The Arbiter of Beasts and The Keeper of the Wind

By Pauly Hart

On the day of the celebration of Valentinus, Bishop of Rome 2024, Anno Domini

 

            The more I look, the more confused I become. I want to read a story with Angels as the protagonists and I’ve already burned through Frank Peretti’s Darkness Series more times than I can count. I was in a conversation with Noel Joshua Hadley, about his favorite story of mine called A Problem of Coffins. In the story an angel and a vampire have a very lively discussion. And I was like – “Woah there Pauly, you’d better be careful about writing what Angels say.”

            But the more I thought about it, the less reluctant I became. I mean, hey, I’m literally writing fiction. Everyone knows that the fanciful stories I put on the page are just that, mere stories. They’re just words and they aren’t inspired by The God Who Created All. They’re just words. Take em or leave em.

            So, I usually hate writing discourse, but it’s becoming easier and easier for me to do so, as I struggle and strive to do so more naturally. To date, the most I’d ever written in a story was The Ride but I pondered and prayed about it, and I think that there is so much more to the discussion of theological nuances that can be explained in a narrative with dialogue and discourse than can be with dry facts or plot pushing.

So, here is a story about angels talking to each other. I think so much can be learned from these imaginary and seemingly impossible discussions about our own theological position than if I put out something inane like: “Pauly Hart’s New Catechism on Being a New Jew” or something equally unjust to your sense of attention. I strive for creativity. There are a myriad of things that I can create if I just open my heart to the Voice of The Father and listen and obey.

Because in the end, shouldn’t we all wish to create beauty in our lives and in the lives of others? I believe that, at least for me, to create beauty is the highest achievement one could attain. It’s what Our God did at creation, it’s what He does now, it’s what we do when we bring forth new life. Creating beauty can be an action of kindness. It can be a financial blessing. It can be your quality time. A touch. Love and the creation of beauty are often sisters in action, thought, and mind.

Without further ado, here’s the story.

 

 

The Arbiter of Beasts and The Keeper of the Wind

 

            With a poof of pink smoke the Messenger of Beth-Togarmah shot away into the air. Poof! The celestial was gone, and the parchment still smelled of light in Noicuriel’s hands. It had the red wax seal of the three stars of the belt of the great hunter, which fell under the wings of the Great Chief Reuel, and it glistened of goodness.

             Noicuriel read the parchment again and again, not understanding it, but deeply trying to. The spirit who delivered it had been long, thin, and dark. Existing as it did perhaps as the idea of a human, it was almost pure stardust. Most of the fastest messengers were celestials – cousins to the stars, but not stars themselves.

It was only moments before that he had prayed for direction into the mystery that had so recently surrounded him and the answer had appeared before him in this smallest sliver of time.

            “Visit the angel who holds the winds.” The parchment read.

            The command itself presented a small problem but it would only take a little thought to resolve. There were four of the angels at the angles of the world, or, the very most edge. There were obviously more angles to the world but only four angels who held the winds. That was an interesting thought… Shouldn’t there only be four angles if there were four angels? One angel per angle, one would think. But since there were an infinite number of angles and only four angels Yahuah deemed it not needed that there be more than four wind-keepers, Yahuah’s ways were not his ways. Yahuah wanted him to walk south… So he decided to visit the farthest one to help solve the problem he had just encountered. Surely if I am to walk south in any direction, I should visit the one that makes me walk or ‘visit’ (as the parchment said) the most generous direction towards the visitation.

Noicuriel was very thorough when it came to following directions. That was why he had the job he had and didn’t typically have any companions to work with. Either he needed no companions or it was such an arduous task for him to keep companions in the first place, that none had ever been assigned to him. He almost always worked alone and so to find one of the very specific spirits to help him was very rare. He had been wanting a companion for quite some time now… Not so much as that he needed help in his work, but just someone to talk to. He needed advice on his task, and now he was going to get it, from the strangest of sources.

            Out there in the cold, he had plenty of time to think about his relationship with his work. There were more ten score of cubits here, countless score of cubits of unmapped land that no man dared walk. He saw no footprints nor signs that any man had ever been here, even if they had, they would have been swept clean from the wind by now. He walked through the cold until it was warm again, and Shemesh looked strange, far distant on the horizon. He passed through deserts and mountains and then it began to grow cold again. He passed by many abandoned pyramids, so it was that men had been here… Or the children of the Anakim at least. 

Some of his kind could fly to travel, and that would have been very helpful now but his talents lay in a sort of levitation that was prone and to travel he had the legs that His God had made him and that was enough.

His work had taken him to many places around the circumference of the earth. He was an arbiter of sorts. He settled disputes and righted wrongs, if there were any. Most of his assignments were mundane and meticulous. There had only been one of these assignments where he had been with a team of arbiters and it had turned out quite serious. The Word was involved in the final judgment and the prisoners were sent to Dudael. Noicuriel shuttered thinking about that one. That was one for the parchments.

In his many assignments though, mostly he spoke comfort and gave solace to those with deep questions. He had the Scroll-of-all with him and had The Law written on his heart, as have all the muses, thrones, messengers, diadems, cherubs, seraphs, principalities, powers, and rulers. It was usually the beasts that he dealt with. Beasts were secondary spirits created by The Council, to do their bidding, not created by Elohim Yahuhah alone, but by the Bene’ Elohim. Often, these jobs were simple and peaceful, but sometimes they had murderous intent or they were confused. He had taken some away into Tartarus where they could not hurt anyone, if there had been injury from any dispute. He had his rod to do that, but he rarely used it. As a matter of instance, he had only drawn his rod twice in the line of service as he believed twice was even two too many times.

Usually he just advocated for peace with whatever beast he was dealing with. Sometimes it was a dispute between two beasts and rarely it was three beasts in a territorial dispute.

His rulings were just and good and typically he resolved it with wisdom from the Scroll-of-all or The Law written on his heart. But this last test… Interview… Something… had left him with more questions than answers. He sought to know the answers to all of it, and what it could mean for the advent of the rest of humanity.

Noicuriel walked the long strands of broken ice, seemingly without end. After much time he came to where one of the four angels who stood in the secret places who held back the four great winds of the earth. The angel knew him, as one knows anyone in The Kingdom of the Spirit, except this one knew him only by station. The giant being greeted him in a mighty voice.

            “How now, young gatekeeper, why hath thou come to me in such a way? For truthfully, I beheld a star that I did not understand and it behooves me to know of all the Mazzaroth. That which shines down upon us all tells us all things that we might know, or need to know. For in this land Shemesh doeth not make himself known except for once or twice a cycle and so it is the stars that guide us and tell us all. Did you give heed to the stars to let me know of thine arrival?”

The great angel stood at a great height, 500 ten score tall at least and looked like the mountain he stood on. His skin was white feathers and scales, interwoven and interchanging with one another. Ten of his great twelve arms held back the wind from the secret gate to the midst of the earth. His other two arms stretched upwards, grabbing the sides of the vault. Where they held the wall of the vault, they seemed to become part of it, the great sky-ice melding into scales and feathers as it neared him. His great legs were fastened into the mountain side, his left in front of the other and Noicuriel could not see where they ended under the ice.

            Noicuriel had not even noticed that it had been night since for as many hours as cubits that he had walked. And what was more was that most of the sky was filled with a brightness that he had not known in the wider world where he normally walked, even without the sun, Shemesh. He lifted himself slowly with his own might and came face-to-face with the great angel, though it was many times his size, he drew back to behold the face as one would a friend.

            “Greetings great angel of the winds. While I do not have your knowledge of the secrets of the stars and their knowledge of the times, it is true that I have not set an appointment with the guardians of the vault to see thee, and I now marvel that you knew of my coming at all. For you know vastly more of the Mazzaroth than I do… Yet my visit is not of a chastisement nor that of secret instruction in prophecy, but I merely come to seek your insight into a matter, or, if you allow, your wisdom.”

Noicuriel could see the distrust and alarm melting off of the countenance of the great angel and felt inwardly relieved. Though he knew the great angel would not harm him, it was still much happier to have such a great force, not irate, and amiable.

“Hooo!” Shouted the great angel, bringing one hand away from the wind and extending it towards Noicuriel. A wave of air whooshed away from the hand, or maybe his mouth and Noicuriel could see the violent gust of snow, ice, and mist spew forth from the gate in the vault behind the great angel. Once complete, he brought his hand back to the gate, and all was as it was. With what Noicuriel took for a smile, he brought one of the two hands away from the sides of the vault and extended it outward. His smallest finger stretched in front of Noicuriel as a gesture of welcome and Noicuriel shook the massive tip of the nail of the finger with both hands.

“I hope I did not cause you to needlessly exert a wind.” Noicuriel looked behind him at the violence shooting away towards the midst of the earth.

“Nay, for it was the exact time for a ‘Ho.’ And I shall take it, along with the twinkling star as a divine appointment from The Ruach who lives and breathes to have had you come and visit at such a time as this,” the great angel took his enormous arm and brought it back to the gate behind and above him, to join with the rest of the ten arms in holding the gate shut.

“For it is written in the Mazzaroth ‘Ho! Come forth, and flee from the land of the north, says The Word! I have spread you abroad as the four winds of the heaven!’” The great angel quoted Zechariah, as if in answer to Noicuriel’s question. Noicuriel knew this already but it was good to have it from the source of the subject of the verse. “What wisdom do you seek, oh arbiter?” The great angel looked him in the face. It was a vast expanse of a face, and it was only then that Noicuriel noticed that it was not the face of a man, but of a part man, part eagle. He had no beak or nose of either, but instead he had a space with more eyes. What Noicuriel thought were freckles or moles were eyes. Thousands of eyes.

“Earlier I had a conversation with one of the beasts of the earth, who was mainly a sand-digger and sculptor and keeper of the tides for the Prince of Tyre and his people. He insisted that the beast of the sea was trying to devour him and his shoreline in earnest.” Noicuriel started.

“Hmm. Yes!” The giant’s eyes grew wide. “Was it one of the four great beasts of the deep? Was it Leviathan? The one with ten horns?” He winced, thinking of the last another: “It was not the great Dragon was it? The stars have not told me anything of the end of days approaching and so maybe I have been blinded to not know such things.”

Now it was Noicuriels turn to be alarmed, thinking of the vast scope of this angel’s deeds versus his own. With great zeal Noicuriel confirmed that the end of days was not upon them. ‘…suddenly the four winds of heaven were churning up the great sea.’ Daniel had wrote, and Noicuriel was suddenly aware of his words.

“I assure you it is not the end of days nor is the beast of the earth and the beast of the sea the ones the great prophets have written about. Simply this is a lesser throne, complaining about another lesser throne, far below your position, a semi-mortal creation from one of The Council of the Seventy. May it be so that you have not heard anything like what you are normally used to, for my dealings are simply far below anything you deal with on a day to day basis. I am merely a simple auditor, a gatekeeper of lesser complaints of one spirit to another, to assure them The Spirit of The Lord of Hosts is great and able to see and keep that which He has commanded. What is written is written and He who is hath spoken The Word and as He says: ‘My Word that goes forth out of my mouth will not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing that I sent it to.’”

The great angel who held the wind seemed to like this answer. “So indeed little spirit – you seek counsel and wisdom from those above your station. Now I understand. Since I had seen your visit written in the form of a mystery in the Mazzaroth, I did not understand your announcement and thought He who holds the North Wind must have given me blindness until… Until…” And with this last word he violently withdrew three of his hands and let out a great “Hooo!”

Such was the strength of the blast that it blew Noicuriel away. But he had not flown too far in the air when a great hand came in from behind him, catching him gently. The angel who holds back the wind had not let him diminish. And with that the great giant laughed violently and long. “Oh but why do you seek to leave so quickly, little spirit?” He laughed. “You have not even asked me my name!”

Covered with snow and ice, Noicuriel rose from the giant’s hand and came back towards his face, in the air. “I stand ashamed, great spirit, for I indeed do not know your name, and assumed you did not have one.”

“Not have a name?” The great angel laughed again. “From the names of men, I am Namtar or Anzu, though some know me as Anshar. None of these are my name, for my name is holy and only The Word and I know it. It was written on a white stone and placed in my liver, for me to keep all my days. If you wish to call me a name, call me Nin, for it is the closest to my name that I will let men or spirits know.”

That caught Noicuriel by surprise. “Men know you?”

The sky being, the heavenly angel, the one who held back one of the winds on the earth called Nin looked suddenly very serious. “Yes. Some are of Adam and some are of Hadam, and some are of their fathers, The Ha-Satans. They are all men in their own right, and many have traveled to see me. Though I could not answer any of their questions beyond my own station, I treated them all with the respect of their creation. Though at one time, many came to tear me down. They came with machines, mortar, and stone, building and ever building to try and rip me asunder. They built and built until the Mazzaroth told me their time to build was no more. Then I ended their armaments with a single step and once their cries were silenced, I have not known men.”

Noicuriel looked down to Nin’s left leg. Beneath the large foot (or hoof) was a massive structure. Small in comparison to the size of Nin, it was fifty times the size of Noicuriel. As he came down to where the leg was covered in ice, he could make out the dark mass of a former army. He flew up to Nin’s face.

“And there they remain.” Nin grimmaced, or maybe it was a smile. Noicuriel took it for a smile.

“How many?” Noicuriel asked.

“Five hundred score.” Nin said. “They never came again.” He motioned up with his face to the stars. “It was written that these hadam would be given over to haram. Total destruction. I could not act until it was written, and so I waited, knowing what would come of them.”

Noicuriel was astonished. “And you did nothing to warn them of their doom?”

Nin frowned a little and looked up. “What was written was for them to see as well. It is not my position to guard or guide the hearts and minds of the dim. Perchance The Word blinded them.”

“Or The Great Ruach herself. One cannot guess the minds of The Logos and The Rhema. Ours is but to serve and obey. Not to understand or know why. We do without cause or concern for the reason behind it.” Noicuriel said.

Nin was listening, nodding, and very serious – as if Noicuriel was telling him something new.

“Hmmm. You have obviously thought on this quite often.” Nin said, impressed with him.

Noicuriel knew three things about the massive giant. He was purposeful about his job. He was knowledgeable about his purpose. He didn’t know much of anything else. He knew the giant had a very important station and his desire for obedience was inscrutable. But did the giant angel have free will? Noicuriel wondered all of this but did not ask anything of Nin, for the reasons for his visit had not yet presented itself.

And it was it at this point that Noicuriel decided to explain to Nin the reason of his visit, and gave him the full story.

 

The shoreline was a beast and I didn’t have the heart to berate it. It was going on and on about how the sea continually lambasted it, violently from morning until morning, quite obviously without relentment.

            “What of now?” I asked, for the sea was calm and tranquil, barely a whisper of a surf.

            “Even so, It knows no boundaries except those I place forth!” The beast proclaimed.

            “Has not Yahuah commanded it to come forth at thee, and hast He not proclaimed that you would be the one to stop it?” I asked politely.

            “Nay, for Yahuah has only commanded the ice and the dry earth to be its stopping point, but here where there is no ice, it is I who protects the dry earth from its torment!”

            I thought on this and while I opened up my parchment and consulted the commandments. All beautiful but not pertinent, so I consulted the Scroll-of-all. There it was in Jeremiah.

            “The tidings are good, oh beast. For Jeremiah declares The Word of our God: ‘Do you not fear me? Do you not tremble? For I made sand as the boundary for the sea, a permanent barrier that it cannot cross. The waves toss back and forth, but they cannot get past it. The towering waves crash, but they cannot pass over.’”

Then the beast cried bowing low, reveling in the great love of his creator and thanked me for my good deeds.

Then I brought him up to his full height and looked him in the eye.

“Yet our Creator has yet more love and an everlasting promise to you. ‘He hath set a boundary the sea cannot cross, that they may never again cover the earth,’ speaking of the sea and His covenant with you, that you may be a protector for all the earth. From a beast such as yourself to the beasts that men see, as well as the men themselves. Yours is a good job, oh beast of the in-between, servant of The Prince of Tyre. You guard men against peril. Were I not alone or had a friend here with me to tell you, he would tell you the very same.”

The beast of the beaches was crying and leapt away rejoicing, only realizing his good fortune and ran back to me then to hug me around the neck, kissing me there, like a kitten. Then he leapt away again, on all fours, along the beach, a wild stallion.

 

Nin thought long and hard on the story. And at last Nin thought he understood why Noicuriel had visited, or at least Nin thought he understood.

“So you wish for me to destroy the sea?” Nin queried.

“What? No!” Noicuriel responded, horrified.

“Then to freeze the sea so that one might cause it to be as dry ground?” Nin queried again.

“No!” Noicuriel responded, still aghast.

Nin was out of reasons that he could think of. “Then what is it you wish me to do? For I cannot find any of the things I think you want in the Mazzaroth. Again, I see nothing written about any of my actions towards the beast of the sea in favor of the beast of the dry ground at this time.” He frowned greatly. “Perhaps you need to ask a favor of someone else.” Nin decided.

Noicuriel was patient and well accustomed to hearing all of another’s mind before telling them his. He also reasoned that Nin was not as gifted as he in the realm of critical thinking. He patiently asked Nin his request.

“Oh great holder of the winds, my only request is that you give me wisdom to understand The Creator’s plan with the great sea beast and his hold against those who control the shores. And not only the erets itself but all those on all the plateaus and mountains and valleys and the entirety of the earth itself. I seek to know what beast that deems thwart the dry ground itself! Will the earth again end in misery and dismay like in the days of Noah? Will you hold back the winds to fulfill your promise to The Maker or is the beast destined to once again take all the land under the waters, the overwaters, and the underwaters?”

“I am reminded of the days of Noah, and no, this does not seem to be one of those times.” Nin said, studying him. “You do not look or smell like Samael the Desolator, nor do you bring with you the stench of his death. For even at that great time, even all of my arms came away from the gate under my command and I held it until the water covered up to my neck.”

Noicuriel said nothing.

“I am also reminded of the days of Moses where my brother at the third edge was commanded to drive back the waters of the Great Nile and the waters froze there and there the Ekklesia moved over the ground as it was dry land.”

Noicuriel, again, said nothing.

“Hooo!” The massive force of a two handed loosening of the great gate of the vault blasted him away, and again, Nin caught him again in one of his spare hands. Noicuriel dusted off the particles of frozen water and snow and came to face the giant angel yet again. “Sorry about that.” Nin said. “I have a very busy schedule today.” He said, looking up. “But not so busy as to ignore such a meek request from you. For indeed, I thought you would seek to subjugate something that you had not permission to hold onto. I feared that I would have to destroy you… And, since we only just met, I did not trust you.” Nin paused and then reflected. “But the Mazzaroth told of your coming and you have come meekly and honestly and The Word is written in your heart. You are kind and good and I believe your intent is just.”

Noicuriel said nothing to this, waiting for Nin to make up his mind about him.

Nin studied the tiny angel before him. “You are large for your type?” Nin asked.

Noicuriel straightened up to his full height. “I am but average. You are just overly large.”

Nin laughed at that. “Sometimes I wish I were larger, but Yahuah will never give us more than we are able to bear. His grace is sufficient.”

“Amein,” Noicuriel said. “And so, of your wisdom?” He prodded.

Nin looked at him very seriously. “Do you know of the creation story from the Lampstand of Wisdom? The second thunder and how she tells it?”

“You know we are all required to memorize the whole of The Scroll-of-all before our first assignment. And I carry it with me. Though some forget it, I consult it every day in my work.” Noicuriel said. “And yes I know what The Spirit says to The Ekklesia, that those who seek her have life and that life more abundantly. That she was there when Elohim Yahuah created the earth and spread the firmament over it as a tent. That she was there when they set you and your three brothers to hold the winds at the angles of the earth.”

Noicuriel continued. “It is one of my favorite types of scripture. There are few where The Spirit of Wisdom lets her voice be heard raw and untainted by parable and song. Though I enjoy the works of all of Solomon’s verses and songs, when He lets the raw spirit flow, it is in these moments that my heart rejoices. As with his father David, when they let their pen flow free, it is there that men have the most hope.”

Nin’s eyes blazed with fire, afraid. “Are there new passages to know? For all I know is from the beginning.”

Noicuriel suddenly felt the giant’s loneliness. “No my largest friend, you know them all. Are they not written in the constellations above us?” They both looked up and Nin got a little misty eyed. “‘You love righteousness and hate wickedness; Your throne, Oh Elohim, will last for ever and ever; a scepter of justice will be the scepter of your kingdom. Therefore Elohim, Your Yahuah, has anointed You with the oil of gladness more than Your companions’,” and then he said “Amein.”

Noicuriel too was misty eyed at the passage and echoed the “Amein” with him.

For the whole while that Nin had been reading, Noicuriel had tried to follow his gaze.

“Where do you see that written?” He asked the giant.

“There, by the 132nd gate. Just under and a little to the left.” Nin said, as if Noicuriel would know where that was. Noicuriel somewhere in the back of his mind remembered there were 144 gates in the vault, and that they all had their various uses… But had no use for that type of knowledge in his work, so he had forgotten all about it. Nin was smart in his own way, just not the ways of most others.

“So!” Nin said, breaking the reverie. “No new passages! Then the prophecies are complete and the end is near?” His face, again a question.

Noicuriel laughed. He believed that Nin was the most pure being he had ever met. So alone in his location and his closest peers were so very far away. The only visitors he’d ever had were Nephilim evildoers who wished to kill him. He envied him and pitied him all at once.

“No, great giant, we are in the in-between. The prophets have all come but The Anointed has not been proclaimed. It is a strange time where The Ekklesia drifts into strange knowledge but Yahuah knows that His Word shall remain true. But we were speaking of The Spirit of Wisdom… Have you met her or the other Thunders?”

Nin smiled broadly. “Yes. I’ve met Wisdom. She came to me once near the very beginning. She was as small as a dove but grew until the whole horizon filled with her face and she gently touched my forehead with her finger. I have never felt something so wonderful and strange all at once. I was a dull lump of a beast before, but when she touched me, I was filled with The Holy Spirit and my heart knew the entirety of the Mazzaroth from sky to sky.”

“That’s beautiful. I’ve seen her but she has not given me that gift. We were once presented to all of The Seven Thunders and they walked by us all. It was The Fourth Thunder, Ministry, who talked to me and encouraged me and loved me. She was blissfully divine and I count it as the holiest moment of my entire existence.” Noicuriel said the words and remembered the moment, as though it were only yesterday.

Noicuriel smiled. Nin smiled, though he did not know what for.

“Why are you smiling, little angel?”

“I was sent here on a quest to gain knowledge, but I forget… It is better to gain a friend than all the thoughts in the world.” Noicuriel smiled.

“So you don’t want to know about the great beasts and the foundations of the heavens and the overwaters?” Nin asked, a little confused.

“Oh! But of course I do, my gentle companion, but I think the entire reason for my trip here was to become your friend!” Noicuriel was smiling and tears were coming down his cheek.

Several hundred of Nin’s eyes became very wide. “Would you like to hear a secret?” Nin asked.

“Yes!” Noicuriel cried.

“Just yesterday, I prayed to Elohim Yahuah that he would send me a friend. I forgot that I prayed, but here you are.” Nin smiled a little and then the realization sunk in about what was happening. He smiled even more and laughed and suddenly a mighty “Hooo!” erupted from him.

Because his eyes were closed, Nin did not catch Noicuriel this time. Noicuriel was flung back and landed many score cubits away, thumping and rolling in the ice and snow and finally coming to a rest. He lay on his back laughing and thanking The One Above All, The Elohim of elohim, the one who created him. Above him, the vast canopy of the firmament and the stars within it twinkled and shone down. The band of the throne-room cut like a ribbon across the middle.

When he stood up, he dusted himself off and said a silent “Thank you,” because he remembered that it was only yesterday on the beach, that he too, had wished for a friend.

About Pauly

Pauly Hart is a public speaker, actor, painter, singer, poet, and story-teller. His main focus today is writing. His latest works have involved novellas in the vein of “Classical Horror” from the Christ-centered world-view. The Horror story is the story where the character has to survive until the end. What better chance for survival than in Christ? Pauly writes not for the churchy types, but for those who would pick up a Stephen King book, giving them an alternative to the spirits. Pauly writes so that the Holy Spirit will have room made for him in modern day literature. He runs several websites all bent on leaving the mind of the atheist awash with the glory of heaven. You can find him at PaulyHart.com

If you enjoyed this article, then consider becoming a Patron here at The Unexpected Cosmology!  With Patron status, you will be able to access and download ALL of the Archived articles here on TUC!