ETERNAL LANTERNS Every symbol, artifact, and accessory of the Utopian world emanates light. Transported earthly visitors first remark at this suffusive light. Their host joyously explains that "the light comes from everywhere". This magickal radiance is the light of consciousness itself. Mythologies and histories alike are replete with reports of the "endless light". The radiant beauty of mythical "eternal lanterns" stimulates and provokes timeless scientific desire. Their endless effulgence remains their single most fascinating aspect. Can such a light source exist in the material world? The mystery of that eternal radiance could neither be compared nor equaled on earth. Firecraft did not reproduce the quality of Utopian ideal radiance. Such eternal light projects joy and wonder. Neither their radiance nor the vivifying thrill ever fade with time. The image and symbol of the eternal lantern permeates mythology. However separated in distance or time, mythologies the world over each speak of eternal lanterns. The symbol of the eternal lamp is a haunting object, which we most desire. A wordless message of hope and life beam forth, most directly representing divinity. Believing that eternal lanterns once existed in the fabled world, ancient qualitative science sought them with a deep faith that they could be found. Ancient conquerors made extensive search for eternal lanterns and other such "fabulous" treasures. To locate, recapture, of unearth these lamps provided a formidable conqueror's quest. Likewise, numerous radiant sources were discovered and described by credible naturalists. As centuries passed, certain scientific artisans claimed that they had successfully reproduced eternal lanterns. According to some bards of the Middle Ages, there were lands where dreams had literally materialized. Kingdoms and rare wonders lay to the east, possessors of magickal technology. Following this trail of legends and marvels came Marco Polo. Among the material proofs, which he brought home to Venice, there were also new legends and reports. Marco Polo told of palaces and kings, kingdoms and artifacts, exotic natural wonders and anomalies. Caravans of archetypes and symbols. In the city of the great Khan, there were hundreds of fabled rubies, thousands of gold tablets, and millions of standing soldiers. Marco stated very plainly that, in the outlying provinces of the Khan's empire, radiant stones and magickal accessories were commonly employed for a great variety of purposes. He had seen some of these marvels with his own eyes. One particular legend, which he was fond of retelling, is rarely heard or mentioned today. It centered about the fabulous Prester John, mythical King of the East. Prester John sat in a magickal throne room, a great flooding radiance shed by special rare gems. The unearthly light of his throne, an undying light. He employed the radiance of these rare gems to render his throne room sacred, enlightened, vivifying, and quiescent. His knights were continually flooded with strength and love for their cause because of these radiant stones. Through the agency of special viewing stones, Prester John gained instant knowledge of distant events. Empowered to project peace and benevolence to distant warring lands, he watched and interceded over whole regions through these magickal means. He was able to project help to those lands through rays, which came from his magickal stones. Famines reversed, plagues eradicated, joy restored, Prester John was the protector of nations who did not know him. Prester John ("Pastor John"), the mystically advanced Christian King, is a notable story of Mongol origin. The eternal lantern, one of innumerable archetypes, persists in mythologies the world over. Marco claimed he had seen black rocks used in Cappadocia to produce light and heat. In parts of the same region, he claimed to have seen "black oils" taken from bubbling earth pits for the same purpose. Scholars rejected everything he had to say when they heard these two reports. Long after his passing, when coal and petroleum were later discovered by Europeans, all the words of Marco Polo were heeded without question. The wonder of eternal radiance, Prester John, and magickal technology continued to occupy human curiosities throughout the following centuries. All lands and peoples have the eternal lantern in their dream treasuries. Nordic mythology ascribed "eternal lanterns" to the gnomes, who both inherited and manufactured them. The gnomes used their mystical lanterns to light gem-studded subterranean palaces. The lanterns themselves had names, archaically crafted by famed gnome masters. Made of radiant stones, they continuously emanated soft colors and an atmosphere of great delight. The magickal lanterns themselves were fabricated from rare glowing elements and gems. In fables, mystical eternal lanterns are made of humanly inaccessible minerals and elements. Legends continually remind us that magickal elements and gems have archaic world-origins, remnants of the lost world. Uncorrupted by the touch and taint of mortals, they frame the evidence of a first creation. Their properties, pure and sacredly honored, emerge from the dream world. Fables teach that all beings naturally seek these materials. Certain beings, gnomes the most frequent species, covet these lanterns with a rare viciousness. The "radiant stones" reveal the first world Nature and all its wonder, the "lost elements" of which the old world was made. In the fables, the magickal elements are said to yet exist in the deepest recesses of the earth and in special secret mountains. Spiritual prowess is required to both recognize and retrieve the minerals. The "hidden folk" always see what mortals cannot, plucking magick gems and mining magick metals from their archaic repositories with ease. Gnomes, faeries, elves, and angels jealously retain the secret of radiant stones and radiant lanterns. When humans manage to obtain them, there are consequent complications. The magick elements and radiant stones are always wonderful to all who behold them. Their radiance is divine. Mysterious beings reverence the appearance of the radiant stones. Humanity especially cherishes and desires them. Elves cynically remind us why we have lost both the first world and the wonder elements of which it was made. The wondrous gems and metals invariably come from "forgotten archaic ages". They are "first created matter", "sacred gems", and "starry metals". They are the material of the old world. Fables report that these wonderful elements come from the times just after the beginning of creation. Having been buried in the angelic rebellions, some remain in the deep recesses of earth. Others, having been thrown among the stars, reside in the stardust, awaiting the time when they may return to bless humanity. They hold the key to human conscious progress, requiring only humility before they may be discovered. Mystery minerals and radiant gems are often found where natural catastrophism is at work. Radiant stones are loosened from archaic imprisonment by strange events, which the "hidden folk" worriedly pursue. They jealously guard their treasures from "bumbling" humanity. Wonder elements are found in the dearth of volcanic explosions, flung up from mysterious metaphysical depths. Some fall to earth from space, glowing and pulsating. Whether thrown out of earth or space treasuries, they are usually found by adventurous humans whose lives become transformed. What these persons do with their treasure usually determines their fate, a moral lesson concerning the abuse of power. There are peaceful ways in which the radiant stones are located in some tales. There are those who see magickal glowing pools of water by night. Venturing in, they manage to find the rare "wish-granting" glowing gems. Some only appear during certain astrological seasons, under specific "heavenly signs". They are seen only by sensitives who, with greatest care, find them radiating their light when touched by the crescent moon. Mysterious visitors often add a "pinch" of magick dust into the mixtures of old despondent alchemists. When this alchemical projection has performed its work, the molten metals become joyfully radiant. "Lost elements" grant their bearers strange abilities and miraculous powers. The abilities they give often require a small exertion of mind, with a resultant magnification of intent. Wearing the radiant gems, one can become invincible or invisible. One can pass through walls. One can fly, lift great weights, bring lightning or storms, and perform unheard superhuman works. These mysterious materials link dreams directly with the world. They are windows through which archetypes flow directly into our world. Wish amplifiers. The very artifacts of Prester John. Magickal technology requires the radiant stones. They are the lost talismans, the lost instrumentalities that guide and extend human consciousness. Radiant stones are the reagents of every lost technology. Those who find them become heroes or villains. The legends tell both of the location and loss of mystery elements. They may be found, granted, or stolen. Each means of obtaining them has its consequences. Magick rings are given to humble recipients by angelic visitors. Mystical necklaces are given in return for humanly kind gestures to children. They are fabulous rewards from gnomes, faeries, and sprites. Little children and humble old folk often accidentally find magickal materials by the deliberate design of "hidden ones". Radiant crystalline jewels are often found by humans who enter unfamiliar glowing caverns and grottoes through accidental circumstance. Wanderers, lost in a storm, find caverns of wonderful radiant treasuries in places they can never relocate. There are those whose lust for power drives them to acquire the lost elements through evil sorceries. There are mysterious alchemists who stumble on the strange minerals, taking them by night from their "sacred resting place". Working their excessive "treatments and chemical labors" until the magick is released, they often become the terrors of the countryside. Evil alchemists, betraying the sacred calling, challenge rule and dominion. Working feats of mind magick and enslaving the populace, they portray the dangers associated with the misuse of magickal technology. A hero is usually summoned by a rival good wizard to destroy such evil alchemists. The fabled confrontations always pits magick against magick, the hero having been given an equally great talisman by which to succeed. Love is the key to winning the battle. Love stimulates the radiant gems. Greedy and ruthless hunters steal them from forgotten temples, plucking red glowing gems from the eyes of idols with rude steel knives. When the "wonder elements" are lost, they are lost through misuse and pride. They are often taken from the wicked by mysterious and protective guardians of humanity. Jealous and hapless fools accidentally drop their radiant stolen prize into wells, seas, burning pools, and crevasses of ice. The magickal elements and radiant stones are often lost just after certain worthy persons have been blessed by their magick. These materials seem impossible for most humans to keep. The loss of the wonder elements is always attended by great sadness and regret. Those who lose them are shunned, their villages fading into a disappointing and lackluster future. In the closing verses of these stories, one is always taught to expect their re-emergence. Hopeful that the rediscovery of lost elements will raise society into a clarified future, there are always promised signs by which we know of their appearance on earth. World conscious revolution always requires the radiant rocks. These mysterious "lost elements" and "radiant stones" continually emerge from the deepest memories of humanity. Their re-emergence in the social symbolic lexicon is irrepressible. The greatest themes of modern science fiction are all archaic in origin. Their symbols, however updated and modified, have arcane roots. The archetypal image of both the eternal lantern and the magickal elements reappeared with the "Green Lantern" comic book series of the 1930's, where the eternal emerald lantern from another world conferred its power to one who would justly bear the magick ring. Charging the ring by the eternal radiance of the emerald lantern, the ring-bearing knight swears to protect the world from evil. He then learns the secret psychotronic power of the ring. While the images of Prester John's fabulous courtroom illuminated the minds of those who thrilled to their hearing, a new and unexpected materialization was historically chronicled. So dramatic an episode in human history, it yet demands a complete bibliomantic examination. There was an instance in time, a true psychosocial event, in which archetype met human desire in material form.