff’s edge, knapsack over your shoulder, grinning like an idiot as you step into the void. That’s the beginning! That’s Aries, that Martian fire, the plow breaking the soil, the seed cracking open in the dark earth of spring. You don’t know where you’re going, and that’s the point! The Fool doesn’t have a map—he’s got a feeling, a tingling in the soul that says, “Let’s go!”

They say “look before you leap” but the Fool is so stupidly wise that he knows that you should “jump first, then you can look all you want!”

The Hero’s Call to Adventure

The "call" as the start of the hero’s journey.

every beginning is a call to step into the unknown.

You are always called to set forth on the ultimate journey….

a guardian of the threshold—fear, doubt, the voice that says "Who are you to begin this story?"

“Who are you to speak it and live it” ”Who will listen to it?”

The Prima Materia & Massa Confusia

Alchemical Transformation:

the alchemical nigredo (the dark, chaotic starting point). The act of beginning is a dissolution of the old self to birth the new.

Prima Materia - first matter The Prima Materia: The raw, chaotic substance from which all creation begins in alchemy. It’s the formless potential that the alchemist transforms, akin to the blank page of a story.

The Nigredo: The "blackening" or initial stage of alchemy, representing dissolution and the start of transformation. It’s the dark void before the journey to the Philosophers’ Stone.

Massa Confusia - chaotic raw material out of which creative order can be spoken and created The Void/Chaos

In alchemy, they knew this. The prima materia, that chaotic mess at the start of the Great Work, is you before you’ve decided who you are. It’s the raw stuff of creation, And the alchemists, those mad poets in their smoky labs, they said, “Start with the nigredo, the blackening, the dark night of the soul.” That’s where it begins—not with trumpets and fanfare, but with dissolution, with letting go. Every beginning is a little death, a shedding of the old skin to let the new story emerge.

The Circular Journey: The Paradox of Beginnings

Before the "story," there was only the boundless sea of infinite possibilities, unexpressed. The act of speaking and expressing and communicating collapses infinite possibility into a certain reality-experience.

Every word is a spell, every act a magical ritual.

the Paradox of Beginnings: Delve into the tension between the eternal (no beginning/end) and the temporal (specific moments of initiation). How does one reconcile the infinite with the finite act of starting?

the beginning and the end are lovers, locked in an eternal embrace, like the Ouroboros, that serpent eating its own tail. a cosmic French kiss Every beginning is a return, every first step a homecoming

The Fool & The World, the Universe, The Aeon one journeys from the Fool to the entire Universe and back again….

"We shall not cease from exploration And the end of all our exploring Will be to arrive where we started And know the place for the first time." — T.S. Eliot, Four Quartets

The Eternal Now

every moment is a beginning, the Kabbalistic idea of creation as an ongoing act.

A Journeyless Journey

The entire journey is really a journey of no-body to nowhere, to nothing, Nothing is accomplished, nothing is really done Only a dream passes away

"I gained absolutely nothing at all from Supreme Enlightenment, and for that very reason it is called Supreme Enlightenment" - The Buddha

“I truly attained nothing from complete unexcelled Enlightenment.” - Huang Po

Every Moment is the First Moment of your Life

every moment is a potential beginning, that the power to author one's reality is not reserved for heroes of old but is the birthright of every conscious being.

“today is the first day of the rest of your life”

Every moment is the possibility of a radical break from the past. It doesn’t need to be a continuation, it just normally is because the human mind becomes habituated and asleep…

You are a new person in a new universe every moment.

The Big Bang is occuring NOW, and NOW, and NOW, and………

The beginning isn’t just out there in some cosmic Big Bang or mythic void—it’s here, in you, right now. Every moment is a beginning. Every breath is the Ruach Elohim. The Fiat Lux.

You’re not just living a story; you’re writing it, spinning it out of the chaos of your psyche like a spider weaving a web.

And the wildest part? You don’t even know how you got here. You don’t remember your own beginning—your birth, your soul’s plunge into this meat-suit you’re wearing. You are the Ghost in the Machine.

It’s like waking up in the middle of a movie and realizing you’re the star, but you missed the opening credits - so you don’t know what the hell is going on.

The End

'Holy ones, rejoice with me, for I have returned again to my beginning. I [have] received my clean garments, my robes that do not become old. I have rejoiced in their joy, I have been glad in their gladness, [I have rested] in their rest from everlasting to everlasting.' - Manichaean Psalm Book 155,9-12:

one returns in the end to one's beginning

"Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away". - Matthew 24 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my The Word will never pass away

Every moment is “Once upon a time…”

Be the Fool. Be the seed. Be the spark. Don’t wait for the perfect moment to begin—because the beginning is now.

The universe is telling its story through you, and it’s a wild, weird, beautiful tale.

Plant the seed, break the soil, and let the story unfold. Because, as Tolkien said, “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.” And that, my friends, is how epics begin—with one flash of inspiration, one small step of the edge, one crazy idea, one leap into the unknown. One thread of an idea that unravels and spins a tale of the Ages.

Episode Structure

• Begin with absolute, deep silence, then a subtle, almost imperceptible intake of breath – your own, the Ruach of creation. Let this breath linger. Perhaps a distant, almost subliminal drone or hum (Om, Ein Sof). Use sounds of breath, a spark, or seeds cracking open to mirror the act of creation. Transition to uplifting music for the journey’s start.
• "Where does the story start? Is there truly a beginning?"
• From the subtle hum, a sudden, bright, yet gentle sparking sound, followed by a resonant, deep "Fiat Lux" (your own voice, perhaps, or a subtly layered choir). Then, the Primal Sound – a resonant, sustained OM or a deep, vibrational A (Alef).
• "And from that sacred silence, a whisper, a thought, an intention ignited the void... 'Let there be light!'" Connect this to the Creative Word, the Logos, the Verbum that is both the origin and the continuous wellspring of reality. "The world was sung into being."
• The Fool's Leap: As the sound of the Word fades, introduce a subtle, playful, yet resolute step sound – the Fool's first stride. Maybe a soft, adventurous melody begins. : "This initial spark, this primordial Word, is the essence of every new beginning, every journey. It is the intrepid spirit of The Fool, stepping off the precipice not into emptiness, but into infinite potential."
• A subtle, continuous circular sound, perhaps like a slow-turning wheel, or a serpent's hiss forming a circle. Narration: "But is a 'beginning' truly linear? The serpent eats its tail, the Ouroboros reminds us that the end is where the beginning is. Like the Wheel of Time continually turning, every conclusion seeds a new genesis."
• The decision to begin anything—a project, a transformation, a new way of being—is a conscious act of creation. You are not merely a character in a story, but the author of your personal myth.
• Once upon a time... is right now.