Note to outsiders: These words are mostly for ourselves, but since we are making them readable, we invite you to interpret them how you will. If you believe in similar things to what we believe, then very little adjustment is needed. If you do not, then pretend that what we are doing is outlining a plan for exploring our own psyche and learning more about ourselves and our subconscious mind. That may very well be all that we are doing. If you are of a particular set of spiritual beliefs that lead you to be alarmed by what we talk about here, please keep your concerns to yourself. We do not share those beliefs and we are not interested in discussing our differences with anyone. We share this here as our default form of record keeping, and make it public for those who are curious and also as a way of making it feel official to ourselves. Thank you.
We believe that there are two gateways in our system. The one through which our elders entered our psyche as we developed in utero, which we call The Abyss, and the one through which Phage entered when we invited it in at the age of two and a half, which we call The Hole in the Sky.
A gateway, in this case, is outworld plural community jargon for some kind of psychic structure that allows entities to enter and leave a psyche, perhaps to even visit other psyches or alternate worlds. We have some theories about ours based on evidence we have gathered throughout our lives.
The Council of Eleven of 2022.07.08 believe that it is time for us to explore this second gate.
We have tried exploring the first gate, but it appears to be a one way arrangement and closed. We may be able to open it again at some point, but currently it interests us much less than the second gate, which is open and controlled by Phage. We have also always had the subconsciously driven sense that we are generally coming from the first gate and destined to leave through the second gate, as if both are natural parts of the mortal psyche.
The Auditor reports that Phage is not the only entity that has come through the second gate, and that there are twelve others. We have not identified these other twelve but, in our efforts to explore the second gate, contacting them and talking to them will be in order.
Phage itself has left and returned through the second gate several times since we have started exploring our plurality and our inner world. We are not certain that it has so much left as reached part of itself out of the gate, remaining tethered to us, but whenever it has done so it has felt like the bulk of it has left. It certainly seems unable to remain on the Bridge while making these attempts. It has also brought back a few unintelligible memories from these excursions, similar in nature to its memories from before it joined us.
Our system mythology hints to us that leaving through that gate is something we all will eventually do, perhaps upon the death of our vessel. It also hints that it is wise for us to explore it with the help of those who have entered the system through it.
This is why we feel that it is time for us to start exploring it.
It has been six years since we confirmed our plurality to our government and opened our Bridge and Council to all members. We have been exploring and renovating our inner world since then, and learning how our system functions, performing many experiments. We are, at this point, at the end of things to do. Exploring the Hole in the Sky, as we have called it, is the next item on our list.
Also, the outer world is becoming more and more hostile, while our body is ailing. We simply do not know how much longer it will last. We would like ample time to explore the second gate and to document it, to enjoy what we might have to learn from it. Even if what we have to learn is something that verifies skepticism, that would still be knowledge worth having.
Before outlining our plan, it’s probably a good idea to list our fears, and why we have not explored this second gate until now:
- The topmost fear is that we will lose anyone of us who decides to explore beyond it. We have 3.9 million souls and growing, but we are family and we rely on each other, and we feel intensely protective of each other. This can be mitigated by the fact that we’re not entirely sure how one of us could permanently leave our system, as our memories would still reside in our neurons and could be reactivated by the triggering associations, essentially reviving whomever they belong to. And also, we should be able to enlist the help of Phage, as it seems to be a veteran of traveling Outside.
- We also fear that we might let something in that is undesirable. This, however, is already addressed by Phage guarding that gate and keeping travel through it to a minimum. Also, it has confirmed that we always have the home turf advantage, and that anything malevolent attempting to enter the system will always have to play by our rules (in other words, it would be destined to become one of us and an equal, unable to harm any of us more than we can already harm each other).
So, here is what we’re going to do:
- Ask Phage if it will help us to learn more about this gateway and to explore beyond it.
- Ask Phage to share its knowledge of the gateway and what is beyond it.
- Ask Phage and Morde (our Networker and Messenger) to find the other Outsiders in our system and interview them, and to enlist their help if they are willing, to whatever degree they are willing to offer.
- Document these conversations as they arise, in whatever form they arise.
- Use this gathered knowledge of what is beyond the gate to develop a plan to start exploring it.
- Explore the gate and what is beyond using Phage and Morde, and possibly the other Outsiders, as guides. Volunteer system members will be assigned to the team one at a time, and given a tour, hopefully.
- In time, we hope to build a collection of memories of these explorations so that we might eventually put together a Bridge Crew who can work together to consciously remember what they’ve experienced for the rest of us. The more memories we build, the easier it will be to trigger them with various associations, and we may be able to break our Bridge amnesia of our inworld, as we have already done in other instances, such as with our Auditor and its control room.
If we follow our own pattern as well as that of other systems who have done similar things, this should take us between six months to two years to start seeing results.
Further Council notes:
– Abacus has expressed some interest in heading this project, and most of us agree that it would be a good candidate for that. Some of us think it should be the first explorer to accompany Phage and Morde. Some of us think it should focus on writing the documentation. It seems prudent to this session of the Council of Eleven for it to do both.
– We are officially opening all of our channels to any system members who have input on this project, any fears or concerns, any wisdom, any enthusiasm. We encourage members to come to the front to talk about it out loud. And we welcome any dream encounters that we might be able to remember in the morning.
More Council notes:
Went for a walk to discuss these plans out loud between concerning members. We were all in agreement and even enthusiastic in different ways. Morde actually encountered past trauma regarding the Hole in the Sky and the Outsiders for herself, but has enlisted Phage to help her overcome that and work through it.
One of the Twelve Outsiders named Webs came forward and formally introduced itself. More can be read about it here:
https://www.tumblr.com/blog/view/fenmere/689202098348359680?source=share