"The Enigma of Life" by the author of Enigma of the Second Coming

When I asked Jeremy Garwood Ph.D., a writer himself, to scribble for me a note about my book, he came up with a surprising blurb. He wrote, "A voyage from within and without, this novel transports us to the frontiers of an existence that knows no frontiers, where physics and metaphysics merge into a timeless, seamless whole. Enigma..."

I found it quite amazing, because though I authored the Enigma of the Second Coming, I never realized, at least not consciously, that the Enigma would have such an effect on people. Perhaps life is an enigma. Perhaps it is a mystery that can only really unfold at the unconscious level. Even as my book did.

In my previous article inspired by this same book I discussed aspects of eschatology, which must have, at least initially, precipitated the story which, all too soon, took over under its own momentum. Perhaps all writers write like that. I know that often, when I reread a chapter or two, I was surprised what the characters who populated my novel got up to. Obviously they had a life of their own. That, I thought, is a sort of enigma in itself.

But then, reading again what Jeremy jotted down, I realized that surely, in our own life, our everyday life, we are constantly merging physics and metaphysics without ever drawing a firm line to keep them apart. And don’t we all dream of stepping outside all limitations, of being transported "to the frontiers of an existence that knows no frontiers?" Surely, even the most down-to-earth, the so-called ordinary people, have dreams. They may not always manifest them in the ‘physical’ reality, but in the ‘metaphysical’ realm they are, or can be, just as mighty as kings and queens, as the billionaires, who tend to limit their explorations to the physical existence. Why? "You are where your heart is." Remember the parable about the camel and the eye of a needle? Also, you are where your attention is. Yet when you close your eyes you are as powerful as the mightiest beings who make their temporary home on this ball of dust, spinning in its journal gyrations on the outskirts of a forgotten galaxy.

Ah… yes. The Milky Way. The home away from home.

"From ancient times men raised their heads towards the Milky Way – to stare and wonder. The Anglo-Saxons of yore worshipped it as the Waetlinga Straet, the Street of the Giant of Waetla. It was also known to the Vikings as the Path of Odin, who was their god of gods. They called it the Wuotanes Weg. The Midland Dutch saw in the starry marvel the Vronelden Straet, the Women’s Path, which seemingly lead those chosen maidens to the divine altar, with their long, snowy veils of intricate starry lacework streaming behind them. The Finns, on the other hand, saw a flock of birds migrating towards a single luminescent nest. They called it the Linnunrata."

This was an excerpt from Enigma of the Second Coming in which John Hydon, the Chief Astronomer of an observatory set high in the Canadian Rockies, shares his knowledge with his young daughter.

"The Chinese saw in our galaxy a river teeming with silvery fish running away from the threatening hook of the crescent Moon," he continued. "They called it Tien Ho, the Celestial River. The Hindus thought of it as the Bed of Ganges, the most holy of rivers. Lord Shiva directed the tempestuous currents of Ganges to flow through his hair and thus feed the streams of Earth. To the ancient Arabs it was Al Nahr, while the Hebrews thought of it as the River of Light, the N,her di Nur. Is that enough?"

Dr. Hydon, too, was a dreamer. His feet were firmly anchored in the centre of the Milky Way. He was also a knowledgeable father who steered the prow of his daughter’s ship towards the unknown, the unattainable, or at least not attainable by physical senses. He did not limit Heidi from her explorations. He admired them. Once the desire for the metaphysical, for that which is outside and greater than that bound by the laws of physics, ignited her imagination, there was no stopping her. She embarked on a journey, as Jeremy said, "that knows no frontiers, where physics and metaphysics merge into a timeless, seamless whole."

And now, you too can join her. All you need do is close your eyes and make "The Galaxy, that Milky Way... Powdered with Stars," as Milton referred to it in Paradise Lost, your own. Only first, please, read the book. Otherwise you will never learn the secret of the Enigma.

You can read excerpts at: http://stankap.netfirms.com/enigma.html