The Void, the Filament, and Thought

The primordial Void was infinite in its nothingness, a no-place where space and time were unfathomable, as no thing existed to fathom them. The Void lay, slumbering, an infinite nothing in infinite nothing. This static nothing stretched backward into infinite nothingness and continued into infinite nothingness. The Void slumbered. But in the quantum foam, in the still and silent filaments of nothing, a vibration stirred; a sudden ping sang into the void, heard everywhere and nowhere in its quantum hum as a piercing and shrieking tone. The Void boiled in fury and outrage at the disturbance, rattling the filaments of its infinite singularity, and the piercing hum ceased.

A moment passed in eternity. The Void slumbered.

The quantum foam called out again, a louder strum this time as the once peaceful equilibrium of the Filaments was disturbed, and the infinite silence of the void was once more shattered. The Void roared. Stirring from its non-sleep it took hold of the Filament and shook and rattled and raged against the noise. But the Filament would not be silenced. As the fury of the Void grew, so too did the hum of the Filament, growing into a discordant tune. The quantum foam boiled and churned, and for the second time in the Void’s infinite nothingness, something new occurred.

The roar of the Void’s frenzy and the resonance of the Filament’s buzzing began to equalize. What was once infinite silence, now met with discord and vibration, became music. A harmony rang forth from the quantum foam out into nothingness. A chord was struck. An accord was met.

The Filament hummed. The Void sang.

In the music, an idea formed. It sang of energy and movement; a grand choreography of motion. The idea grew and expanded, bodies seen on every scale, impossibly small and unimaginably large, weaving and dancing amongst and around each other, forming things and things and things in ever-growing forms. From the melody and the idea and the infinite Void, a thought came.

I see it. It’s beautiful.

Though the Void had come to terms with, and perhaps even accepted the Filament and the Music they’d created, it shuddered at the coming of the thought as it rippled through the infinite nothing, stirring up a new tune. The Void paused as the Thought reached out, out of instinct, and plucked at the Filament. As the new chord rang out into the vast nothing, what came with it sundered the Void and left it reeling; a bright and violent light shone out into the empty, carving itself an abscess within the Void’s formless form. The Void lashed out, boiling the quantum foam as it had once before, silencing Thought. The music stopped, though the Filament continued to hum, and the cavity and the light remained within the Void, a bubbling cyst within nothing.

The Void heaved, and now struck by a new sensation – discomfort – retreated into itself, to the furthest reaches of nothingness where it could shut out the light and noise, and slumber once more.

In the same instance, as Thought was struck by the Void, it too retreated, falling into the bubble of light it had unwittingly created and curled into itself. It contemplated the flash of light, and the intense energy that had followed; not just within the bubble, but within itself too. Energy and heat and confusion.

And pain, it thought to itself, formlessly. It found within itself an identity, formless and vast much like the Void was, but fuller, and hurting. Thought curled into itself, sequestered in its bubble of light, and rested, willing for the pain to go away.

And so it did. As it waited and rested, the pain slowly ebbed away, and with its passing Thought became aware of the quiet, passive hum of the Filament. Thought listened, finding itself reminded of the music that had been played by the Filament and the Void, reminded of the visions of movement and motion, of the dancing energy spinning and weaving and creating larger forms, which themselves spun and danced. Again Thought felt something new. A longing deep within itself, to feel the music again; to hear Void and Filament play once more, and marvel in the visions. Thought turned its attention to the light it had created and contemplated as the Filament continued to hum in the background. Thought waited, and watched, and listened.

Again, it thought, and driven by its unfamiliar desires to reach out for the Filament, it did so,

Music sang out once more, resonating and reverberating within Thought’s bubble, and the light grew brighter, and the bubble grew larger. Thought looked out upon its miraculous, unintended creation. It bathed in the light and relished in the music as it stretched out to feel the ample space. But still, it felt an emptiness. It stretched out and out and out, and found the emptiness within mirrored by the emptiness of its surrounds. Before, for the briefest of eternities, Thought shared the music and light and emptiness with Void. But Void had created pain and gone away. Thought bathed in the light and relished in the music, and stretched out to feel its breadth, but only found the emptiness.

Alone, it thought to itself. But I can fix that.

Thought returned its attention to the Filament, deep within the quantum foam, and plucked. It plucked and plucked and plucked until the many chords flowed together into a new melody. Thought found a power within the music, and within itself. It had used the music before, to create the light, and the bubble, and it used it again to create more light and more space. Finding itself empowered and emboldened, Thought focused all it could into the music, willing it to take form. It watched as the music spilled out from the Filament, and felt something new as the music began to coalesce. Awe and joy filled Thought as it continued to play, and watched as the new things took form. Thought found itself no longer alone in the great bright space, and it reached out gently to consider the new beings. It felt a warmth within as it watched them stretch out into their forms. For the first time, Thought bore witness to shape and form and felt the growing thoughts within the new beings. The warmth within Thought bloomed into pride as it caressed its creations.

You, it thought to the first of its children, will be the Weaver. You will spin and inhabit the fabric of a great and complex tapestry. You will create a home for all we imagine.

And you, Thought turned its attention to its second child, will be the Troubadour. You will compose a symphony to fill our new realm with dancers and motion.

Weaver and Troubadour contemplated their new names and looked upon Thought with joy and wonder. Thought considered its new children with pride and excitement.

Come now, it thought, ushering the children’s attention towards the Filament. We have so much to do. Listen now – the music of creation.